Ellen Mellor

Ellen Mellor is a trans woman and the author of four books: three novels - The Long Sleep, Down Among the Yla and Ghostkin and a collection of short stories entitled Stories From the Corner of the Room. Ghostkin is the first novel that she completed after her transition which had the effect of making her decide to turn the protagonist into a trans woman – although Rachel is far more exciting and dynamic than Ellen feels that she will ever be herself. She lives in Newcastle upon Tyne which is the setting for Ghostkin, where she works for the NHS as an administrator rather than anything exciting or sexy like a brain surgeon or porter. She is married to a wonderful woman who frankly deserves an award for putting up with her. She has one son, two cats and a library that threatens to collapse in on itself and form a literary black hole.

When she isn’t reading, Ellen reads pretty much insatiably and will try almost anything although her main interests are science fiction and fantasy. Her influences include Neil Gaiman, Isaac Asimov and Ursula LeGuin. When she first bought a Kindle, it was on the understanding that it would mean she bought fewer physical books. It didn’t work. She also reads comic books and has a collection that is really far too large. She has an ambition to one day write The Legion of Super-Heroes.