About Novelist Djuna Shellam

Djuna Shellam is a novelist, artist, and podcaster who writes under a pen name, blending fact and fiction in her public persona. She is the author of The Em Suite series, a collection of lesbian romance/fiction novels published by independent publisher Magnhild Press, including The Incredible Transformations of Alice Hollywood, Mackenna on the Edge, Prairie Fire, Dot in the Weeds, and A Woman Like Eve. These books, set primarily in the 1970s and 1990s, focus on complex characters and emotional narratives, often exploring themes of love, heartbreak, and personal transformation.

Her memoir, Nom de Plume: An Extraordinary Life—Vol 1, details a fictionalized backstory of growing up as Siobhán Aoife O’Shea in Australia, facing tragedy and navigating a mysterious world, though she acknowledges this biography is wholly invented.

Shellam also hosts The Djuna Shellam Podcast, a weekly show currently on hiatus, where she discusses writing, life, and creative processes, offering insights for both writers and readers. The podcast, available on platforms like Substack, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and JioSaavn, covers topics from writer’s block to music biopics and her creative inspirations. She produced a blog and vlog, Djuna Shellam The Write OWL, and maintains a newsletter via Substack. Her work extends to poetry, music, and non-fiction, with a writing career beginning in childhood and her first novel evolving from a 1970s short story into a screenplay and later a two-part novel.

Based in North Idaho, Shellam is open about using a nom de plume, playfully suggesting it might be an anagram. She enjoys gardening, music, and long walks with her dog, and her writings often draw from personal reflection during these activities.

Interview with Djuna Shellam

Q. When you’re not writing, how do you spend your time?

A. I work on my cabin, read, take my dog for long walks, and visit with friends. I also adore listening to music of all kinds. Music really is a great escape for me to just indulge in doing nothing but listening. If I’m all tapped out, or need a brain break, I’ll allow myself the time to vegetate in front of the television, but that’s a rare occurrence.

Q. Do you remember the first story you ever wrote?

I do, but if you don’t mind, I’ll keep it to myself because it’s terribly dull.

Q. What is your writing process?

A. I contemplate a lot when gardening, walking, or driving, and that’s when I’ll start plotting out scenarios. It’s not something I plan, it just happens. Some people listen to music while they walk or garden, but I write stories in my head. Or, characters will just come to me, almost begging to participate in my new project. By the time I’m ready to insert them into the story, they’re pretty much real to me. Once they have been fleshed out, they really drive whatever story I’m working on. I’m merely taking dictation.

Q. Do you remember what the first story you ever read was about and the impact it had on you?

A. I read so much as a child; it was my only entertainment and education form. I was homeschooled by parents who weren’t formally educated, so I took what I was taught and ran with it. So while I don’t remember the very first story I ever read, reading had quite a tremendous impact on me, compelling me to devour everything written I could get my hands on.

Q. What are your five favorite books, Djuna Shellam, and why?

Counted separately, these would be more than five, but I can’t choose just five: Daphne DuMaurier’s House on the Strand, because I just loved the science fiction of it and the way she was able to tell two stories at once, weaving in and out of real-life and hallucination.

I love the entire Tales of the City series because Armistead Maupin has a tremendous ability to pull one into the place, the characters, and their quirky lives. If I were stuck on a deserted island with that series, I would be just fine for the rest of my life with only those lovely and entertaining books to read.

Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches series—The Witching Hour, Lasher, and Taltos—because of her delicious imagination, detail, the complexity of her characters, and how she weaves the different stories so seamlessly, drawing you in and leaving you begging for more.

Q. What do you read for pleasure?

I enjoy mysteries that are entertaining as well as mysterious. Meaning, I love a good chuckle as I’m reading, and I like to solve the mystery, though I usually never do because the authors are too wonderfully cagey about it.

Q. Describe your desk, Djuna.

A. No matter how I try, within minutes of straightening and decluttering it, my desk becomes a brambled mess. Nonetheless, it’s a large black desk with worn areas down to the wood, with a laptop, two screens, several backup drives sitting on it, and an unseemly mess of tangled wires. Stacks of files, yellow pads, cups of pencils, pens, and the odd assortment of “stuff” that never seems to have a place of its own take up every spare inch of the surface.

Q. What is the greatest joy of writing for you?

A. I make new friends. Every story I write, I gain new people in my life. Of course, they’re fictional and “live” only in my and my readers’ imagination. Still, they really do give me tremendous joy, even when they’re breaking my heart. After all, I do live with one foot in reality and another in fiction.

Q. Tell us what’s up next?

A. I published Book 5 of The Em Suite Series last year. It’s called A Woman Like Eve. It was quite exciting writing scenes with the old gang and then writing completely new characters. Also, traveling back to the Seventies is such fun.

UPDATES:

Prairie Fire is now in its final stages of production.
Prairie Fire is now available in digital and paperback formats.
Dot in the Weeds, Book Four of The Em Suite Series, is now available in both digital and paperback formats.
Now halfway through writing Nom de Plum—An Extraordinary Life—Vol 1.
I’ve just completed Nom de Plume—An Extraordinary Life—Vol 1!
Nom de Plume—An Extraordinary Life—Vol 1 is now available for sale in paperback and digital formats!
A Woman Like Eve is about 99% finished.
I’ve just completed A Woman Like Eve—The Em Suite—Book Five!
I’m currently in my “mulling stage.” I have a couple of writing projects knocking around upstairs, but my bigger life project—creating a homestead—currently is prioritet nummer én (priority number one).

Q. Djuna Shellam, when did you first start writing?

A. I actually didn’t begin seriously writing until my thirties. A great deal of my life is spent learning, reading, and studying the art of writing—by reading books and people. I have so many stories lined up that I’ll have to live a whole other life to finish all of them!

Q. What motivated you to become an indie author?

A. I like to direct my own art. Simply put, I don’t like being told what to do.

Q. Who are your favorite authors?

A. I have so many, so I’ll just say this: I enjoy the good ones.

Q. What inspires you to get out of bed each day?

A. Curiosity and the opportunity to spend another day on this side of the grass.