Hi, I’m Ceci Ellis
I grew up always trying to be creative! I have dabbled in writing fiction, poetry, various artistic media from drawing and painting to mixed media and the work you will see in my portfolio.
About Ceci Ellis
Ceci Ellis is a writer, photographer, and creative, whose work spans poetry, short fiction, magazine features, and visual storytelling. Her writing has appeared in a short-fiction anthology, a Phoenix-based literary magazine, and national magazines including Backwoods Survival Guide and Prepper Survivor Guide. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Graphic Design with a minor in Spanish and lives in Phoenix, Arizona, where she explores the desert and surrounding mountains through hiking and photography.
Five Fun Facts:
Did you know she used to be terrified of birds?
Thank you, Alfred Hitchcock! At age six she snuck out of bed and watched The Birds, which left a lasting impression. Months later, ducks and geese invaded her and her sister’s tent while camping. They were biting through the sleeping bags.
Now days she volunteers at Liberty Wildlife, a wildlife rehabilitation and education center in Phoenix, where she works hands-on with raptors, owls, and other wildlife. She still has a very healthy respect for waterfowl.
Did you know she can handle mealworms and cockroaches bare-handed?
Liberty Wildlife will do that to you. The woman who once feared both birds AND reptiles, including snakes, now handles them regularly and with confidence. She has hand-fed raptors, worked with Dubia roaches, and once held a tarantula — voluntarily. The birds get thick leather gloves though. Those talons are no joke.
Did you know she speaks seven languages?
She is fluent in English and Spanish, she picked up the others through travel, curiosity, and a stubborn refusal to be only bilingual. Conversational enough in five others to be either very polite or very rude, depending on the situation. She'll let you guess which comes more naturally.
Did you know she's on a mission to visit all 50 states?
She's been to England, Canada, and Mexico, but the real goal is closer to home; visiting all fifty states, plus the District of Columbia. So far, she's covered all of the left coast, and a good chunk of the middle. Sixteen still to go, including a few that require serious logistical commitment. Alaska, she's looking at you. The clock is ticking.
Did you know she once kidnapped a rock band?
In the late 1980s, while bartending at a Troy, Michigan hotel, she noticed four members of English Gothic rock band The Mission UK were bored to tears, being stuck in the hotel all week. Against hotel policy and all reasonable judgment, she told them to meet her in the parking lot, somehow fit all four of them into her three-door Geo Metro, and took them to a bar she knew. The night ended at a friend's house with an impromptu jam session that lasted until 4am. She had them back before sunrise. The hotel never found out. Until now.
Project Spotlight:
Title: A Rainy Day
Genre: Contemporary fiction / Magical realism
Status: Complete, seeking publication | 4,623 words
Logline: When a practical Phoenix divorcée begins waking to photos of herself at destinations she's never visited, she discovers she may have more control over her life — asleep and awake — than she ever allowed herself.
Summary: Roz Carver is a woman who has spent decades being sensible. She paid her bills, raised her kids, stayed put. When mysterious photos begin appearing on her phone with her own face, beaming, at the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, the Maasai Mara — she applies every rational explanation she can find and runs out of them. Slowly, reluctantly, she begins to understand that whatever is happening in the space between sleep and waking, she isn't just a passenger. The Rainy Day is a story about a woman who stopped going anywhere, and what it takes to finally buy the ticket.