Guest Post

Guest Chick: Ellen Thompson

And the winner of the giveaway–a hardcover copy of CITY OF PROMISES–is Debra Klein!

Leslie Karst here. Today the Chicks are excited to welcome to the coop the marvelous Ellen Thompson, with stories about her equally marvelous mother–and the kismet that’s affected both mother and daughter. And there’s a GIVEAWAY! Comment below for a chance to win a hardcover copy of City of Promises by Victoria Thompson with Ellen Thompson.

KISMET

In the 1980s, my mother, Victoria Thompson, was a bestselling historical romance author. Her career flourished until cowboys went out of style in the mid-’90s. She probably thought her writing career was over, but a few years later, her agent told her that publisher Berkley was looking for a writer for a new historical series in which a midwife solves murders in New York City.

Victoria and Ellen in 1982

My mom had written twenty historical novels, she was working with midwives in her job at the March of Dimes, and she had recently visited me in New York City and bought books about the city’s history. It seemed like an opportunity created specifically for her. She wrote a proposal that added a male police detective as the midwife’s sleuthing partner/love interest, and Berkley gave her the job. My mom called it “kismet.”

When I read the first Gaslight Mystery, Murder on Astor Place, I thought my mom had used the last names of my two best friends from high school—Brandt and Decker—to name her main character, Sarah Brandt, whose maiden name is Decker. I asked my mom about it, and she said, no, Berkley had come up with those names. It was just a coincidence!

Ellen and best friend Robert Glen Decker in high school in Pennsylvania in 1994 and recently in Malibu, CA.

Over the next twenty-five years, my mom wrote twenty-seven Gaslight Mysteries and seven Counterfeit Lady Novels. When she was dying of cancer in 2024, she was halfway through a draft of the eighth Counterfeit Lady Novel, City of Promises. She knew she wouldn’t be able to finish writing it, so she asked my sister and me, who are both writers, if one of us would finish it for her. I agreed to do it, not knowing what the book was about.

Victoria and Ellen in Sedona, AZ in February 2020

After my mom passed, I read what she had written, and I was thrilled to have gotten the job. City of Promises is a first-ever crossover with the Gaslight Mysteries, which is already exciting. It’s 1920, and Sarah and Frank Malloy’s daughter, Catherine, is a Broadway actress. I started acting in theater when I was a teenager, and I majored in Drama in college, so it was the perfect story for me to jump into.

My mother had written a proposal, but it only set the story up. As I was figuring out the plot, I realized the pregnant main character, Elizabeth Bates, had to give birth. Based on the previous book, I figured out a date that made sense for her to have gotten pregnant, plugged it into an online pregnancy calculator, and it gave me… my own birthday, March 15th.

All of these coincidences: my mom being in the right place at the right time with the right knowledge, experience, and talent to get hired to write the Gaslight Mysteries, the main character having the same last names as my high school best friends, City of Promises being about acting, and Elizabeth in the Counterfeit Lady Series giving birth on my birthday, well, it seems like kismet.

Readers: Have you ever experienced kismet? Let us know what happened in the comments for a chance to win a hardcover copy of City of Promises!

Ellen Thompson is an award-winning screenwriter and musical playwright. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from New York University Tisch School of the Arts, and she was an actor for nearly thirty years. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and pets, and she advocates for Lyme and other tick-borne disease awareness. Visit her at ellen-thompson.com.

 (photo: Kobe Levi)


Victoria Thompson is the USA Today bestselling, Edgar® and Agatha Award–nominated author of the Gaslight Mysteries and the Counterfeit Lady Novels. She earned a Master of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University in Pennsylvania, a program for which she was also a professor for twenty-three years. To learn more, visit victoriathompson.com. (photo: Monica Z)

About City of Promises: 
Elizabeth Bates must use everything she knows about the art of the con to stop a fellow scammer in his tracks in this first-ever thrilling crossover in the Victoria Thompson universe, featuring characters from her bestselling Gaslight Mysteries.
Famed former police detective turned private investigator Frank Malloy and his wife, Sarah, go to Gideon Bates desperate for legal guidance. The Malloys’ adopted daughter, Catherine, a burgeoning star of the stage, has announced her engagement to a man she barely knows.
Catherine has recently gained access to her trust fund, and Sebastian Talbot appears very eager to marry her as quickly as possible. As Gideon and his wife, Elizabeth, investigate, it becomes clear that Talbot is not who he says he is. As a former con artist herself, Elizabeth suspects one may be in their midst. Undeterred by her pregnancy, she must pull out all the stops to out-swindle a swindler in order to save another woman from ruin.



“A delightfully amusing story of competing cons with some socially relevant historical tidbits adding depth.” -Kirkus

31 thoughts on “Guest Chick: Ellen Thompson”

  1. Congratulations on your book release. Thanks for sharing photos of you and your mom.

    I don’t know if it’s kismet, but meeting an author on social media and she convincing me to attend my first reader/fan convention is what helped me be where I am in terms of my award-winning blog, my first published short-story and winning awards for the story.

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  3. Ellen, thank you for visiting with us. Huge congratulations on City of Promises. I loved your post so very much. It’s so special. Thank you for sharing it with us. I look forward to reading City of Promises.

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  4. What a string of coincidences! Or Kismet, of course. I can’t think of anything in my life to equal these. Maybe that’s ahead for me. Thanks for the post and good luck with the new/old project! I’m trying to imagine your feelings as you finish your own mother’s work.

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  5. Congratulations, Ellen! I do so look forward to reading City of Promises.

    As for Kismet, maybe a touch of serendipity. Got a request a bit ago from a woman I worked with peripherally about 10 years ago. I knew she had attended the same church I did, but hadn’t seen her in about 5 years. She needed a favor and as we talked, I learned she and my mother shared a birthday, her mother and I shared a birthday, her daughter was born on my sister’s birthday and her husband had the same unusual name as my great-nephew. I, of course had to do the favor – no regrets there!

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    1. Amazing! I had a book launch party for City of Promises on my mom’s birthday (July 25th), and Ellen Byron was there. It turns out my mom had the same birthday as Ellen’s late father. And it’s also my cat Naia’s birthday. She just turned 18!

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  6. I suppose the kismet that’s had the biggest effect on my writing career is having my query fall on my (now) agent’s desk the day after she received a letter from my (future) publisher asking for books in the exact same genre as mine.

    Thanks so much for visiting the Chicks today, Ellen, and yay for City of Promises–it sounds terrific!

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  7. Ellen, thank you so much for visiting with us! You KNOW how excited I am to read City of Promises.

    I need to think about the question. If I come up with a good example, I’ll be back. But this reminded me of something with my own late mom. Apparently there was a show on Broadway in the 1950s called Kismet and there was a beautiful song in it called Baubles, Bangles, and Beads. Mom used to sing it and she had a really nice voice.

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  9. I love kismet / serendipity! It’s like a little wink from the universe. Thanks for stopping by the blog today! I can’t think of any specific examples right now, but when I suddenly think of one in the middle of the night, I’ll come back and update my reply! 😂

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  10. I’m so happy you are continuing your mother’s series, and especially this crossover. I can’t wait to see all these characters interacting together.

    No need to enter me in the giveaway since my preorder arrives this afternoon!

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  11. OMG, Ellen (T), I didn’t know these details about the crossover. Can I assume/hope that Sarah helps Elizabeth with her labor and birth? My local indy bookstore called and said my copy is in, and I can’t wait to hie over there and spend the weekend reading it!

    I was such a huge fan of your mom’s work that I committed the worst crime: while we were both washing our hands in the ladies restroom at Malice back in 2015 or so, I asked if she would be willing to endorse my first Quaker Midwife mystery! She was gracious enough to say yes. ;^)

    Hugs and congratulations,

    Edith

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  12. Ellen, I’m so glad you’re our guest today! I have the very best wishes for City of Promises and other books in the future! Definitely think you were meant to write them. 😊

    I can’t think of any specific kismet incident, but I’m certain things have clicked into place in my life.

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  13. Ellen – Congratulations on City of Promises. What a wonderful story of all your kismet connections. You were definitely destined to finish it!

    I was very fortunate to meet your mother at the SinC Chicagoland Chapter meetings when they were in person, pre-Covid. She was a delight to talk to and so giving of her knowledge to all. How wonderful you’re taking her stories forward.

    As for my kismet connection, a LA degree got me an admin job at an engineering company. My boss was a great guy but after four years I left for a better opportunity and we lost touch. Fifteen years later, both still single, we happened by chance to connect through a mutual friend, and got married six months later. You never know when that kismet connection will happen.

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  15. Thank you for sharing your lovely example of kismet. It made me think of when I was a teen and filled out a teen pen pal request form. The young lady that was chosen for me ended up being a dear friend, who even was a bridesmaid in my wedding 26 years ago and we are still friends today. We have known each other for 40 years.

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    1. Luckily for me, once when I was traveling solo and was returning home to CA from Wash., D.C., I awoke just as the last group of passengers for my Southwest flight was called for boarding. I’d fallen asleep waiting for the plane to make its appearance. I had to take whatever seat was available (my boarding pass gave me first dibs in the “A” group of passengers), but at least I didn’t have to take a later flight.

      Kismet or my guardian angel on the job?

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  18. I don’t know if I’ve ever had a kismet moment, but I cannot begin to tell you how excited I was to hear about this book! Your mother has been one of my favorite writers, and the Gaslight series is amazing!

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