The Making of Ellie's Song

Take one heroine and hero gripped in relationship limbo. Stir in a possible media scandal. Sprinkle lightly with a three-year-old child. Add one mother-in-law, a former boyfriend, a celebrity reporter hot for a story break and a Hollywood starlet. Knead above ingredients. Cover and let rise in a warm place. Bake for 31 chapters. Yield: Ellie’s Song, the story of shy folk artist Ellie Kellson who loves country singer Lane Walker, but  abhors the media attention he needs to be a successful singing artist.

Ellie’s Song grew out of a long ago encounter with the country band Sawyer Brown. We met them after a concert at a small town venue. They were fairly well known even then and I remember being surprised they were there and how easy it was to meet them. That incident brewed in my imagination for quite a while and somehow got tied to "what if a shy woman has a relationship with a man who becomes a celebrity.”