The authors' responses
QUESTION 1 While researching your book, I discovered that you took great enjoyment sending emails across the table to one another. Do you become the character and imagine yourself in his/her position when writing? (Michael, Cleveland District State High School)
ELIZABETH HONEY
Yes, Michael, I did imagine myself as Henni but like an actor immersed in a role, a tiny part of my brain was making sure I don’t hurt anybody or fall off the stage. Another thing that made it feel real was that, instead of tapping away a manuscript alone, I was actually composing emails to another person and receiving replies. I exclaimed aloud when Leo sent the hint about his feelings for Henni in one email, and Heike on the other side of the room laughed. It was fun. We had the plot, like the trellis that the story could grow over. It wasn’t all duelling computers, sitting across the table exchanging emails. Heike is fast. After Leo sent an email she could go sightseeing while I plodded away at Henni’s reply. I knew Henni, from previous books, but I was dealing with history, which sometimes involved research. You need the correct information to imagine with.
HEIKE BRANDT
Yes and no. I wrote the emails as Leo to Henni – putting myself into the shoes of Leo and feeling what he might feel. Leo is a character I invented but I did have a certain boy in mind (whose mother is called Bettina!), which made it a lot easier to relate to the character. But of course the Leo in the book also has a lot in common with me – in a way I lend him my eyes. When I started writing his letters, Leo was new to me but I got to know him better and better. Writing is in parts a very concious process – Elizabeth and I thought, plotted, discussed, and decided – but on the other hand the creative process of writing has its own dynamics. When you start to write a letter you normally don’t know exactly what you are going to tell the reader and how you’re going to do it, but then one word leads to the other. This is what happened while I was writing Leo’s letters. Since Elizabeth and I wrote the letters one after the other we were always very curious to see the next letter even though we generally knew what would be in it. I think this has been captured in the book. So, yes! It was fun and exiting.
I was also quite aware of the fact that I was not only mailing as Leo to Henni but also as Heike to Liz. So I think the book in some ways also reflects some aspects of Elizabeth and my relationship and the things we discussed.
