In October of 2009 I was asked to write a blog based on A Pioneer Thanksgiving. The questions were partly about Thanksgiving but mostly about how I write in general. Here are some of the questions and my answers for that blog:
1. Just for fun, if you could be among any of the original members of that first Thanksgiving, who would it be, the Pilgrims or the Wampanoag (Native Americans)? Why?
Probably the Pilgrims. They had to have been almost delirious with thankfulness at that first Thanksgiving. They had taken a tremendous risk in coming to a new land, they had suffered backbreaking hardships just to provide themselves with shelter and food, they had nearly died of starvation and miraculously here they were not only still alive but with a harvest that would carry them through the winter. Even though they all knew they couldn't have done it without their Native American friends they must have felt the most terrific sense of accomplishment and relief.
2. Considering that feast, what do you think that first harvest celebration meal would be? What would the meal be if it happened in your country?
In Canada the early settlers had potatoes, wheat, salt pork, fish and, if they were good hunters, game birds, so their harvest celebration would be a selection of all those foods set out on the table. A little later in their settlement history, they would also have apples, turnips and maple syrup to add some variety
Now, let's get to your writing:
3. If you could describe your writing with a word or phrase, what would it be? What do you want readers to take with them when they've finished reading your story?
I hope that when readers finish one of my stories they think "that was a cracking good tale." I want them to feel satisfied that they have, for a short time, stepped into another life and lived an adventure that's made them both feel and think. This is my test of a good story: as I finish the last page, I turn back to the beginning and start again – slower this time to savour it because the first time I read like the wind to find out what happens next. If I have no desire to go right back to the beginning and remind myself how this great adventure was introduced, then I know it hasn't been truly satisfying. The best compliment a reader could ever pay me would be to say, As soon as I finished, I read it again.
4. Have you ever written holidays into your stories? If so, which ones and why?
I have written three books about the everyday lives of an early settler family called the Robertsons. Everyday life on a backwoods farm in the 1830s was just work, work, work so to make the stories interesting I concentrated on moments of high emotion when something sad, scary, dangerous or very happy was going on. That's where the holidays came in. After the hard work of planting, weeding and harvesting the crops, Thanksgiving was truly a joyous celebration. Not only was the backbreaking toil over for a few months but safely stored in barn and root cellar was enough food to carry them through the winter into the next growing season. They were truly grateful for that bounty and for this one holiday in their very hard lives, the dinner table was laden with food. But there were other happy times, as well. In A Pioneer Christmas the Robertsons are not just looking forward to a holiday meal. For families living on isolated farms, winter was their one time for visiting. Not only did they have free time, they also had roads frozen and coated with snow along with sleighs could skim safely, rather than the muddy tracks they faced in summer. In A Pioneer Christmas they are waiting for very special visitors, cousins from Nova Scotia, so we also learn how difficult travel over long distances was back then. And because they are so wrapped up in thoughts of their coming visitors, they celebrate the very special Christmas visitor, the Christ Child, with an old-country custom, by putting a lighted candle in the window. My Robertson characters came originally from Scotland so they also celebrate (in a Pioneer Story/Sampler the first book in the series) Hogmanay, their name for New Year. This is a very important day in the Scottish calendar when the old year is swept out the back door and they wait for a dark haired visitor to bring good luck in at the front door. In each of my three pioneer books a story is woven around the relevant holiday.
5. Who decides what you write about, you or your muse? What kind of influence do you have over your story, or is the muse always the one basting the turkey?
I like to tell myself that my stories are planned, but I know that, really, I am waiting for the muse. However, she doesn't come without a little coaxing. Because my stories are all set in the past, the coaxing takes the form of deciding on a moment in history that interests me, and then doing some general reading about that period. As I'm reading I have lurking at the back of my mind, three questions Who, Where and What? Among all this real-life action that I'm reading about I'm asking myself who might find him/herself caught up in this moment and faced with a difficult choice or problem? As the real-life events start to suggest possibilities for the fictional story, the muse starts to stir and, if I'm lucky, she'll present me with enough intriguing bits and pieces that I can start writing. That's when she really takes over. My best ideas always come when I'm in the middle of writing. As long as I can get started – and reading background usually does that for me – I can count on the muse to keep the action rolling. So, I choose the topic, then prime the pump to get the muse working.