by Lesley Crewe
Tansy was also a pregnant teenager, but her situation was complicated by the fact that she was impregnated by her sister’s fiancé. Do you think Liz’s solution to the problem was fair? What should she have done differently, if anything? What would you do in her shoes?
From the outside, Bay seems like a textbook “good” person—caring, generous, and loyal. Tansy can be and often is labelled a bad person—impetuous, promiscuous, and materialistic. But both sisters are much more complex than these tidy summaries. What are some of Bay’s darker qualities, and some of Tansy’s good ones? Are the women unfairly cast by the people in their lives—including their parents—as the “good” sister and the “bad” sister, or is there truth in those assessments? In what ways have their lives been shaped by these labels?
What are the significant friendships in this novel? In what way are they important?
Gertie is often referred to as part of the Gillis family. Do you think we can choose our own families? What does it take for a friend to become part of a family?
AN INTERVIEW WITH
LESLEY CREWE
Her Mother’s Daughter is your fifth book. How has your writing process changed, if at all, since your first book was published?
These first five books were written in a two-year period, from 2003 to 2005. It was a crazy, mad spurt of storytelling, and it very nearly did me in, but I’ve always been an all-or-nothing kind of gal.
Now I’m trying to incorporate having a life along with the writing and it’s been a bit of a struggle. When I’m in the zone, I can’t think of anything else. I find it difficult to live in two worlds at once. When I write I belong to my fictional world, and it takes a lot of energy to drag myself out of it. We’ll see what happens with the next book. I have no idea how it’s going to go.
What’s the hardest part of being published, and what’s been the most fun?
There’s nothing hard about being published! Except when I don’t listen to my inner voice. Lots of people have opinions about what I should and shouldn’t do, and I do ask for those opinions, but essentially it always comes back to what feels right for me. Happily, I don’t think of my writing as a career. It’s just who I am and what I do.
The most fun has been the writing itself, and of course the people I’ve met along the journey, and the wonderful readers who take time to let me know I’ve touched them in some way.
And I love the kids that I meet in schools all over Cape Breton. They’re the best.
How did you decide on Louisbourg as the setting for Her Mother’s Daughter? Do you have a particular connection with the town?
My mother lived in Louisbourg as a teenager during the war because her dad (my grampy) was in charge of maintaining the ships that came into port. Mom would tell us about all the fun she had growing up in a small town and it sounded wonderful to me, as I was a city girl.
It was at a dance at the legion (or maybe a church hall) in Louisbourg that she met my dad. The local girls were hosting a dance (with plenty of chaperones) for the visiting sailors, and my dad was in the navy. Mom said she noticed him right away because he was playing “Moonlight Sonata” on an old piano stuck in the corner of the hall. He missed playing music on the ship. He played the most beautiful music by ear. Never had a lesson in his life.
So Louisbourg is a favourite place in my world.
You write a lot about young love. When did you and your hus-band meet? Was it as romantic as you always write these passion-ate young lovers?
I do write about young love, don’t I? I always say “write what you know,” and this is what I know.
I met John when I was barely nineteen and he was twenty-one. It was a Friday. We walked across the field from our bungalow to the old Dillon farmhouse to ask Mom if he could stay for Sunday supper.
Mom said when the two of us walked through the door she knew that was it. As it turned out, John and I brought our first child home to that old farmhouse, seven years later.
I adore John. He’s the nicest man in the whole world.
Although there are certainly men in this novel, at its core is a family—biological and chosen—of women. What draws you to writing about women’s relationships? What are your most impor-tant relationships with women?
I write about women because I am a woman. I don’t have a clue how men think…wouldn’t want to be one, either!
Growing up, my mother, sister, and grandmother were the most important people in my life. Now that I’ve grown, my daughter, my sister, my nieces, my cousin, my aunt, my girlfriends, and their girls are my posse. They are like pieces of my heart that can walk around on their own, but they belong to me. I would die if I lost one. I have died when I lost one and then two and then three…
Women share a big secret. We know it and we recognize it in each other. When the world gets big and scary, your girls will gather around you and keep you safe.
Two of your characters, Ava from Ava Comes Home and Tansy in Her Mother’s Daughter, have left Cape Breton and had wildly successful lives from a material perspective, but also suffered a deep loneliness that is only cured by returning home to Cape Breton. Do you think that kind of healing comes to anyone re-turning home, or is there something special about Cape Breton?
The politically correct answer is that healing of any kind is always made better by going home, wherever home is for you, but since my sensibility is firmly entrenched on Cape Breton Island, I’ll say there is definitely something special about this place.
But how difficult is it to describe something you love to a stranger? What few words can you use to bring that spirit to life?
This island is the sum of its parts…the landscape, the water, the people and their connection to each other, family and history and memories and stories, the music and language, the wildlife and beaches, the wind and storms, and the trees and stars all come together to create such an astonishing, beautiful place that your heart grieves when you are separated from it.
When you cross the causeway and leave the island behind, it pulls you back, like a never-ending tide.
You write Bay’s depression very realistically. What did you draw on to depict her struggle?
I drew on my own life experience. I only write what I am emotionally connected to, and unfortunately I know depression intimately. It’s been my constant companion since I can remember.
I also know how it feels to lose precious members of my family, and how that loss can run so deep that it changes who you are. But none of us escape this world without being wounded and it is inevitably other members of our tribe who pick us up and drag us along until we can find our feet again.
Do you have a favourite character in this book? If so, who is it, and why?
My favourite character is Gertie. I always identify with the big girls!
Gertie is a big mushball of pure love and despite the fact that her life hasn’t been easy, she’s never bitter and doesn’t resent her best friend’s happiness with Bobby. That’s why I needed someone just as loveable to come into her life. She and Peter are the real deal, two ordinary souls who may not set the world on fire but create magic when they are together.
Finally, can you tell us about the photograph on the back cover?
This is one of my favourite pictures of our daughter, Sarah. She came into our lives when we needed her the most. Her father, brother, and I were still reeling from the death of our little boy Joshua and I honestly thought I would die of grief.
But that sweet, spunky little face and healthy set of lungs convinced me that she was sticking around and was a force to be reckoned with. She is, and always will be, my angel on earth.
Lesley Crewe is the author of Hit & Mrs. (2009), Ava Comes Home (2008), Shoot Me (2006), and Relative Happiness (2005), which was shortlisted for the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award. Previously a freelance writer and columnist for Cape Bretoner Magazine, she currently writes a column for Cahoots online magazine. Born in Montreal, Lesley lives in Homeville, Nova Scotia.
/>
www.lesleycrewe.com
