The Indigo Blog is pleased to present this piece by Anne DeGrace, author of Heather’s Picks Treading Water and Sounding Line, on her new book, Flying With Amelia.  Anne shares some thoughts on writing; specifically on writing her latest novel.

An excerpt follows to whet reader appetite on this novel that the Globe and Mail recently dubbed "a beautiful achievement, by a gifted writer."

****

How many times have you wished you could go back, knowing what you know now?

In our episodic day-to-day lives we don’t get to see how the convergence of outside events influences our unfolding stories. We might have a pretty good idea where things are headed, but like a novel, we don’t get to know how it all turns out until the end.

I guess that’s why I love to write stories that allow me to look at things through an omniscient lens. I get to see how historical events—things beyond individual control—might shape lives in ways that can’t possibly be known at the time. It gives me an edge on empathy, because I can see where things are headed.

My characters aren’t the movers and shakers of history but instead those carried along its current. The trick for me, when writing these stories, is to let the narrative unfold as it might in life, so the reader is surprised by turns of events as they affect the characters just as we are, when we can’t see what’s coming around the corner.

And sometimes, as the writer, I’m surprised too. Because I do know what happened in history: I know that the stock market crashed in October 1929, I know what happened to Pierre Laporte during the FLQ crisis of 1970, and I remember how people prepared for the perceived threat of Y2K (and what didn’t happen in that case). But I don’t always know how my characters will behave, or what twists and turns their stories may take, and that’s where the magic comes in for me.

Writing Flying With Amelia involved a lot of research—the things I came to know—and a great deal of trust. I loved immersing myself in details of German P.O.W camps in Canada or learning about the climate and culture of Herschel Island. Research takes me places in time, space, and geography far beyond the writing studio, until I emerge, blinking, hours later with the fire out in the woodstove. Trust takes me into situations in the narrative where I have to believe in the characters I’ve created and have faith that they know best. It’s an alchemy that seems to work for me, and I admit I’ve become a little addicted to it all.

If I can pull it off, then my characters will be just the sorts of people who, at the end of the story, would love to go back—knowing what they know now.

-Anne DeGrace

****

September 23, 1934

Dear Mr. Penner,

I am writing in response to your advertisement in the Yarmouth Herald for a pen pal. You requested a woman, and I guess I fit the bill.

I started this letter four times, trying to find just the right tone, and no matter what I do it comes out awful, formal. This was my best try so far. So I think I will just keep it at that, but this time I’ll go on in what I hope will be a friendlier tone. If we are to be pen pals, then it seems important that we strike the right tone, and that it be an honest one. And so I will pledge, Mr. Penner, to be as honest and forthright as I can be if you will promise the same. Honesty is the least we can give one another in these times, generally speaking, and quite often it is probably the most. Although things are for sure a little better here than they are for you there, where I hear the farms are dust if they’re not grasshoppers. I’ve seen the newsreels at the movies, and I’ll tell you, I won’t complain about the weather. Can’t buy a new pair of shoes, but at least there’s always a fish in the pot.

But see, I’m nattering on, which is what my friend Sally says is my very worst trait. Sally works at the desk right next to mine at the Herald, which is how I saw your notice, right away before it was even printed, because I have become right good at reading backwards and in reverse. In fact, at our last Christmas party at the newspaper we had a contest to see who could read our publisher’s editorial for the next edition (which of course, was still set in its lead type, and so reversed) the fastest, and without stumbling, which I can tell you was hilarious, especially with some of the men who just might have consumed a little too much eggnog. I won, which tells you I have one talent, at least.

So now you know two things about me: that I live in Yarmouth (but you knew that, didn’t you, or did you place your advertisement in all of the Nova Scotia papers?) and that I work at a newspaper, and I’ll tell you now that I’m not doing anything glamorous but simply typing letters to the editor (outrage at the state of things, mainly) that have come handwritten so that the typesetters can read them to set them (this is harder than you’d imagine. Or maybe not, since my mother tells me my own penmanship leaves something to be desired) as well as letters to advertisers who have not paid their bills (and I do hope that you are not among them. Wouldn’t that be funny?) and other dull things right short of any kind of interest or creativity.

And what else do you know about me? Well, if you’ve skipped to the bottom of this page (and I suppose you might have. I would have) you know my name is Peggy McGrath. And you know that I read the papers and watch the newsreels and that I have a good idea what’s going on in the world, not like some. I hope you do, too, Mr. Penner, because correspondence can be such a lot of fun when you really get to discuss things.

Now, I think I’ve said enough. If you really want to correspond, you will have to tell me enough about yourself for me to be convinced that you will be honest and forthright. And you will need to be very clear about your position (by this I mean whether or not you are married, because if you were I would not continue writing), your age and occupation, your intentions as far as this correspondence goes, as well as your thoughts and dreams.

I await, with anticipation, your reply.

Sincerely,

Peggy A. McGrath

Yarmouth, Nova Scotia

October 1, 1934

Dear Miss McGrath,

I can’t begin to tell you how delighted I was to get your letter, and to get to know so much about you all at once! I will tell you right off that my intentions are honourable, friendship through correspondence my only goal.

You sound like a very charming and very intelligent young lady …