As always, The Word On The Street is coming up this September. But the fall can\u2019t get here soon enough! So we sat down with Joanna Goodman, author of The Home for Unwanted Girls<\/i>, who will be joining us at the festival this year!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
WOTS: <\/b>The Home for Unwanted Girls <\/i><\/b>is based on a bleak bit of Canadian history, when orphans were being institutionalized to receive more government funding. What made you want to explore this issue? <\/b><\/p>\n
Joanna Goodman<\/b>: The story gave me chills when I read it. The more I began to explore, the deeper I fell into the rabbit hole. What was most shocking to me as I learned more about was not just the conspiracy between the doctors, government and church, but the cover-up, which has proved to be tremendously effective. Virtually no one has heard about this scandal. As soon as I discovered it, I knew it was a story I had to tell\u2014both as a writer, a Quebecker, and a Canadian.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
WOTS: You use both the perspective of Maggie, the underage mother forced to give up her baby, and Elodie, the child who is put into the orphanage system. Why were you drawn to use two perspectives, and what do you think multiple perspectives adds to this kind of story?<\/b><\/p>\n
JG<\/b>: Originally, the entire novel was told through Maggie\u2019s perspective. But it became abundantly clear that we needed to meet and \u201cknow\u201d Elodie as well, and follow her story simultaneously. It was less of a decision and more of an inevitable evolution of the story.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
WOTS: What are your favourite places to write? Any quirky must-haves when it comes to sitting down and building out a story?<\/b><\/p>\n
JG<\/b>: \u00a0Coffee shops. Give me a coffee shop and I\u2019ll write you a novel. I have kids at home, so it\u2019s hard to write there. And I can\u2019t start writing unless I have a coffee. I have to time my writing sessions around my ritualistic coffee times.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
WOTS: Tell us a bit more about your process. How did you start writing? Do you have any favourite stories about when you were just starting out?<\/b><\/p>\n
JG<\/b>: I\u2019ve been writing stories since I was five years old. Started my first novel at nine, another at twelve, another at sixteen, and finally finished my first one in my early twenties. It was in a Creative Writing workshop at university that I began working on the first short stories and eventually the first novel I would have published. I had an incredibly supportive teacher\u2014mentor\u2014named Tom Henighan, who encouraged me to submit my stories to literary magazines, and then my novel to a small press. That basically launched my career. (Thank you, Tom!)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
WOTS: What would you say to a writer who\u2019s just starting out? What one thing do you think it\u2019s crucial to know?<\/b><\/p>\n
JG<\/b>: Two things, neither very original. 1. NEVER GIVE UP. I\u2019ve had thousands of rejections and not one of them ever stopped me from continuing. I\u2019ve had horrible reviews that temporarily crushed my spirits, but never stopped me from continuing. I just kept writing and submitting until I broke through. It\u2019s part of the gig, so you must have a thick skin. 2. JOIN A WRITING WORKSHOP. I\u2019ve been in at least half a dozen\u2014even a couple in L.A where I met my current editor and writing partner\u2014and every single one has led to some success in my writing career.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
WOTS: Writing historical fiction involves a lot of research for the author. What did you have to do to prepare to write this book? Did you learn anything that you didn\u2019t expect? <\/b><\/p>\n
JG<\/b>: The truth is, I did not set out to write a historical fiction novel. I just set out to tell a story about growing up half French and half English in Quebec, inspired by my mother\u2019s childhood. (I didn\u2019t realize my mother\u2019s life was officially \u201chistorical!\u201d) But as I began to research the Duplessis era (the fifties, when my mom was growing up), this opened a HUGE Pandora\u2019s box of fascinating research.<\/p>\n
Next thing I knew, I was deep into the orphan scandal, the Duplessis regime, and the complicated provincial politics. I researched this book on and off for a period of twenty years before I finally sat down to write the book! The good news is, I have enough material to carry me through the sequel (which I\u2019m currently working on) and possibly a third!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Want to keep up with the WOTS blog? Sign up for our newsletter here<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As always, The Word On The Street is coming up this September. But the fall can\u2019t get here soon enough! So we sat down with Joanna Goodman, author of The Home for Unwanted Girls, who will be joining us at the festival this year! WOTS: The Home for Unwanted Girls is based on a […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":11815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[323,269,349],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11812"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11813,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11812\/revisions\/11813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}