Interview with Eileen Kernaghan, Author

In the midst of a night of sleeplessness, it struck me that I wanted to ask my friend Eileen Kernaghan a few questions about her writing life and current project, it having been a long time since I'd last done this. So I tapped together some questions and sent them her way, and she has kindly consented to indulge me on this.

Eileen is one of my favourite writers. She doesn't produce floods of books, nor are they great door-stoppers. They are beautifully written, thoughtful, magical adventure stories, each one evoking a time and place that fascinate, peopled with characters I could happily befriend--or avoid at any cost.

Enjoy!


🌿 Can you tell our readers a little about yourself and your career in the literary arts?

I grew up in a small farming town where outside of haying season there was very little to do but read books, and in time that led to writing my own stories.  I launched my literary career when I was twelve, when I sold a story to the children’s page of the Vancouver Sun. Publication came with an illustration and a modest payment, my classmates and my parents were impressed, and though my next attempt at fiction was politely declined, there was really no looking back. For the next couple of years I turned to journalism as the local correspondent for the Enderby Commoner, which according to its masthead covered the (North Okanagan) valley like the dew.

There followed a long hiatus, during which I finished high school, went to UBC, earned a teaching certificate, got married, and had three children. I started writing again when the kids were in elementary school and I had mornings to myself.  I produced a couple of quite unpublishable stories, and then I sold a somewhat better one to Galaxy magazine [1]. My name and an illustration for the story were on the front cover.  Success! But when my next attempts at short fiction went nowhere, I decided to write a book.  My fantasy novel Journey to Aprilioth and the two that followed, Songs from the Drowned Lands and The Sarsen Witch, (making up the Drowned Lands trilogy) were published in the eighties by Ace Books.  However, my next novel, Winter on the Plain of Ghosts, failed to find a home with New York publishers, and eventually I self-published it [2].  (Thanks to modern technology it’s still out there, available from Amazon as paperback and e-book.)

At about the same time, though few Canadian publishers were doing adult speculative fiction, there was a growing Canadian market for YA fantasy.  My next book was a YA, set in eighteenth Bhutan and it sold to Thistledown, a Canadian literary press. To date Thistledown has published Dance of the Snow Dragon, followed by Wild Talent (fin de siècle London and Paris) and Sophie, in Shadow  (India under the Raj).

Along the way, I’ve co-written a writers guide -- now long out-dated; the book version of a documentary film, some short stories and poems, and a poetry collection, Tales from the Holograph Woods.

🌿 Are you working on any writing projects at the moment?

I’m working on the third book in the family story that began with Wild Talent.This one is set in Paris of the 1920’s, and it’s the story of Alex, the younger daughter. 

🌿 I've read frequently that writers need to create an outline to their stories before writing them. Is that how you approach your writing? Why do you organize it in this way? If you create outlines of any sort, how much time would you say the outline for this book took, how complete is it, and how much is it likely to change?

I should create an outline. It would be nice to have an outline. But I tend more to the jumping off a cliff without a parachute approach to plotting.  I have a central character and I have a time and a place.  I start out by researching the period for the sake of the plot. Then as a rule the research starts to shape the plot, and takes it to places I was not expecting. As an example, here’s what happened when I was writing The Alchemist’s Daughter, set in Elizabethan England. I started out by reading a great deal about sixteenth century alchemy, which in turn led me to stories of unsuccessful alchemists who, having promised gold they couldn’t deliver, were very likely to be tortured and executed. That gave me my basic plot – how the daughter of a very unsuccessful alchemist set out to save her father from a foolish promise to the Queen.

It also led me to read about Dr. John Dee, the Elizabethan alchemist who was rumoured to have discovered the philosophers’ stone and buried it at Glastonbury. That fit nicely into the story  and set my heroine, Sidonie Quince, on the road to Glastonbury.

🌿 What effect does that have on you, not knowing ahead of time how it is all going to go? Do you love it? Does it drive you to distraction?

I wouldn’t say I love it. But neither does it drive me to distraction.  I take a lot of time to write my books, and usually something – perhaps some bit of research—will turn up.  There’s a certain excitement in wondering how the whole thing will turn out.

🌿 I have read all of your novels, and one of my favourite aspects of them is the fascinating elements you draw from history and weave into your story. Without giving too much away, are there any social movements or characters from history or other intriguing things that you are particularly enjoying exploring for this book?

Yes. Russian exiles in the Paris of the 1920’s; the search for immortality; inherited wild talents.

🌿 What is the role of the supernatural in your books--if indeed it serves the same purpose in each of them?

In my recent books the supernatural exists not so much in the external world as in the unusual talents the characters possess. I think of them as traditional historical novels with a touch of the strange and inexplicable.

🌿 You have a very respectable collection of books, stories, and poems under your belt, in addition to the nonfiction writing you have sometimes done. Can you give readers a sense of how you go from the initial spark to a complete tale?

The initial spark is usually an interest in, a curiosity about, a particular time and place.  Some research about that era usually suggests a main character, and how that character might interact with the society.  And from that comes the plot. For instance, I chose to write about Bhutan (Dance of the Snow Dragon) because a friend was very impressed with a performance by the Bhutanese Royal Dancers when they came to Vancouver, and she suggested that Bhutan would be a fascinating setting for a book. So I started researching. 

🌿 Have these explorations in subject, history, theme, and craft affected your life in any ways that you might not have expected?

I suppose a deeper knowledge of earlier times and other places than I could ever have gained in school or university.  

  

🌿 Do you find any value in belonging to writing groups, even though you are by now an accomplished writer? What do they offer you? What about teaching writing? Does this support your own writing in any way?

I managed to finish my first novel, Journey to Aprilioth, because I was determined to bring a chapter for critiquing to every Burnaby Writers Society meeting. The feedback from the small writing group to which I’ve belonged for many years has been immensely helpful.  And I wouldn’t feel right about teaching writing if I were not writing myself.

🌿 Where can readers find you and your books? Will you be doing any readings or participating in panels, and so on in the coming months?

You can find my books in libraries, at amazon and at lots of other online sites. All but the earliest ones are now available as e-books. You will likely find me at the 2020 Creative Ink festival https://www.creativeinkfestival.com/.

For more of Eileen and her writing:

Eileen's books for sale, new and used, via Bookfinder.com

Eileen Kernaghan's blog

Eileen Kernaghan's website (with samples from her novels)

Bibliography

Strange Horizons Interview 

Challenging Destiny Interview

Eileen Kernaghan at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Thanks so much, Eileen, for taking the time to answer these questions. I'm very much looking forward to the third novel in the Wild Talent/Sophie, In Shadow series, so I won't pester you any more and will let you get back to work.

[1] "Starcult" by Eileen Kernaghan, Galaxy volume 32 number 3 (1971). (All text and images preserved at the Internet Archive. Read Eileen's story there!

[2] It has always baffled me that this novel didn't find a publisher. It may possibly be my favourite.

Beginning Today

I am moved by what I participated in tonight--the first profession of vows of a new Sister of Saint Joseph of Toronto. Her parents, the nuns who supported her through her two years as a novice, cousins and friends and as many of her community of sisters as could come were all gathered to witness and celebrate her profession. There was so much joy in the room. The joy of the newly professed sister and her community swirled around me till my own eyes were tinged with happy tears.

These days we don't see droves of young women becoming nuns; indeed, we are barely aware that Catholic nuns still exist, as very few wear the habits of yesteryear. Observe the two photos above. The first is from the 1950s, and the second is from the current decade. You could pass a whole busload of nuns and have no idea who they were.

I am visiting here because of my friend and grade four teacher, Sister Cecelia. We've known each other for more than fifty years, from our first meeting in Winnipeg's St. Anne's School--a three room elementary school in the basement of the church--to our days living in Vancouver some years later, to occasional visits in Toronto, to the weeks I spent with her in Haiti, an event which led to my living there for a short while and learning things about myself and the world that I never would have otherwise discovered.

Because I have stayed connected to Sister Cecelia and her community, even though I left the Church myself many years ago, I have had the opportunity to grow in my awareness of the good that they have offered to the world and received from each other. I have had to process the bad news that has been revealed at different times, of abuse and so forth, of course, but in knowing these women and the caring and hard work they bring to their service as health care professionals, teachers, and so much more, I have come to better understand and more deeply cherish them and their vocation. I have been sad at the thought that the days of Catholic women religious might be coming to an end. It isn't enough to work toward the ordination of women in the Catholic church. The sisters are extremely important, too, and have something very different to offer than priests. I know this won't make sense to everyone, especially to people who have been badly hurt by Catholic religious or the institution itself, or to others who have only been exposed to the worst stories. And I know there is still a lot to change. But this is one baby I don't want thrown out with her bathwater.

I am so happy that this woman has had the opportunity to deepen a call that she feels to live in a spiritual community that is also committed to serving people who suffer in many different ways. It isn't for everyone, clearly. But for some of us, having that spiritual dimension and the support of others for whom it has meaning makes the work we do in the world deeper, stronger, more sustainable, and more joyful. I am glad that there is still some space in the world for this type of vocation.

The congregation this new sister has entered is very different in some ways from the one Sister Cecelia entered. It will continue to change over time. I am glad that women like this new nun are here to bring that renewal to their congregation and to our world.

Blessings on your journey, Sister.

"Beginning Today" by The Dameans was the last song of this evening's celebration.

Images: Two Sisters of Saint Joseph (1950s); some of today's Sisters of Saint Joseph.