With Kaylie Seed
Photo by Mango Studios
I am so grateful that Nimbus Publishing sent me a gifted Advanced Reader’s Copy version of your sophomore novel The Lost Sister! I went into it not knowing anything about the book and I ended up falling in love with the story that you’ve woven. If you wouldn’t mind, I have some questions to ask you about The Lost Sister as well as your writing process, and some personal questions about books in general.
Having two sisters of my own, it was wonderful to see a story centred around the relationships that sisters share between one another. Where did you get the idea to focus your story on the relationship between sisters? Do you think narratives with this foundation are universal and easy for readers to connect and identify with?
I’ve always enjoyed reading books about sibling relationships. There’s always lots of layers to explore because siblings are often weird family-friend-caregiver hybrids to each other. In sister relationships, it can be all the more complicated because your sister might know what you’re like better than anyone else, especially if you’ve grown up in the same house and have seen many of the same things. They’re more likely to poke a hole right through the image you’ve built up for yourself and others. There could be both a comforting closeness and an anxiety in that dynamic—and that kind of tense juxtaposition is quite helpful for writing fiction.
The Lost Sister shifts between Alisha’s story and Paula’s story throughout the novel. Whose voice was easier for you to create? What challenges did each of these characters pose for you?
Alisha was definitely the easier voice to write. She’s a lot like me. I remember my friend Garnet reading an early draft and calling me “Alisha” the next day—it was so cute. That being said, Paula’s story was the one that was more compelling to write, mostly because it was a challenge. For Alisha, the challenge was writing her honestly with all her immaturity and making it relatable, not annoying. For Paula, the challenge was telling her childhood story from a child’s perspective, even though she would have written it in her older years.
In your acknowledgments you mention that Mr. Garnet Smith was a huge inspiration for Paula’s story in The Lost Sister. Can you share with us and our readers a bit of his history and his influence on your story?
Garnet was a loving, caring person. We went to the same church and lived in the same north Toronto neighbourhood so I knew him my whole life, really. He was a dedicated community volunteer and quite well-known and loved in the area. He was a loving father and husband and honestly one of the most giving people I knew. I always knew he had a “tough childhood”—it was in my early twenties that he shared that with me that he had been apprehended as a young child with some of his siblings and made to live in the Nova Scotia Home for Coloured Children. I was doing community-based violence prevention work at the time, so I was interested in learning more about the way institutions and policies impact children and families. He told me about some of the difficult, scary, and unfair things he went through, and how it affected his whole life. He told me about how he joined a group of survivors from the home who called for accountability and justice in a class action case. He was quite open with me and others who wanted to learn more. He felt that it was important for him to speak about it, though he was very supportive of those who didn’t want to talk about their traumatic experiences. I always appreciated the way he made room for both.
Later, maybe after the publication of my first novel, we started talking about writing about his story in a fictionalized account. I can’t remember if I brought it up first or if he suggested it to me. He gave me a wealth of articles and documentation about the home and the court case, so he made it so easy to do research. All I had to do was interview him, read the documentation, and look up secondary sources. He even connected me with people he knew doing work on the case.
Garnet passed away before the book was finished and got published. But it really does reflect his efforts and his open storytelling, and I’m so happy about that. Whatever is good about it comes from his influence.
What was the most surprising thing that you learned while going through the process of creating and writing The Lost Sister?
This sounds silly, but I was surprised to learn just how hard it is to write something well and that takes a lot of tries—at least for me. I should’ve known that; it seems so obvious! But I didn’t appreciate it fully until this book. It took a lot out of me and I know I’d have to believe in something deeply in order to properly survive the novel writing process again.
I also learned there needs to be more room to tell hidden stories about racialized people in Canada. Things are changing in the industry, and that is amazing. But I think the space for these stories is still too small.
Now that you have written and published two novels, I have to ask, will there be another book from you soon?
I’m exploring a new manuscript now. But it’s very slow-going. We’ll see what happens!
Having been through the process of writing and publishing more than one novel, what advice would you give to aspiring authors?
I’ve learned it the hard way: don’t give up, but don’t be stubborn. That means that you should write and be persistent about it but do your homework and listen to other opinions. Take courses and learn how better writers do it. When someone gives you feedback, don’t dismiss it or say they don’t understand what you’re trying to do. At the same time, don’t get too upset about critiques that aren’t constructive. They won’t help you very much. All feedback isn’t created equal and differences in tastes and perspectives about good writing are not always your problem. Finally, the traditional publishing industry is tough and in flux, struggling to be relevant in a tidal shift that is both cultural and economic in nature. So getting into it is probably going to be a weird experience. Don’t get too thrown off by the weirdness, and don’t let your expectations about “what should happen” get the better of you.
What is your “must-read” book recommendation and what book has had the most impact and influence on your writing?
How much time do you have? If you want to write better, read The Anatomy of Story by John Truby and The Art of Fiction by John Gardener. When it comes to fiction, I feel I learn the most from books that deeply integrate voice. There are so many books that do it well but as of late I’ve learned so much from Swing Time by Zadie Smith, The Purchase by Linda Spalding, and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz. These are go-to books for me. And I’m adding more to the list all the time.