Her stories make use of classic folk and fairy tale themes to explore distinctly modern concerns. Works in this vein include "The Fox Wife," based on Japanese myths (Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears); "In the Season of the Rains," based on Lilith myths (Sirens); "In the Night Country," based on a Grimm's fairy tale (The Armless Maiden), "The Cats of San Martino" based on an Italian fairy tale (Black Heart, Ivory Bones), "Argentine," based on Mexican Day of the Dead legends (The Essential Bordertown); and "The Shape of Things to Come," based on a Guatemalan folktale (The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror, Vol. 14). She is at work on a mythic novel for Tor Books, among other projects.

Ellen is also an accomplished writer of children's and Young Adult fiction, with numerous books to her credit, such as Shadow of the Fox, based on Japanese folklore, and The Raven Queen (in collaboration with Terri Windling), based on English faery lore. In addition, Ellen has written many popular series books over the years. She was the ghostwriter for a classic girls' mystery series (we're not allowed to tell you what it was due to the publisher's insistence on confidentiality), and she has written several X-Files novels for kids, based on the television program.

Ellen was raised in Newark and West Orange, New Jersey; attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; then moved to New York City where she worked for a Japanese trading company before entering the publishing industry. For many years she worked as a well-respected editor in the children's book field. She lived in New York City throughout the 1980s, where she studied karate and was active in a wide social circle of writers and artists. In 1991 she fulfilled a long-standing dream and moved to the American Southwest. She now lives in Tucson, Arizona with her partner Doug, a hydrologist. Ellen's interests include folklore, folk music, classic children's book illustration, Mexican culture and "Border" arts, and poetry and fiction of many kinds.