Variety truly is the slice of life
By Lindsey Rivait
Arts Editor
November 7, 2007
 Returning for its sixth year, BookFest Windsor brought in many talented writers eager to talk about their craft at the Art Gallery of Windsor. Among these writers on November 3 were Emma Donoghue, Lawrence Hill, Eden Robinson, and Eric Walters in a panel discussion about the diverse themes in their novels.
Moderated by CBC Radio personality, Barbara Peacock, “Variety is the Slice of Life” started with Walters, author of over 50 books geared toward young adults. Walters began his career writing for his students back when he was a schoolteacher. His newest book, Shattered, focuses on an Ontario student volunteering at a soup kitchen where he meets someone he believes to be a bum. That bum ends up being a former peacekeeper in Rwanda. Walters did not read a passage from his book. When asked about this, Walters quips, “I thought you all knew how to read!”
Following Walters was the cheerful Robinson reading from her novel, Blood Sports. “I really wanted to write an erotic novel. I read a lot of literary smut and I was inspired,” she explains. Robinson was forced by health reasons to quit smoking during the time she wrote Blood Sports. As she suffers, her characters suffer as well.
Hill, who first attended BookFest five years ago, read a passage from his historical novel, The Book of Negroes. Aminata, a female slave in America, serves the British in the Revolutionary War and fights for her own freedom.
“From the moment of conception, it was a woman,” Hill says of his main character when asked if writing from a woman’s perspective was difficult. Hill asserted that he finds characters that do not resemble him much more interesting than those that do resemble him.
While Hill’s book is titled The Book of Negroes in Canada, his publishers wanted him to change it for the American market. “It’s not unusual for a book to have its Canadian name changed,” says Hill, who renamed his book Someone Knows My Name for his American audience. Although initially infuriated, Hill later agreed with his publishers, who were concerned that the word “Negroes” would drive readers away rather than attract them.
The last reader, Donoghue, says her novel, Landing, is partially autobiographical. “It’s about an Irish woman who moves to Southwestern Ontario—like me!” Landing deals with two women fighting to stay in a long-distance relationship.
Donoghue also had problems with her publisher, who used a picture of two white hands making the shape of a heart on the cover of Landing. Donoghue admitted she liked the idea, but had to point out to her publishers that the couple in the novel was interracial. The publisher then tinted one of the hands a light brown, a shade Donoghue saw more as a tan than anything else.
The authors also discussed the importance of research, but stressed that doing too much research can also hinder your productivity. “Research is a wonderful way to guiltlessly procrastinate,” laughs Robinson, who spent months researching and interviewing people for Blood Sports.
“Research is the easy part,” says Donoghue. She finds conducting research more relaxed and much easier than actually writing. Research can be distracting for many writers.
Connecting all four authors was the use of humour in their work, even though their novels deal with serious subjects. “It’s a way of coping with things,” says Walters. Robinson agrees. Hill likes to walk the thin line of humour and tragedy, but admits that in The Book of Negroes, he “didn’t make use of humour as much as I did in previous novels.” Donoghue explains that it was much easier for her to use humour in her contemporary work as opposed to her historical work.
While variety is the slice of life, there were definitely connections between the panelists who presented an inspiring discussion of their novels.
|
