Mad Miss Mimic: Q & A with author Sarah Henstra

Sarah Henstra

author 

of Razorbill's newest #YACanLit 

and historical romantic mystery

Mad Miss Mimic

Razorbill

978-0-14-319236-7

272 pp.

Ages 13+

For release May, 2015

reviewed yesterday

and trailer posted here

has graciously agreed to allow 

CanLit for LittleCanadians 

to explore her writing world 

and learn more details about her and Mad Miss Mimic.

 *   *   *   *   *   *   * 

HK:  Mad Miss Mimic delves into a great number of issues. When you set out to write Mad Miss Mimic, which was the issue (stuttering and mimicry, explosives, overuse of opium, morphine and laudanum, etc.) that spurred you on and why?

SH:  The first idea that started to grow in my imagination into something like a story was Leonora’s ability to mimic other people’s voices. A talent like this could mean trouble for an upper-upper class girl like Leo who is expected to speak with perfect decorum and sincerity at all times. She’d have to keep her mimicry tightly under wraps, right? But what if she couldn’t keep it under wraps? What if she couldn’t control when she falls into mimicry or whom she imitates? What if, despite her beauty and her good connections and her inheritance, Leo has to be hidden away from society for fear of gossip? What if she keeps accidentally scaring away the eligible bachelors who come to court her? Now that would be a story!



HK:  Did you always intend to make Mad Miss Mimic into a historical romantic mystery, or did the plot take you there without your knowledge?

SH:  I started to think about Mad Miss Mimic on a research trip to London. Mornings were spent at the British Library, reading about mourning customs during the Victorian period. In the afternoons I would ramble all around the city, searching out tiny shops in back alleys and sitting under trees in the public gardens. Because of my academic work my mind was already in the nineteenth century, I guess. I love London for the way history is crammed cheek by jowl with the modern commercial stuff. Right behind a Topshop there’ll be a cobblestone lane with huge wooden doors on iron runners and a trough to feed the carriage- horses—that sort of thing. So the historical setting came first, followed by the romantic mystery plot.



HK:  As a professor at Ryerson, your teaching of Gothic literature and women in literature has undoubtedly helped enhance your own writing.  Whose writing most influenced your own?

SH:  I’m a big believer in the role repression plays in romance: the steamiest scenes result from what the lovers are unable, or unwilling, to say to one another. Nineteenth century fiction perfected this formula: Jane and Rochester, Catherine and Heathcliff, Lizzie and Darcy. So I had lots of models to work from.

I was teaching Bram Stoker’s Dracula while writing Mad Miss Mimic, so that book in particular made an impact on mine. The newspaper articles written by Leo’s cousin Archie and scattered throughout the novel are a structural trick I lifted straight from Stoker. In fact, at one point Dracula led me astray when it came to historical accuracy in my manuscript. Stoker has his characters employ all the latest gadgets and medical theories and communication technologies to outmaneuver the vampire (who wants to colonize the ‘new world’ of London but is stuck in the past). Telegrams, phonographic recordings, cinema shows, blood transfusions, steamships— Stoker geeked out about all this newfangled stuff in his 1897 novel.

In one of Mad Miss Mimic’s last rounds of editing, my hawk-eyed copy editor/fact-checker flagged a scene in which Archie is speaking to Leo while trying to meet his deadline for reporting the train derailment. I’d described Archie typing furiously and then tearing the paper out of the typewriter with a flourish and handing it off to the printers. Except that my novel takes place in 1872, and the first QWERTY typewriter—which of course gets heavy play in Dracula—wasn’t manufactured until 1873. Oops!

HK:  I find so much to love about youngCanLit but I'm especially enamoured with writing that is rich and evocative and your writing is both.  I wrote down quote after quote, loving how your words mean so much more than their simple meanings, such as this one passage:

“Where I balanced now, though, was a world askew. Oh, it was still peopled by beer-sellers and fishwives and scavenging children, but all these poor souls went about their business in perfect ignorance.  They did not know what I knew.  How could they?  They had not leapt as I had. They couldn't possibly see how disordered the world had become, how its most basic elements had been shuffled and scattered and turned on end.” (pg. 158)

What experiences (e.g., education, workshops, reading, etc.) were most important in shaping your writing?

SH:  I’ve been reading for pleasure and keeping some kind of journal since I was very young. I first learned to write fiction by copying out passages from my favorite books and writing my own stories in the style of my favorite authors—in other words, through mimicry! Graduate school taught me to read texts more carefully, to notice how they were put together and what effects they created for readers. But what taught me how to write novels was writing a novel. It’s such a long, solitary task, and when you’re finally finished the first draft is when the real work begins! Nothing can really prepare you for that ahead of time.



HK:  This is your first novel.  Was Mad Miss Mimic the book that you always dreamed of writing or are there still more books in your future?

SH:  Mad Miss Mimic is the first novel I finished—there were others I got partway through, including a first installment of a YA fantasy trilogy. I have more ideas for books than I’ll ever be able to write in this lifetime. Luckily, I’ve discovered that writing is like yoga or multivitamins: doing it every day makes me a healthier, happier person. So stay tuned…!

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Many thanks to author Sarah Henstra for answering these questions for CanLit for LittleCanadians and to Vikki VanSickle, publicist extraordinaire, for facilitating this author interview.

Mad Miss Mimic

by Sarah Henstra

Razorbill

978-0-14-319236-7

272 pp.

Ages 13+

For release May, 2015

Fitting in is a dilemma for young people the world over and throughout time, whether it be contemporary Canada or 1870s London.  But the constraints of Victorian England were highly embedded in the strict social hierarchy of the day.  Young women of standing, such as seventeen-year-old Miss Leonora Somerville, niece of the Countess of Hastings, were expected to make suitable marriages, partaking in endless social engagements, while the men were to engage themselves with business and politics.  But, as lovely as she is, Leonora’s stammering and learned ability to mimic others–she has heard them call her Mad Miss Mimic–have put her at a great social disadvantage, and one which her older sister Christabel, wife of Dr. Daniel Dewhurst and mother of two, is determined to hide–afterall, “Madness will take the shine off gold” (pg. 21)–in order to procure an engagement for Leonora and finally move her out of Hastings House.

Currently, Christabel’s efforts are focused on the wealthy merchant seaman Mr. Thornfax, a new business partner of Daniel’s and the son of the Lord Rosbury.  And all Leonora has to do it not speak.  But when Mr. Thornfax asks her questions directly, she has no choice but to answer, unconsciously mimicking her sister.

“Mimic had leapt in to rescue me from trouble. She’d allowed me to adopt my sister’s voice and manners wholesale, so that I could say whatever Christabel would say–or whatever I might imagine her to say–in precisely the way Christabel would have said it.” (pg. 30)

Fortunately, her cousin Archie Maverty, a reporter, who knows of her mimicry, rescues her, though more for her benefit than for Thornfax whom he regards as suspicious. But it is Daniel’s work at his surgery, where a young man named Tom Rampling assists him, that makes Leonora suspicious, especially after a young servant girl, Hattie, dies.

Because of her household interactions with Hattie, and her curiosity about Hattie’s involvement with Daniel and Mr. Thornfax, Leonora develops a rapport with the clever and creative Tom, to whom she is drawn because of his compassion for others and his acceptance of her mimicry.  However, Leonora is still being courted by Thornfax, London is still being held hostage by the dangerous Black Glove and his fatal explosions, and Leonora is troubled with doubts about Tom’s honesty, Christabel’s frequent agitation, and Daniel and Thornfax’s business.  That very simple but necessary betrothal begins to be the least of Leonora’s worries soon enough.

At its heart, Mad Miss Mimic is a Victorian mystery, all the more perplexing because of the information that the characters choose to share of themselves.  Yes, the Black Glove chooses to remain concealed, but everyone else–Tom, Thornfax, Christabel, Daniel– including our narrator herself also chose what secrets and fears and guilt they share and which they do not.  The reluctance of all to speak with their own voices–save perhaps their Aunt Emma, but I suspect age and privilege have helped beget that courage–creates the mystery of Mad Miss Mimic.  And, with Sarah Henstra’s brilliant characterizations and historical setting, the mystery and an unexpected and sweet romance at its core, Mad Miss Mimic reveals the need for voices to be given the freedom for expression if life is to be worth living.

 *   *   *   *   *   *   * 

Special post tomorrow: Q & A with author Sarah Henstra about her first novel, Mad Miss Mimic

Here Babies, There Babies

by Nancy Cohen

Illustrated by Carmen Mok

Nimbus Publishing

978-1-77108-273-0

14 pp.

Ages 0-2

April 2015

Everyone loves babies, and they are everywhere!  They’re traveling with moms and dads and various caregivers, everywhere and no where, and sitting and playing and crying and sleeping.  Then repeat. It’s a recipe for a fun day of watching babies in all their glorious busyness.

Nancy Cohen’s delightful rhyming text is very simple but not simplistic.  It’s a fun read with rhythms and beats, and the fluency of a rat-a-tat on a drum or the flapping spokes of a bicycle wheel.

Baby in a stroller, going for a walk
Baby making friends, when Mommy stops to talk.

And Carmen Mok’s cheerful illustrations of round-faced kids waving, reading (OK, looking at pictures), sleeping and holding toys are serene and bright without being silly or puerile. It’s a wonderful combination of text and art that I believe will be appreciated by more than the ages 0-2 set designated and their families. Here’s a perfect read for a kindergarten class or preschoolers who adore babies and can appreciate the full range of baby activities lived. Sweet, sweet, sweet!

Forever Julia

by Jodi Carmichael
Great Plains Teen Fiction
978-1-927855-20-1
262 pp.
Ages 14+
April, 2015

Julia Collins must feel like she's living her life from out-of-body. And with the life she has, I might want out too. Her much-adored dad has passed from cancer just 6 months ago, and her Mom is so grief-stricken that she can't even bear to speak of him.  They now live in a small two-bedroom flat above their bookstore and money is an issue, though Julia had never minds thrift-store shopping with her long-time best friend and creative fashionista, Annika, who understands about Julia's issues with depression and anxiety and watches out for her constantly.

But now Julia is going out with the obscenely wealthy Jeremy Thurston, a.k.a. the Third, jock and popularity icon, and he is pressuring her to have sex, though she has made it clear that she is not ready.  The gutsy Annika can’t stand Jeremy and makes it clear every time he pulls some stunt, like kicking Julia out of the ski chalet where they were supposed spend the night when she refuses his advances yet again.  Sadly, in her mind, Julia is convinced that she can have it all: the wonderful dating relationship with Jeremy who calls her “beautiful”; new friendships with the popular girls; a scholarship to USC for architecture; and the best friendship she has ever had.  Imagine thinking,

Maybe if I convince Annika to tone down her wardrobe, Jeremy would see how incredible she really is and then maybe everyone would get along. (pg. 105)

Sadly naïve, but probably not atypical for a teen who is trying to work everything out.

Then Grandma, who generally splits her time between Arizona and the cottage, arrives to stay–in Julia’s room–while being treated for breast cancer.  Now both Grandma and Mom are watching her and what’s going on around her, and they’re not always pleased by what they see.

It’s not surprising that Julia questions everything that she feels but what’s worse is that she never trusts her feelings to be legit or honest.  Whether that’s because of her anxiety or depression is irrelevant.  All that matters is that the life that was once warmed with Dad and Mom happily living in a modest home and with a reliable and loving BFF is now a life she doesn’t even recognize as her own.  Who is the girl who lets herself drink when she knows it’s verboten with the meds she’s on?  Who is the girl who kisses her boyfriend in public like there's no one else around?  Who is the girl who apologizes to a guy who thinks nothing of stranding her at a ski resort when she doesn’t want to have sex?  Jeremy may get a tattoo, even a temporary one, that reads “Forever Julia” but Julia can’t be forever when she doesn’t  know who she is, who she wants to be, or who she can be.

Jodi Carmichael gets inside of this Julia and gives her a true voice, albeit one mixed and confused with guilt, grief, envy, desire, and affection.  Julia definitely morphs over the course of Forever Julia though I suspect she hasn’t come into herself completely, yet. Forever is a long time to be someone, to love someone, to trust someone, to be friends. It may be possible but maybe not.  Not everything can be forever: not life, not love, not lust, not even family nor  friends.  And Jodi Carmichael makes sure that Julia accepts this, even if only temporarily, in Forever Julia.

The Tweedles Go Online

Written by Monica Kulling

Illustrated by Marie Lafrance

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-353-7

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

For release May 2015

Monica Kulling and Marie Lafrance's endearingly old-fashioned family, the Tweedles, has returned and this time they're looking to go online.  Telephone line, that is.

"I see we are going modern," sighed Papa. "Again."

First they moved from bicycles and horse and carriage to electric car in The Tweedles Go Electric (Groundwood, 2014).  Now Mama, with children Franny and Frankie, is ready to embrace the new technology that has their neighbour Mrs. Hamm raving about staying connected with her sister and friends, and about ordering her groceries online.  Papa still prefers the olds ways of getting about, i.e., walking and horses, and spending time with family playing crokinole.  And the noisy bells, the incessant chatter at all hours, and the time the new contraption takes away from their family time has him quietly resentful, though he says nothing. Papa is too much of a gentleman and wants to keep his family happy.  But when the telephone would surely have been useful in communicating an emergency, it falls short and the Tweedles recognize its limitations, with charming acceptance.

It seems the new developments of the first half of the 20th century produced similar effects to those of our 21st century: suspicion, caution, acceptance, overuse, disappointment, and finally comfort.  And how Monica Kulling is able to pack all that into a mere 32 pages, while still creating an engaging family of individuals—Papa, Mama, Franny and Frankie are completely unique and recognizable—with friends–Gladys Hamm is surely a woman we all know or knew–is astounding to me.  I said it before and I’ll say it again: I love the Tweedles!  They are refreshing, honest, unique and their take on all things new and 20th century is enchanting.

And Marie Lafrance puts colour and form to Monica Kulling’s Tweedles and story that I’m not sure anyone else could do so completely.  From their hair to their clothes, and the manner of their movements or even stances, Marie Lafrance has given life to the Tweedles and established a calming and rich environment–her colour palette is impeccable!– in which they can thrive, nay, progress.

The Missing Dog is Spotted

Written by Jessica Scott Kerrin

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-726-9

204 pp.

Ages 8-12

March, 2015

Two years ago, Jessica Scott Kerrin brought us The Spotted Dog Last Seen  (Groundwood, 2013) about Grade 6 student volunteers who help the Twillingate Cemetery Brigade and learn from the elderly Mr. Creelman and his cronies about reading epitaphs and cleaning grave markers.  But there was much more to that story, including a school’s time capsule, a spotted dog and a Mystery Book Club, and The Missing Dog is Spotted takes us to an earlier time to introduce those critical elements, while providing a great story in itself.

Sixth graders Trevor and Loyola may have a secret and unspoken pact that “under absolutely no circumstances were they to appear together side by side” (pg. 12) because of the  humongous disparity in their heights, but it seems the universe doesn’t know about that agreement, because, when they get out of volunteering together on the Twillingate Cemetery Brigade, they are then thrust together at the animal shelter to walk dogs for the elderly.  While the two kids walk their six dogs, they soon realize that everyone is more focused on the dogs, not them.  That’s okay since they will need to work together to help solve the mystery of Mr. Fester’s missing dog, Buster.  And that mystery is complicated.

The Missing Dog is Spotted may be based on Trevor and Loyola’s volunteering with dogs but it’s a far greater story about trying to do the right thing, accepting that sometimes things go wrong and can never be fixed, and guilt can be brutal.  Of course, I’m not giving away much about who feels such guilt or about what because it’s irrelevant–though you'll learn it soon enough when you read the book– since guilt is universal, even for those who could take a lesson in accepting responsibility for making the lives of others more difficult than necessary.  But Jessica Scott Kerrin doesn’t saturate The Missing Dog is Spotted with that guilt, though there is that anguish that is always involved when an animal goes missing and even more so when that animal belongs to an elderly person who adores that pet.  Instead, Jessica Scott Kerrin holds the angst back and ensures that The Missing Dog is Spotted remains a strong middle grade book that focuses on the concerns and misunderstandings that children and pre-teens might recognize, and still provides a happy ending, for a dog at least.

Authors for Indies Day: May 2, 2015

Celebrate independent bookstores in Canada

on Saturday, May 2, 2015 

with your favourite children's and YA authors 

who will be there volunteering!

Across Canada this Saturday, many authors will be volunteering their time to promote independent bookstores.   I know I’m going to miss some of your favourites but here’s a generous smattering of independent bookstores who will be hosting an assortment of authors (children’s, YA and adult) and even providing treats and prizes, if you’re lucky!

PLEASE check with the Authors for Indies website and individual bookstores listed with regards to the timing of events and schedule for author appearances. As you’ll note, authors may be at several venues during the day and I would hate for you to miss them because of a lack of clarity or detail in my listings.

British Columbia

Mosaic Books, Kelowna

Karen Autio

Black Bond Books (Trenant Park Square), Ladner

Susan Juby

Ashley Spires

Black Bond Books, Maple Ridge

Tiffany Stone

Talisman Books & Gallery, Pender Island

Penny Draper

Andrea Spalding

Salt Spring Books, Salt Spring Island

Margriet Ruurs

Kim Thompson

Black Bond Books (Central City), Surrey

Gabrielle Prendergast

Black Bonds Books Warehouse, Surrey

Sylvia Taylor

Kidsbooks in the Village, North Vancouver

Eileen Cook

Shelley Hrdlitschka

Ainslie Manson

David Smith

Book Warehouse on Broadway, Vancouver

Susin Nielsen

Paola Opal

Book Warehouse on Main Street, Vancouver

Sarah Ellis

Hager Books, Vancouver

Caroline Adderson

Beryl Young

Kidsbooks on Broadway, Vancouver

Caroline Adderson

Ashley Spires

Gabrielle Prendergast

Norma Charles

Kathryn Shoemaker

Susin Nielsen

Julie Flett

Jeremy Tankard

Cynthia Nugent

Tiffany Stone

Linda Bailey

Deborah Hodge

Sheri Radford

Maggie De Vries

UBC Bookstore, Vancouver

Shar Levine

Paola Opal

Sheri Radford

Bolen Books, Victoria

Daniel Luxton

Troy Wilson

Munro’s Books, Victoria

Julie Lawson

Kit Pearson

Robin Stevenson

ALBERTA

Owl’s Nest Books, Calgary

Janet Gurtler

Audrey’s Books, Edmonton

Mike Boldt

Lorna Schultz Nicholson

Gail Sidonie Sobat

Thomas Wharton

SASKATCHEWAN

SK Books & Collectibles Inc., Regina

Alison Lohans

McNally Robinson Booksellers, Saskatoon

Beth Goobie

MANITOBA

McNally Robinson Book Sellers, Winnipeg

Shelly Sanders

Larry Verstraete

ONTARIO

Mill Street Books, Almonte

Jan Andrews

Liane Shaw

Forster’s Book Garden, Bolton

Kelley Armstrong

Alyxandra Harvey

Steve and Mary Runciman, Runley Books

Lighthouse Books, Brighton

Peggy Dymond Leavey

Renee Schmidt

A Different Drummer Bookstore, Burlington

Sylvia McNioll

The Avid Reader Magazines & Books, Cobourg

Sarah Henstra

Linda Hutsell-Manning

Wesley King

Curiosity House, Creemore

Elly Mackay

A Novel Spot Bookshop, Etobicoke

Sarah Henstra

Beth Pollock

Linda Spalding

Rozanne’s Reflections Book and Card Shop, Fergus

Karen Krossing

The Bookshelf, Guelph

Douglas Davey

Thomas King

Jean Little

Kathy Stinson

Bryan Prince Bookseller, Hamilton

Gillian Chan

Joanne Levy

Epic Books, Hamilton

Sylvia McNicoll

Gisela Tobien Sherman

Novel Idea Bookstore, Kingston

Jill Bryant

Gulliver’s Quality Books & Toys, North Bay

Martha Attema

Steve Pitt

Manticore Books, Orillia

Lisa Dalrymple

Books on Beechwood, Ottawa

Allison Van Diepen

Kaleidoscope Kids’ Books, Ottawa

Kathy Clark

Don Cummer

Kate Jaimet

Caroline Pignat

Max Turner

Amanda West Lewis

Tim Wynne-Jones

Backbeat Books, Music & Gifts, Perth

Charles de Lint

Liane Shaw

The Book Keeper, Sarnia

Jacqueline Garlick

Another Story Bookshop, Toronto

Sangeeta Bhadra

Natale Ghent

Dennis Lee

Kyo Maclear

Kenneth Oppel

Drew Hayden Taylor

Bakka Phoenix, Toronto

Leah Bobet

Book City (Bloor West Village), Toronto

Sarah Henstra

Sharon Jennings

Patricia Storms

Book City (Danforth), Toronto

Evan Munday

Book City in the Beach, Toronto

Tish Cohen

Book City (Yonge at St. Clair), Toronto

Helaine Becker

Joyce Grant

Kathy Kacer

Angela Misri

Kevin Sylvester

Ella Minnow Children’s Bookstore, Toronto

Dan Bar-el

Robert Paul Weston

Dennis Lee

Mireille Messier

Edward Kay

Caroline Fernandez

Emily Adrian

Mabel’s Fables, Toronto

Helaine Becker

Paul Covello

Barbara Reid

Kevin Sylvester

Robert Paul Weston

Cybèle Young

Type Books, Toronto

Kyo Maclear

Cybèle Young

Paul Covello

Blue Heron Books, Uxbridge

Deborah Kerbel

Helaine Becker

Ted Staunton

Jennifer Dance

Words Worth Books, Waterloo

R. J. Anderson

QUEBEC

Librairie Paragraphe, Montreal

Elise Moser

Livres Babar, Pointe-Claire

Monique Polak

Lori Weber

Librairie Clio, Point-Claire

Monique Polak

Babar En Ville, Westmount

Carol-Ann Hoyte

NEW BRUNSWICK

Westminster Books, Fredericton

Kathleen Peacock

Cory Redekop

NOVA SCOTIA

Bookmark II, Halifax

Kate Inglis

Carrefour Atlantic, Halifax

Alison DeLory

Susan Tooke

Richard Rudnicki

Steve Vernon

Woozles, Halifax

Melanie Mosher

Natalie Corbett Sampson

Lexicon Books, Lunenburg

Joe Treggiari

Sylvia Gunnery

The Box of Delights Bookshop, Wolfville

Jan L. Coates

Ron Lightburn

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

Bookmark, Charlottetown

Sharon E. McKay

NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR

Broken Books, St. John’s

Charis Cotter

Andy Jones

Check out the Authors for Indies website for the plethora of adult authors I didn't even try to mention, and authors and illustrators whose names I don't even know, yet!

Any errors or omissions are completely my own. Please leave a comment if I've made any horrific impossible-to-ignore mistakes that I can resolve promptly.  Thanks.