Huron Expositor, 2000-10-25, Page 5News
MI HURON EXPOSITOR, October 25, 2000-5
Canadian author shares writing experiences at library
By Susan Hundertmark
Expositor Staff
A truck -train collision
Canadian author Joan Barfoot
reported on years ago as a
"baby journalist" at The
Windsor Star was her
inspiration for her latest novel
Getting Over Edgar. .
She told the audience at
last week's reading at the
Seaforth Library that she was
sent out to the accident with a
photographer and still retains
a vivid image of the "humps
of blankets up and down the
track."
"i remember asking, 'What
were they?' and of course
they were the bodies." she
said..•
Barfoot. who is the first
authorto do a reading at the
Seaforth Library in almost 10
years because of a lack of
funding for author visits.
came to Seaforth last Tuesday
to .celebrate Ontario Public
Library Week. Her visit Was
funded by a Canada Council
grant.
Her eighth novel..Getting
Over Edgar. which was
published last year. is'the
story of a woman whose
husband was killed in a car-
. train collision just weeks after
leaning their marriage.
'• "I" feel Much `more
-comfortable with humour
now than I did." she 'says.
referring to her earlier. more.
•
serious novels Dancing in the
Dark and Abra.
"My first couple of books
- were rather gloomy and
solemn. Canadian literature
has this terrible repination, of
being so dreary but that really
is a stereotype." she said.
Barfoot said her hum -our..
however. is "very dark" and
"not to everyone's taste."
'After: so mane nears in
journalism. the dark -humour •
is closest to my ow'n Voice
which is something 1 hate to
admit to since : people
sometimes find it i fairly
awful voice." she said.
She said that while she was
writing' the story of the
woman whose husband Edgar
left her during a mid-life
crisis. -driving . a red
convertible. she thought shd.
- might be writing'a cliche:
"But, I've since heard
many stories from_ readers of
men who have done exactly
• the same thing." she said.
"Barfoot. who- recently -quit
writing.a column for The
.London Free Press
• "They're too cheap." she said
left the Free. Press as a
reporter six years ago:
While she is working full-
time at writing novels now.
she said she's addicted" to
news and hada hard time
leaving , the, World of.
journalism.
"I liked the exercise of
writing a column and the .way.
you have to write one -.linear
and tight and o course.
columns should he interesting
and intelligent:" she said.
Moved to writing novels.
because she wanted to write
something longer lasting than
"tomorrow's fish wrap."
Barfoot said she w a. also
Susan Hundertmork photo
Joon Barfoot
attracted to novels because in what she docs." said Barfoot.
-journalism the stories "are
always at a moment of drama
and sorrow. the experience is
very hrief and they never turn.
out the way you'd like them
to."
Barfoot said the writer she
most admires is Canadian
short story writer Alice
Munro: whom she described
as "my image of a writer.
who's godlike in intelligence
and sensitis ity."
"I like that she' hasn't
retailed. She keeps trying new
things- and - she's very
observant. I find I have to
• stop every few lines and think
abodt what she's written. I
don't know' how she does
•
adding, "Okay. the promoting
Alice Munro time is up now.
Barfoot said she tries to
write f s e pages a day and is
dubious of writers who claim
that they're overtaken by
their characters.
"If I had a character that
wrote herself I'd be so happy
but I have never believed that
"happens.' I get up in the
morning and wonder what
we're going totdo today and
sometimes your characters
surprise you but it all comes
out.of my brain,' she said.
She said she's still amazed
how A 400 -page novel
"happens one word after
another.
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While she's writing.
Barfoot said she doesn't talk
about her novel to anyone
and "it's just mine." But.
once the book is published,
. it's "a child that's moved out
and brings home; money and
it's vulnerable to other
people's interpretations."
However, she said she
enjoys hearing how others
react to her stories.
"1 like it when my novel
brings me more stories. 1
benefit from that; she said.
Barfoot's second nose)
was Dancing. in the Dark.
which won awards and was
turned into a movie starring
Martha Henry.
She said that someone's
first novel "can be a fluke"
but the second allows you to
call yourself a writer.
"I.. was on a plane from
Toronto to Ottawa right after
Dancing in the Dark came out
and I remember thinking that
if this plane goes down. at
leastI know I'm a writer."
she said.
She told the'audiencc she's
recently finished her ninth, as
yet untitled. novel. which has
only been read by her agent
and fellow .Canadian author
'Carol Shields.
But, she said it will still be
another -year before that novel
reaches the bookstores.
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