Alexandra Sellers

Early life and influences

Sellers became interested in exotic locations when she was 10 and read The Arabian Nights. The book inspired her to begin writing, and she penned her first story called "Stormy", a fictionalized account of the life of her cat from the cat's perspective, soon after. Sellers believes that any writer is influenced by every writer they've read, in one way or another, even if they don't directly affect one's writing. Sellers' favorite authors include Doris Lessing, Jane Austen, and Robertson Davies, though her writing was not directly influenced by these writers. Romance authors such as Jane Donnelly and Mary Burchell directly influenced her writing. She states her favorite books as The Sufis by Idries Shah, The Thousand and One Nights translated by Richard Burton, Mansfield Park, Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, and Emma by Jane Austen, Icons of Flesh by Glen Sorestad, The Pig Poets: An Anthology of Porcine Poesy by Henry Hogge.

Education and early career

Sellers has studied eight foreign languages, including French, German, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, and Italian. She attended the School of Oriental and African Studies, or SOAS, a public research university located in London, United Kingdom that specializes in arts and humanities, languages, laws and social sciences relating to Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Sellers was the first student to study for a double degree in Persian and Religious Studies; she was awarded First Class Honours.

When she reached adulthood, Sellers wrote a romantic short story called "Dear Aunt Martha" and a science fiction story. "Dear Aunt Martha" sold immediately, but the science fiction story was rejected by the first publisher who received it. Sellers took this as a sign to concentrate on the romance genre.

Writing career

Her first romantic novel was published in 1980, and after this Sellers became a full-time writer. Many of her novels are set in exotic locations, some of them fictional countries. Romantic Times has described her novels as "enchanting...superbly integrating a memorable plot, delightful characters, and tender emotion."

It has been said that "There is no better illustration of the changing and evolving sensibilities of the time, in fact, than the three novels Sellers wrote for the Silhouette Intimate Moments line -- The Real Man, The Male Chauvinist, and The Old Flame....What Sellers is really writing about, however, are the socially constructed perceptions of sexuality and gender that serve to make men the enemies of women (and sometimes the reverse), and which often hide our real values, motives, and feelings even from ourselves."

Awards

In 1997, her novel A Nice Girl Like You was nominated by Romantic Times for a Reviewers' Choice Award for Best Silhouette Yours Truly. Three years later she received the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for Series Romantic Fantasy, and in 2009 she received the Romantic Times Career Achievement Best Author Award for Series.

Linguistics

Sellers has studied the language of cats, and published her findings in the book Spoken Cat and Relevant Factors in Worldview. According to her book, "here is your milk" is "birr pirp r'mow" when translated into cat speak. "Here are a few tidbits," meanwhile, becomes "mRRah mRRah pirp r'mow." She also believes that cats have their own body of myths and folklore. She says that the cats have told her that they came from Canopus (the second brightest star after Sirius) to educate humanity on cleanliness. In particular, they believe that we should use our excrement as fertiliser, instead of disposing of it in our drinking water.

Diana White, of The Boston Globe, described the book as 'an elaborate, beautifully executed joke that not only pokes fun at the cat-human connection, but at language texts, too....Clearly, Sellers knows cats.' The SOAS Magazine stated that "Supporters of the 'pet as human companion' theory will see in the book the answer to their prayers."

Personal life

Born and raised in Canada, Alexandra Sellers once attempted to calculate how many different places she has lived throughout her life. She gave up when she reached forty homes in twelve different places in six different countries, including Canada, the UK, Israel, Spain, and the Bahamas. But she says she hasn’t visited nearly as many places as she’d like yet. She currently lives with her husband, Nick, and divides her time with her husband between London, Crete, and Vancouver.

Her favourite cat was an "extraordinarily intelligent and wonderful white cat" who was kidnapped one day by vivisectionists, which broke Sellers' heart. Other favorite cats include a purebred Siamese and Monsieur, a tabby who died two years ago.