Local Author Dreams Her Way to Literary Success

Walk into Ellen Parry Lewis’s house and chances are you’ll find her sitting on the sofa, staring at the wall. Don’t let the faraway look in her eyes fool you—Lewis is hard at work.

When she has a new novel plot brewing, the young author doesn’t put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard.) Instead, she daydreams.

“I’m a little weird in planning my writing,” Lewis admits. “I sit down and daydream the story from start to finish. This daydream can take months and I don’t move on from a specific theme until I’ve really explored it.”

It’s how she came up with the plot for her debut novel, Future Vision—in fact, that daydream started in middle school before Lewis finally started writing the book in college. And it’s how she started her recently released second novel, An Unremarkable Girl.

With the product of that daydream now in paperback, Lewis, who grew up in Williamstown and now lives in Clementon, will have a book signing Saturday in Audubon. She’ll appear at the Treehouse Coffee Shop on West Merchant Street in Audubon from 1 to 3 p.m.

Lewis, 23, writes young adult (YA) fiction, a genre she both knows is a big draw these days, plus one is she most comfortable with.

“I’m not as comfortable writing characters who are older than me. I haven’t been through those experiences yet,” she explains. “With YA, I know what I’m writing about because I’ve been there.”

Well, to some extent. The heroine in Lewis’ latest novel is mistaken for a princess and must use the mix up to free her people, enslaved by a neighboring kingdom. That fantasy angle to her tales allows Lewis to mesh her interest in history and royalty with the freedom of taking her story in any direction she wants.

“I like to be freer in my choices by taking elements of truth—what’s war like?—and mixing them into a fantasy world,” Lewis says.

It’s an option she didn’t have in her first job as a freelance writer. Lewis, a 2009 graduate of Rowan University’s journalism program, started out freelancing for local newspapers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer, Courier-Post and Record Breeze.

“I’m glad I was a journalism major rather than creative writing. Even though they’re very different, I pull things from my journalism major that help me,” Lewis says.

Take interviewing. A fiction writer does need to interview people, Lewis notes, like her recent interview with a homicide detective to find out exactly how a body decays.

“There are things I just don’t know a lot about and I want them as close to accurate as possible,” she says.

When Lewis isn’t busying dreaming up plots and characters or writing, she’s out promoting her books. People think of writing as a solitary pursuit, but it’s much more social than Lewis expected, she says. She teaches creative writing classes, attends book signings and keeps her blog, Facebook and Twitter pages going to get her name and her novels out there.

“I’m really happy with that aspect of being an author,” Lewis says. “If I was alone all the time, I’d go crazy. I can’t just stare at the wall all day.”

But, with her third novel already written and her fourth one brewing in her head, that’s exactly what she was headed off to do.

Ellen Parry Lewis will be at the Treehouse Coffee Shop, 120 W. Merchant St., Audubon, from 1 to 3 p.m. Jan. 14. She’ll have copies of her latest book, An Unremarkable Girl. Get more information about Lewis's local appearances and creative writing classes at her Facebook page.