Featured Interview With Elli P Hunt
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
My life could easily be divided into chapters, the early years when I came aware we lived in the hill country of Tennessee. I spent most of my time exploring the forest around our home and learned how to tell stories to entertain my siblings. Later we moved back to Wisconsin, we lived in an area surrounded by the sand prairie with sand burs and prickly pear cactus. There was the river that ran through ancient out-wash of the last great glacier that created a lot of backwater sloughs and lakes. Can you imagine a better place for young kids to live and explore. It was a Tom Sayer kind of life.
I went to college and earned a Master’s degree in education. Taught until I was old enough to retire and then decide to write and publish some of my stories. Backing up just a bit, my skills in telling stories which were often applied to avoid getting whacked on the rump for some mischievous act I could not avoid turned into writing. I was fortunate enough to have a wild imagination that refused to be strapped to the seat of a desk during lessons that were so boring it provided me with a way to survive. Now then, when I entered into higher education and you must remember that for my fokes and many of their peers, a high school education was often a luxury that they couldn’t afford. So going to high school was a privilege that I did not take lightly and decided to put my best foot forward. It was there that the writing of some of my stories were acknowledged to have some potential. I feel in love with literature and couldn’t read enough. I was pleasantly surprised to find many kindred spirits of authors who stirred my interest in writing and in education.
I wrote stories while I was in college, learned about the framing of a story and recognized that if I put effort into it, I could write a good story. Of course that is my own humble opinion but often supported by those that I was lucky enough to have as teachers and professors.
The next chapter was about my years as a teacher and it was quite a shock of how the world looked from the other side of the desk. I quickly learned that it is no simple task to maintain the attention of twenty-five or more students especially when they were what we politically called, “reluctant learners”. That was when I came to know what Karma was and just in case I was to forget, I was given many reminders through out my teaching profession.
The chapter that is being written is about my life as a retired professor/teacher and finally taking the leap into writing and publishing my own work. To no surprise I do now as I did when I was a young mischievous youngster, that is to say I leaped without looking. I quickly discovered that I need to do the taming of my own shrew and that is no easy task but I am assured that with repeated failures comes success.
What I enjoy about writing is when the story just flows out of someplace into my keyboard. I realize that I have snagged something when the characters in the story begin to have their voice and readily take charge of what should be printed. I love taking the time to explore the depth of their character and can convey their personality into the story. If I’m not careful they can wrangle the story away from me, that isn’t always that bad of thing as they are better equipped to tell their story than I am.
My first published novel is Stolen, (Lynn’s Story), yes she wrangled it away from me. It is a fictional account of a dark period in her life when her mother was abducted from her home. There was no trace of what happened or where she went. They lived in a small city in a farming area of southwestern Wisconsin. This took place in the early seventies, it was a different world then than what we have now. No cell phones or personal computers, and as a writer that actually lived through that era it was interesting to go back to visit that time in my own life. It was startling to realize how much technology we take for granted today that simply didn’t exist then.
I think one thing I try to stick to, is to write what I know. So, I don’t see myself writing science fiction or stories about New York or Europe and many other places in things that I have no experience with. I grew up in a small communities, usually farming was the main economic staple. I try to draw from my own adventures that I have experience. If you like small town stories, you might like mine. I do try to stay true to the characters and sometimes they can lead me into dark places that I’m not comfortable in. It is a challenge sometimes, but to be true to the story and character I feel that I have to convey even the dark side of life.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I think it was shortly after I gained adequate reading skills I discovered new worlds in the books that I read. I couldn’t get enough and often had several books under my arms when I came home from school.
My first experience of writing would have been in my seventh grade literature class. I don’t remember the name of my teacher, but I loved how she would engages in discussions about the books we were reading. It was in that class that we were first encouraged to write our own short stories.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Wow! There are so many. I love the classics, Shakespeare and his plays were a who new experience for me and I loved all I could get my hands on. I love reading books by Thoreau, Dickinson, Dickens, Edgar Allen Poe, John Steinbeck, Mark Twain seem to resonate a great deal with me.
I also like historical books, Upton Sinclair gave me awareness of social injustice. There are many others that I can’t think of at this moment.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Stolen, (Lynn’s Story) is my debut book. I have described some of that already but, I can share some other aspects of that book.
First, the book as it is now never crossed my mine when I sat out to write this story. My initial concept was pretty mundane, meant to be about a girl growing up in a small town and the episodes of mischief she got into. But the story had roots that ran deeper than that and it was apparent to me that I wasn’t in charge anymore. I found that sweet spot where the characters become alive and situation becomes real. I was in fact a rider in this story as it unfolded before me. It is quite the experience when a story connects with me like this. It is also very draining and that is why it took so long to write. That and a lot of rewrites, revisions and corrections.
In the end, I feel that there is a story here of substance, yes it is gritty and at times heart-wrenching. The strength of the character, Abi amazed me. Her will to survive even when she had fallen into despair she always found that her will to live was deeper than she realized. It was quite a privilege to get to know her and then their is Lynn who witnessed and lived through this whole traumatic episode of the history of her family, her life.
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