When Patti emailed to say she wanted bios for GO contributors, I was thrilled. After all, one of my favorite topics is me.
I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, where I earned a B.S. in Biology from the University of Cincinnati before attending The Ohio State University for my Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine. This means I spent many years in higher education and still occasionally have trouble remembering why I walked into a room.
My writing career technically began at age three. Since I couldn’t actually write yet, I drew pictures and narrated stories to myself. Looking back, not much has changed. I still make things up for a living. Throughout school, I loved writing and eventually edited both my high school yearbook and literary magazine. This taught me two important lessons: deadlines matter, and other people are surprisingly bad at turning things in on time.
Then life happened. I graduated from veterinary school and spent the next 42 years practicing veterinary medicine. Along the way, I married Doug, an Air Force fighter pilot who later became a pastor, proving that God has a sense of humor and enjoys unexpected career changes. Believe me, being a pastor’s wife was never on my radar! We adopted two sons, served as missionaries in Indonesia from 1999 to 2001, and spent ten years as foster parents after returning home. Somewhere in all that chaos, my writing took a back seat. Frankly, I was doing well just to remember where I left my glasses.
Although I grew up in church, I didn’t fully understand salvation until I started attending my high school boyfriend’s Baptist church. To be honest, I was mostly there because his mother was horrified that her son was dating a heathen girl from another denomination instead of “a nice girl from his own church.” The pastor kept talking about sinners, which I found mildly offensive because I considered myself to be a perfectly nice person. The congregation also shouted “Amen!” during sermons, which was completely outside my experience and made me wonder when audience participation became a part of church. Eventually, however, the Holy Spirit wore down my resistance, and I surrendered my life to Christ.
More than forty years ago, I wrote my first novel, Honor Thy Father. In those days, aspiring authors printed manuscripts on actual paper, stuffed them into envelopes, and mailed them to publishers. I collected rejection letters the way some people collect baseball cards. Eventually, I tucked the manuscript away and moved on with life, although the desire to write never quite left me.
In 1993, I pitched the idea for a pet-care column called “Pet Peeves” to our local newspaper, The Playground Daily News. The editor said yes, and suddenly I was a published author! Granted, I was writing about ear infections, hairballs, and intestinal parasites, but publication is publication.
Years later, I attended my first Christian writers conference. On the drive there, I remember thinking, “What can they possibly teach me? Either you can write or you can’t.” It turns out they could teach me quite a lot, including humility. God used that conference and many generous writers to help me grow. He also led me to Destin Word Weavers, where writers gather monthly to fellowship, encourage one another, and gently explain why certain paragraphs should probably be deleted.
I’ve now been writing seriously for about ten years. Apparently, after 42 years of veterinary medicine—a profession in which people actually sought me out— I retired to pursue writing full-time, proving that I obviously enjoy a profession where I type my fingers to the bone, only to realize that rejection, criticism, and skimpy royalty checks are all part of the job description.
After accumulating enough rejection letters to wallpaper a small room, I finally found a publisher for my second novel, Other People’s Children, a humorous novel inspired by our experiences as foster parents. Since then, I’ve published nine novels, including Save the Date, winner of the 2022 Christian Indie Award; the Love in the Wind series, winner of the 2024 Living Water Award; two cozy mysteries, Dogged by Murder and Hounded by Murder; and, after 35 years of numerous revisions, Honor Thy Father, Episodes One and Two. My genres range from light humor and drama to inspirational romance and cozy mysteries. Either I haven’t decided what I want to write when I grow up, or I’m that versatile of an author that I can write in multiple genres. I like to think it’s the latter.
My stories have appeared in Chicken Soup for the Soul, Guideposts, Divine Moments, One Christian Voice, Sassee, You and Me, and GO! Christian Magazine. My devotions have appeared in Open Windows, Guideposts—All God’s Creatures, and The Secret Place.
People occasionally ask why I write. The answer is simple: writers don’t really get a choice. God planted this passion in my heart, and despite overwhelming evidence that writing is not the fastest path to financial success, I continue to do it. My writing expenses still exceed my writing income by an (un)comfortable margin. Nevertheless, I like to think of myself as a paper missionary. Nothing brings me greater joy than hearing from readers who were encouraged, challenged, or blessed by something I’ve written.
In addition to veterinary medicine and writing, God also gave me a love for music. I’ve served as a church pianist and organist for 42 years and currently play piano at Rosemont Baptist Church in Niceville, where my husband pastored for 15 years. I also teach an adult Sunday school class and work year-round in our Operation Christmas Child shoebox ministry. Last year, our little church packed and shipped more than 1,200 boxes, which is a wonderful ministry and an excellent upper-body workout.
These days, Doug and I are finally empty nesters. Unfortunately, the animals failed to get the memo. We currently share our home with two dogs, three cats, and two birds, all of whom believe they outrank us.
I’d love for you to follow my weekly humor blog, Good for a Laugh at ellenfannonauthor.com. Laughter has been shown to be beneficial for overall well-being, improving physical and mental health, sleep, and social functioning. If you’re as weary as I am of the doom and gloom that permeates our society today and like to find humor in everyday life situations, join me as I poke fun at the mundane, the ridiculous, and most of all, myself.
For new subscribers in the next 60 days, I will do a drawing for a free eBook or paperback of your choice.
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Email: ellenfannonauthor@gmail.com
