M. Burghout-Huisman
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1. Can you briefly tell something about yourself? I was born on March 14, 1932, in the hamlet of De Valk-Wekerom (municipality of Ede). I come from a family of seven children. We ended up in Elspeet via Stroe. There we lived in the middle of the forest; on an estate. Our neighbor was a gamekeeper. In 1958, my husband and I got married. We moved to Meeuwen, a place in North Brabant, in the land of Heusden and Altena. We had two children: a son and a daughter.
2. How did you come to write books? Since my childhood, I have enjoyed telling stories. To my sisters and brother, but also to nieces and nephews. Later, I told stories to my children. As a Sunday school teacher, I always wrote my own Christmas tale. At home, I often had groups of children to whom I told a story while we did crafts. Also, when I take care of my grandchildren, I often tell them a story before they go to sleep. At one point, someone told me that I should try to publish those stories. Actually, I started too late.
3. Do you conduct in-depth research before starting on a subject?No, I do not conduct in-depth research. I draw more from the experience of the forest in which I lived. A lot of imagination naturally comes into play. We often explored the forest, and you always experience something. Moreover, we often went with the neighbor. That was very interesting for us. This way, we learned a lot about the animals in the forest as children.
4. How long does it take you to write a book?That is very hard to say. The best thing is to write it all in one month in a row. Then you don’t have to get back into it every time. I often do some work in between that needs to be finished on time: a poem or a short story. Then the book sits for a while again. But if I can keep working on it, alongside my household chores of course, I could write a book in a month and a half. I first write down the entire story before I type it out.
5. Do you receive feedback from the readership? Yes, I receive nice feedback from my readers. I am glad about that, as it motivated me to write more stories about Dick and Gerdy. I have heard of Christian schools that give the entire class a book about Dick and Gerdy for Christmas. I also receive positive feedback from mothers who have the books for their children, or from grandmothers for their grandchildren.
