Welcome back to my Author Spotlight series where I shine the light on fabulous authors from around the globe to gain insight into the person behind the writer and peek into their writing world.
Today I chat with crime and mystery writer, Elena Hartwell Taylor.
Elena Hartwell, also writing as Elena Taylor, spent several years working in theater as a playwright, director, designer, and educator before turning her storytelling skills to fiction. Her first series, the Eddie Shoes Mysteries introduces a quirky mother/daughter crime fighting duo.
With the Sheriff Bet Rivers Mysteries, Elena returns to her dramatic roots and brings readers a much more serious and atmospheric series. Located in her beloved Washington State, All We Buried uses Elena’s connection to the environment to produce a forbidding story of small-town secrets and things that won’t stay buried. The second book, A Cold, Cold World launches August 6.
Elena is also a senior editor with Allegory Editing, a developmental editing house, where she works one-on-one with writers to shape and polish manuscripts, short stories, and plays. If you’d like to work with Elena, visit www.allegoryediting.com.
Her favorite place to be is at Paradise, the property she and her hubby own south of Spokane, Washington. They live with their horses, Jasper, Radar, and Diggy, their dogs Polar and Wyatt, and their cats Coal Train and Cocoa. Elena holds a B.A. from the University of San Diego, a M.Ed. from the University of Washington, Tacoma, and a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia.
Welcome Elena
Tell us about yourself. Who is the person behind the writer, and what do you bring from your real life into your stories?
This is a great question, and of course a complex one. I would say that the most fundamental things that I bring to my stories is a deep curiosity about the human condition, an ability to frame people who are not like me as authentic rather than stereotypes, and a love of research and investigation into aspects of a story with which I’m unfamiliar.
On a more practical level, throughout my life I’ve worked blue collar jobs (auto mechanic/carpenter/electrician), academic jobs (professor), and artistic jobs (novelist, playwright, actor, designer, director). This diverse background has allowed me to see people from a variety of walks of life in a more comprehensive way. I’ve interacted on a daily basis for years with people from different social, economic, and educational levels along with ethnic and racial diversity. I think I bring a mindfulness to what makes people think certain ways. For example, as a crime writer, I often consider how gun laws in Manhattan don’t always make sense in rural Eastern Washington. We can have legitimate reasons for our beliefs that legitimately don’t work for another person.
You have a talent for creating enticing opening lines. Out of all the first lines you’ve written, which is your favourite?
Oh wow, no one has ever asked me that before. Also, thank you! I had to go back and look at the first lines of my books. I really like the opening of the third Eddie Shoes book, Three Strikes, You’re Dead: “As a private investigator, I often dealt with the misery of others.”
“As a private investigator, I often dealt with the misery of others.”
Three Strikes, You’re Dead/Elena Hartwell
Outside of writing stories, are you involved in any other areas in the writing industry? Eg editor/publisher/blogger etc.
My other job is as a developmental editor for Allegory Editing, where I am also the Director of Programming. I love working with writers at any stage of their process, including the business aspects. I am our resident business expert and work with writers during the query process to help get their work in front of agents and editors in the best possible light. I also write a blog called The Mystery of Writing, where I host author interviews, spotlights, guest posts, and other writer-centered information.
What does a typical writing day look like?
I’m at my desk by 7:00 or 7:30 and typically catch up with emails, do Wordle, Connections, and the Mini Crossword, then I work on my own writing or a client project until 10am. Then I do about an hour of horse chores, then I’m back at my desk until 1pm. Then I feed the dogs lunch and start the second half of my day. That work depends on what I have going on. I often work on my blog, promotions, and marketing. Or, if I’m up against a deadline, I might be back at writing or client projects. I do that until 4pm, then I go bring the horses in from the pasture. That’s usually it for my “work” day unless I’ve blown a deadline!
When you first started writing, did you have a goal, have you met it, and how long did it take?
My original writing life started in the theater. I wore a lot of hats, but as a playwright, my goal was professional productions, and I did meet that goal. My first equity production was in 2002. I started working as a playwright in about 1994, so six years. I had several equity and non-equity productions, and worked in theater until about 2015, when I moved over to fiction and working as a developmental editor. I wrote my first “novel” in 2007 and had my first novel published in 2016, so as a novelist my goal was publication and that took nine years.
What is your proudest writing achievement?
My proudest writing achievements came as a playwright. I have had a lot of proud moments, but the one that came to mind first was at a reading of one of my plays about a Vietnam Vet. A veteran I know was in the audience. He came up afterward and said, “How can you know how I feel?”
What did your path to publication look like?
In a word, rocky. My first series came out with a very small press. I had artistic differences with the editor, and the rights came back to me. My fourth book went to another press, but came out in April of 2020, which was about the worst time for a book to launch during lockdown. We had not yet shifted to online events, bookstores and libraries were shut down, but the hardbacks were already printed, and had no outlets. I had terrific eBook and Audio sales, but the hardbacks didn’t move, which cost my publisher, and I feared would cost me that series. But things are looking up! My agent placed my first series with a new publisher, and I was able to fix what I was unhappy with the first time around and placed the second book of my other series with a new publisher. I’m finally feeling like I’m on a better trajectory.
Was there ever a time when you thought you wouldn’t make it as a writer and what kept you going?
I think what you mean is wouldn’t make it as a money-making writer. The reason I say that is publication isn’t what makes a writer, it’s finishing projects and doing the work. I have had thoughts that I’d never find a publisher for my work, but that wouldn’t mean I wasn’t a writer. What keeps me going in terms of submission and the business side is a combination of things. First, I’m going to write whether I publish or not, so I might as well keep submitting things to my agent and let her continue to submit things to publishers. Before I had my agent, I was just going to keep looking for an agent, so I wasn’t going to stop then either. Then, I’m good at what I do. I have seen so many times that tenacity lands the book deals as much as talent. I know I’m good enough, so the rest was just time.
You’ve published several books. Do you have a favorite, or which was the most fun to write?
They all have good things and challenging things about the writing. I would say that the second Eddie Shoes book was the “easiest” to write, in that it flowed better from the beginning, but I still started out with the wrong person committing the murder and had to rewrite to a different killer. My favorite book is always whatever I’m working on now.
What effect has writing had on your life and/or those around you?
Interesting question. When I met my hubby I told him, I’m a writer, I may never make any money, but that’s who I am, take me or leave me. You’d have to ask him how that has gone.
What are you currently working on, what’s coming out, and do you have any future writing goals?
I’m currently working on a couple things. First, a historical novel that I’d set aside a long time ago but still believe in. Then I’m working on a synopsis of a third Bet Rivers book. A Cold, Cold World, the second Bet Rivers book, comes out on August 6. I have a few standalone novels that I would like to see find a home. My future goals are always finding a home for my work.
Where can we read more about you and your books?
Final question:
Do you have a furry friend support crew? Who are they and how much do they distract you from writing?
So many furry friends! Dogs Polar and Wyatt. Cats Cocoa and Coal Train. Horses Diggy, Radar, and Jasper. I would say they are less of a distraction and more of a way to ground my life. I get up from my computer several times throughout the day to walk, feed, groom, ride, clean up after, and play with everyone. That helps keep me healthy, active, and happy. Spending all one’s time on one thing isn’t good for anyone! Plus, they make me laugh every single day.
That brings us to the end of today’s Author Spotlight. Learn more about Elena and her publications via the links above. Perhaps you’ll find your next great read.
Until next time, happy reading.
Pauline Yates 
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