Carol Bruneau, an anthologized writer of short fiction and multi-award-winning novelist, really got started in 1995 with the publication of her short fiction collection After the Angel Mill, which was nominated for the Dartmouth book award, and heralded by The StarPhoenix as “One of [Cormorant's] gems this year … a collection of linked short stories that is as hard to get out of your head as a haunting blues song.” She followed up in 1998 with another collection of linked stories, Depth Rapture, blending realism and black humour, which the Globe and Mail remarked had “the maturity and richness of a first-class storyteller.” Like After the Angel Mill, Depth Rapture was nominated for the Dartmouth Fiction award.

And then came her true break out, her debut novel, Purple for Sky, which not only won her the Dartmouth Fiction award she had been twice nominated for, but also the prestigious Thomas Head Raddall award — the award given to “the best novel of the year by an Atlantic Canadian author.” Purple for Sky was also a Globe and Mail top book of the year, and nominated for the Pearson Reader’s Choice Award. Very few books, particularly a debut novel,  garner that kind of reception. It was picked up in the US as well, by Carroll & Graf. The National Post called it “this year’s surprise,” stating that “Bruneau has a saucy, punchy, even ebullient writing style.”

From here she released Berth in 2005, a ReLit award nominee heralded by CanLit icon Lynn Coady as “a subtle work of offhand wisdom and insight, heartbreakingly true-to-life,” and her most recent novel: Glass Voices. Glass Voices — an emotionally rich look at both perseverance in the face of tragedy and the complexities of human relationships – was named a Globe and Mail and Sunday Herald book of the year in 2007, and nominated for multiple awards, such as the Relit and Dartmouth Fiction award. It was also picked by author/critic Stephen Patrick Clare as a top ten book of 2007.

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Salty Ink Q & A with Carol Bruneau

Salty Ink: Off the top of your head, without struggling for “favourites,” name one or two books you really liked by a fellow Atlantic Canadian author.

An Audience of Chairs by Joan Clark, and The Nymph and The Lamp by Thomas Raddall. I loved both for their lovely intertwining of characters and settings.

Salty Ink: How did you end up writing books?

I wanted to write books from the time I was seven, then spent nearly 30 years working up to it—studying English, studying journalism, working in the news business then FINALLY starting to write fiction. I began when my youngest son was two. Having three kids made me realize time was short. It was the kick in the arse I needed. Ever since, I’ve found that living a writing life, like writing itself, is a daily process, a daily choice, an ongoing commitment.

Salty Ink:  What is your favourite part of the writing process? Your least favourite?

Two parts of the process make me happiest: the early “radar phase” when you just start doodling to hear the characters’ voices and start feeling like a magnet for ideas; and the final revisions phase when you uncover the last tiny secret that makes everything gel.

My least favourite part is starting the draft when I’ve got a ton of notes and bits and pieces, but am not sure how to build the story. Being a circular thinker, I find figuring out structure to be most challenging. It’s gotta be easier for writers who process things in a more linear way—but maybe not, who knows? 

Salty Ink: What is great about being a writer? What isn’t so great?

Being “allowed” to live by the imagination is a gift that not everyone has or is able to “indulge.” I say “allowed” and “indulge,” the downside being that artistic creativity is undervalued by a world that measures success by the cash generated. Obviously for most writers this doesn’t compute.

Salty Ink: What’s your main goal when you sit to write?

To get something down, to do it with some kind of grace, and have fun.

Salty Ink: What book of yours came the easiest/hardest, and any guesses as to why?

Berth was the easiest, because its story is linear and happens over one year instead of many, and because it deals with characters living in extreme isolation, its imaginary world was easier to create. Glass Voices was hard, but not as hard as the novel I’ve recently finished writing, based loosely on the life of sculptor Camille Claudel. Working on it has continually pushed me out of my various comfort zones.

Salty Ink: What has been the most memorable moment of your writing career to date?

Touring an asylum for the insane in Southern France.

Salty Ink: I love the sell line on the back of Glass Voices, as it is a truly rich well from which to draw out a great and honest story: “Seventy-one-year-old Lucy Caines’ husband suffers a severe stroke that makes Lucy reexamine her complicated relationship with the man she has variously loved and loathed.” Particularly for people who might not have read this yet, could you elaborate for us?

Lucy’s husband Harry is a dickweed, basically. But because of the times and the tragic circumstances of her life—they’re the only members of both their families to survive the Halifax Explosion—she has few options but to stay married to him and put up with his drinking, gambling and womanizing. But persevering teaches her a lot that she needs to learn about herself and about forgiveness and the value of not quitting.

Salty Ink: Purple for Sky has been a particularly successful novel — a Globe and Mail book of the year and a winner of the Thomas Head Raddall award and the Dartmouth Fiction Award, for starters. The title is interesting, care to elaborate on it, particularly for anyone who hasn’t read it yet?

It comes from the central motif in one of the characters’ narratives, a crazy quilt which becomes a figurative landscape: green for trees, blue for lakes, purple for …etc. In the U.S. edition the title was changed to A Purple Thread for Sky, which is pretty clunky. But the publisher thought “Purple for Sky” was too obscure—i.e. Canadians would get it, but not Americans. Go figger.

Salty Ink: You teach writing yourself at NSCAD, do you find working in writing either enhances or interferes with your own writing?

 I love being surrounded by visual arts students—their creative energy is always inspiring. And the analytical writing I teach there doesn’t cross circuits too much with my fiction-writing in the way that teaching creative writing does. Also, my students—many of whom aren’t readers—keep me grounded in the reality that art is a lot bigger than literature alone. As a writer I find it humbling, shocking, but almost refreshing to be around students who have never heard of Margaret Atwood.