QUESTION: Did you find the plot and the characters in your second novel, Loving the Terrorist, restricted by the confines of this genre?

 

Despite the lack of success of my first novel, Saving Spirit Bear, my publisher was still keen on publishing two more novels as part of the Eco-Fi series, Eco-Warriors, and I was still keen on writing them. The plan (remember the plan?) appeared flawed, but perhaps not fatally.

 

As a journalist I'd been following and commenting on a local protest where residents and hardcore environmentalists had joined forces to boycott the development of a highway bypass that would destroy Eagleridge Bluffs, a very rare eco-system, home to migratory birds and at least one endangered species.

 

Despite a number of other viable options the government was intransigent. In frustration the protestors set up a blockade and eventually were arrested and literally dragged off to jail.

 

I've spent the best part of my life climbing and hiking in the local mountains. I've seen some awe-inspiring scenery, moments when I truly felt if I died in the presence of such magnificence, well, that would be just fine. But Eagleridge Bluffs was the best.

 

These ancient rock faces, carved by eons of Pacific storms roaring down Georgia Strait, and decorated by gnarled Arbutus Trees emanated a benign energy that soothed and uplifted the human spirit - no kidding.

 

When they dynamited The Bluffs they destroyed something very special and to this day I feel guilty. I should have done more to save this wonderful wild place that I loved.

 

But what could I have done? Loving the Terrorist - Risking it All, is that story.

 

Miriam is forty and frustrated. In an attempt to enhance her living-just-to-breathe life she joins some neighbours protesting a highway bypass that will destroy Eagleridge Bluffs. Not only are the Bluffs her special sanctuary, they’re also the beautiful home of rare and endangered plants and animals.

 

The protest gains the support of environmental organizations including the attention of a group of eco-radicals lead by an enigmatic younger man named Zaahir.

 

Miriam is mesmerized by this charismatic leader and sees him as someone that can save her as well as the Bluffs. But is Zaahir just using Miriam to help him further his radical political agenda?

 

As legal channels fail and civil disobedience falters, Miriam is seduced into the murky world of eco-terrorism.

 

The plot of this story follows the actual events that took place over three months that summer - up to a point. I literally lifted dialogue for my characters from news clips and stories. Then I took it further.

 

I wanted to explore the theme - can violence be condone on behalf of a just cause? Furthermore, is violence effective?

 

I wanted a sympathetic villain because as an author if you have a political agenda (and boy, did I) the only way to keep from sounding didactic is to also present it from the point of view of the anatgonist - and do it fairly. I gleaned this from Robert Boswell's book, The Half-Known World: On Writing Fiction. Not only does this approach work, it was a good idea since I wasn't quite sure where I stood on this issue myself.

 

I took the criticism of my first novel to heart and "sexed up" this one. This presented a challenge and I wondered how I could write explicitly about sex without it being gratuitous? I decided to make Miriam a virgin, her lover fifteen years younger than her, and she white and him brown. My idea was to let my readers discover sex along with my heroine.

 

I hit most of the points including a "Happy Ever After" ending but even as I was writing the novel I could tell I was straying beyond the confines of the romance genre. Despite the ending, this wasn't a happy story, how could it be - innocent creatures were wiped out, a beautiful, spiritual place was destroyed, and for no good reason (as if there ever is one).

 

I couldn't help it, I couldn't change it. It bombed, but I felt better.

 

By the time Loving the Terrorist was published I was well into the third novel for the Eco-Warriors series. By now I'd learned quite a bit about writing and publishing and even more about myself. This would be my last romance.

 

I knew I was leaving genre even as I was writing Not Wonder More, Mad Maggie and the Mystery of the Ancients. I was also becoming increasingly dissatisfied with my publisher (and no doubt, she with me) and had begun exploring other options.

 

Next Question: Did your third novel Not Wonder More, Mad Maggie and the Mystery of the Ancients resolve the issue of whether to write genre or literary fiction? And what about your publisher?

 

 

 

i loved everything about this book. it's wonderfully written and the story touches on so many important and interesting ideas (ethics, death, life after death, family/parenting, love, loyalty, child rape, what it means to live, living by aphorisms). i wish i could write more concretely about this book; there was so much both tangible and intangible that i loved about it but i can't seem to make it cohesive enough to write about. i'll just say: this was a great read; i'm looking forward to exploring more of boswell's books. here's something else i'll say - from the moment i started reading, i knew that i'd love the book, just because of how it was written. even with that, the book kept surpassing expectations, both because of the writing, and also because of the story and the messages he was sending with his characters and their lives.not a quote that conveys much about the story or it's scope, but that struck me just the same:"Not heroism, exactly; being in the right place at the right time -- a more important gift to have than heroism, which was only rarely called for. Being in the right place at the right time was in constant demand."

I picked up this book because I read a recommendation from Julia Glass, author of 3 Junes. That intrigued me, so I started the book before Christmas, put it aside and finished it up mid-January. It was an engaging book and the characters were mostly well-drawn, but it left me scratching my head a bit. Not entirely satisfying in the end. Stephen and Angela meet, marry, have a daughter Dulcie. They are living on a farm in Iowa, but Angela wants more than farm life. Stephen feels deeply rooted to farm life and taking care of his animals. Angela leaves Stephen, takes Dulcie and pursues law school. She drops out after a semester, but never goes back to Stephen and moves to California with Dulcie. The story is taking place when Dulcie is 16 and an out-of-control teen, with flashbacks to earlier times in their lives. Angela decides to have Dulcie spend a summer with her father to get her away from bad influences with her friends in CA. Stephen has her current girlfriend Leah moving in with her teen daughter, Roxy. They are from Chicago, but coming to live on the farm in Iowa. While the setup is that you think Dulcie will corrupt Roxy who seems much younger and more innocent, that is not what happens. Instead, Roxy is attracted to Will, a born-agan 17 year old. Roxy, 15, becomes pregnant, and Will's parents support their getting married. Leah and Stephen do not wish this, but eventually that is what happens. All of this sort of subtly works on Dulcie somehow. At the end of the summer, Dulcie comes back to California and is still a troubled teen. Angela is now pregnant at 40 with Quin (her 2nd husband's) baby. Quin has been a ladies' man, but is overcome with becoming a father and wants to make his marriage work. There are various other characters, some of whom are truly bizarre: Sdriana/Adrienne, who Quin is sleeping with at the beginning, and her really strange neighbors, Judy Storm and Adam who ride motorcycles, keep Dobermans, and get involved with Dulcie. In Iowa, there is Ron, Stephen's drunk sidekick and his lover who leaves him, the Spainard (Lois). Most of the characters are believable, but at times it's all so strange and I couldn't figure out why she was introducing all this stuff. Like the lost Amish child in the field, with the parents in the overturned car in the river that Stephen and Will's father rescue -- why was that there? Eventually, Will and Rox have their baby, who is severely premature and handicapped, and who dies after a few days. Will loses his faith over this, but Will and Rox stay together as a young married couple living in his family's home, while Rox finishes high school and Will becomes a farmer. Dulcie ends up coming back to Iowa to live by her choice, which isn't really clear, except that she has some kind of crisis over the baby's death, and a desire to become somewhat more normal again. Angela has her baby offscreen, and things seem settled down between her and Quin. Stephen and Angela have their unrequited love carry on - not really sure why their marriage didn't work out, as well as Angela's lingering feelings for Stephen's brother Andrew, who she was originally attracted to before she started going with Stephen instead.I was absorbed in the story and the people while I was reading it, but I was hoping for a sum that was greater than the parts and didn't get that from this book.