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The Review

October's book from Hearing Voices is Clearwater, by Kim McCullough

Warning: if you pick up this book, clear your schedule and find a comfortable chair. You won’t budge until you’ve finished it. Kim McCullough has written a gripping tale of love and loss, family and friendship, with memorable characters and a tension-filled plot.

When Claire Sullivan’s mother takes a job at a remote Northern Manitoba settlement, Claire and her older twin siblings have no choice but to accompany her. Little do they suspect the enduring influence that their time in Clearwater will have on their lives. Claire’s mother is single and busy (read: irresponsible) and the twins are often forced to watch over Claire themselves. But the twins share a special bond that excludes Claire and leaves her longing for a closeness she cannot find in her family.

Instead, she finds it in the boy next next-door. Jeff is a talented artist and a year older than Claire. But with an abusive and alcoholic father, he has troubles of his own. Jeff has also discovered that having a native heritage means no one much cares what he does at school, though they are quick to suspect him of any crime. Claire and Jeff become fast friends, and share a love of the landscape that McCullough renders in stunning detail. Soon their friendship deepens into romance.

Claire’s brother, Daniel, is a gifted pianist but her sister Leah has a hard time finding her way and drifts towards drugs and alcohol. One night she finds more trouble at a party than she bargained for, and her world changes forever.

McCullough doesn’t shy away from real and gritty teenaged problems, and the remote setting adds to the persistent feeling of dislocation.  The setting in this novel has the potency of character, from the colours and moods of the lake to the abandoned residential school. The author creates an admirable combination of depth in characterization with a plot that doesn’t quit. Both Jeff and Claire’s families are well-drawn in all their complexities. As Claire puts it, “It’s surprising what a heart can take.” Indeed. Jeff’s father is particularly terrifying. I found my stomach clenching every time he came onto the scene.

Clearwater takes an interesting risk with point of view, splitting it between third and first. But McCullough achieves a nice balance between the two and it becomes a quick way for readers to orient themselves. I also liked that the novel followed these characters into adulthood.

The symbolism of flight is used effectively and is never heavy-handed. The proximity of the airport, the loons that have trouble lifting off, the owl that Leah hits with the car at the beginning of the novel – all remind us of how weighted with baggage these people are. It is fitting that the novel ends with flight.

“There’s no sense loving someone halfway,” Claire says to her brother Daniel. McCullough shows us what it means to invest ourselves fully in a relationship – both the cost and the fulfillment.

Clearwater is a compelling read that both teens and adults will enjoy. It is published by Coteau Books (2013).

The Interview: Kim McCullough

Kim McCullough, the author of Clearwater, lets us in on a few secrets.

Tell us something most people don’t know about you:

Not many people know I used to sing in the Sweet Adelines barbershop chorus. I was a member of Prairie Gold, the Regina chapter. However, my enthusiasm for singing far outstrips my talent.

How did you become a writer?

I’ve been writing since I was very young – I have a basement shelf full of half-completed, handwritten novels. They are all very angsty and sentimental and factually incorrect, especially when it comes to romantic endeavours. I didn’t share my writing with anyone, really, until 2007 when I attended the inaugural Fernie Writers’ Conference, where I worked with Angie Abdou. She read my short story out loud, while I had to sit and listen, then listen to the other students critique my work. It was mortifying, and it was empowering. From there – more courses and workshops, and then the MFA at UBC.

Tell us about your most recent project:

This year has been crazy – I’m not sure what to pick as my “most recent.” My novel Clearwater (Coteau Books) was out October 2. I am also working on my Masters’ thesis for UBC. It’s another novel, one that is loosely linked to Clearwater. So this past year has been a combination of editing Clearwater, while trying to create a new world in the thesis novel.

What is the most valuable piece of writing advice you’ve ever received?

This one has taken me the longest to answer, probably because it’s both the easiest and most difficult question. The simple answer is: write. Write every day. But the truth is, the best writing advice came by way of writing lesson given by author Peter Oliva, one of my Fernie instructors. I’m sworn to secrecy, so I won’t go into detail, but it left our little workshop group devastated, some of us in tears, all of us cursing his name. Peter taught me that there is always a deeper, darker, truer place to go. And he taught me that if I think I’m at that scary place, look again. Dig a little deeper.

Give us your Desert Island Reading List (the 3 books you’d choose to be stranded with):

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak

Three Day Road, by Joseph Boyden

Old Friend From Far Away, by Natalie Goldberg – the writing prompts could help me while away the time.

The thing you like most about writing:

I like how the characters come alive. When things are really clicking, they move through a fabricated world all on their own. Because they seem so real to me, I know just how they would react in a given situation. Setting up those situations is pretty fun.

The thing you like least: The time it takes away from my kids.

Unusual work habits/routines/superstitions?

For Clearwater, I had a certain playlist of music I would listen to when I was stuck –  from classical piano from Debussy and Mozart (one of my characters is a pianist) to ‘70’s and ‘80’s top 40. (Seventies because, though the novel starts a decade later, the radio station in the town where it is set was ALWAYS ten years behind.) I’d wrap up with a few nice, dark blasts of Jeff Buckley and the tone was set.

What’s next for you on the writing agenda?

Promotion of my novel. Teaching more Creative Writing classes. Finishing my thesis.

About Kim

Kim McCullough has published reviews and commentary on a number of literary websites. Clearwater is her first published book. She is currently working towards her MFA in creative writing at UBC. Originally from Regina, Kim now teaches in Calgary where she leads various writing workshops for students of all ages, including a writing class for women in recovery.

To find out more about Kim, please visit her website: www.kimmccullough.ca

To come: a review of Clearwater 

Practice Makes...a First Draft

The Daily Practice of Writing

My son went to his first swim meet this weekend. Many of the swimmers were wearing team shirts with motivational quotes on them, and two stuck in my mind. One was a quote from Robert Collier that read: “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” The other was an anonymous quote: “There is no glory in practice, but without practice, there is no glory.”

The quotes referred to swimming, but they could just as easily have been talking about writing; that daily, sometimes dull practice of applying butt to chair and working it through.

There is something to be said for a daily writing practice, especially if you’re tracking that mammoth creature, the novel. In his book, On Writing, Stephen King admits he doesn't take days off – not Sundays, not even Christmas. I’m beginning to understand why. Spending at least a half hour every day working on your novel is almost like raising its metabolism. Even when you do other things for the rest of your day, it’s still there – however you want to think of it: simmering on the backburner, burning calories, producing new ideas.

Take a week off in the middle of a draft and you imagine you’d come back fresh. No, more like confused. What was I planning to do with that plotline again? Is George an only child, or does he have siblings? And where did this character come from? I don't remember him.

In fact, a daily practice is valuable not only for the novel, but for any kind of creative writing. I once embarked on a project in which I decided to write a poem a day for a year. I gave myself permission to write crap – and, as it turns out, many of the poems were pretty crappy. But there had to be one in my notebook, somehow, by the end of every day. I didn’t quite make it to 365 – I think it was more like 340. But I learned a few things from that project, one of which is that when you prime the creative pump, the words will eventually flow.

So how does one find the time to work every day? There are several approaches. Get up earlier every morning. Consecrate half of your lunch hour to writing. Turn off the TV. According to Eckhart Tolle, the average American will have spent 15 years in front of the television by the time he/she is 60 years old. That is a frightening thought. Imagine what you could do with that extra time.

Try to make one definite move every day towards writing – a commitment of half an hour, 350 words, whatever you can handle. That small step repeated daily will eventually win you a completed first draft.

God is in the Details

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about details.  

Breaking Bad is over, and if ever there was a show that paid attention to detail it was that one, from those ominous skull-tipped boots to the pink teddy bear with the missing eye that lands in Walt’s swimming pool.

After the finale I listened to Anna Gunn on Talking Bad compliment Vince Gilligan for the care he took in incorporating minute detail into every scene he directed. It occurred to me that detail can make the difference in how we as readers or viewers believe in a scene.

In her book Reading Like a Writer, Francine Prose has an excellent chapter on detail. “Details are what persuade us that someone is telling the truth,” she writes. It’s that one perfect detail that will nail a scene – the equivalent to Flaubert’s mot juste. 

But if God is in the details, remember there’s a flipside to that saying:  the devil is in them, too. 

 

The wrong details in a scene will leave your reader scratching his or her head in confusion. And perish the thought of the anachronistic detail – your reader might throw the book across the room.  A lack of detail creates vagueness and might send the message to your reader that you have not fully imagined your scene.  

In terms of characterization, the well-chosen detail – or, as New Zealand novelist Maurice Shadbolt calls it, the “precious particle” – can serve as a brilliant shorthand to nail a character even more effectively than long description would. If you want to go back to Breaking Bad (and I know you do), think of Bogdan’s eyebrows, Marie’s penchant for purple, Todd’s ringtone, Hector Salamanca’s bell. Notice that these are not particularly extreme (okay, maybe Bogdan’s eyebrows are extreme). But they’re memorable.

If the right detail makes a scene, too much detail can kill it. It’s a little like interior design. Tastefully done, it works. But too many paintings combined with too many frilled lampshades and embroidered cushions – and you cross the line into kitsch.

So how do you find that perfect detail, the one that makes your scene live for the reader? That’s the million-dollar question.  I find the simple exercise of closing my eyes and engaging all of my senses, being fully in the scene, can help.  I also find that my worst enemy is abstraction. Don’t say the room was a mess, or the attic stunk, or the shirt was ugly. The more specific you can be, the more your scene will come to life.

Probably the most helpful advice I’ve received?

Pay attention. To everything. And write it down. You’ll be surprised at the tiny details that come creeping into your scenes from real life.

Happy writing!

The Interview: Holley Rubinsky

Interview With Holley Rubinsky

Following on last week's review of Holley Rubinsky's newest collection of short stories, South of Elfrida, I offer you Holley in her own words....

Tell us something most people don’t know about you:

I’ve had fibromyalgia for thirty years or more, now entangled with age-related osteoarthritis. I lost years in the wilderness of symptoms — muscle pain, exhaustion and other consequences of what is, essentially, a sleep disorder. Diagnosis was helpful, because I found resources that enabled me to deal with a chronic affliction. Rest and management of symptoms is key. I’ve had to be lazier, and have had the luxury to be lazier, than most people can get away with.

How did you become a writer?

Writing was the only way I could stay alive; I had (and still have) “issues” (as we say today) that vanish from my heart when handed over to a fictional character.

What is the most valuable piece of writing advice you’ve ever received?

In Banff, Alistair MacLeod said: If Harry and Ray show up at the door, it’s important for the reader to know that Ray is a dog.

Being deliberately mysterious and “keeping the reader guessing” is what new writers sometimes do, mistaking unclear prose for narrative intrigue and tension.

Give us your Desert Island Reading List (the 3 books you’d choose to be stranded with):

A Flash of Lightning in the Dark of Night, by HH the Dalai Lama, an interpretation of Shantideva’s 8^th century guide, The Bodhisattva’s Way of Life

(The premise of A Flash of Lightning…is to be aware of and control the negative emotions, especially those hurtful to others. Being alone on a desert island would not provide much practice… but, dealing with one’s own ego, physical body, personality and ramifications of personal history might be quite enough.

The Worst Journey in the World, by Apsley Cherry-Garrard relates the tale of Scott’s expedition to the South Pole from a man who was there. Nearly 600 pages of an adventure that would make a tropical island seem like paradise.

The Bird Watcher’s Anthology, compiled by Roger Tory Peterson. A friend gave me the first edition, published in 1957. Eighty-five birders share first-hand observations of birds. Included is a piece by Apsley Cherry-Garrard.

The thing you like most about writing:

After the idea takes hold and I grasp the reason behind why I should put myself through such a lot of hard work, I love rewriting, editing, hacking extra phrases, honing in on the most precise way to say what I mean and make the writing seem simple.

The thing you like least:

Getting started. I go out of my way to avoid getting started.

Any unusual work habits/routines/superstitions?

I blame village life and verandahland for my lack of writing rigour and routine. When I’m “in”, however, when I am oddly, deeply involved, the Taurus in me takes hold, and I am tenacious to the end.

What’s next for you on the writing agenda:

My plan is every literary writer’s plan— to write a bestselling mystery.

About Holley

Holley Rubinsky, Canadian fiction writer living in British Columbia, Canada, is the author of South of Elfrida (Brindle & Glass, 2013), At First I Hope forRescue (Knopf C­anada, 1997; Picador, 1998), Rapid Transits and Other Stories (Pol­estar, 1991) and Beyond This Point, (McClelland & Stewart, 2006).

Winner of the first $10,000 Journey Prize, a National Magazine Award Gold Medal for fiction, and nominated for B.C.'s Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, Rubinsky hosted The Writers' Show, produced by CJLY, Nelson. Her stories have appeared in a number of anthologies, including The PenguinAnthology of Stories by Canadian Women.

She holds an M.Ed from U.C.L.A, earned her single-engine land private pilot's license early on, works for Writing Retreats Kaslo, applies the Usui system of Reiki healing when needed and practices Buddhism as taught to the West by HH the Dalai Lama.

The late Yuri Rubinsky, software architect, was Holley's husband. Robin Ballard, Rubinsky's daughter, is an artist and writer living in Switzerland.