Elyse Douglas is the pen name for the married writing team Elyse Parmentier and Douglas Pennington. Elyse grew up near the sea, roaming the beaches, reading and writing stories and poetry, receiving a Master’s Degree in English Literature from Columbia University. She has enjoyed careers as an English teacher, an actress and a speech-language pathologist. She and her husband, Douglas Pennington, have completed three novels: The Astrologer’s Daughter, Wanting Rita and a Christmas novel to be released later this year.
Douglas grew up in a family where music and astrology were second and third languages. He attended the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music and played the piano professionally for many years. With his wife, Elyse, he has helped to pen The Astrologer’s Daughter and Wanting Rita.
When asked how they write a novel together, Doug often answers, “Well… If Elyse is dismissive and quietly pacing, then I know something’s not working. If I’m defensive, dramatic and defiant, then I know Elyse will soon be scowling and quietly pacing. We remind ourselves of Rita and Alan James in our novel, Wanting Rita. How the books get finished, I don’t know.”
Elyse Douglas live in New York City.To learn more about Elyse Douglas, go to their website: www.elysedouglas.com
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Visit Elyse Douglas on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#/douglaselyse
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Q: Thank you so much for this interview, Elyse and Douglas. Can you tell us where you are from?
First of all, we want to clarify that Elyse Douglas is our pen name. We are a married writing team who live and work in New York City. Elyse is originally from Massachusetts and Douglas is from Ohio. We met at a writer’s workshop about 20 years ago. We married soon after that, and have been collaborating ever since.
Q: How did you come up with your title?
Rita is the main character of the book and Alan James, who falls in love with her in high school, knows she is his soul mate. Despite several separations, he never stops loving her.
Q: They say you can judge a book by its cover. Can you tell us a little about your cover and who designed it?
The cover is from an oil painting by Elyse’s mother, Monique Parmentier. It hangs in our living room. One day as we were looking at it, we realized that it depicts a scene that takes place in the last part of Section One. Alan James is watching Rita walk through the woods, painfully aware that he has lost her and she’s going to marry someone else.
Q: Can you tell us something about your book that would make me run out and buy it?
It’s a beautiful love story. The characters leap off the page; they delight and charm you. It also allows you to relive the obsession, passion and awkwardness of high school and first love — and then takes you on a tender, romantic journey as the characters struggle as adults fifteen years later to create a new life, despite tragedy and separation.
Q: Are there any messages in this book that you want the reader to know about?
The beauty of the human spirit as it struggles to understand life and love.
Q: What was your most favorite chapter to write and why?
No single chapter comes to mind, but we are particularly pleased with the first section, entitled Now and Then. It uses flashbacks while staying firmly anchored in the present. It was a challenge to the keep the story moving, while delivering the emotion and information needed to provide a good foundation to the book.
Q: Why did you feel you had to write this book?
It was an emotional compulsion to get Rita’s story out. She’s a delightful combination of sweetness, volatility, wonder and intelligence. She was loosely based on two girls that Douglas had dated: one in high school and one in college.
Q: Now, some fun questions – What deep dark secret would you like to share with us?
Douglas: When I was a kid, I used to break into houses. I never took anything. I was more interested in exploring hidden secrets, and seeing what things people had; what clothes they wore; what they had in the frig. Thank God I was never caught.
Elyse: I have nothing to compare with that. When I was about 12, a friend convinced me to throw rocks at cars, and the first car I hit was a police car. The cops came after me, took down my name and phone number, and told me they’d contact my parents (which they never did). After that, I was convinced that I had no luck whatsoever in getting away with anything illegal.
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
Elyse: I want to visit Alaska to experience the stillness and majesty of the glaciers.
Douglas: I would return to the beautiful Caribbean island of St. Eustatius.
Q: Are you a morning person or a night person?
Doug and I are definitely night people. We love the stillness of midnight, the play of night-time shadows, the glow of moonlight on icy snow, the cool night air in summer, the creaking of bare tree limbs in winter.
Q: Are there any members in your family who also like to write?
Douglas: My father wrote a couple of novels when I was a kid. They took place in Kentucky. They were never published.
Q: As a child, were you a dreamer?
Oh yes. Elyse dreamed about being a missionary or a writer, and Douglas had dreams of playing shortstop for the Cincinnati Reds.
Q: Last but not least, the magic genie has granted you one wish. What would that be?
To see Wanting Rita read and enjoyed by many people, and to have the book made into a successful feature film.
Q: Thank you so much for this interview! Do you have any final words?
We are editing two Christmas books which we will release in the fall. Both protagonists are strong women who run their own businesses and think they know what they want — but they both need a little Christmas magic to help them uncover the secrets of their own hearts.
Thank you for giving us the time to chat with you. Cheers!
