Featured Interview With Ellen Behrens
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I grew up in a small town in Ohio where all I could do was ride my bike to the edge of town where cow pastures and corn fields blocked my view of the rest of the world. After decades of following a sort of tourist route along an unusual career path, I’m now a full-time RVer with my husband of more than twenty years. We live in a 200 square-foot RV, follow the weather on the backroads of America, and have been doing this for more than ten years now. My Rollin RV Mystery series is inspired by our travels.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I’ve been reading since “Dot and Jim” (if you remember those books, you know I’m of a certain age), and forming my own sentences and stories since I could put fat pencil to lined paper. I still have my first story, “Harold,” which I wrote when I was about six. Wrote for the local newspaper in high school, freelanced in my twenties, did an MFA program in my thirties… Writing has been my most constant friend through my life.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I read everything — from daily newspapers and magazines to nonfiction books to fiction. Nonfiction fills me with wonder–I’ve learned so much from books about birds and history, travel and politics. When I want to relax, I reach for authors like Janet Evanovich, Carl Hiaasen, and Michael Connelly; and I try to read every novel with RVing main characters I can find! My Goodreads “Want To Read” list is about as varied as you can imagine. Every book I read inspires me in some special way.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
“Superstition Victim” is the newest (third) installment in the Rollin RV Mystery series, and it was–as the first two books in the series were–inspired by some of our real-life experiences as full-time RVers, but this time Walt and Betty Rollin find themselves trying to figure out if a murder victim found in a nearby RV is in any way related to the oddball campground neighbor who can’t seem to be found. Local law enforcement can’t seem to get a handle on the case, so Walt and Betty have to bring their unique RVing experience to bear in order to solve the case. Set in the shadow of Arizona’s Superstition Mountains, Walt and Betty are also dealing with rude a salesman as they try to find a new RV. The last thing they need is high pressure tactics when everything around them is tense enough.
Every time I start a new Rollin RV Mystery I set the stakes a little higher–for the characters and for myself. That’s also meant this book took longer than either of the previous two books (“Pea Body,” the first book, is set in the Outer Banks of North Carolina; “Yuma Baby,” is set in Yuma, Arizona). And I wanted to allude to the earlier books without giving anything away.
Before Covid-19 hit, I used to swap books in RV parks, laundromats, used bookstores, and anywhere I could find paperbacks to snap up. Very early on I figured out I wanted each installment in my series to stand alone, so if you missed one or couldn’t read them in order you wouldn’t miss anything. There’s nothing worse than getting into a book only to feel as though you’re learning how everything turned out in the book before that one–a book you haven’t read yet. None of that here!
Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles