Where Did Ellie Foreman Come From? by Libby Fischer Hellmann
Ellie Foreman, the protagonist of my first series, is a documentary/industrial video producer in Chicago. JUMP CUT , the 5 th volume in the series, marks her return after a 10-year hiatus. The previous four novels featured Ellie, her daughter Rachel, her father Jake, her best friend Susan, her ex-husband Barry (who shows up in every book, much to Ellie’s chagrin) and her significant others. Ellie is an amateur sleuth, and I wrote her in first person, which was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing, because her voice came to me fully formed, as if she’d been waiting for me to discover her. She’s intimate, self-deprecating, and has a great sense of humor. She’s the kind of person who will give you TMI when you go out to lunch with her, which makes her a lot of fun. But writing first person is also a curse, because it’s harder to switch point-of-view so the reader can get into another character’s thoughts. I handled that in AN IMAGE OF DEATH, as well as JUMP CUT, but it ulti...