A Chat with Mary Ellen Wall & Elise t’Hoot from ‘The Distant Trees’
To those of my readers who are in the United States, Happy Turkey Day! I hope that everyone had a good one. To celebrate the holiday in a way that has no connection whatsoever… Here’s a character interview! Mary Ellen Wall and Elise t’Hoot have joined us today!
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Mia: What is the name of the book where we’ll find you? Can you tell us a little about it?
Elise t’Hoot: My story started with The Distant Trees, where I went from a snotty school kid to an AWOL alien smuggler. Then is Tenembras, that’s the name of the colony planet I smuggled the aliens to. There we see what the marvelous Amigos, the aliens, can do to make our sorry lot better…of course everybody doesn’t see them as the boon they really are. A World of Our Own details Tembo’s independence fight – Tembo is the pet name for our local ball of bliss. I almost didn’t make it through that one. In Neighbors, we meet some of our ET neighbors and I get a grand gift. All of these should have much more about the vast cast that shaped the events, but I didn’t interfere too much with the author.
Mia: Tell us a little about yourself. Where do you fit into the story? What should we know about you?
Elise t’Hoot: Typical sad story, I got displaced by floods (our sea wall was sabotaged) and sent to a camp (a sadistic, merciless place) when I was a little thing and an uncle snuck me out of there with his daughter’s passport; I’m from the Netherlands. I made it to Kentucky where I studied hard and helped at my Aunt’s carbon sequestration forestry project. To get cash for my master’s classes, I joined up with an expeditionary mission to a planet that had a crashed Dutch ship and the aliens it marooned…the books cover most everything, I’m not too crazy about travelling back to memory lane. Why would I want to recount getting wrecked on an icy mountain with foo-foo shoes or getting burned clean through with a laser rifle? I want to be known as a tolerant person who is able to take up for me and my family. And before you bring it up, I was cleared of the changes from gutting those miscreants that attacked us and plugged Ricky, that’s all past. Sure, I still carry knives and stay in shape, but I want to be remembered as a friend of the Amigos.
Mia: What do you think of the author? Be honest. We won’t tell.
Elise t’Hoot: She billed herself to me as a ‘panoramic biographer’. That should have warned me right there, what did it really mean? At least she did get a few of the most prominent characters to present their own parts; she could have included dozens more. I always thought a book should have more ambience, more scene description, but she said that would distract from the drama. I almost fired her for saying my story was some damned drama.
Mia: How do you feel about the story you’re in?
Elise t’Hoot: As my papa Loek t’Hoot’s daughter, I wanted to make a positive, meaningful difference in the world, to live up to his great example. Of course, I should have specified which world. You question seems rather pointed. I know I’ve taken a good many dangerous chances but I am pleased to be alive, honest. Just because I can’t be still for more than two minutes doesn’t mean I’m not happy in my own way. I don’t count having the alien chip embedded in my brain as dangerous any more, as it has enabled tons more good than the harm it caused. I can get more done now and do it better, so what’s not to be happy about that?
Mia: Do you like being a character in the book?
Elise t’Hoot: It is so weird – I avoided picking up a copy but Barto and Wing wouldn’t quit teasing me so I had to read some of it. When I first met my Ricky, we argued and he said I had made a dull caricature of him. I can’t say that about these books, I mean, I feel like I’m dropped back into some of the scenes, recalling how it felt and happened. Once I relented and read them I was surprised at the fidelity; it’s a bit uncanny.
Mia: How do you see your future? Without giving anything away about the story, naturally.
Elise t’Hoot: I intend to stay on this ship a while, I’m plum tired at being shot at. At least Ricky can’t rag me about staying home more; he’s here with me and the kiddoes. We’re through with Tenembras and the Patriot thugs that didn’t appreciate a good thing when they had it. Our Amigos draw water and metals up from the ground! Oh sure, let’s kill them! Lawd they burn me up, can we change the subject?
Mia: What do you know about your author’s plans? Can we expect to see you in any future stories?
Elise t’Hoot: I asked her to write up something for little Annie, the wee imp I adopted after her folks got firebombed. It’s about animals in natural setting but you can hear their thoughts as if they’re talking. I dunno, I liked the one about the alligators. Other than that, I went ahead and contracted her to immortalize the next few epochs of our adventures in exchange for free room and board on the ship. She says I need to be central to the future stories for continuity. Fine. Doc Trogden gives me the hairy eyeball like I’m an egomaniac – I told her to commission her own story and judge that.
Mia: Let’s say they make a movie about this book. Who do you want to play you, and why?
Elise t’Hoot: That is the same thing Barto asked my ages ago! He said if we didn’t make sure we had input to any such cinematic mess they could slant and mash it up so it resembled nothing like the true story. I’m in no hurry to see myself in a vid, the books are painful enough. Still, some of the college kids onboard are starting an acting club and intend to put on plays and such. Maybe they’ll fill the bill, as it were.
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Author Bio: Greetings, I am Mary Ellen Wall. I write technical manuals, lesson plans, science fiction novels, children’s books and panoramic biography. Born in the fabulous Commonwealth of Kentucky, I have travelled to many countries but always come home to Flint Springs. I maintain my cabin in the woods, bake sew, brew, paint, shoot, build and write.
Author Site: http://maryellenwall.wordpress.com
Author’s Amazon Page: http://www.amazon.com/author/maryelle...
