We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Elyse Bruce. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Elyse below.
Elyse, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
People often ask me when I decided I wanted to earn a living in the arts as if as a teenager or young adult, I had an unexpected a-ha! moment and a lightbulb went off in my head as I realized the arts was a way to be gainfully employed for the rest of my life. It wasn’t like that at all. In fact, I knew long before I went to school that it was possible to be happy and make money by creating art or telling stories or making up songs. I had seen it on television thanks to Mr. Dressup (aka Ernie Coombs and former understudy of Fred Rogers) who appeared on CBC’s Butternut Square, and on CBC’s Razzle Dazzle Show.
I was born severely hearing impaired and with a serious vision problem. Because of that, my parents left me to my own devices when it came to exploring the world around me. I drew so much as a toddler that my mother reached out to the local newspaper to ask what they did with the end rolls of newsprint. When she learned they didn’t have a use for them, she asked if she could collect an end roll every now and again so I could draw to my heart’s content. I never ran out of paper to draw on and I always had something I wanted to express through art.
Telling stories wasn’t restricted to drawing pictures. I loved making up stories about “The Girl and the Rabbit That Live Behind the Barn.” Anytime we had to go somewhere in the Studebaker my parents owned, everyone knew everyone in the car would be entertained with another episode of “The Girl and the Rabbit That Live Behind the Barn.”
Music also figured prominently in my early years. Whether it was classical music or folk music or any genre between the two, whenever there was music playing on my parents’ stereo console, I had one ear pressed hard against one of the fabric-covered speakers so I could hear the music and feel the vibrations rumble across the hardwood floor it sat on.
Those life experiences set the tone for my life, and because of those experiences, I always believe people would be interested in looking at my art and listening to my stories and hearing my music (with and without lyrics).
When I was 5, I met my grandfather on my father’s side. He was a kindly old gent born and raised in Ireland, and I loved spending time with him. Early in our friendship, he told me if I chose to earn a living by doing what I loved most doing, it would never feel like work. That didn’t mean, he said, I wouldn’t have to invest myself in what I was doing, only that I would find it more rewarding than if I was toiling away at something I disliked or perhaps even despised. That made a lot of sense to me and so I redoubled my efforts to become a creative dynamo.
Around that same time, my parents learned — much to their surprise — I had hearing and sight issues To be clear, my parents had not considered that what they considered developmental delays were actually the result of not being able to hear or see properly. So for the first five years of my life, I had steeped my waking hours in drawing and telling stories and making up songs which made for a very different upbringing from most other children. I was so happy drawing and telling stories and making up songs that I couldn’t imagine anything in the world that would be a better way to make money unless it was to include dancing with all of that.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?
As an author, I write books for all ages, including all of the Missy Barrett middle grade reader chapter books, as Elyse Bruce. I also write thrillers, mysteries, short stories, cautionary tales, and more as E.B. Taylor, and I also wrote even more under a handful of pseudonyms.
What sets my Missy Barrett books apart from other books for children 8 years of age and up is that Missy Barrett, as a fictional 9-year-old who lives in real life East Tennessee, is a curious child who respects adults and obeys the rules set out for her even though her dream is to grow up to become a “Top Ten in the whole wide world undercover private eye supersleuth detective.’ She also has other interests that include exploring her world through the arts. She lives with her mother, Jenna Barrett, and her two older brothers, Josh and Aaron, along with their two cats, Sali Dali Cat and Oreo Speedwagon, in a nice house on a quiet street. Josh is diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis but still manages to be a typical 15-year-old, and Aaron is a 20-year-old computer-savvy university student. Their mom, Jenna, operates a home-based business that supports the family.
The stories blend fictional characters and made-up businesses in with real life people and actual businesses which allows readers to come to the realization that they can grow up to be anything they choose to be. Opportunities are out there waiting for them to make the most of those chances. Everyone is presented realistically, and Missy Barrett never treats anyone as a lesser person regardless of their age or background or experiences.
Recently, the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America (MGFA) added the Missy Barrett book “Fantastic Things” to their website (one of two books they have listed on their website). It’s the story of Missy and her brother, Josh, who is diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis, discussing what MG is, what Missy should know about MG, and ways she can help her brother when he needs her help. This book takes the fear out of dealing with a serious, incurable, life-threatening rare disease, and makes it understandable to children, teens, and adults. I believe when you help others deal with overwhelming situations, you make life so much easier for them, their families, their friends, and their community.
I have a number of blogs, the most popular of which is “Idiomation: Historically Speaking” where idioms, clichés, phrases, expressions, and words are researched to help people understand what they mean and the history behind them. It began in January 2010 when my then-teen son was in high school. He was diagnosed as a toddler with autism, and one of the issues he has struggled with over the years, is taking things literally that are meant figuratively. Originally, it was a way to help him understand what people meant when they spoke with him at school so he wouldn’t feel stupid or lost. He would email me with an expression that had been used in conversation and not understood correctly, and I would post the meaning on the blog. His first question each time was, “But why does it mean that?” This led to not only posting the meaning of the expression on the blog, but a quick answer as to how it came to mean what it meant.
It wasn’t long before the blog was getting a lot of global attention, and authors such as the late Daniel Menaker (in his book, “The African Svelte: Ingenious Misspellings That Make Surprising Sense”) and court and legal decisions and others were citing the blog as well as the author of the blog.
As an artist, I have always been forward with my artwork. At the age of 5, I decided to hold an art showing in my parents’ garage. I had faith in my art, and believed people would willingly pay anywhere between a nickel and fifty cents for my original work. Unfortunately, when my mother saw people strolling up our driveway and disappearing into the garage, she took it on herself to investigate and upon doing so, she saw I was holding an art show which she promptly shut down — but not before I had sold two dollars’ worth of crayon on newsprint art.
At 15, I entered an art competition intended for professional artists. At the time, I didn’t consider myself an amateur or a professional. I was a 15-year-old who did a lot of art whether it was with pencils or pens or acrylic paints. I sent my canvas in (again without my parents’ knowledge as I didn’t think about running this past them) and when I was advised weeks later I had placed 3rd and was expected to attend an event, I informed my parents of the outcome of the competition. They were surprised but made arrangements for the three of us to attend the event being held in another city. While at the event, I met the 1st and 2nd place winners who were Fine Arts graduates, both with Master’s degrees. They were miffed to meet the person who came in 3rd place mostly because they thought of themselves as up and coming professional artists and I was ‘just a kid’ in their opinion — and self-taught at that!
Following that, two of my other pieces were picked up as artwork for two different student bus passes for the City of Saskatoon (Saskatchewan, Canada). Since then, various pieces have made their way into collections in Canada and in Europe, and I have been asked to provide artwork for inclusion in various fiction books. From 2016 through to 2019, my husband, Thomas D. Taylor, who is also a respected artist, and I co-painted the art for the annual Rose Glen Literary Festival held in Sevierville (Tennessee) every February.
When it comes to music, it reads a bit like one of my stories. It took until I was 8 years of age to convince my parents to let me take piano lessons, and my father agreed only because my mother assured him that by Christmas I would be begging to quit. Eight years later, I was preparing for my performer’s degree in piano through Trinity College. At the time, my teacher was Lyell Gustin and he loved telling the story of the musical lineage of being one of his students.
I was his student. He was the student of Jeanette Durmo. She was the student of Theodor Leschetizky who was the student of Carl Czerny. Carl Czerny’s most famous student was Franz Liszt. Carl Czerny was a student of Ludwig von Beethoven, and he, in turn, was a student of Franz Joseph Haydn who also taught Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. And there you had it! According to Lyell Gustin, by virtue of being his student, I had a rich lineage to live up to as a pianist.
As a teen, and upon graduating high school with my diploma, I went on to become a professional musician of the more recognizable genres of heavy metal, hard rock, country, country rock, adult contemporary, and jazz. Along the way I moved up from being a sideman to a band leader to being a studio musician and on to being an arranger while continuing to write my own musical compositions and songs. I was particularly pleased when theater directors began approaching me to write soundscapes for their productions, and in time, some of my music became part of various small-budget documentaries.
In the early aughts, I released two instrumental CDs, “Quietudes” and “Dreamtime” as well as a CD with 12 original songs titled, “Midnight In Chicago.” The instrumental CDs have done particularly well over the years, and have made an impression on a few streaming platforms.
What I am most proud of is maintaining the high level of quality I expect from myself. I’m not in competition with anyone else. I challenge myself on a daily basis, and that’s how what I create — whether it’s art or stories or music — continues to improve and stretch beyond the current boundaries.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Back in 1994, I had signed with a recording label and recorded the first CD to be released with them when I found out my first husband and I were expecting. Everything was put on hold for a few months with the idea of releasing the CD months later and touring in support of the album. As life would have it, that’s not what happened. With a sick child to care for and a soon-to-be ex-husband who struggled to deal with our child’s health issues, there was no way I could tour in support of the album and the contract was terminated.
As a single parent, and with a child who was very ill but whose health issues evaded diagnosis (he was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder as a toddler and diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis as a pre-teen), I had no choice but to pivot not only in my career decisions, but in my life as well.
Whenever my son was hospitalized, I told him stories that were very similar to “The Girl and the Rabbit Who Live Behind The Barn” stories of my childhood except that the girl had now had a name: Missy. It kept his mind off of the pain he was in at the time, and kept him occupied when medical technicians came to draw blood or start an IV.
I was invited to teach courses in marketing and songwriting at the local university, and began to put together courses for young teens interested in the possibility of becoming professional musicians after high school. I created a monthly newsletter with paid subscribers that addressed marketing issues and provided insight into how to make the most of unexpected opportunities.
For a number of years, I was no longer the musician I had been, and my writing, art, composing, and songwriting had to be reworked to fit into the open moments my son’s health and education issues left untouched. More times than I care to remember, I found myself completing marketing contracts from my son’s hospital room because the anticipated open moment had been swallowed up by a medical emergency but the client still needed what the client needed.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
I’m a voracious reader which means some of what I read are books written by those who have been successful in business. Note that I don’t read books about the life and times of celebrities. Yes, celebrities work hard to achieve success but they have machines behind them working day and night to get them in the right place at the right time. People who are successful in business provide more clues on how to keep moving forward. This means I read books on the value of writing business notes and why good manners matter and how to create presentations that captivate audiences.
I have known Richard Fontanie for over 20 years, and every time I get an issue of Fontanie Magazine in my inbox, I take the time to read it start to finish, and more than once because he not only writes about tried-and-true old-school business methods but also digital age approaches that work.
Among the many resources I access to keep my thinking fresh are books that deal with spirituality.. I don’t mean religiosity because that’s something completely different from spirituality.
Spirituality is that connection to something more than yourself that creates a deep feeling of being alive and being connected, not only with other people, but with all living things. Spirituality encompasses what a person believes and their ethics, and allows that person to be at peace with reflection whether it’s their own reflection or what life reflects back. Spirituality is about finding what is true and good and right.. Religiosity is excessive religiousness that is annoying, cloying, and oppressive, and does not allow for the joy of spirituality to exist within a person. That being said, I have met a great many people who are religious and spiritual, and I have met a handful of people for whom religiosity is the rule of the day.
One thing I had learned over the years from every resource I have accessed is that being open-minded doesn’t mean you run with everything you read about and being close-minded doesn’t mean you aren’t open to new information. Being open-minded isn’t always right just as being close-minded isn’t always wrong. What’s needed is an even balance of the two where you know when to say ‘no’ when ‘no’ is the correct answer and when to say ‘yes,’
Contact Info:
- Website: https://elysebruce.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElyseBruceFanPage
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elysebruce
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/elysebruce
- Other: WordPress: https://elysebruce.wordpress.com/
Website (Missy Barrett): https://missybarrett.comAmazon (Elyse Bruce): https://www.amazon.com/Elyse-Bruce/e/B0086P2QJY/
Amazon (E.B. Taylor): https://www.amazon.com/E-B-Taylor/e/B01F0BPRU6/
Amazon (Music by Elyse Bruce): https://music.amazon.com/search/Elyse+Bruce/songs
Spotify (Music by Elyse Bruce): https://open.spotify.com/artist/2o7jXuAh9foL9ckrogXAsy
Apple Music (Music by Elyse Bruce): https://music.apple.com/us/artist/elyse-bruce/136035647
ReverbNation (Music by Elyse Bruce): https://www.reverbnation.com/elysebruce
Image Credits
Miguel Angel Jauregui Zavaleta of Angel JZ Photography ELYSE BRUCE WITH BOOKS ELYSE BRUCE AND THOMAS D TAYLOR WITH ROSE GLEN LITERARY FESTIVAL POSTERS Thomas D Taylor ELYSE BRUCE_01_B_THOMAS TAYLOR PHOTO CREDIT Elyse Bruce ALL OTHER PHOTOGRAPHS