By Maria Bligh
Success in writing is often portrayed as a moment: a breakthrough book, a sudden rise, a stroke of luck.
But speaking to best-selling author Tamara McKinley (also known as Ellie Dean), a different picture emerges entirely: one of consistency, resilience, and an almost understated commitment to the craft.
“I’m celebrating the book coming out today,” she says (The Long Road Home published by Penguin 2026). But there’s no sense of this being a rare milestone. For her, publishing is part of a long, sustained rhythm.
That’s the first lesson aspiring writers should pay attention to: success isn’t built on one book. It’s built on many.
Tamara’s career spans multiple novels, including the long-running Cliffehaven series, with readers returning again and again for her characters and storytelling. That kind of loyalty doesn’t happen by accident – it’s earned through reliability and emotional connection.
Interestingly, she doesn’t present herself as anything extraordinary.
“I’m an author, yes,” she says simply.
It’s an almost disarming statement, but it hints at something important: she identifies with the work, not the status. And that mindset may be one of the reasons she’s been able to sustain such a prolific career.
There’s also a flexibility to her identity from which writers can learn. Writing under the pen name of Ellie Dean while also maintaining her own author brand allows her to reach diverse audiences and explore different storytelling approaches without being boxed in.
Her background adds another layer. Originally from Australia, she has lived in the UK since moving here at the age of 10, a shift that subtly reflects the adaptability required in a writing career.
“I’ve lost my accent completely, until I go back home – and then I start twanging again,” she laughs.
That ability to move between worlds – geographically and creatively – is something many writers struggle with. Tamara seems to handle it with ease. In fact, this geographical fluidity contributed to her first global best-seller, Matilda’s Last Waltz (published by Platkus Books, 2000)
But it would be quite wrong to assume Tamara hit this jackpot on her first rodeo (or should I say ‘mustering’?). She was 40 before she even began writing and Matilda… was her sixth book. However, she still recalls the thrill of having her agent email with the news she’d been offered an advance big enough to pay off her mortgage… and still winces at the memory of the resulting hangover following the celebrations!
It all sounds very glamorous and Tamara is clearly doing what she loves – fulfilling her creative calling. To date, Tamara has released over 30 novels, writing up to three 110,000-140,000 word works in a year, so she’s a perfect role model for writing hopefuls.
However, the first thing Tamara emphasises is that writing is work and she treats it as such. A typical day begins with breakfast before wakening her brain over Sudoku and a difficult crossword. She’ll sit down at the computer around 10am and deal with emails before reviewing and editing yesterday’s work. Then it’s a case of writing with the aim of completing an entire chapter before her cat, Mia, brings her back into this world by demanding dinner around 6pm. Tamara will frequently put in another shift at the keyboard after dinner.
It seems almost mechanical. No sign of the dreaded procrastination then?: “I do a lot of that when I start a new book, but I eventually have to follow that still quiet voice in my head which tells me there’s a story to be told and to get on with it!”
Tamara begins with a vague idea. Then, to outline or not to outline? If that is the question, Tamara doesn’t. She has a beginning and an ending and she lets the characters tell her how they want to travel. It’s this free-flowing journey that keeps her as curious as her readers will be. Along the way, it’s essential that an author cares about their characters and it’s this empathy that brings them to life.
As much as Tamara revels in the process of crafting a novel, she enjoys the before and after work, namely the research and the editing.
For the Ellie Dean series of World War II novels set in Portsmouth, research involved visiting museums, mapping pre-war locations, and interviewing elderly participants in the war effort, fulfilling roles such as fire crews and bomb clearers. Tamara loves uncovering local anecdotes and is quick to stress the importance of good research because readers notice. Once, a reader made contact to advise that a particular aircraft in the novel wasn’t actually in service at the time. Fortunately, he also made clear how much he’d enjoyed the book, but it was a wake-up call nevertheless: “After that, I make sure to research every plane, bicycle, car and engine before writing.”
And then there’s the editing process. In addition to reviewing her work from the day before, when the manuscript’s finished, she’ll leave it to simmer for a week to disengage somewhat. Before reaching the readers, a chapter might have been edited up to 18 times.
When I ask if she has any specific advice for would-be writers, Tamara has no hesitation in telling us that we must read, read, read within our chosen genre and then write, write, write.
And, finally, she credits a local writers’ group with providing much-needed support and advice. In her early days, Tamara joined Eastbourne’s Anderida Writers. It was through the group that she was introduced to another author who was an editing whizz. Tamara credits “Pauline’s blue pencil” with both improving her work and teaching Tamara the value and the process of great editing.
Not that any further proof is necessary, but it’s a measure of how far Tamara has come that she’s now Patron of Eastbourne’s Anderida Writers’ Group.
So there we have it, how to become a prolific and best-selling author.
No hype.
No theatrics.
Just the quiet, powerful accumulation of work over time.
Of course, success isn’t about becoming someone else.
It’s about committing fully to the writer you already are and doing the work, again and again and again.
Oh, and join your local writers’ group.
Author Bio:
Maria Bligh, BA (Hons) Creative Writing is Co-Owner/Editor of The Write Site. She lives in Sussex with her musician husband and cats.
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