J.T. Ellison

J.T. Ellison
File:JT Ellison Wiki.jpg Photo credit: Krista Lee Photography
Born	Orlando, Florida, USA
Occupation	Author
Nationality	American
Education	Randolph-Macon Woman's College, George Washington University
Genre	Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
Spouse	Married
Website
www.jtellison.com

New York Times bestselling author J.T. Ellison writes dark psychological thrillers starring Nashville Homicide Lt. Taylor Jackson and medical examiner Dr. Samantha Owens, and pens the Nicholas Drummond series with #1 New York Times bestselling author Catherine Coulter. With over a million books in print, Ellison’s work has been published in twenty-five countries and thirteen languages. She is also the co-host of A Word on Words, Nashville's premier literary TV series, which airs on Nashville Public Television. J.T. is also the founder of Two Tales Press, an independent publishing house, and The Wine Vixen, a wine review website. She lives with her husband and twin kittens in Nashville.

Background

Ellison was born outside of Orlando, Florida and moved to rural Colorado when she was two, then to Washington, D.C. at the age of fourteen. She graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman's College with a double major in Politics and English Creative Writing and a minor in Economics, then received her Master's degree from George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management. Ellison was a presidential appointee and worked in The White House and the Department of Commerce before moving into the private sector to work as a financial analyst and marketing director for several defense and aerospace contractors.

Writing career

When Ellison's college advisor told her that her writing wasn't good enough to be published, Ellison changed her plan to get a Master's of Fine Arts and, instead, went into politics. Eight years later, while living in Nashville, Ellison was recuperating from a back injury when she first read the PREY series by John Sandford and rediscovered her love of storytelling.

Ellison began to research her hidden passions: forensics and crime, and was compelled to begin writing down her stories. To research her books, she has worked with the Metro Nashville Police Department and the FBI, as well as performing autopsies and studying survivalists.

Ellison is perhaps best known for her Lt. Taylor Jackson series, which features Nashville homicide detective Taylor Jackson. Ellison successfully spun-off the series with Jackson's best friend, Medical Examiner Dr. Samantha Owens, as she begins her life in Washington, D.C. In 2012, Ellison teamed up with #1 New York Times bestselling author Catherine Coulter to co-write a new FBI series. The first book, The Final Cut, released in September 2013 and hit every major bestseller list. The series continues with The Lost Key and The End Game, which released in September 2015. Ellison will publish her first standalone novel, No One Knows, a Nashville-based domestic thriller, in March 2016 with Gallery Books.

She also has co-written with Erica Spindler and Alex Kava on two anthology collaborations: Slices of Night and Storm Season.

Ellison is a co-founder of Killer Year, an interactive society composed of 13 debut crime/mystery/suspense authors whose books were first published in 2007, creating an active online community and teaming authors with mentors from among the most established authors within the genre. The group was dedicated to furthering the writing, publishing and marketing goals of its members and the highly popular community involved readers, reviewers, and publishing professionals. A collection of short stories by the graduating class, including comments and contributions from seasoned vets such as Lee Child and Allison Brennan, was published to acclaim as Killer Year: Stories to Die For...From the Hottest New Crime Writers. Killer Year became the model for the International Thriller Writers debut author program, which Ellison helped develop.

Ellison also was one of the original members of, and a contributor to, the Anthony Award-nominated crime fiction blog, Murderati, which ran from 2006-2012 and is now an archive. She also contributed essays in volumes published by Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers and regularly blogs about the writing business on The Tao of JT.

She also writes under the name Andrea Ellison overseas (France and Holland/Belgium)

Ellison is an active member of several professional writing organizations, including International Thriller Writers, Mystery Writers of America and Romance Writers of America.

Other Ventures

In 2015, Ellison became the co-host of Nashville Public Television's premier literary television series A Word on Words. The show was hosted for more than forty years by acclaimed journalist and bibliophile, John Siegenthaler, before his death in 2014. The show features authors who discuss their books, the publishing business, and their personal lives. The rebooted show is filmed on location in Nashville, and appears on-air in two- to three-minute segments. Full-length episodes can be found online.

Ellison is also the founder of Two Tales Press, an independent publishing house featuring Ellison's short stories and novellas.

An amateur oenophile, Ellison teamed up with her business manager, Amy Kerr, and launched The Wine Vixen, a blog dedicated to all things vino. The blog resurrects Ellison's Wine Recommendation of the Week, a staple of her blog posts on Murderati, and features wines for any budget, travelogues, wine zeitgeist, and more.

Ellison also has an active following on Twitter @thrillerchick, as well as a robust Facebook community.

Personal life

Ellison lives with her husband and twin kittens in Nashville.

Reception

• The End Game reached #5 on the New York Times Bestsellers List
• The Lost Key climbed to #3 on the New York Times Bestsellers List and was named one of the Best Thrillers of 2014 by Library Journal
• The Final Cut was #3 on the list of USA TODAY Best-selling Books

Awards

• 2016 Spring Okra Pick (Field of Graves, 2016)
• 2016 Winter Okra Pick (No One Knows, 2016)
• ITW Thriller Award for Best Paperback Original (The Cold Room, 2010)
• Best Mystery/Thriller Writer by Nashville Scene's "Best of Nashville 2008"
• Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice nominee for Best Suspense/Thriller
  • A Deeper Darkness (2012)
  • The Final Cut (2013)
  • When Shadows Fall (2014)
  • What Lies Behind (2015)
  • The End Game (2015)
• RITA® Nominee for Best Romantic Suspense (Where All the Dead Lie, 2012)

Reviews

Booklist starred reviews

• When Shadows Fall
• What Lies Behind

Publishers Weekly starred reviews

• Judas Kiss
• The Immortals
• When Shadows Fall
• The End Game
• Field of Graves

SIBA Okra Pick

• No One Knows
• Field of Graves

Publishers Weekly Pick of the Week

• A Deeper Darkness
• When Shadows Fall

Indie Next pick

• A Deeper Darkness

Library Journal starred review

• The Final Cut

Kirkus Reviews

• The Lost Key
• The End Game
• No One Knows

Romantic Times Top Pick!

• The Cold Room
• So Close to the Hand of Death
• Where All the Dead Lie
• A Deeper Darkness
• Edge of Black
• When Shadows Fall
• What Lies Behind
• The Final Cut
• The Lost Key
• The End Game

Interviews

• Brown, Josie. "What Lies Behind by J.T. Ellison". The Big Thrill. Retrieved January 20, 2016.
• "Meet the Author". Bookpage. Print. Retrieved January 20, 2016.
• Cha, Steph. "The Lost Key by Catherine Coulter and J.T. Ellison". The Big Thrill. August 27, 2014.
• "Interview: February 27, 2014 - When Shadows Fall". Book Reporter. Retrieved January 20, 2016.
• Petit, Zachary. "The Power of Pairs". Writer's Digest January 2014. Print.
• Petit, Zachary. "The Power of Pairs Roundtable: Exclusive Outtakes". www.writersdigest.com. Retrieved December 25, 2013.
• Lamb, Joyce. HAPPY EVER AFTER. Interview: Catherine Coulter and J.T. Ellison, 'The Final Cut.' USA TODAY September 17, 2013. www.USAToday.com. Retrieved November 25, 2013.
• "Catherine Coulter and J.T. Ellison: Co-Writing (Potential) Jewel Thieves". RT Book Reviews. September 17, 2013.
• Crutcher, Paige. "Spotlighting: author J.T. Ellison". Nashville Examiner. JTEllison.com. January 21, 2011.
• "LIFE IS NOT A STRAIGHT LINE". Oprah Winfrey Network. September 17, 2010. www.Oprah.com

Selected bibliography

Standalone Novels

• No One Knows (2016)

Nicholas Drummond series (with Catherine Coulter)

• The Final Cut (2013) introduces Scotland Yard Detective Chief Inspector Nicholas Drummond. Features Special Agents Lacey Sherlock and Dillon Savich from Coulter’s bestselling FBI series
• The Lost Key (2014)
• The End Game (2015)

Dr. Samantha Owens series

• A Deeper Darkness (2012) medical examiner Dr. Samantha Owens was a secondary character in Ellison's Lieutenant Taylor Jackson series
• Edge of Black (2012)
• When Shadows Fall (2014)
• What Lies Behind (2015)

Lieutenant Taylor Jackson series

• Field of Graves (2016), a prequel, introduces Nashville homicide detective Taylor Jackson
• All The Pretty Girls (2007)
• 14 (2008)
• Judas Kiss (2009)
• The Cold Room (2010)
• The Immortals (2010)
• So Close the Hand of Death (2011)
• Where All the Dead Lie (2011)

Short stories

Featuring Lieutenant Taylor Jackson

• "Blood Sugar Baby" in Slices of Night-a 3 part novella (2011) (with Erica Spindler and Alex Kava)
• "Whiteout" in Storm Season-One Sensational Storm, 3 Terrifying Killers (2012) (with Erica Spindler and Alex Kava)

Other

• "Prodigal Me" in Killer Year: Stories to Die For (January 2008), Lee Child, ed. (Minotaur Press)
• "X" in Demolition Magazine (2007) and Nashville Lifestyles (February 2009)
• "Chimera" in Surreal South '09 (2009), Laura Benedict and Pinckney Benedict, ed. (Press 53)
• "Killing Carol Ann" in First Thrills (2010), Lee Child, ed. (Tor)
• Sweet Little Lies (2010), an anthology of short stories by J.T. Ellison
• "Gray Lady, Lady Gray" in Surreal South '11 (October 2011), Laura Benedict and Pinckney Benedict, ed. (Press 53)
• "Where’d You Get That Red Dress?" in Flashing in the Gutters (2007), (inspired by James McMurtry)
• "The Number of Man" in Thriller 3: Love is Murder (2012), Sandra Brown, ed. (Mira Books)
• "The Omen Days" (2015) on Two Tales Press

Non-fiction

• "The Charm School: An Appreciation of Nelson DeMille's Groundbreaking Novel" in THRILLERS: 100 Must Reads (July 2010), David Morrell and Hank Wagner, ed.
• "What is Evil?" in WANTED UNDEAD OR ALIVE: Vampire Hunters and Other Kick-Ass Enemies of Evil (August 2010), Jonathan Maberry and Janice Gable Bashman, ed.

International publishing

Ellison's books have been published in: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom.

Representation

• Ellison's literary agent is Scott Miller of Trident Media Group
• Ellison's film agent is Shari Smiley of The Gotham Group

External links

• Official website
• www.facebook.com/jtellison14
• Petit, Zachary. "The Power of Pairs Roundtable: Exclusive Outtakes". www.writersdigest.com