Thoughts on Texturizing your Fiction
This is a wonderful article for any writer, and especially an author of historical fiction. Sharpen your quills. You’ll be inspired. I promise. Thanks to Deborah L. Williams for her expertise.
Bringing History to Life
This book starts halfway through the ten-book Marc Edwards Mysteries series. I chose to read it first because it’s set in Upper Canada 1838, and I’m sliding into that time myself to do some historical research for a family history. Published in 2013 by Touchstone, the series is written by poet, author, and Western University professor emeritus, Don Gutteridge.
The story is set at a key historic moment when two Canadas are struggling for power: predominantly French Lower Canada (Quebec) and very British Upper Canada (Ontario). Rebellions have disturbed the peace in both.
A Little Political Background
Louis-Joseph Papineau, a French-Canadian reformer born in Montreal, led the rebel Patriotes in a rebellion in November 1837. They opposed the power of the Catholic Church, the British Governor, and his advisors, the Chateau Clique. After the Patriotes were defeated, many French-Canadian settlements were burned to the ground, and Papineau fled into exile in the United States. Fleeing to the USA is a popular theme especially in the old days when borders were a little less guarded.
The following month, a Scottish newspaper publisher, William Lyon Mackenzie, and his radical followers attempted to seize control of the government in Upper Canada and declare the colony a republic. As in Lower Canada, an elite clique of pro-British businessmen called the Family Compact, ran the colony through a system of patronage. The rebels wanted democracy. Many of them were American farmers who’d moved north following the War of 1812. For four days, Mackenzie and his rebels gathered at Montgomery’s Tavern, then they marched south on Toronto’s Yonge Street. Guns were fired. Confusion ensued, and they dispersed. Perhaps spending four days convening in a tavern was not the wisest plan? Mackenzie and his group eventually fled to the United States where they joined with American rebels and wreaked havoc along the border.
By the following summer, Britain still ruled from across the sea, the cliques still ran both Canadas—one French, one English—and problems still hung in the air.
What About These Bloody Relations?
Enter Lord Durham. John George Lambton Durham was made governor general to both Upper and Lower Canada, and sent abroad to sort things out and write a report. The earl was nicknamed “Radical Jack” because he swayed to the liberal side of the Whig party. In the end, Durham recommended union of the Canadas, assimilation of French Canadians, and the introduction of responsible government—an elected assembly responsible to the people, rather than a top-down monarchy. The real Lord Durham was a somewhat sickly character. Gutteridge says: “Lord and Lady Durham did visit Toronto for a day and a half in July 1838, their stay cut short by the earl’s suffering a recurrence of his migraine and neuralgia.”
It’s during Lord Durham’s visit to Toronto in July 1838 that Bloody Relations takes place. I mention the political background because it is important to the plot of the story and Durham’s report changed Canada forever.
As I said, this is a murder mystery, so early on a sort of “locked-room murder” occurs in a brothel in Irishtown. Lord Durham’s shy, inebriated, nephew, Handford Ellice, is discovered snuggled in bed beside poor dead Sarah McConkey. He’s still unconscious, though she’s been stabbed through the neck. And, he’s holding the knife in his hand. Madame Renee had barred the outside door after Ellice was admitted and then gone off to bed along with the three other women who worked for her. So, inside the locked brothel are three prostitutes, the madame, and Ellice. The key questions? Who done it? And why are there no blood trails if it wasn’t Ellice?
While on patrol, Constable Horatio Cobb is called to the bloody murder scene by one of the distraught prostitutes. When he realizes who the alleged perpetrator is related to, he suggests that Marc Edwards handle the rather sensitive investigation. Marc and his wife, Beth, have just been to a soiree the previous evening with Lord and Lady Durham and met Ellice; in fact, Beth danced with the shy Ellice and befriended him. Now, he’s accused of murder and the Edwards are determined to get to the truth. Edwards feel that Ellice may have been set up to derail Lord Durham’s task.
It’s a brilliant set-up for a murder mystery and Gutteridge’s literary prose, combined with his poetic prowess and believable dialogue, brings the characters to life. The settings are vivid, especially Irishtown:
“The area was essentially a squatter’s haven. Its three dozen dwellings were ramshackle affairs at best: half-log shanties, clapboard hovels, temporary lean-tos confected out of the handiest scraps and flotsam of the town they appended, as welcome as a carbuncle on a buttock” (31).
I grew up just east of Toronto and worked downtown during my late teens so am familiar with many of the streets and locations: Yonge, Bay, Queen, College Park, Osgoode Hall. And I remember being threatened with ending up on Jarvis Street, the domain of prostitutes, if I didn’t mend my ways.
Murdoch Mysteries is set in Toronto fifty years later, but fans of the constabulary would enjoy the Marc Edwards Mysteries. There’s a similarity in the type of murders, the characters themselves, their speech, and behaviour.
My Research
I hadn’t thought about the effect of politics on my characters until reading this novel. Now, I’m left wondering what it would be like for a common French carpenter and his Irish wife and children to live in Cobourg, a small harbour town in Northumberland County, just east of Toronto, in these Tory-dominated days.
What were their political leanings? Did they support the radicals? Perhaps, want to join the throng of three thousand who came to Queen’s Wharf to meet Lord and Lady Durham’s steamer? After all, Antoine Fusee had married his fourteen-year-old bride (Louisa McNally) in Montreal only three years prior (1835). Or would they keep quiet and submit to Tory rule? Were they merely concerned with subsistence and survival? Was it even safe to be French in Upper Canada?
As for the Marc Edwards Mysteries, I think I must read them all. Don Gutteridge is a find.
Elements of Indigenous Style. Gregory Younging
The subtitle of Elements of Indigenous Style is A Guide for Writing By and About Indigenous Peoples. I read this book to learn what is appropriate and what is not, as the two fiction books I’m now writing include references to Indigenous Peoples and are set on Indigenous territory. After reading, I made revisions to my manuscript. Younging wrote this edition in 2018, so it may already need updating as, in Canada especially, much is changing rapidly with regard to how Indigenous and non-Indigenous people work together. I highly recommend this book to writers, editors, students, and anyone interested in reconciliation; in fact, we all should read it because we are in relationship with Indigenous People and need to be much more aware. I’m not re-writing the book here, just providing a sampling and speaking to a few key points.
Naming
Merging the name of his Cree mother (Young) and his Chinese father (Ing), Younging forged his own identity. I appreciate this, as I created my own name, Hawkin. It means “kin of hawks” and expressed my need for freedom following my divorce. I was neither my father’s daughter nor my ex-husband’s wife, but was searching for self. I identified strongly with the hawks who lived nearby in Ontario and still identify with birds of prey.
About Gregory Younging
Younging died in May 2019 at the age of fifty-eight, and was posthumously awarded the Association of Canadian Publishers President’s Award. You can read more about his achievements here. He was a member of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation in northern Manitoba, and managing editor/publisher of Theytus Books in Penticton, British Columbia, for many years. Theytus Books was the first Indigenous-owned publishing house in Canada and continues to publish Indigenous authors. Gregory Younging also taught at UBC Okanagan and served as assistant director of research to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
As I said, I learned much from this book. He includes appendixes, case studies, and twenty-two principles of style. Here are a few key points to consider that struck me.
Characteristics of Contemporary Indigenous Literature
Contemporary Indigenous Literature gives authority to all voices rather than one; as well as the voices of animals, and messages given by spirits and natural phenomenon; and it crosses circular time—ancient past, present, future. These characteristics come from the work of Anishinaabe author, Kim Blaeser (13).
Protocols for working in Collaboration
Non-Indigenous authors, or, Indigenous authors writing about a nation that is not their own, should enter into a relationship with that source nation, get permission, and negotiate mutually agreeable terms. Younging stresses collaboration and the need to always ask in an appropriate way. For example, when I studied at Trent University, the Protocol was to respectfully offer tobacco to an Elder or Teacher if you wanted to ask a question. If the person accepted it, they could help, and you had permission to engage. Younging writes that the Protocol is still to ask respectfully and offer a gift, but tobacco might not be the right gift. You need to find out what’s appropriate by asking around the community or asking the Elder. Then listen. Finally, give them the right to read your text before publication.
Awareness of Sources
I appreciate the chapter on terminology because much of this has changed since I studied in the nineties. Also, in some classes, we used texts written by archaeologists or anthropologists who viewed Indigenous Peoples as static cultures of a distant past. That is not the case. Indigenous Cultures are resilient, adaptive, dynamic, and distinct. If you use content published by anthropologists or historians be aware that the author likely did not follow Protocols, and translations often use stereotypical language and concepts. For example, the anthropological theory that Indigenous Peoples migrated across the Bering Strait to North America is not part of The Oral Traditions of The People.
Terminology to use and not to use
A few words to be wary of using are artifact, band (use the People), clan (unless it’s a particular Clan System, pagan/heathen, land claim (use Indigenous title), legends/myths/tales (use Oral Traditions), self-government (use self-determination). Aboriginal is an adjective only and is being replaced by Indigenous.
Many words in our everyday vocabulary are of Indigenous origin, though we assume they’re English. Here’s a partial list: canoe, hammock, igloo, kayak, potato, raccoon, skunk, squash, tomato. Also many place names have Indigenous origin including the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Alternatively, explorers and settlers renamed places after themselves or their foreign sovereign (investor) in many cases as a means of claiming territory for the colonizing country.
First Nations, Inuit, and Métis
In Canada, the government recognizes “First Nations, Inuit, and Métis.” First Nations is a political term that refers to someone from a First Nation. Inuit means “The People” and refers to The People who live in the Arctic. Métis is both a noun (she is Métis) and adjective (Métis heritage). The term Métis is complex as it has three possible meanings.
1) Métis means “mixed race” in French and refers to those who were involved in the Red River Resistance and their descendents. They may speak French, English, and/or Michif. Note it’s termed the Red River Resistance, not rebellion.
2) Someone may identify as Metis (without accent) if they are English-speaking people of mixed Indigenous and non-Indigenous ancestry. For example, my great grandfather’s father was Dutch and his mother was Tuscarora (a nation who moved north and were adopted into the Haudenosaunee).
3) Métis (with accent) can also be used by those who do not descend from Red River.
Use of Traditional Names
Use Traditional Names that The People use to refer to their distinct nation—Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, Nuu’chah’nulth, Mi’Kmaq, Gitxsan, and so on. Younging writes: “Names are part of the way we render identity” (91). Be particular and precise. Many of us acknowledge the name of the Traditional Territory on which we’ve settled and use it in our email signature: Settled on unceded Stó:lō territory—Ts’elxwéyeqw (Chilliwack) and Se:máth (Sumas) tribes
Capitalization
Indigenous style uses capital letters where non-Indigenous writers/editors may not—Survivor, Chief, Clan, Elder, Indigenous Voice, the Longhouse as an institution, Midewiwin, Oral Tradition, Seven Fires, Sundance, Sweat Lodge, Vision Quest, Warrior Society, Wampum Belt, Traditional Knowledge. I see this as a positive way of showing honour and respect.
Possession
The Dispossessed: Life and Death in Native Canada by Geoffrey York was one of the first books I read, and it’s always stuck with me. York was a journalist with the Globe and Mail in Toronto. He wrote about the legacy of abuses from land grabs, to diseases, to residential schools, to reserve land that afforded The People little to nothing. They were dispossessed of their land and culture. They are now reclaiming, so when you’re writing, it’s important not to imply Indigenous Peoples are “owned” or “possessed” by Euro-colonial states. They are not Canada’s Indigenous Peoples. Also, use present tense rather than past. The Nuu’chah’nulth potlatch or hold potlatches, not the Nuu’chah’nulth held potlatches.
Younging’s guide is political. It’s complex and much to absorb. As a former high school English teacher, I suggest this book be used in humanities classes. Younging has titled this book with an obvious poke at Elements of Style, an American English writing style guide written by William Strunk Jr. in 1918, that’s still used by high school and university students. It’s time to change it up and expand our awareness of how language informs thought and thought informs language, as both inform culture and cultural prejudices. Even those of a subtle kind.
Sci-Fi Saturday Night—Love These Guys
I do a fair amount of podcasts, tv and radio shows, but Sci-Fi Saturday Night is up there at the top of my list. I’ve been waiting all summer to get back on this show. I think it’s because a) the hosts, Dome and Cam, read my books (even in the wrong order) and b) they get me. Not every host gets me cause I’m just not that easy to get. I didn’t want the conversation to end. Even after they stopped recording, we kept talking and they pretty much had to kick me out of the studio.
Last time, we talked about To Kill a King. In this show, we talk about To Render a Raven, my love relationship with Estrada, my mixed up genres, the Pacific coast, and my writing process. I love that Cam said it was horror. That was a first for me.
I didn’t do a big launch for this book so it’s one of the least read of the four. That’s a pity because it’s my favourite in the series. I really enjoyed chatting about it with two guys who loved it as much as I did and weren’t afraid to say so. We’d all just read it so talk with insight, but don’t worry—we went easy on the spoilers. Except for this one—the ravens are vampires.
Please go back and check out other shows on Sci-Fi Saturday Night, and make it one of your regular stops. Dome and Cam have intriguing guests and their charm, insight , and intelligent conversation brings out the best in everyone.
Here’s the link to this show. If you’re pressed for time, we start talking at the 10 minute mark.
I LOVE Interviews!
I really love doing interviews. Most interviewers ask slightly different questions and each question teaches me more about myself. There are horses and canines in almost all my books. This is why.
In this latest written interview we delved more into my childhood and how I ended up writing novels. I also discuss my new catch-phrase “myth, magic, and mayhem.”
Enjoy!
Rambling Writer Interviews
Interviewers ask so many interesting questions, some that really make you think. Sometimes it takes me days to think about the question and craft a decent, honest answer. I particularly hate anything about “favourites” — what is your favourite . . . ? Who can have just one?
Jean the Book Nerd opened doors into my mind where I had to ramble and reminisce. These were all valid and pertinent questions. Not all interviewers ask such questions.
In “Writing Behind the Scenes” I talk about my creative process and venture into mystical territory that I haven’t revealed before. I hope you enjoy the interview. Please leave a comment or question that doesn’t ask about favourites!