Where did you get the idea for Shadow Apprentice and the rest of the Garrison Creek Chronicles?
A: I blame writer/educator Ken Setterington, my father, and the Toronto Public Archives. (Not necessarily in that order.)
Ken Setterington had graciously volunteered to read my first manuscript. He was very encouraging, but told me in the nicest way possible that my writing style needed to be updated to the current market. He urged me to write another novel in a faster-paced, more contemporary style. So I got to work.
My father, a retired history teacher and lifelong activist, loved Toronto and worked tirelessly to make the city better for everyone. I knew I wanted to set my novel in a fantastical version of my hometown during the 19th century. I even named a street after my father (Douglas Street).
I put together the building blocks of this fantastical, alternative Toronto while I was researching the City of Toronto Archives for a suitable historical setting. The 1830s were a very exciting and nerve-wracking time in the city. More and more settlers were agitating for responsible government, wanting to break free of the colonial administration, and they were using newspapers in a big way to spread the word and help build support.
I also wanted to imagine what a colonial settlement might look like if it had been negotiated as part of a leasehold, with Indigenous people setting the terms. I can’t remember the exact citation, but I remember reading that Indigenous people did successfully negotiate lease arrangements with white settlers before the colonial government made such arrangements illegal. In my series, the Forest People have been able to resist and contain colonialism by allowing only a very limited settlement that’s bound by the terms of a lease. Racism is very much present in the Creek, but the Forest People maintain their power and leverage through superior wizardry. They set the terms of engagement.
Once I’d found my world, a girl mechanic showed up with a couple of wizard friends. The rest is history (sort of).
Was any of it rooted in real-life experiences?
A: The opening scene where Ermin fails an important test is something that actually happened to me. Like Ermin, my failure to make the grade of an important test had a lasting impact on how I viewed myself until I finally understood that I had a brain that worked differently.
I also worked for many years as a bicycle mechanic, but I wasn’t gifted like Ermin. Still, I remember the thrill of repairing my customers’ broken bicycles and watching them ride away.
How hard was it to write and publish your first book?
A:It was hard and took a long time to write Shadow Apprentice. In fact, it was a book that almost didn’t get written.
In 2020, I had some interest from an agent, but I hadn’t yet revised the manuscript. I got very ill from COVID-19 during the first wave. I recovered, but then suffered what I thought was a relapse. (We now call this long COVID, but it hadn’t been recognized in 2020.) I experienced a strange cognitive disability, which made it almost impossible to write. Somehow, I clawed my way through the revisions, sent them to the agent, and waited. And waited some more. Then a writing mentor gently told me I had not really written a story as much as I’d cobbled together a series of disjointed scenes. No wonder the agent had ghosted me!
I focused on recovery and gently rehabilitating my brain and body. I had good and bad days. Some days I couldn’t write a single word. I let my body call the shots and stayed focused on what I could do as I slowly rebuilt my health. When I could write, my writing sessions often lasted only for 10 minutes. I persevered, but gently.
When I was well enough, I decided to rewrite the entire manuscript from start to finish. (The only other option was to abandon it.) There is very little of the first book left in Shadow Apprentice—thank goodness!
What traits do you share with your main characters?
A: I suspect that I am neurodivergent, like Ermin. Testing for neurodivergence wasn’t on the radar when I was in school, so I never received an official diagnosis, but I have many traits of a nonverbal learning disability: difficulties with spatial perception, abstract concepts, and math, as well as problems with locating my body in space, interpreting social cues (particularly nonverbal ones), executive functioning, hyper-focus, switching tasks or navigating unexpected changes. I can totally relate to Ermin’s struggles with magi-tech.
Although Colin is also neurodivergent, he and I are polar opposites. I am cautious, careful, and really like to think things through before I act. (An early adopter I am not.) Colin is impulsive, sometimes careless, and doesn’t think about the consequences of his actions. He was a lot of fun to write!
What made you decide to self-publish?
A: When I learned how bad traditional publishing contracts were for writers, I immediately turned to self-publishing (commonly called indie publishing). I’d run small businesses before, so indie publishing seemed like it might be a good fit for me.
It was like running face-first into a vertical cliff wall until I figured out I didn’t have to do All The Things. I just had to figure out how to prioritize according to where I was in my author journey. As a debut author, I needed a website so that readers could find me, a finished book (professionally edited and with a professional cover), access to book formatting software to create print books and eBooks, and an Amazon KDP account so I could upload and distribute my book to readers. (I opened Kobo, Draft 2 Digital, and IngramSpark accounts, too, as they serve a wider audience.) For marketing, I decided to build an email list with a monthly blog newsletter and a free eBook for subscribers. ALLi: The Alliance of Independent Authors was instrumental in teaching me how to set myself up as an indie author. It was still a lot of work, but it really helped to learn from people who’d already indie published.
The term “self-publishing” is a bit of a misnomer, as I actually work with a team of people, including beta readers, editors, and a book cover designer. I listen to them all.