Why I Wrote This Book: Issue #33

Featuring Emily De Angelis, Gina Brown, Mitchell Toews, and Mark Shupe

Why do your favourite Canadian authors write the books they write? Let’s find out in this exclusive feature here at The Miramichi Reader.

Cover photo credit: Connor Price-Kelleher


Emily De Angelis, author of The Stones of Burren Bay (Latitude 46 Publishing, May 2024)

I wrote The Stones of Burren Bay for two reasons. The first is personal and rather indulgent. I simply love Manitoulin Island, the setting of the novel. The largest fresh water island in the world, it is surrounded by the waters of Lake Huron, bordered on the north by the North Channel, to the west by the Mississagi Strait and to the east by Georgian Bay. I was highly motivated to explore this beautiful Canadian location through the development of the fictitious village of Burren Bay inspired by Manitoulin’s many real bays and settlements. I love the geology of the land—its limestone alvars born of the Niagara Escarpment, the flora and fauna growing from the thin soil in grooves and cracks worn over time into the rock. The cultural steadfastness of the Indigenous peoples who were and remain stewards of Spirit Island long before white settlers came and took what was not theirs, permeates the environment. There is a sacred and hallow character to the Island that allowed me to weave a believable, yet magical, thread of ancient Celtic spiritualism through a contemporary story. 

The second more complex reason for writing this book revealed itself while I was writing early drafts. The protagonist, 15-year-old Nori struggles when she experiences tragedy and death causing her to turn away from her artistic identity—the one thing that could help her to heal and forgive. All forms of art are powerful forms of self-expression. They also present poignant and powerful ways to decode and communicate thoughts and feelings. In a world full of global conflict, political strife, and the attack on basic human rights for women, the LGBTQIA+ community and other minorities, I wanted to show through story that the arts are an important and effective means of dealing with difficult topics and emotions. Whether you dance, play an instrument, perform slam poetry, or draw like Nori, participation in an artistic endeavour is communicative and healing, helping to maintain mental health and assisting in the developing of coping mechanisms. It doesn’t even matter if we are any good at painting or singing or tap dancing. Art is an outlet that releases our worry, if only briefly, and allows us to express our inner most thoughts and feelings privately or publicly. I believe art allows us to DO OUR BEING and wrote The Stones of Burren Bay to demonstrate that belief.

Emily De Angelis comes from a long line of visual artists, musicians, and storytellers.  She was born in Sudbury, Ontario where she lived and taught special needs students for 30 years. A graduate of the Humber School of Writing, her western and Japanese-style poems as well as short stories have been published in various anthologies. The Stones of Burren Bay is her first YA novel. Emily now lives in Woodstock, Ontario while spending summers on Manitoulin Island.


Gina Brown, author of The Sugar Bowl Feud (Novaheart Media, April 2024)

When writing novels, I sometimes wonder if life imitates art or art imitates life. In 2021, I lost three close family members within five months. As the executor of my husband’s estate and helper with my Mom’s estate, I was fortunate because everybody got along, and we worked through our grief together. Yet I learned that’s not always the case. Over endless pots of tea in my garden, my friends regaled me with their stories about sibling rows — my bistro table under the wisteria vine was like a confession booth for family secrets. Soon I’d heard enough incidents to fill multiple books. Some stories were poignant, moving and shocking, others hilarious. I wondered if I could help people understand how sad it was to see families ‘break up’ over an estate. With that, The Sugar Bowl Feud was born. The premise was simple: four grieving siblings inherit their Mom’s home full of stuff and all want her sugar bowl. What could possibly go wrong?

To prepare, I dove deep into character development with the four siblings and one secondary character (their mother’s best friend), ensuring conflict and drama. I outlined the chapters using different points of view, to show how each character would behave in various situations. Humour was sprinkled throughout (including pet antics), to ensure it didn’t get too heavy. I set the story in a fictional town in Nova Scotia and changed people’s details to protect the innocent — and the guilty! The book raced out of my head and onto the page faster than I could type. I went from a story idea that nagged at me to a completed novel in nine months (my first novel took three years). And the most satisfying moment? Several people have written to me, including one reader who said she was so moved, that she reached out to her siblings to see if they could patch up their family row after six years. That made my day!

Gina Brown is a writer and the founder of NovaHeart Media, an independent publishing platform. She has written and published two novels, The Sugar Bowl Feud and Lucy McGee’s Moment of Truth. In addition, she has written travel, memoir and lifestyle articles for magazines, newspapers and online platforms. Gina lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.


Mitchell Toews, author of Pinching Zwieback (At Bay Press, October 2023)

photo credit: Mike Deal

Like most authors, I had numerous reasons to write my book. Legacy, heritage, tell my story my way, and so on. Valid reasons. I had these plus some ulterior motivation.

The summer before I left for my first year of university in the early seventies, I sat with a friend on a Lumber Avenue porch in Steinbach, Manitoba and we sipped from ice-cold green glass bottles of Coca-Cola. I was feeling prideful and worldly, about to set off for exotic Vancouver Island and the pocket rocket of a city, Victoria. We sipped our Cokes in the shade and talked of the world before us, the magical places beyond Steinbach. Feeling young and strong and stolt (vain as a strutting rooster), I talked about my love of reading and writing and allowed as to how, “I think I might have a book in me…”

Yikes.

Ten years later, at a high school reunion, I met that old friend again. We had each gone our separate paths and the world had roughed us up in some ways and treated us well in many others. We chatted, smiling, each comfortable in our skin until there was a pause and my friend asked, genuinely and without malice, “How’s that book of yours coming along?”

Double yikes. 

I felt like I was battered in cream gravy and dipped in hot fat. Me and my big mouth and my suddenly tight-fitting britches. 

I kept this searing memory alive for another half-a-lifetime or so, coincidentally humiliating and inspiring as it was. When the first grandkid arrived in New West 15 years ago, I wondered if maybe I could still give “the creative writing thing” a go. Somehow? Sure, I had lost a little fizz, but I had been compensated with a cache of experiences and a thick hide, deep-fried many times.

From that crucible, I produced Pinching Zwieback: Made-up Stories from the Darp. I guess it takes a Darp—and some teenage chest thumpingto write a book. 

Mitchell Toews has placed stories in 122 literary journals and anthologies since 2016. A four-time Pushcart Prize nominee, he has been a finalist in numerous major contests and prizes. He is currently working on his debut novel and curating a second collection of stories.

Mitch and his wife Janice live in their 1950 cabin in Manitoba’s Whiteshell Park and may be found on the lake, on the trails, or loose, in the wild air. More conveniently, catch him in his virtual habitat, Mitchellaneous.com, Facebook or Instagram.


Mark Shupe, author of The Wish Doctor (Moose House Publications, December 2023)

I wrote The Wish Doctor because I had always wanted to write a magical book that would speak to people from 12 to 100. But mostly because the story took over my head and heart. A visit to the landscape and folktales of Ireland sparked the original idea. Then the characters seemed to take on life of their own, the mysterious Wish Doctor; the ShuperShark; Alma, who can make wishes true only when she is angry, and Ron is he a teddy bear turned into a live bear, or live bear turned into a teddy bear (or something else entirely).

The undergoing allegory about transferring responsibility from one generation to another became real as I suffered a heart attack and realized I had to turn over my responsibilities. I needed to mentor the young people who would take over my work responsibilities and make sure my children were ready for the future.

What better place to teach people about the world of fantasy than at the School of Wish.

I wanted a story with serious undertones, but also had a sense of humour with twists and turns and eccentric characters (sort of like me and people I know.) I also wanted a vehicle where puns actually made sense and could drive the plot! When Vernon Oickle gave me a review that said “Move over Harry Potter, The Wish Doctor is here.” I knew I had succeeded.

 Every year on his birthday since he was 12, Mark Shupe has made a wish that someday he could share his overactive imagination through his writing.A Bachelor of Journalism graduate, Mark gave up a career as a sportswriter (he hosted an international TV show, “Running”) to write edgy and tightly-worded audit reports for a ginormous corporation. He and famous author Lana Shupe have Wishlight Cottage, at Sandy Point on Nova Scotia’s South Shore, after years of living in Calgary.

1 thought on “Why I Wrote This Book: Issue #33”

  1. Who cares why you wrote it, would I like to read it? Unending rumbles tumble out of authors’ heads, I’m behind on my reading and here is yet another fireworks show. I’ve met Mitch Toews, friendly and inclusive coming from his familiar place of excellence. Now, I see, these authors are all bright lights. Reading Issue 33, Why I Wrote This Book, wasn’t like going to a Tupperware party where you buy something you don’t need in exchange for eats set out by the host. The Sugar Bowl Feud is going on the Should Read list., thanks to The Mirimachi Reader

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