Featured Interview With Ella Clem
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was raised in Calif. and now living in KY., with my husband, Jimmy in a log cabin out in the woods.
We have whitetail deer’s, flying squirrels, squirrels, many birds, etc. that lives in our woods, that we like to call our pets, grin. We lost our dear family member, (our dog} Smokey, she was 19 years old, it broke our hearts to lose her. We know in time that we will see her again up above in a beautiful place.
Our children are grown now with children of their own. We love being grandparents, and enjoy spending time with our families.
I’m a wildlife photographer and author of the book “Whitetail Deer Family” Jimmy helped me to find the deer that I took pictures of to put in my book.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
My parents started me out liking books. They would read stories to me before I could read. One of the schools that I went to in Calif. had a reading program that we could join. One of the programs that they had would help kids to read faster and understand what they had read. The other program was summer reading; we had to read 12 books during the summer months when we were out of school. My mother use to take me to the library to check out books to read.
I started to write my first and only book in 2015. People that saw my deer family pictures, use to say,” You need to put out a book using your deer pictures.” I would say, “I’m not a writer, I’m a photographer.” I finally said that I would try, just to see what happens.
I didn’t have a clue as to where to start. I got out my deer pictures and would look at a picture and say, what is this picture saying to me? One picture at a time is how my book got started. After I got my pictures and information about the deer family wrote down: I then had to look for a publisher to publish my book. I had to do a lot of research to find the right publisher, being as it was my first book.
I’m now working on putting out a Bird book, using the pictures that I have taken of them over the years.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I really don’t have a favorite author, it depends on what I want to read, I like to read true stories most of the times or books that I can learn from, like books about taking pictures, books about birds, etc.
My family and friends inspires me to write and take pictures.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
This is my first book so far, it is called, “Whitetail Deer Family.” The book follows twin fawns, Susie and Billy as they grow up in the woods. There is Mother Deer, Father Deer, and their Deer friends.
There are photographs of the deer on each page, with a few short story lines at the top of the pages for the younger reader and at the bottom of the pages there is information about the deer.
This book isn’t meant to be a bedtime story; it is a learning book about the deer family for people of all ages.
The purpose of my book is to provide more information into the life of a deer. They are not detailed, but I hope that they will be helpful in adding some additional insight about the deer family.
My book took me about a year, from start to finish. It was fun at times; it was hard at times in putting my first book together. I had so much to learn about putting a book out.
I’m now working on a Bird book, with pictures on each page. I’m still learning on how to write, what to write and how to put it all together: that makes it interesting. We are never too old to learn new things.
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