Is the character of Lisa in the book based on you?
No. Lisa is fictional although she may share some traits of mine like she is from Aspen Cove and so am I; she has a BA from Memorial University as do I; we both had dogs named Taylor; and we both worked in a detox. We also share a fear a fear of public speaking but don't most people share that fear? I would say that I would like to be a little more like Lisa in that she has more confidence than I do and speaks her mind more than I do.
Did you the base the character of [insert character name here] on me or someone I know?
No. It amazes me that everyone I know seems to think that either they
are the basis of a character or that they have figured out who is the basis
of a character. Like any writer, I suppose I take bits and pieces of people
I have met but all of the characters in the book are completely ficitonal with the exception
of Rain. Rain is similar to a friend of mine only in that my
friend is artsy so she, and some of her artsy friends, gave me the basic idea for Rain.
That is where her similarity to Rain ends because my friend is probably the anti-Rain.
Her nickname would be Sunshine.
Is the detox in the book the same as the one you worked at?
No. The detox I worked in physically resembled the one in the novel,
at least at first. We later moved to a new building.
Some general descriptions of what it was like to work
at a detox are also a little true but sometimes exaggerated
(I'm not telling which parts are which). None of Lisa’s specfic experiences
at the detox ever happened to me or anyone I know and none of the characters
in the detox are based on real people. They are figments of my overactive imagination.
Are Lisa's experiences the same as yours?
No. I could list all the differences between Lisa and me but it is easier just to say
“no” since almost nothing Lisa experiences ever happened to me.
Two quick examples of our very different lives are that
I have never lived anywhere but Newfoundland and Labrador and I lived with
my boyfriend from the age of eighteen until we got married 19 years later.
Our parents were fully aware of this. In fact, when we moved into our first apartment,
my mother gave me a plaque with a Cathy cartoon on it and told me to put it over our bed.
It said "Your mother knows what you're doing".
It is still over our bed now, and has been in every apartment and house we've lived in.
Also, I like to keep good news, rather than bad,
from my parents and kept quiet about both my wedding and my pregnancy
until I could give them great and happy surprises.
You said almost nothing that happened to Lisa happened to you. What things are the same?
Well, some small things may be similar like the things I explained above in the first question on this page.
I may have smelled something once that smelled
like something Lisa smelled
in the book or some descriptions of places are the same.
I definitely ate and drank some of the same things Lisa did
(I did the tequila, 7-Up and "shake" thing Lisa does in the book although
it did not lead to the same outcome).
The only specific thing I can think of which Lisa did that I did
(other than the "shake" thing) was an experience in the chapter
"The Long Forgotten Sister" where Lisa talks about having to speak
in front of a group of people at MUN. With some small differences, that experience happened to me.
How did you come up with the idea of this much is true?
Well, it was really a case of the cart before the horse.
I had most of the book written before I figured out a way to join all the separate pieces of Lisa's life together.
I had started writing her story after I returned from a short vacation in Toronto during a heat wave.
I was so thankful to be back home in Newfoundland and Labrador and thought how awful
it would be if I had to leave for good as so many people have to do.
I started the story of someone who left and hated it then Lisa took up permanent residence in my head.
I began to think of other things that happened to Lisa and wrote lots of chapters
(I had to cut out a lot of them when it came time to finish the manuscript)
with no idea how to connect all these separate sections of Lisa’s life.
Then, I was watching a show about someone who worked in a British Embassy
and the backdrop of the show was her writing letters home to tell what was happening.
Supposedly, all the things in the show were things she wrote back home,
like sexual encounters and the like. The kicker was when there was a bomb explosion at the embassy.
This girl talked about it in her letter and I thought to myself,
that I would never have told my parents that.
I would have told them that I had been off sick on the day of the explosion.
CLICK! I realized that Lisa could tell her parents how great things were going
when the opposite was true because so many people do that, either in a big or small way. It's universal.
Is it true that you are obsessed with pens?
Yes. I’m afraid this one is true.
I collect fountain pens, as well as pens of all sizes,
shapes and price ranges. I have gone out in a blizzard
to get a new $2.49 pen I saw in a flyer. My worst pen confession is that
I will always try to identify a pen on screen. If it is a television show I have
taped or a movie I have rented, I will rewind and rewind again until I figure out what
kind of pen it is or know enough about its appearance to allow me to start my quest for that pen.
Sad, I know, but true. There are no twelve-step programs for people like me but
there are great places to talk to other people about pens like the
Zoss Pens Listserv and
the Pentrace Message Board.
If I have just fueled your addiction to pens even further by giving you this information,
I both apologize to your spouse and give you a hearty welcome.
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