I was born in Ireland a while back and toyed with the idea of being a writer when I was young.  My efforts ut never amounted to much. You really have to fight for your dreams in this life, and I didn't fight for mine. The thought of doing so never even crossed my mind back then. 

www.ellacarmichael.com 

I have been an office worker my entire adult life which went a long way to inspiring my 1.2 million word cookie called The Miracles and Millions Sage. Dorothy Lyle, the main character is cheesed off with the 9-5 life and hopes for more. Little does she realize what's around the corner. Be careful what you wish for! 

I got the idea for M&M back in 2010. There was lottery fever all over Europe that autumn, yet at the same time there were photographs appearing in the papers showing hundreds of individuals standing in line for free lunches at the Bow Street mission house in Dublin. It was hard for me to make sense of it all, yet somehow I knew it was important. I was in a bad place in my life after ending a relationship with a most unsuitable man. Figuring I had little to lose, I began to write as a form of therapy. 

I tend to be a dabbler by nature, yet when it came to writing I found I was as focused as one of those drones we hear so much about. It took more than thirty years to do it, but I became a writer in the end. I hope any budding authors who are reading this will draw inspiration from that. It's never too late to give it your best shot. Once the die was cast, characters literally began to materialize in front of me. The strongest back then was Dorothy, although it certainly didn't stop with her. The Maddox character appeared over my bed one morning in a cloud of dry white ice. In the earlier drafts Jack was very much the iceman, but I decided to soften him up and make him fall madly in love. Just because. It progressed from there. More and more characters began to show up, and soon I had a series on my hands instead of just one book. Publishers and agents aren't interested in a series unless the writer follows a number of very strict criteria. I have broken those rules. My books are best read in order. The story progresses in each one and spans the two year period between January 2011 and December 2012.