The Elisabeth Hegmann Interview (by Midnight Times)

The Elisabeth Hegmann Interview

Author of "Jeremy"

For the Spring 2007 MT Author Interview, JJ and I met online with Elisabeth Hegmann, recipient of the prestigious Chancellor's Scholar Award at IUPUI, as well as several other honors including Outstanding Film Studies Student, being elected to Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges, and the Rebecca E. Pitts Fiction Award for a recently written story. Elisabeth has a diverse interest in literature and the performing arts, and is looking forward to finishing her English degree so she can spend more time working on a novel which is in the early stages of development. She provided some great insight into her story "Jeremy," as well as the fascinating trio of main characters involved. Time allowing and authors willing, Joseph and I will continue to publish a new author interview in each issue of the Midnight Times. Enjoy! -- Jay Manning, MT Editor

THE INTERVIEW

Joseph Collins ("JJ"): All right, Elisabeth, let's get started. Do you have any nicknames or do you prefer Elisabeth?

Elisabeth Hegmann: Elisabeth is fine. I never got any nicknames like Liz or Beth. I guess I was always really formal, so I'm "Elisabeth."

JJ: Tell us a little bit about yourself. What does your typical week day consist of?

Elisabeth: My typical week day is pretty boring right now--a lot of studying. But I'd say I'm ambitious, constantly learning, and in a state of constant change according to what I've learned. I'm a perfectionist, embarrassingly bent on getting things right. I demand a lot out of myself. Just a few days ago I learned I've been chosen for something called the Chancellor's Scholar Award, meaning (according to the powers that be) that I represent the highest academic achievement in my school's graduating class. But I never would have expected that in a million years!

JJ: That's awesome, what school do you attend and what degree are you working on?

Elisabeth: I'm at IUPUI (Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis), and I'm an English major. I thought they always gave those awards to sociologists or something, not aspiring writers. But I'm honored. Every test I've taken or paper I've written I always figured, "Oh well--I probably flunked!" So I was surprised, to say the least.

JJ: Well, that's awesome. Tell us a bit about your writing. When did you start and what are your long term writing goals?

Elisabeth: Oh gosh. I feel like it chose me more than I chose it. Like it was something people wanted me to do. People started telling me I should write when I was in 2nd grade. Later in high school people I barely knew would walk up and say, "You're a writer, right?" I thought they were crazy because I hated writing as much as most kids do. I guess I just seemed writerly or something. But I definitely have some major long term goals now--novels, graphic novels, operas. You name it!

JJ: You do have a penchant for the written word. Who were some of your writing inspirations? Who do you like?

Elisabeth: You know, my family members are all musicians and were involved with performance, theatre, directing, and those kinds of things. And I've tended to draw inspiration from the performing arts and visual forms--theatre, music, film, photography, and graphic novels. My tastes are so eclectic I stopped trying to make sense of them a long time ago. Lord of the Rings, Clint Eastwood, Vincente Minnelli films, Monty Python, Lawrence of Arabia. Alan Moore and Frank Miller. Kind of an odd mixed group!

JJ: Would you say you draw inspiration more from visual entertainment than things that are written?

Elisabeth: I do. I feel almost sort of guilty about that! I mean, I read of course, and there are many authors I admire. But my inspiration tends to come from other sources. I've always felt a kind of tension between what I most admire and what I'm best at. And yet I think that tension has worked to my advantage. I enjoy being able to cover a large area.

JJ: What is it about the other sources that you like? Just how things look, how they sound, the writing behind it? Some of the television programs I enjoy most are because of the dialogue, which is a credit to the writers, not so much the performers.

Elisabeth: I agree with you that the writing is definitely always an important aspect. For me, I think part of it is that my imagination tends to work visually. I'm not sure I really know, though! Nearly everything I like has an overarching "mythic" element, if you will, or else it looks at the world with a certain kind of whimsy or humor I admire. That's true of books and stories along with all the other forms I admire.

JJ: About your other writing projects, are you in the middle of any novels?

Elisabeth: I am, actually! I'm working on my first novel right now, maybe the first one in a projected series of three. I'm excited, but it's in the very early stages. I'd forgotten how much fun research can be. I'm currently researching Mediterranean islands and some crazy tower-like structures--issues that are crucial to the setting of the novel.

JJ: That sounds interesting. What is the goal behind your novel? What would you like to see happen for either yourself or the audience it's intended for?

Elisabeth: My main goal is always to stay true to the integrity of the material I'm working on, and through that to provide the reader with a valuable experience. And of course to continually increase my proficiency as a writer. In terms of this particular material, I've actually been kicking it around for many years, and I just hope it "works"! I had wanted to write it as a graphic novel for a long time, but I finally decided I would write it as a regular novel. Anyway, so far so good.

JJ: How many short fiction stories would you say you've written in all?

Elisabeth: I'm embarrassed to tell you: not very many! I tend to be really efficient as a writer, but not very prolific. In other words, if I start a story, I will always see it through to a finished "product." But I just don't necessarily crank out that many. That may change when I get out of school.

Jay Manning: "Jeremy" was certainly efficient.

Elisabeth: Thanks! I did work hard to make "Jeremy" as tight as I could!

JJ: How many short stories would you say you average a year?

Elisabeth: In recent years, perhaps four.

JJ: Some authors propose that there's a primary theme that tends to unconsciously flow through a writer's body of work. Do you find there's a theme that runs through your stories, or do you feel all the works are disparate?

Elisabeth: There are definitely some main themes. I've also heard the opinion expressed that it's better for a writer not to think about what the main themes are in their own work. But it's kind of hard not to, you know? Some elements that pop up over and over in my work are isolation, motifs of imprisonment, crucibles that force characters together. Kind of some dark stuff.

JJ: I've noticed that as well. I subscribe to the theory that it's not a conscious decision. I think it says more about what's important to you inside than a conscious effort...though some deliberately put repeated themes in their work.

Elisabeth: I agree that it's not usually conscious. It just "is!" In my own experience, material just presents itself to me to be written, and to say no would be selfish.

Jay: A question about something you mentioned earlier: for the setting of your novel you said you are researching some "crazy tower-like structures" in the Mediterranean. Why is that a critical element?

Elisabeth: You know, this material I'm working on now, it kind of came floating up out of nowhere. I don't even remember how I decided on a tower being the central setting. But, towers have so many things they connote--imprisonment, isolation (two things I already mentioned earlier!), as well as things like forts, defense, and a lot of other meanings. I hope to exploit all of the meanings of towers in this material. But to start off, its main meaning is imprisonment. The working title of the project is "Maker’s Tower."

Jay: Could you provide a brief plot synopsis? Who is the main character?

Elisabeth: I wish I could, but it's in such early stages there's not much more to say. I'm just so excited that I'm getting the opportunity now that school's almost over to get back to some of these other projects that mean so much to me.

JJ: Alright, let's talk about your well-written piece, "Jeremy." First of all, what motivated you to pen it?

Elisabeth: I adapted it from a dream, and there I'm probably revealing more about my twisted psyche than I want to! I always feel like it's cheating to write a story from a dream. But that dream was really vivid and I wanted to capture its feeling. It was also written out of admiration for Romero's zombie films--I love the zombie film genre, including more recent entries like Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later.

JJ: Your story was very short in terms of word count, but in retrospect it seems much longer. You were very efficient with your writing style. You packed a lot of punch into a small space.

Jay: I agree. A lot happens in only 1800 words.

JJ: Jay and I both feel that's the sign of a great writer. So did you have a secondary meaning behind any of the events in the story or was it more what you see is what you get?

Elisabeth: Thanks very much! You know, it's a strange story because it's all narrative summary--all in the narrator's "head." But it was the only way the story worked. When I tried to add other elements, like dialogue, it fell flat. I think the only reason it works is because it's so short. I suppose the story can be read as a metaphor for some of the sadder aspects of relationships. And I suppose you're right--in a short space her thoughts about Jeremy and herself are complex and confused, quite a lot packed in a little space. She thinks all along that she has empathy for Jeremy, but only at the end does she really get it.

Jay: In the story there's a third main character: the "Invisible Man." Why add that aspect?

Elisabeth: Right. The Invisible Man exists only as a character in the narrator's own mind. That aspect was what I struggled with most as I wrote the story--it's what changed the most through the drafts. Earlier drafts had almost a "happy ending," with her ending up with the Invisible Man. But the story only began to work when it became, frankly, darker and more cynical, and she realizes the Invisible Man for the hoax that he is, and Jeremy as . . . well, whatever she realizes about him. That's the reader's business, not mine!

Jay: I felt that the Invisible Man provided a critical balance--the narrator seems to have the idea that somehow this other mystery man is going to help her escape the situation, but he never shows up in reality. There's really a lot of symbolism going on with that whole scenario. So how much of the story came from the dream you had? Can you describe that more precisely? I've written a few stories that came from dreams myself, and I think that's an interesting aspect of "Jeremy," since you mention it.

Elisabeth: As I wrote the story, I hoped that it could be read on a lot of different symbolic levels. It's so "bare" it's nearly allegorical. Well, that dream, like most dreams, was mainly just a feeling and some images. I just dreamed that I was at a series of parties and that this rotting guy kept showing up. I wasn't freaked out or anything. He was some old friend of mine, and I was just slightly annoyed because he was rotting! There was some humor to it.

Jay: One can definitely read the story on different levels. I think it's easy to read it as a funny zombie story, but if you do that, you're missing a lot of the underlying elements. I also think that's pretty cool how the dream evolved into such an exceptional story. What I personally got out of it was not letting go of things. The narrator distances herself from Jeremy when she starts the story--"I don't think it had struck me until that moment that he had been interested in me in life"--but then it evolves into this whole ongoing situation where she can't break free of Jeremy, despite the fact that he's a pathetic, rotting corpse. The situation seems like a very familiar theme in regard to relationships. How much of that was intentional?

Elisabeth: When I get as close as I should be to the characters, they tell me their stories. I'm never aware at first of a lot of what the story is "doing." But once I start revising, I become more aware of those things, and I'm glad to hear that's what you got from the story, because that's definitely what I wanted to be the heart of it! And you know, I think humor helps provide some of that heart.

Jay: Yes. I agree.

JJ: Definitely. Alright, thank you so much for taking time out to meet with us Elisabeth. Do you have any special "plugs" that you'd like mentioned? Any last words to impart?

Elisabeth: I don't have any of my own, but I have some other arts events I'd like to plug. The first is the Indianapolis International Film Festival, April 25-May4 (www.indyfilmfest.org). Also, the 2007 River of Blues Music Festival at Muscatatuck Park in southeastern Indiana, May 12, 2007 (www.riverofblues.com). Tickets: 1-877-725-8849. The festival will feature The Elms, 650 North, The Early Evening, Don Pedigo, and others. I think it's so important to support local/regional arts and festivals, whether it's choirs, bands, filmmakers, poets, whatever.

Jay: Sounds great.

JJ: That's awesome. Well thank you so much for your story and for meeting with us today. We really enjoyed it. It was very nice to meet you.

Jay: Yes. Thanks a lot for submitting such a wonderful story and joining us for the author interview.

Elisabeth: Thanks so much for talking to me! So much appreciated! It was fun. Who knows, maybe soon I'll write something else you might like! Back to my binomial probabilities...