Ellen Roddick

Freelance Author, Editor, Memoir Guide





Author page at amazon.com
I finished writing my memoir about a life of privilege and crisis and now am at work on a murder mystery.






Your Memoirs: Saving the Stories of Your Life and Work

Written as Hawley Roddick, this guide can help you write your own memoirs . It is available for the Kindle.











Magazine Column

In addition to writing books, I wrote the "Dieter's Notebook" column for Cosmopolitan. for seven years.

Novels and Nonfiction

Together (St. Martin's Press and Authors Guild Back-in-Print edition)
Two Manhattan couples—Nina and David Northrup, Kitty and Mort Hinks—seem to have it all. What others see is the couples’ wonderful children, successful careers, stylish homes in upscale neighborhoods, and lifestyles that combine comfort and luxury. But members of this quartet are dissatisfied enough to begin love affairs. What they don’t know is that Mort becomes Nina’s lover while his wife becomes intimately involved with Nina’s husband. How long can the quartet keep their affairs secret? And how long will they want to?
Secret Choices (Published as Holding Patterns by St. Martin's Press; revised based on new revelations about original source and published as an Authors Guild Back-in-Print edition.) Martin Clark is now developiing a possible movie based on this book.
At the climax of an exciting Lamaze delivery, when Lee McLaren is born, one key question stuns all those present: Is Lee a girl or a boy? The answer is uncertain. As the parents and doctors deal with this challenge, they face major and irrevocable choices. Sharing the intense journey, readers achieve a stunning new understanding of the nature of our sexuality .
Writing That Means Business: How to Get Your Message Across Simply and Effectively (Macmillan and Authors Guild Back-in-Print edition)
This book includes tips and guidelines from my WriteAssets® seminars for Fortune 500 companies to put the fundamentals of clear, concise, convincing business writing at your fingertips. This comprehensive guide will teach you how to:
      • Streamline reports and memos for maximum impact.
      • Control your tone-when to be formal or friendly, humorous or diplomatic.
      • Map your ideas before you write.
      • Edit your own writing.
      • And much more.

Whether you are on the way up or already at the top, Writing That Means Business shows you a sure-fire way to sharpen your competitive edge.
Business Writing Makeovers: Shortcut Solutions to Improve Your Letters, E-Mails, and Faxes (Adams Media and Authors Guild Back-in-Print edition)
It is easier than you may imagine to write requests for a raise or promotion, to compose proposals and reports, and to dash off thank-you or sympathy notes, meeting minutes, e-mails, and sales letters.Business Writing Makeovers is a seminar in a book at a small fraction of a seminar's cost in terms of both time and money. Each Shortcut Solution has four parts:
      1. Original that needs improvement
      2. Formula that outlines the beginning
      3. Makeover that improves on the Original and serves as a model
      4. Tip Sheet that highlights widely applicable writing techniques.

To meet typical business-writing challenges with style, rely on Business Writing Makeovers.
Everyone Can Write: Thinking Skills for Writers (Sunburst Publications).
Instructions for grade-school students on how to save time and think clearly by diagramming ideas for a paper before writing.
Young Filmmakers (Dutton)
Written with Rodger Larson, founder of the distinguished Young Filmmakers Association in New York, this was my first book. It was published the same year that my son was born--my most fertile month ever. The New York Public Library chose the as one of the fifteen best books published for young adults that year.

Find Authors