Breaking News:  In December, 2010, JC Ellis was chosen as a top 20 Finalist on Good Morning America’s Advice Guru Search.  From a pool of over 15,000 talented applicants, the producers chose her witty application and photo!  Although not chosen for the job, she continues to dole out sound advice to anyone who will listen.  Visit ABC/GMA website to view JC’s clip and read her GMA advice:   

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/DearGMA/dear-gma-advice-guru-finalist-jc-ellis/story?id=12401986

     

      When people learn that I’m a writer, they often ask me:  “When did you decide to ‘become’ a writer?”  I don’t think that I ever set out to consciously ‘become’ a writer, but after years of working in other fields, I just decided to explore a passion that I’ve always had, which happened to be writing.  So in a way, I awakened the sleeping writer living in my soul, and the Black Diamond Series was born. 
      After a few years of dancing the ‘dual career with children’ waltz, I climbed down a few rungs from my successful perch on the corporate ladder and switched to a part-time schedule so that I could pick our daughter up from kindergarten.  Each day, I would leave my office in downtown Chicago at two thirty in the afternoon and drive the one mile to her school on Chicago’s near west side.  As I watched the children being dismissed, I wondered what types of stories the “tween” girls were reading.  One day I visited the young adult fiction section in the library and became concerned that (in my opinion) there were few stories being written with universal themes and a voice that all girls could find engaging and relatable.  That day I decided to ‘be the change that I wanted to see in the literary world’ and set out to write a story that my daughters could one day enjoy.
      Two days each week, my daughter studied the violin after school which gave me a two hour wait. I wrote the first draft of Boys, Beauty & Betrayal over eight years ago while sitting in my car waiting to pick my daughter up from violin practice.  The story underwent several major overhauls as I pulled some characters out and added others.  One of my first test readers suggested that I give Tanisha more flaws and conflict to make her more believable as a character, because she was deemed too perfect by my reader.  I went back to the drawing board and introduced the daydreaming imagery so the readers could read how the girls often struggled with conflicting thoughts and emotions.  Tanisha’s secret shame was introduced and the mother daughter issues were developed and established as a major theme for Tanisha’s story line.   In one of the earliest drafts, each chapter chronicled the story line of a different character.  One third of the way through the manuscript, the story was approaching four hundred pages, and included the story line that is now Camp Colorblind, so I re-worked the project again and decided to create a series.  Camp Colorblind picks up the story line where Boys, Beauty & Betrayal ended.  Tanisha Carlson is the main heroine in the first two books in the series, but she is surrounded by a strong supporting cast of girls whose exciting stories are told in subsequent books in the series!
     
      In Chemistry & Chaos and Dancing with God’s Grace (books three & four in the series) the girls age from sixteen to eighteen, and many of the central themes are explored deeper as the characters are faced with new issues that are more in line with their age.  The core characters remain, and new characters are introduced as the story lines for Maria Wesley, Lori Perkins, Rashanda Jordan, Justine Wellington & Grace Dudley are explored in great detail, chapter by chapter.  Of course, Tanisha Carlson’s story line continues to thread through their stories as well.   The final two books in the series are entitled Sunshine on Sunday and Love, Secrets & Pearls and the girls have started their young adult lives.  These books are finished, and are being published by Nightengale Press, a division of Nightengale Media publication with a scheduled release date of Fall, 2011.  
      Confession, unlike some writers, I wasn’t born with a quill pen in my hand, convinced that I would write or die, but writing has always been a part of my life.  I won a third place award in an ACTSO competition in high school when my English teacher submitted a creative writing story that I’d written in class.  In college, I loved writing term papers and thought about switching my major to journalism, but one thing led to another and I didn’t.  As a political science major at Northwestern University, I had visions of attending law school and serving as a community advocate, a dream that I still possess.  But instead of law school, I accepted a job in the human resources department of a corporation where, later in my career, I was often the go-to person given the responsibility for providing input on critical communications pieces or editing those written by others.  I enjoyed this part of my job immensely.  I know that God doesn’t make mistakes, so it’s not by accident that I’m a writer now.  I just wasn’t supposed to be a writer then.
      I was born in Chicago, Illinois and graduated from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL with a degree in Political Science.  After working in the human resources field for one year, I followed the example of one of my mentors and decided to pursue graduate studies.  While working full time, I attended Loyola University part-time in the evenings and graduated with a Masters in Industrial Relations in two years. It was an intense two year period, but my company paid my tuition, and I graduated with honors and without any school debt, which is a beautiful thing!
      My husband’s name is Brian, we’ve been married for almost twenty years and have three children:  two girls and a boy.   Before our children were born, I took time off from my corporate gig and worked as a commercial print model and actress.  Working as a model was different and fun, but I found that as a self described “talking clothes horse” I had no input or say in anything.  I was the talent, and the talent didn’t hold an opinion.  My job was to:  pose, smile, get my voucher signed and leave the set.  I missed giving meaningful opinions on stuff, and quite frankly, I missed eating whatever I wanted, so after a few years of modeling, I dusted off my suits and went back into the business world. 
      I lived in Wisconsin for five years where I served as a television correspondent on a live daily morning talk show entitled “The Morning Blend” that airs on WTMJ4, an NBC affiliate.  I wrote and appeared live on-air to present over fourteen (14) human interest topics including:  “Embrace Your Inner Golf Goddess!  Why Golf Should Be a Life Skill for Women Like Swimming!”  “Why Black Women Hate to Get Their Hair Wet”  and “How to Get Dumped With Dignity.”  I also served as a guest co-host on the show and a regular “Hot Topics” panelist.  If you google JC Ellis, you can view some of my segments or visit my website and click videos. 
      Recently, my husband’s work transferred us to Memphis, Tennessee, an experience that we are enjoying immensely, so I’m trying to build my JC Ellis brand in the grand state of Tennessee!  Although our home is now in the mid-South, our loyalty remains with our Chicago sports teams.
      When I’m not writing, I spend my time shuttling our children to their activities, volunteering at their school, fulfilling other civic obligations and serving as the chief operating officer of our household.  An avid golfer now, my husband and I golf together whenever we can, and our children have taken up the sport. I study the Bible as part of a weekly women’s Bible study and exercise regularly in a neurotic attempt to keep my derriere from reaching my calves.  So far, I’m winning!  My weekly exercise regimen now includes various forms of Yoga, Pilates, Latin Fusion, Zuumba, cardio and weight training as I work to nurture and maintain the temple that is my body. 
       Career coaches and experts often describe a passion as something that you would do even if you weren’t getting paid to do it.  If this is the case, then writing is clearly my passion.   I really hope that you enjoy reading my books.  I write them for you, because I believe that when you read a book as a teen it has the potential to become a part of the fabric of your life, and I want my books to leave an indelible positive impression on my readers as they forge their path in the world. 
      Because the characters and themes resonate with readers of all ages, the Black Diamond Series is a great cross generational book club selection for mothers and daughters, aunts and nieces, mentors and mentees and teachers and students. 
      Thanks for visiting my Black Diamond Series’ website.  Tell your friends about the books and come back to read my blogs.  Reading good fiction is contagious.  I hope you catch the Black Diamond Series’ flu!