Featured Interview With Ellie Midwood
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born and raised in Moscow, Russia, but I’ve always been fascinated by the American lifestyle and that’s why right after I graduated from the foreign languages faculty in my University I decided to move to New York. I fell in love with this city at first sight and now I’m very happy to call myself a proud New Yorker. I currently live in Brooklyn but love going to the City all the time, it always inspires me, educates me and just gives me a boost of energy when I need it.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I started writing small essays and short stories in my high school, but I really learned and developed my skills at my University. We had great professors, both Russian and American, who always engaged us in writing and analyzing the stories and books we read during our Foreign Literature classes. Some of my works were published in my University text books and I remember how proud I was to be recognized, even within a small circle of the readers who were my fellow students. Since then I never stopped writing, I started the blog and always walk around with a little notebook – in case I need to put on paper some ideas or a character sketch.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My all time favorite will definitely be Paulo Coelho. He’s such an inspiring author, it amazes me how in every book he can not only tell a story, but appeal to the readers, lead and motivate them and I think that’s the best thing an author can do – to motivate, not only entertain. Every time I read his books (“The Alchemist” is my favorite one, I probably read it about 50 times by now) I find something new for myself, and I heard a lot of stories that Paulo Coelho books are really life-changing.
As for the genres I prefer, I would say I like general fiction with a strong message and character development, I think it’s very important in a story when the main character is taken out of his or her comfortable environment and has to transform in order to adapt to the new circumstances. This what happens in real life and I love reading based on real life and events stories as well, they are the best. It’s like I’m reading about a person who I could have actually met, it’s truly fascinating.
As for the authors who inspire me, I wouldn’t be honest if I said someone does. I mean I love reading their books, but I don’t want to be influenced by their writing, I want to create my own story, based on my own experience and views. And among this authors I would name Arthur Golden, Lauren Weinberger and Mikhail Bulgakov. I would put it this way, they inspire me in life, inspire me to create, but I never try to imitate their work.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
This is a story of a young girl of Russian-Jewish heritage Mila, who came to New York in search of true love and the American Dream. But after struggling to survive and keep a roof above her head, she turns to an option that she never even considered before: she becomes an exotic dancer. On her way she meets a lot of people, both good and bad, and she depicts every single one of them with incredible honesty. She falls in love with the owner of the club, the powerful Italian-American mobster R., and now they both have to fight for their bright future together.
This is the story of love and hatred, of friendship and betrayal, and everything else that takes place behind the closed doors of a gentleman’s club.
This book is very different from everything that has already been written in this genre as I wanted to tell a story from an immigrant’s point of view and to show my readers how hard it is to make it here if you don’t have any papers. Also, for me the main reason for writing this book was to make the readers understand the real reasons why even well-educated girls from good families sometimes find themselves in a gentleman’s club. Because let’s face it, mostly all the people who I was talking to prior to writing this book, especially those who have never been introduced to the night club world, have this stereotype in their head: all exotic dancers are shameless, uneducated home-wreckers who don’t know any better than to dance almost naked for money. Well, all those people would be very surprised if I told them that I personally know so many girls who have to dance to pay tuition for their higher education. Those are the future doctors and lawyers, interior designers and fashion journalists for whom dancing is the only opportunity to pay for their dream career choice. For most of the dancers a gentleman’s club is only a phase and normally a very short one, then they move on, get their dream job, get married and have kids and nobody would even know what they used to do. I wanted to break that stereotype for everybody.
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