By Rodger Nichols
The Dalles Chronicle
July 4, 2007
Elaine Busby is a familiar face to Portland television
viewers. She was a feature reporter at KATU (Channel 2) and host of PM
Magazine for KGW (Channel 8). Previously, she worked on-air in Eugene and
Spokane.
During her television career she interviewed many
well-known celebrities, including Stevie Wonder, Peter Jennings, Connie
Chung and Bill Cosby, as well as the casts of numerous television shows
such as All My Children and Dynasty.
Her first book, “Burning Questions,” is a romance set
in the world of a Portland television reporter, offering a fascinating
behind-the-scenes look at a glamorous but highly competitive industry.
In a visit to The Chronicle, Busby shared some insights
about her book and the television business.
Q: Where did the idea for a book come about?
A: I kind of had this big pause in my life. I actually
wrote the book when I was pregnant. When I came to this point in my
pregnancy, about five months, I was doing some work for KGW, and that was
the end of that. (Busby and her husband have a daughter, Allison, in
kindergarten.)
Q: Tell me about this blurb on the book’s cover that
said it was the 2005 winner of the Timeless Love contest.
A: I was looking for a publisher, and I saw Oaktree
Press had a “Timeless Love” contest. I entered and I actually didn’t win,
but the publisher came to Portland, to meet with me as a runner and said
if I would make some changes, she would consider publishing the book. She
said a lot of people aren’t willing to change anything. I said “Well,
listen. I’m just learning how to write a novel. I can use all the help I
can get.” I was really happy to make the changes, and she made me winner
of the next year’s award.
Q: Speaking of help, you thank both Waucoma
Bookstore in Hood River and Philip Klindt of Klindt’s Booksellers in the
dedication.
A: They were very encouraging, you know you take input
from wherever you can get it, and you know Phil and Waucoma were just
really encouraging and sweet to me and made me feel like I could get a
foot in the door.
Q: Did you have any formal training before you
started writing?
A: I majored in communication arts at Pacific Lutheran
University, but not as much writing as I’d like to. I’m kind of learning
on the road. That’s OK; it’s an adventure to me to try and write this
book, and I’m wondering how people are going to receive it and if I can
continue to write.
Q: Did you plot the book in advance?
A. No, and I think that’s interesting, because I
wondered how I was going to do it. I got the idea, and I remember reading
along the way that J.A. Jance, the great mystery writer out of Seattle,
doesn’t plot anything. In the intricacy of her novels, she lets the
characters lead the story. And that’s what I think is the fun about
writing. There’s many times when I’m sitting down, and all of a sudden
somebody said something, and I’m like, “Whoa, where did that come from?”
And you just start following the character. I think that makes writing
less intimidating for me, to think I don’t have to have it all figured
out.
Q: Your book’s heroine, Kelly Moran, is a television
features reporter in Portland who graduated from Pacific Lutheran
University, got her start in television in Eugene, and created a popular
“Wednesday’s Child” feature that helped orphaned children find adoptive
parents, all of which match your resumé. How much of Elaine Busby is in
Kelly Moran?
A: You know, I really feel she’s Kelly and I’m Elaine.
I certainly used life experience to draw from. When I reread the book
recently, I closed the book and felt like I’d met Steve and Kelly. I drew
on a lot of my experience and that comes through, but I felt it was Kelly
and not me.
Q: “Burning Questions” depicts a Portland newsroom
as having a certain tension between feature news and hard news reporters.
Is that a reflection of reality, or something you needed for the plot?
A: I don’t know if there’s particularly tension in the
news department, though [feature news is] considered fluff. It’s just not
the moneymaker. For me in my career it was an accurate reflection of how I
felt about wanting to make a difference. I believe that television
journalism is a very powerful medium. I think we see it increasingly
becoming negative and hard to watch. There is increasingly less money
budgeted for stories that make a positive difference. I usually worked on
more feature reporting, but at one time I lost my feature job and got
rehired in the news department and I got sent out on some of the harder
stories. I would just be shocked at the onslaught of questioning. So I
think the book gives you some kind of look at that. Some people find it
interesting to have sort of an inside look at the business.
Q: The book is filled with local details. Your
characters listen to KINK-FM, eat at the Ringside and visit Manzanita. Did
you add those in later?
A: I think that pretty much came in as I wrote it. I’m
real familiar with those areas. It’s the old advice to “write what you
know.” I think that’s part of the fun of the romance genre. One thing you
tend to find in romance is that sense of place. Romance is escape reading
so it’s fun to read about places and transport you out of your norm into
some place that gives you a sense of being somewhere else.
Q: Early reviews by readers at Amazon and Borders
often use “steamy” to describe “Burning Questions.” Was that your intent?
Do you feel you got what you were aiming at?
A: You know, all romance has sex to some degree or
another. It’s part of why women especially read romance novels. I know
they’re disappointed if there isn’t that in there. It’s an interesting
thing to come to terms with yourself.
Q: In the dedication, you thank your mother for
reading the manuscript “one last time.” It must have been weird to have
your mother read such things.
A: You know, I asked her, “What do you think of the sex
scenes, mom?” and she said “Well, that’s how everybody comes into the
world, and it’s a natural and loving thing.” She was really supportive,
though it’s still a little uncomfortable to me.
Q: Is it difficult to write from the male point of
view?
A: I don’t find it hard to write from the male point of
view. I have a wonderful husband and he is very expressive in his internal
dialogue to me. He’s not a soft guy and maybe I bring that out in him too.
I’m not one of those romance novelists like Nora Roberts. I think she grew
up with five brothers, so she feels a real connection with the male. But I
think if you have a connection to any strong male in your life, I think
you can write from that. That’s one thing I think is great about romance
novels. People may concentrate on the sex in the romance novel, but one
thing they tend to overlook is that usually in the romance novel, there’s
a really strong male character. Unlike television these days, where
there’s just been a dumbing down of the American male, in romance novels
you’ll find one who is often-times a misunderstood one in the beginning.
But eventually you get down to what I think most men in this country are
like: well rounded, capable and strong — the backbone of America.
