Wild Writer Literary Festival – Canlit Brunch

To end this wonderful weekend of literary pleasures, a brunch panel was held at the Walper hotel.  The three  invited authors, Catherine Bush, Elizabeth Ruth and Michael Winter, discussed their latest books and their writing process.  From Newfoundland to Afghanistan, they made us travel through titillating conversation.

Elizabeth Ruth (about her latest book): Matadora is set in 1930 Spain and Mexico and tells the story of Luna, an indentured servant.  It's not exactly a novel about Canada, but the topic really excited me.  It's loud, brassy, passionate and hot.  I wanted to to about class issues and love.  Bull fighting well represents that since the spectators are part of the aristocracy and the people in the arena are poor.  Spain was still ruled by a feudal system in 1930 and the gap between rich and poor was growing.  My story explore the idea is that pain is the price of ambition and the idea of having to choose between the person you love the most and the thing you love the most.  I wanted to create a strong female character for canlit and address the concept of the space occupied by women in public.  In this sense, it's very contemporary.  This book is written for anyone trying to raise above their circumstances.

Catherine Bush:  I love the sense of community around books, a community made of writers and readers.  For my fourth novel, Accusation, I was interested in stories that pull you but also make you think.  I like to write about women with peculiar professions.  The story is about allegations and the difficulty to write about them as a journalist.  It is a morally ambiguous position.  I'm interested in characters looking for the truth and how allegations affect us.  We still end up judging people, whether they're guilty or not.

I wrote this book from a real experience.  A man was accused of sexual abuse in a children circus in Ethiopia. It's a difficult topic to talk about, because tremendous good was done through those social circuses but the possibility of arm having been done is also present.  Does the good cancel the bad completely.  I want the readers to ponder the question.

Michael Winter: My parents are from the North of England.  My father had always wanted to be a cowboy in the great West.  My mother wanted to live in New York.  So they ended up in Newfoundland. 

One summer, my dad wanted us to build a log cabin, by the lake.  So as everyone was enjoying the water, we were seating away, my brother and I, clearing the field.  Somehow, we managed to set fire to the forest.  My brother told me to wait while he ran to get help.  In the meantime, Sharon Penny, our sexy teenager neighbor.  She held my hand.  Suddenly, an helicopter dropped tons of water on the field.  I ended up on top of Sharon Penny.  My brother came back running asking if we were ok.  Sharon Penny replied "That was awesome."  We had to replant all kinds of different trees and the place became like a tropical forest.  The main character of my book, Minister Without a Portfolio, take his son to this forest at the end of the story.

A good book means to be able to connect with the characters, to share info about them. What speaks to the reader?

ER:  When writing characters, I find a way into their souls.  If you know them well, you can put them in many situations.  My book is an argument with Hemingway who stated women were too delicate for bull fighting.  The bull fighter is like a writer.  I could identify with her commitment, the possibility of failure.

Luna is caught between her two brothers who have opposite political views: one is on the left, the other on the right.  She is pressured to take sides.  If she takes the left, she's be relegated to the kitchen, but if she choose right, she'll be a traitor to her own people. The book talks about artists in time of war and of censorship. The characters operate in tandem with their time, and their sociopolitical context with a soul to soul connection. 

CB: Characters don't exist in isolation.  Sarah is part of a triangle with Raymond Renaud and her friend Juliet.  Everyone is entangled morally with each other.  Everyone wants something different.  Good fiction is defined by the intensity of desire.  The main character wants to speak to Raymond and to his accusers.

As this was inspired from real event, I had to question myself a lot.  I was able to go further than a newspaper article could have.  There were contradictions, complications and questions.  I came to realize that accusations can happen every day, to everyone. They hold a terrible power.

MW: When I was a kid, there was a radio at home we were not supposed to use.  Of course, I used it and said my brother had used it.  My mother got objurgated my brother and he never denied it, although we both knew I was the culprit.  This stayed with us for a long time.  Accusations, even samll, have power.

A protagonist who doesn't want to take sides is good.  It's hard to do that with a first person narrator, so I wrote in the third person.  Henry, my main character, wonders how much one can control.  He feels that opening his heart to other people will make him vulnerable.  Not doing is difficult, it's dangerous.

ER:   When excavating the past, the heart is important.  Luna is grappling with love.  Outside the arena is where is dangerous.  Somehow, I feel writer are so passive.  We're isolated from the rest of the world, watching the rest of the world.  Creating active life is very passive.

CB: I feel that writing is a retreat but that it's also an engagement with the world.  The questing impulse is very important.  Write what you don't know, but what you want to know.  There is an ethical component to asking questions and exploring answers.  It a commitment, though.  The real value in a novel is in telling a story that will make people think.

MW: As writers, we're always working.  We set ourselves back so we can connect things together, make them more powerful.  You have to make it seem like without the main character, the world would topple.

CB: You have to pay attention to the views of the world.  Bring quality of attention to the world.

ER:  Writing a book is a neurotic job.  It's a commitment.  I see the inherent value, but as a writer and a person, there is a continual push-pull between the real world and the world in my mind.  I tend to bring whatever is in my mind into the outside world.

What is the wildest thing you've ever done?

MW:  I have a house in Newfoundland.  One day, I was on a boat with my wife and son, we had gone for a picnic across the bay.  As we were getting back, there was a bit of fog but I thought it would be ok.  I was rowing and my wife told me she couldn't see the land.  We suddenly found ourselves stuck in the fog.  It was very quiet and there wasn't anything to orient us.  For long minutes, we couldn't see a thing.  We lost sense of time and place.  It was terrifying.   Then, I heard the sound of waves crashing.  We landed about half a kilometer away from where we were originally headed.  We could have missed land completely.  The strangest thing was that the fog was on the water only.

ER:  My entire early life was wild.  I was the only child to an unmarried mother.  We moved about forty times.  We were always on the move.  I was formed in a space of wilderness.  I left home at fifteen.  So for me, the wildest thing I did was to get married, have a family and a home I'm loyal to.

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Wild Writer Literary Festival – Saturday Night Speakeasy: Crime and All That Jazz

After a nice day of workshop and panels, the guests of the Wild Writer Literary Festival were invited in a local pub for a night of mystery.  Between a great panel of suspense writers (Andrew Piper, Mary Jackman, Brad Smith) animated by David Worsley of Words Worth Books and the live jazz of the Joni NehRita Quartet, the evening was promising.

David Worsley: Were you a crime writer early on?

Mary Jackman:  I am Liz Walker, my main character. The novel is about my restaurant and the people I would like to kill.  So I started writing what I know.  I work with great people, they're a treasure of true characters.

DW: Is Virgil Cain always in trouble?  Is he unlucky?

Brad Smith: I know a guy like Cain.  He likes to say "I don't know if trouble finds me or if I find me."  In the case of Cain, I think it finds him.  The cocaine story of the second novel was inspired by a true story.

DW: Is Demonologist related to Milton and his image of Satan?

Andrew Piper:  Demonologist is a thriller.  I had been wanting to write a scary story for a long time but I wanted to write about something better than escape.  I read a lot of possession and ghost stories.  Hauntings come in times of emotional downs.  Emotions are the reason they can happen.  In Demonologist, the demon also haunts for emotions; it isn't arbitrary, it's emotionally motivated.  The characters on both sides are plagued by depression, which creates a bridge between demons and humans.

Editorially, people liked the idea, but my different publishers say different things: US= more Milton, UK= less Milton, Canada = meh.

DW: Is Liz's story a series in the making?

MJ:  I'm having a hard time with the third book.  I want to keep the character alive but I can't answer for now.  Daniel is a combination of many chefs I've employed over the years, but they're all nuts.  They're all artists so you have to worship them.  The main character, Liz, doesn't like to cook.  

DW: Not many restaurant owners write books, so the perspective is different.

MJ: Most restaurant owners don't write books; most go home to cry.  Seriously, if you like to write, you'll find time.  I write books peppered with elements from reality.

DW: Demonologist is not a crime novel.  Where do bookstores put the book?

AP: On the best-seller table!  I don't care where it gets put, categories are not ground for disqualification; readers see through genres now.  I'd like to move past a genre define literature.  We use categories when we don't even know what they mean.

DW: Could you have written this novel ten years back?

The book is about a missing daughter.  When you have kids, you care less about yourself, so that's the worst thing possible for a parent.  If you want to want to write a scary story, scare yourself.

DW: Name a writer you like that nobody knows about.

MJ: I don't really have an answer.  However, right now, I'm reading LeCarré's Smiley's People.

AP:  Come Closer, by Sarah Grant.

BS: Peter Temple, The Broken Shore.  He's Australian.

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Wild Writers Literary Festival Series – Writing Narrative: From Concept to Creation

Here's the fifth installment of the Wild Writers Literary Festival.  Missed the previous one?  No problem, you can read them here #1, #2, #3, #4.  

 This workshop, led by Helen Humphreys (poetry, novel and creative non-fiction author,) was an exploration of the process of moving an idea forward using practical ste^-by-step approach.  I have to say it was one of my favourite craft class.

Humphreys talk was structured around the different questions you should ask yourself when writing.

Are you obsessed by your idea?

If you can't stop thinking about your idea, chances are it's a good one.  Don't let it go.

What is the interesting story you can make out of the idea?

Try to look past the first idea that comes to mind.  Dig deeper than the easy answer. Ask yourself if there's a better way to tell the story.  Brainstorm.  Create an independant notebook or file for each projet.  Use it to hold your thoughts.

Whose story is it?  Which character is the main character?  What perspective are you telling the story from? 

Asking those questions over and over will help you tell the story is the best way possible.

What is the motivation of your main character?  What do they want?  What do they end up getting?

By answering these questions you'll be able to know if your story is one of glory or of tragedy.

Where does the story take place?

Make sure you know how much the setting is important to the story.  Ask yourself what is private and/or public about that place.

What is the beginning of the story?  What is the ending?

Make sure you ask yourself these two questions frequently as you may find out that it has changed as the story progresses.

What is your process?

Learn to know what works and doesn't work for you.  Don't think too much and follow what feels right initially.

In passing, Humphreys added that there are two main narrative types: a stranger comes to town or someone goes on a journey.  In either case, when plotting the story, start by placing the main events on a timeline then fill the spaces between.

What is the hardest thing for you to say?

Asking yourself this should get the ball rolling and allow you to start writing.  Chances are that if it's difficult for you, you're not the only one.

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Wild Writers Literary Festival Series – How to Kill a Man: The Secrets of Mystery Writing

Here is the fourth installment of the Wild Writers Literary Festival Series.  Missed the previous ones?  Read them here #1 #2 #3!

This workshop was animated by Brad Smith, author of the Virgil Cain mystery series.  It took the form of a casual chat between the participants and the writer.  Here is what emerged from the exchange.

• The writing process is much more important than where the idea came from.  Chances are authors will prefer being asked about the former rather than the latter.
• Newspapers can be a great source of inspiration for subplots.
• Writing is a mental and physical process.  There are no right or wrong.  You have to do what works for you.
• You can work with or without an outline.  One way is not better than the other.
• Macguffins are great tools to get the readers into the story.
• Don't switch P.O.V. in the middle of a scene.
• Do your research.  Although Google is an amazing tool, to really "get" a place, you need to go there.
• Write your first draft then do the research.  That way, you'll know what you need.
• Pay attention to your secondary characters.  Give them quirks, traits that don't necessarily help the story.
• Create a back story for your characters.  You don't need to put it all in the story, but it will help you create more believable characters.
• Eavesdrop on other people's conversation to create good dialogues.  Find a voice for each characters.  Be aware of rhythm and cadence.
• Use your others senses.  See things from a child's point of view.

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Wild Writers Literary Festival Series – From literary journal to small press success

Here is the third installment of the Wild Writers Literary Festival Series.  Missed the previous ones?  Check them out!  #1 #2.

This panel was moderated by Carrie Snyder and included panelists Nancy Jo Cullen (Canary), Elisabeth de Mariaffi (How to Get Along with Women), Colette Maitland (Keeping the Peace) and Claire Tacon (In the Field).

CS:  I would like to hear you talk about your work process, themes and obsessions for you books.

EdM: The elaboration of my book, How to Get Along with Women, was like a moving camera shooting the same scene over and over until it changed completely.  It was written in two years and tells stories of power.  The relationships are different, but they're always about power.

NJC:  The stories in Canary were written without a thought about their connections.  They are stories about intimate relationships that veer off, about bad decisions and how they affect our lives and also about addictions.  They explore how we hold everything together through disaster.

CM:  Keeping the Peace was written over a long period of time with an arc going through the short stories.  It's as if an older version of me wrote those stories.  I had no idea what the theme was until I presented the book to an editor.  It is about trying to find peace in a family context.

CT:  In the Field circles back to family and family dynamics.  It explores what is the product of chance (the family in which one is born) and intention (decisions we take as we get older).  It explores the different experiences siblings have although they belong to the same family.

CM: The place in the story is important. I like to think of how important it is to the people who live there. I love small details.  I like to look at situations and think of all the details that should be there. If the people in the town I talk about in the book don't like it, they haven't told me. Every time I sit down to write, I reread the entire piece and edit.  I don't always know how it's going to go but details help me move the piece forward.  I don't want to work with a plot; I enjoy working with the characters.  I also like to wait until I can't not write.

NJC: The place is the West in my book, but time is more important.

CT: I grew up grounded.  My parents were refugees from Eastern Europe.  I had a family with a strong narrative about people I had no access to.  We did a lot of travelling, which is probably why my characters move around a lot and never find a home

I'm drawn to the insider vs outsider theme and I like to write about it.  I'm interested in  how the outside defines the inside.

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CS: Could you tell us about your career development?

NJC: There is a big difference between publishing poetry and short fiction.  Poetry launches are smaller and much more private.  When publishing a work of fiction, it<s much more public and there are more event.  I felt very exposed, almost panicked.  I got more stress from all the attention.

EdM:  Being listed for the Giller Prize was positively overwhelming.  It truly was the last thing I would have expected.  I got a lot of attention which sped up the process for my next project.

CM: I have always written.  I got my first typewriter at thirteen and wrote until I got one of my stories rejected when I was in University.  Having kids also prevented me from writing.  Eventually I decided to stay at home and give myself permission to write.  It took me about two years to write this book.  One day I was on the high way and I saw this woman by the side of the road; she was the start of everything.  I needed to write her story.  I gave myself a time frame and started writing, 

I took some class but I write intuitively, it's a very organic process.  I keep on writing what I wand and on sending stuff out.

CT:  I wrote shorter fiction at first.  It was difficult to transition to longer pieces and I learned while writing.  Rejection is an amazing push.  I was first drawn to theater but rejection moved me to fiction. This time, for my second book, I'm doing it with more of a map.

NJC: Rejection happens; you have to be strong.  People will not all love what you write.  You have to believe in your vision and trust it.  You have to learn that you can survive rejection.  You just need to try to understand if there's something you need to change.

EdM: It would have been overwhelming for me to start with a novel.  The order for me is poetry-short story-novel.  You have to work quietly and experience rejection and work on yourself.  To build confidence, you have to know what your obsessions are and write about them.

NJC: Short stories and novel don't have the same structure.  Short stories are easier to navigate.

CS:  How  do you know when a piece is good to go?

CM:  I make it as good as I can and let it go.  You HAVE to send it.  Don't take rejections too personal.  If you're sick of your piece, set it aside and go back to it later.  Work on it, and send it again. 

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Wild Writers Literary Festival – Making the Most of your Blog

This week I bring you the second installment of the Wild Writer Literay Festival Series.  Missed the first one?  No problem! Follow the link.

"You don't need a blog..."

...is the first thing Kerry Clare, professional blogger for Canadian Books website 49th Shelf, said when she began her workshop. Which was strange, since she was there to talk about blogging. She explained. Of course, blogs are a great way to express yourself, talk about your personal experiences, network, build a platform, etc.  But despite what editors and publishers would like you to believe, blogs are not a necessity.

Clare believes that reading is a transaction between two people and proceeds to prove it by having the workshop's participants talk to their neighbors about book they're currently reading.  Immediately, the room started buzzing with energy.  And this is what blogging is about; it's about sharing your passion.

During the workshop, Clare went on to say that blogging wasn't easy and that it required commitment.  However, blogs are more personal and you should not try desperately to build a platform through it.  It's important to be yourself.  As for the content, no need to obsess over it.  A blog is a work in progress and problems can always be smoothed later.

For the authors who want a blog (or need to want one because of their editors), Clare suggests talking about the following:

• research that didn't make it to the book
• the characters themselves
• places that inspired the book (with pictures!)
• writing (from a position of authority.

 However, her most important advice was to "Blog like no one is looking."  D
o it for yourself.  If you build it, they will come.

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Wild Writers Literary Festival Series – The Rock Comes to Waterloo

Last november I had the chance to attend the TNQ's Wild Writers Literary Festival in Waterloo.  This was the second edition of the festival and I think they did an amazing job with the panels, workshop and other activities.  In the upcoming weeks, I will cover the different events I attented.

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The Rock Comes to Waterloo

featuring Wayne Johnston & Donna Morissey

The opening panel for the Festival was a conversation between authors Wayne Johnston (The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, A Wolrd Elsewhere) and Donna Morrissey (Kit's Law, Downhill Chance) who both happen to be from Newfoundland.  The discussion was hosted by Craig Norris, host of the CBC radio program, The Morning Edition. Both authors discussed their latest novels, The Son of a Certain Woman and The Deception of Livvy Higgs, respectively.

CN: Is it a characteristic of Newfoundland characters to tell stories, lies or myth?

WJ:  Telling stories is the raison d'être of fiction.  It's also important to understand that myths are not meant to fool people.  Percy, the main character of my latest novel is creating his own mythology because he is bored.  He's simply compensating for the things he doesn't have at home.

CN: Donna, where do your characters come from?

DM: The elders in my life are a source of inspiration. The most inspirating person was in fact a pathological liar.  When a relationship with such a person comes to an end, it's very difficult to say what was true and what was fabricated.  This served to create Grandmother Creed's character.  She believes in her own stories, they're a way to compensate for her dark childhood, redefine who she is.

CN: What is the difference between a myth and a pathological lie?

WJ: Well Percy doesn't really expect to be believed; his stories are for entertainment.  Pathological lying is a form of psychosis.

DM: Myths aren't necessarily things that didn't happen. They don't mean lies.  They come out of human living patterns. 

WJ: It becomes a myth when it doesn't intersect with religion.

DM: Myths are pagan.

CN: Does this type of religious Newfoundland still exist?

WJ: Despite the absence of a system of denomination in education, there is still bullying and repression still exists.  Religion is very exclusive and rejects all other texts.

DM: Where I grew up, there were almost no catholics and very little repression, but maybe it's because there were very few people.  People were together, they interacted because they all needed one another.

CN: What kind of schools were around, growing up?

DM: A one-room school.

WJ: Many different schools, their students selected according to denomination.

CN: Donna, can you tell us a bit more about the technique used in your novel?

DM: As Livvy moves in and out of lucidity, she is framing her identity.  As a kid, she was pull in all directions and as an adult, she supressed whos she was.  As she goes back to the past, she tried to understand what was real and what wasn't  As an adult, her vision differs greatly.

I use Maslow's pyramid to get inside a character's thoughts.  I can determine their needs and it influences how I push the story forward.  Emotions lead me more than plot.

CN: Wayne, can you tell us a bit more about Percy and his relationship with his mother?

WJ: Pecy suffers from a form of Oedipus Complex.  Since he has no hope of having a relationship with a woman, his only option is to sleep with his mother.  While on book tour, some people have walked out on me, saying they knew where I would go when I die and that they didn't think a boy should sleep with his mother.  I'm not saying I recommend it!  What I wanted was a very tormented character faced with the authority of the church.

DM: Livvy is very vulnerable internally.  Her story is a journey of self.  We are fed the sins of our fathers and pass them on.  There can be no understanding until you know what your burden is.  Livvy inherits veryone's lies when her mother dies, which cripples her.  This story is about going back to redefine who we are.  Everyone has a story.  Everyone has wounds.

CN: What is the role of location in your stories?

WJ:  I don't know.  I don't love but I don't think the book could happen anywhere.  This setting of a recluse land and the closed society is important to the story.

DM: I wanted to write about the French part of Newfoundland.  I visited the area, actually, and decided I wanted to write about it.  I wanted to bridge the gap between Newfoundland and the mainland.  Writing is like being an engineer.  It's not all about feelings.

DJ: Many people write about St-John's but Donna is like Faulkner; she own the area she wrote about.  There is no homogenous Newfoundland; just like Canada, it's different everywhere.  The culture, the dialect, nature, it's all different.

DM: It's just a question of giving a voice to people, so they can tell the stories that need to be told.

CN: Is there a common identity for Newfoundland?

DM: Like many places, it's very different.  It's hard to put into words.

CN:  Is there symbolism involved in Percy's deformity?

WJ: I don't know if it's a symbol.  I've written in the past about boys who were put on the fast track for priesthood.  For Percy, that's the only group that will accept him because he can have no sexuality.  I wanted people to identify with Percy.  He's a scapegoat.  His mark is his deformity, just like the scarlet letter.  The church is supposed to accept people based on what they are deep inside.  It's the opposite in my novel.  This is loosely inspired by Ulysse, a novel by Joyce.

CN: Do your characters sometimes evolve differently than you had planned?

DM: In a book inpired by my family's journey, the main character (myself) soon got pushed aside by her brother whose voice became the voice of the story.

WJ: It happened to me, too.  In The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, I had to invented a character to oppose my protagonist when the book was almost finished.  I reread my books when starting a new book and I'm still surprised at my own characters.  It can be difficule to shed the skin of a previous book when starting a new one.

DM: It can be very difficult to slip in and out of writing.  The transitions are bumpy.

WJ:  It's important to feel empathy and sympathy towards my characters.  If I loathe them completely, it can't be good.

DM: You have to get to know all sides of a character.  There's something human in every monster.

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