Getting 2 Know Betty Jane Hegerat

It’s important to me that readers know I do not have an agenda underlying my storytelling. Because I can’t seem to avoid writing from my experience in a helping profession—I’ve worked in child protection, adoptions, social assistance, services to handicapped children—my characters are often caught up in social issues.

Running Toward Home is the story of a lost child; Delivery delves into the trauma of giving up a child; The Boy, which will be out in spring 2011 asks the terrifying question of what turns a boy into a killer.  My earlier short stories, collected in A Crack in the Wall, circle thematically around the meaning of “home” and “loss”.

Yet, when I think about why I write and what I love about writing, I can say with certainty that I’m not out to make a point, teach a lesson, preach a gospel. I’ve been engaged many times in conversations about the moral and ethical responsibilities of writers, and always I hear a quiet voice in my head saying, “But really, all I want to do is tell a good story.”

And in the end, I guess I make allowances for that simple goal with my steadfast belief that a good story always makes us think.

What’s the best decision you’ve ever made, and why?

In my writing life, the best decision I’ve made—after the decision that it was finally time to get down to serious work—was my application to UBC’s optional residency MFA in creative writing. I had long held the belief that one does not need a degree in creative writing to be a good writer.

I still believe that. I had found wonderful teachers and mentors along the way, my first novel was about to be published and I had a clear sense of how I wanted my writing life to unfold. One of the satisfying parts of that life was teaching, and I began to feel that an MFA would give me the necessary credential for some new positions.  I was also working on a project that had me flummoxed: to write it as fiction or non-fiction, that was the question.

I needed help, particularly if I was going to venture into the realm of non-fiction. I had a look at UBCs faculty list: Catherine Bush, Terry Glavin, Susan Musgrave, Glen Huser, Zsuzsi Gartner, Gail Anderson-Dargatz and a whole lot more. How could two years in that company­actual during summer residencies, and virtual the rest of the time­be anything but inspiring?  I took on a strange but lucrative ghost-writing job to help pay the tuition, cleared the deck of as many other obligations as possible, and finished the degree in two years.

My thesis, under the brilliant guidance of Catherine Bush, was Delivery, the novel that was published a year later.  The flummoxing project finally came together with the strong guiding hand of Terry Glavin and will be out in the spring under the title, The Boy. A YA novel that I began in a course with Glen Huser is now making the rounds, looking for a home.

I took my family along to Vancouver in May 2008 and after many joyful years of watching my three kids cross stages to pick up their own diplomas and degrees, I was proud beyond my imagining to have them in the audience when I made that march myself, duly gowned and mortar-boarded, just a few days past my 60th birthday.