Interview With Author Ellenmorris Tiegerman
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a clinically trained Speech Language Pathologist, Special Education Teacher and Social Worker. I have taught at Adelphi University for 22 years as a Professor in the Department of Psychology and Communication Disorders. I loved teaching at the University and networking with facility and students. As a Professor, the mantra has always been “publish or perish.” So in my professional career at the University, I wrote many text books on clinical subjects concerning children with language and communication disorders. Over that period of time I always thought about shifting from an academic text to a more creative project involving a murder mystery on a college campus.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Several years ago while I was still teaching at the University, I decided to try my hand at writing a murder mystery which involved a Professor of Psychology such as myself. I wrote the manuscript from beginning to end but I was not satisfied with the storyline. I felt that there was something significant missing thematically with my main heroin and how she resolved the murder. During this period of time, I had the opportunity to take a clinical training course with Dr. Brian Weiss a world renowned Psychologist who specialized in past life regression. This was always a topic that interested me and I read all of his books so meeting him personally was very exciting.
The training week with Dr. Weiss was instructive or inspiring and ground changing for me. I pulled out the manuscript from my closet and decided that my heroin would use past life regression to solve the murder on campus and that would be my story line. It took weeks of work to reorganize the text but I had my inspiration and the work was worth it because I was thoroughly satisfied with my new project.
I decided that Professor Caitlyn Morrys, a projection of myself would share many of my experiences on campus and be part of a trilogy of books involving past life regression. My first book is entitled: Past Lives Denied with Professor Caitlyn Morrys as the leading character and heroin. This book introduces the topic of past life regression and all of the complex issues that are presently relevant to people who are interested in finding a past life. This is not an easy process and certainly Catliyn Morrys grapples with her own doubts and concerns as well as the negative opinions of others.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
For all of my books, whether I was writing an academic textbook or a more creative mystery, I have utilized a very strict writing schedule. I would get up every morning at 5 am and go to the gym for an hour to exercise. At the end of the hour, I would sit down at my computer and write for one hour. It did not matter to me whether I wrote 5 words or 5 pages. Whatever came to me I put on paper. I always walked away at 7 am in the morning to start my day to do other things.
There were times when the writing was a struggle so I utilized some helpful strategies when I was feeling that I had “writer’s block.” I always had a well-developed outline for all my books before I started writing. Sometimes starting on another chapter was very helpful to the writing process. If that did not work, I would often stop and look at other books and materials on a related topic or subject to see if I could glean ideas that helped me restart the process. I believe that writing is a marathon journey not a sprint race.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
What are you working on now?
The second book in the trilogy is entitled: God Denied which I recently completed and will be coming out on Amazon on March 10th for interested readers. The second book in the trilogy focuses on the challenges faced by Professor Ashford Connor who is a love interest for Caitlyn Morrys. His personal history, doubts and frustrations reflect the attitudes and ideas of most people today who laugh at or scoff at the idea of past life regression.
Certainly, there have been many books written about the stories of adults and children who have discovered their past lives and shared their very personal histories. You can read a very interesting book entitled: Soul Survivor written by Andrea Leninger who wrote about her young son who remembered his past life as a World War 2 pilot. The book describes the family’s struggles coming to terms with past life memories and dealing with a young child who is traumatized by the memories and realization.
In God Denied, Professor Ashford Connor must also deal with his memories and realizations that life is a lot more complex than anything we can actually see and feel. Our memories start long before we are born and it is our opportunity and sometimes our mission to discover a life beyond our present existence. Ashford Connor is a nonbeliever who rails against God and any kind of organized religion. His story underscores the challenges that we all face when we question mainstream society and mainstream values.
I am also working on the last book in the trilogy entitled: Rebecca Denied, which is all about the challenges faced by a child given the restrictions in our society and the negative attitudes about the possibility of past lives. I am hoping to complete this manuscript over the next year to finish the trilogy in the hope of opening up opportunities for readers who are curious to hopefully venture into the realm of past life regressions. Finding your past life is a journey which will take time and courage but will be wonderfully worth it.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Do you have any advice for new authors?
The best advice that I can share with new authors is to read everything you possibly can on your topic to see what is in your field of interest. It is also important to organize yourself before you sit down to seriously commit to writing your manuscript. Put together a detailed outline and then work from your outline to generate chapter summaries for the manuscript. Organize your writing around a schedule based on either a word commitment or a time commitment. Recognize that you are going to get “stuck” every once in a while which is part of the writing process.
There is a tremendous difference between writing an academic textbook and a fiction story. The academic textbook is heavily based on research and journals where you cite other peoples work. Writing a fiction manuscript is based on a creative process which relies on your own personal thoughts and original ideas. I used my own personal experiences at the University as a Professor as the major foundation for all of my books so I had an interesting mix of realistic personal experiences and new generative ideas. This made the creative writing process a lot easier for me and I highly recommend using your past experiences and relationships in your writing process.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
What are you reading now?
What’s next for you as a writer?
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
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