What’s up with your pen name?
Since I also illustrate children’s books under my real-life name Bridget Engman, I use a pen name for my romances to avoid accidental overlap of those audiences. Ellen is my middle name, the B is for Bridget, and O’Brien is a family name from my genealogy.
Why is your logo a B when your pen name starts with E?
I have had a lot of usernames and nicknames over the years – bengman, bewildered, B-ko – and the B is the one thing that’s been consistent throughout. Plus my typographic heart likes Bs. They’re so swirly and round, like butterflies and hearts.
What kind of romances do you write?
Right now I am focusing on contemporary settings, often with an element of fantasy, whether that is fae, urban, paranormal, or monster. I like to include humor (sometimes farce), drama, and lots of spice. They also seem to be a bit fluffy at the moment? We’ll see if that lasts.
Spice, you say? How much?
My romances are open-door and generally involve lots of explicit consensual MF sex, which may be detailed or fuzzy within the same book. I also swear a lot. That being said, thus far IMO they’re not especially high up on the kink-o-meter. Please check the content warnings for each book if you have specific triggers you wish to avoid or preferences you wish to indulge.
Who does your covers?
Monsoon’s cover is by me! One reason I chose to publish independently is that I am also an artist and graphic designer, and I love to draw my own characters. See below for links to more of my artwork. I am also honored to be working with Kit Fox for my Monster Brides series romances, due out in November 2025 and August 2026.
Do you use generative AI?
I do not and will not use generative AI for any of my content creation, editing, or marketing. Besides the fact that generative AI is ethically and environmentally shitty – so I reject it on principle first – I just don’t find the output appealing, either in images or writing. Please do not use my works to train genAI or use AI to generate fanart related to my works.