Write at Home: Leanna Ellis

Welcome to Write At Home, a monthly feature here at HOTM. Marybeth Whalen will be introducing you to homeschool moms who write: curriculum authors, novelists, nonfiction writers, and popular bloggers and more. Many of us are deeply inspired by these moms who seem to “do it all.” This feature will provide you with a glimpse into their everyday lives.

Leanna Ellis is a writer, homeschool mom and keeper of many pets. Today we get to hear about how she writes at home!

Hi Le, thanks so much for joining us today! Can you tell us a bit about your work and your family?

Hi, Marybeth! Thanks so much for having me here! I write quirky women’s fiction, plus I homeschool our two children, a boy in 6th grade and a girl in 5th. Besides that, my husband and I have a menagerie of three dogs (one being a hyper puppy) and a surly cat.

You were once a writer of secular romances but switched to Christian fiction– explain what prompted that change.

That’s true. When my two children were born, fifteen months apart, I was busy writing romances. I think I suffered some burnout as I wrote 4 books from when my son was born to when he turned a year, plus I was pregnant with my second for 6 months of that time. But it wasn’t truly burnout in that I had other story ideas floating around in my head. Part of me wanted to spend more time with my characters and not have to rush so in telling their stories. So I made a tough decision and walked away from publishing for a while. When I was pregnant with my first child, a very difficult pregnancy with a lot of fears and questions about the health of my son, God really began to do a major work in my heart. My son was born with a hole in his heart which thankfully closed on its own, but God really changed mine. So for the first time, I gave my writing to the Lord and prayed about what He wanted me to write. For a few years, while I continued praying, I was also growing my writing and discovering my voice and what I wanted to write. I truly thought He wanted me to continue writing for the secular market but with a foundation of spiritual issues presented in the stories. After I’d been trying to sell Elvis Takes a Back Seat for a while, and feeling like I was hitting my head against a stone wall, I came across a CBA (Christian Bookseller’s Association) editor’s blog. This editor was discussing how the inspirational market was beginning to reach out to the secular market. I had an incredible visceral response to the blog which surprised me. So I began praying about it, asking God if He wanted me to suddenly move toward the inspirational market. I began to rework my manuscript, tugging those spiritual threads more toward the surface. Within three months, I had an agent … and a few months after that a publisher. God really began to open doors. One of those doors was with my publisher and that my book became their launch title. So it was all timing. HIS timing.

Your kids go to a university model school. Can you tell us a bit about that and how it fits with homeschooling? Also, what made you decide to go with that choice for your family?

About three years ago, I had already been homeschooling for a few years, and I felt like I’d exceeded my teaching abilities. My background is teaching elementary education with an emphasis on reading and the early grades. My husband and I really believed in providing a classical education for our children. Plus, we wanted to provide foreign language instruction, and I’m handicapped in that I only speak English. We had our eye on a university model school for several years and knew several people who went. Basically, the children attend two days a week. The other days are spent at home doing their lessons. The parent is also considered a teacher but does not have to do direct instruction. The teachers at the school do that. Mostly I grade papers, do remedial work and keep the kids on task. Friday classes are provided for extra subjects. We have really enjoyed our two years there. We still have many of the benefits of homeschooling but also benefits of a private school. Our thinking when we began homeschooling was to provide the best education we could for our children in whatever form that might be. We try to be flexible in that we want to follow God’s path for our children. We’ve learned one particular way does not always fit all children or families. What a great time we live in that we have so many options as parents to benefit our children.

You have a book that was released recently. Can you tell us a little about it?

Ruby’s Slippers came out in April. It’s sort of a Wizard of Oz meets Cinderella story. When Dottie Meyers loses her ‘no place like home’ during a Kansas tornado, she wakes up to find a pair of ruby slippers left by her father who abandoned his family thirty years ago. With her sister hot on her trail to find the treasured ruby slippers, Dottie travels a yellow brick road with three friends to find her father. No wizard can solve her problems. Only the love of a heavenly father can heal her wounds and give her the desires of her heart. There’s no place like … the heart for God’s healing touch.

Can you share a great time-management tip or two that you have discovered as you have worked to balance your writing and homeschooling?

I’ve learned over the years to give myself plenty of grace. God certainly does! There are days when I don’t get up early enough. Or I need an afternoon nap. Or a child gets sick and I don’t get any work done. For three weeks this past February, my father was in the hospital. During that time, I was driving the kids to and from school and to and from the hospital which was almost an hour from us. At the hospital, I couldn’t concentrate with nurses, doctors and visitors walking into the room at all hours. But I no longer beat myself up over bumps in the road. Things happen. Amazingly, I was still able to meet my deadline. Definitely a dose of help from God. Tomorrow, as Scarlett, so aptly said, is another day. I’ve also (and am still learning) to do things in little chunks. This includes cleaning the house. If I do a little bit every day, progress is made. 5 minutes every day adds up throughout the week. And this is true for my writing. Whereas I might not be able to write as long or as much per day as I once did before kids and homeschooling, I can write little bits here and there.

Finally, what advice would you give to a mom who has a dream of being a writer?

We can all say we don’t have time for the things we want to pursue. We’re all busy. But at some point you just have to quit talking or thinking about it and do it. Just write. Give yourself thirty minutes a day to write. If you can’t squeeze it in during nap times (which I so miss!), then get up thirty minutes early. Moms have told me, “But I’m not a morning person.” Neither am I. I trained myself to get up early and work. You can too. When my babies were young, I’d write when they napped. My son, unfortunately, only took 30 minute naps. So I wrote during those 30 minutes. I produced 4 books that year. It can be done. John Grisham wrote his first book during lunch. A page a day adds up to a 356 page book by the end of the year. So, no excuses, just write.

Thanks so much for taking time to share with us. We all could stand to learn a lot from you!

Thank you, Marybeth! I hope my answers will help someone else.

Marybeth Whalen is homeschooling mom to six children ranging in age from teen to toddler, as well as a speaker for Proverbs 31 Ministries. In her writings, she addresses things like burnout, dealing with interruptions, and handling homeschooling from a very practical perspective. Be sure to visit her blog, Cheaper by the Half Dozen.

Tags: Christian Fiction, Fiction Novelist, homeschooling, Leanna Ellis, Marybeth Whalen, Pet Enthusiast, Ruby Slippers

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