Eileen Ross: Longmont Writer of Children's Books

This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.

Eileen Ross was inspired to write from a young age by her dad, who used to take her to the library as a girl, where he would read to her. Here she developed as she put it, "A love affair with books."

One of her favorite quotes about writing is by Barbara Steiner. It goes, "Quit if you can. True writers never quit."

However, she found her career as a writer really took off when she became a mother, and started reading picture books to her kids like her dad did to her. She realized, "Hey, I can do this too!" She became inspired by watching her children play together, and she began writing books for children.

Her family moved to Longmont shortly after her oldest daughter was born. In order to spend more time as a family and more quality time as a mother, she took a hiatus from teaching.It was during this time that she took her daughter to storytime, wrote stories for magazines, and researched things that interested her, including the history of Longmont at the Longmont Public Library. She decided to use Longmont as the setting for one of her stories, about a little boy named Josh. At first it was just a little short story, and when it was finished, she couldn't stop thinking about it, and as she learned more about the town she now lived in, she kept writing, filling it out, and eventually, it became a novel, Josh, her first published book.

Josh was never intended to be historically accurate. Instead, it was a way to explore her own thoughts and feelings about her new home in the adventures of a young boy. She took details right from life, shops in town, historical gun-battles, and wooden sidewalks and dust, and hunting and fishing along the Saint Vrain. She was having fun exploring the history of the town as she learned it.

She takes inspiration from folktales, strips them to the 'bones'--the most basic and concurrent themes and plots--really--thoughts and feelings described in Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg--and 'redresses them in different clothing. "See, this one's a western.' She says, holding up Nellie and the Bandit. "Basically [Eileen takes inspiration from] people, places, and other books."

When asked where Eileen finds inspiration for her books, she replied, "It's a skill you develop. It's applying meaning to what you see. Learning to look a level deeper. Joy is in the details. Sometimes you write about the truth and it sounds preachy. Don't chase the truth, chase the details.""

Eileen states about writing, "It's just something you love, like riding a bike, or painting, or singing. It's like a mosaic. Each book is a small piece of your life. One must know their craft. By having the discipline to train, to write every day. That's how one gains the familiarity with their craft to know when is enough."

"Above all," she says, "Have determination. Have gumption."