Today we welcome Elizabeth Balsam who answered a few questions for curious readers!
Parents: Bruce and Marjorie
Siblings: Grace
Places lived: Detroit, Michigan
Jobs: Journalist at the Detroit Free Press
Friends: Desiree? She’s the closest thing I have to a friend at the moment, busy as I am with work.
Enemies: Anyone who gets in the way of me getting the story. Often, that takes the form of one Roger Bristol, my own personal nemesis at the Free Presswho is always trying to undermine me and steal my stories.
Dating, marriage: I’m far too busy for such things.
Children: none
What person do you most admire? Nellie Bly, the great investigative journalist of the late 19thcentury, who went undercover as an inmate at an insane asylum for an exposé for Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World. She also circumnavigated the globe in 72 days to be the first person, man or woman, to turn the fiction of Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Daysinto fact.
Overall outlook on life: My time as a journalist has me believing that we’re all just trying to survive as best we can in a corrupt and chaotic world.
Do you like yourself? I guess I like myself as well as anyone. But because I am always pushing toward the next goal, I can’t help but feel like I’m always falling a little short of my expectations of myself.
What, if anything, would you like to change about your life? Honestly, I wouldn’t mind being able to step back and take a breather once in a while, but if I did, who would pick up the slack?
How are you viewed by others? Driven, focused, go-getter.
Physical appearance: I’m a professional and I’m serious about being taken seriously. And that means slacks, blouses, and sensible shoes.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown
Voice: Gets the job done.
Right- or left-handed? Right-handed.
How would you describe yourself? I’m a public servant. I’m passionate about my work and I feel that every article I turn in has the potential to improve the lives of my fellow Detroiters because I am exposing corruption, neglect, and injustice.
Strongest/weakest character traits: My greatest strength is my dogged determination to get the story. My greatest weakness is that I actively avoid creating personal connections with people, leaving me too often alone and lonely.
How much self-control do you have? My family prides itself on having mastery over our emotions, so the few times I haven’t succeeded in that are a source of embarrassment to me.
Fears: My greatest fear is being inconsequential.
Collections, talents: The only thing I collect is bylines. My talent is writing about the truth I’ve dug up.
What people like best about you: I think my readers appreciate the fact that I don’t hold back and that no one is off-limits when it comes to exposing injustice or corruption.
Interests and favorites: I’m always in the mood to watch All the President’s Men, The Post, or Spotlight.
Food, drink: Detroit style coney dogs, please and thank you
Books: I read a lot of nonfiction, looking for historical facts and connections to what’s going on in today’s world. Anything to build my knowledge base.
Best way to spend a weekend: In the library, digging up evidence.
What would a great gift for you be? A new laptop because I beat mine up so badly schlepping it around town.
When are you happy? Every time I see my name on the front page.
What makes you angry? When I interview people that have been taken advantage of or failed by the system.
What makes you sad? The fact that I can’t do more to help the people in my city.
What makes you laugh? Seeing the bad guys get what’s coming to them, which unfortunately seems to happen more in movies than in real life.
Hopes and dreams: Someday, I want to win a Pulitzer for my investigative journalism.
What’s the worst thing you have ever done to someone and why?
Greatest success: Raising enough awareness and outrage through my writing that Detroiters were able to pressure city officials to take action on 11,000 untested rape kits, leading to the identification and arrests of hundreds of serial rapists in Detroit.
Biggest trauma: My parents leaving Detroit to go back to the mission field in Brazil. Oh, and getting fired from my job…
What does you care about most in the world? Justice being done.
Do you have a secret? Outwardly I put on a good show of being self-sufficient, but inside I am starved for family and love.
If you could do one thing and succeed at it, what would it be: Right now, all of my energy is focused on getting the goods on Judge Ryan Sharpe’s time in the National Guard during the Detroit Riots of 1967. If I can prove his involvement in a particular shootout, I’ll be able to complete my investigative series on the riot and establish myself as the top investigative journalist at the Free Press. Oh, and being able to rub it in Roger Bristol’s face wouldn’t be half bad either.
Thank you, Elizabeth! It was great to meet you!
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Erin Bartels has been a publishing professional for more than fifteen years. Her short story “This Elegant Ruin” was a finalist in the Saturday Evening Post 2014 Great American Fiction Contest. A freelance writer and editor, she is a member of Capital City Writers and the Women’s Fiction Writers Association and is former features editor of WFWA’s Write On! magazine. She lives in Lansing, Michigan, with her husband, Zachary, and their son, Calvin, and can be found online at www.erinbartels.com. We Hope for Better Things is her first novel.
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