A Splendid Boy
In the summer of 1914, Daniel Beresford’s
innocent love affair with the merchant’s daughter is discovered, forcing him to
make an impossible decision to save his family from financial ruin. Recently
Newfoundland author Melanie Martin spoke with us about her first book, A
Splendid Boy.
When and why did you want to be a
writer?
When I was in grade seven I wrote
and illustrated my first mini book (it was clear from that point on I would
never be an artist) and put the book together with cardboard from a cornflake
box. I covered the outside flaps neatly with blue wrapping paper (circa 1986
design) and cut to size the white paper, which I sewed into the seam of the
cardboard. I was serious! My parents shipped a box of belongings to me a few
years ago, while clearing out our family home, and there were dozens of old
notebooks with half-written stories in them. Every computer I’ve
ever owned has the beginnings of a different story there too. I’ve had
a fascination with books my whole life and am a rabid reader. My
imagination works in overdrive most of the time, scarily so, and for years I
thought that automatically qualified me as a writer. Little did I realize those
things certainly help, but that’s just the start.
Are they the same reasons you do it
today?
There’s a reason they were all
half-written stories then. I may have had a fascination with writing, but
I didn’t have the mechanics to do it. More importantly, I didn’t have
a story to tell then. While there’s a part of me that kicks myself in
the butt for wasting so much time when I could have been writing all these
years, I do believe it comes to you when you’re ready. When you are
confident enough to find your voice, know the story you want to tell
and understand why somebody should invest the time to read it.
What inspired/motivated you to
write A Splendid Boy?
Truthfully, it was right after
Downton Abbey hit the big screen. I fell in love with the characters and
the tone of the miniseries, but more importantly I became completely
taken with the time period. I’ve always been a very visual person and when I
saw the First World War brought to life, and its effects on a small
English village and its families, the seeds of the idea were sewn for me.
I imagined Newfoundland in 1914 from the hustle and bustle of St.
John’s as a mercantile centre with its street car still running down the centre
of Water Street to the small fishing outports of which my own family hails
from. I imagined young men who had never even been to St. John’s before
let alone England and then on to Gallipoli in Turkey and from there to the
Western Front in France. Newfoundland’s war story is entirely unique
compared to the rest of Canada. The nation was then a dominion of the
British Empire with a population of roughly 250,000 people and nearly 12,
000 men and woman served in some way. Our contribution was enormous and we
paid a heavy price, particularly on July 1, 1916. There were so many themes to
explore in the time period–class, love, war and with that in mind I set about
to tell a story using two main fictional characters and put them into the real
events surrounding the Royal Newfoundland Regiment’s involvement in the First
World War.
What was the most challenging aspect
of the process?
Writing it! I actually started the
whole piece as a film treatment and intended to write a screenplay. I sent part
of the treatment to a producer in the UK, who I had met at a film function here
in Newfoundland, and he liked what he saw. He was very intrigued, but
indicated that even from a preliminary glance it would be an expense piece to
shoot. I was an unknown, which is often a tough sell in the film world and
he suggested that I consider turning it into a novel first. Finding that
balance between history and fiction is such a tricky dance. I wanted readers to
learn about Newfoundland’s role in the First World War, through true events,
even though the character’s stories and relationship were entirely fictional. I
caution that Daniel and Emma aren’t real, but they could have been.
What was the most rewarding part of
the experience?
Over the last few years, I have been
fortunate enough to travel to all of the places where the Royal Newfoundland
Regiment fought throughout Europe. In 2015 I traveled to Turkey, right to
Gallipoli and dipped my feet in the water on Kangaroo Beach, in Suvla Bay,
where the Regiment landed overnight on September 19, 1915. That in itself was a
reward because I know I’m but a handful of Newfoundlanders to do so. The other
rewarding piece is hearing how the story has resonated with readers, hearing
what they’ve taken away from it and how it made them feel. One reader recently
said she could tell I had been to the places I wrote about because she could
smell the battlefield and taste the air as she read my words. I think that’s
one of the best compliments a writer could ever get. The fact that a storyline
and its cast of characters, which lived in your head for so long, can impact
readers enough to evoke such emotions in them, well, that is the biggest reward
of all.
What did you learn during the
process?
That writing is a roller coaster of
work and emotion. Some days you have this amazing scene in your head and you
spend hours crafting it on the page only to read it back after and find that it
falls so short of your expectations that you could just take the whole thing
and burn it in the wood stove. Two days later that same scene is
Pulitzer-prize winning.
Of course it was neither, but the
point I’m trying to make is that you have to trust yourself and give yourself
the latitude to get your story onto the paper. I had an old professor at
university during grad school that used to say, “The A is in the revisions, my
dear.” I understand that statement a lot better now. When you pick up a book
it’s been spit polished and what you’ve got in your hands is a final product.
Nobody can do that on the first pass. Let yourself write the story in any way
you need to just to get it out of your head. Write first. Edit later.
How did you feel when
the book was completed?
Elated…no better feeling than to
type, “The End,” but then the hard part begins. Putting yourself out there to
find a publisher is a daunting task. I was very fortunate that Flanker saw the
potential in the story and wanted to move on it quickly in light of this year
being such a defining anniversary for Newfoundland and Labrador with the 100th anniversary
of Beaumont-Hamel. The last few months have been a whirlwind between editing,
and cover design, marketing and social media, the launch and all that goes with
releasing a new book. It’s been an interesting experience to see that process
and understand what it really means to write and release a book. I am so happy
to finally share the book with the public, but I’m also a little sad to release
those characters, which lived in my head for so long.
What has the response been like so
far from those that have read it?
Overwhelming. The number of calls
and emails I’ve had from people to tell me how the book made them feel has been
the most incredible feeling. People said they laughed and they cried and
my personal favourite is the ones who stayed up all night to finish it
because once they started they couldn’t stop. As a reader it’s so exciting when
a book strikes a chord so deep that you can’t stop thinking about the characters
and wondering what happens to them next. To know that as a writer I created
something that made others feel that way has been tremendously satisfying.
What makes a good book?
I’ll put my reader hat on to answer
that question. For me, a good book has to draw me in from the first 2-3 pages.
There has to be enough of a hook to make me want to know more. I need to get
invested in the characters and care about what happens to them. I’m a lover of
historical fiction primarily so another must for me is that the history is
solid and the writer must understand the world they’ve placed their characters
in, but I think that’s true of any genre.
Is your creative process more
'inspirational' or 'perspiration’?
I definitely needed the inspiration
to bang out 80,000 words, but writing is damn hard work! And without the
perspiration, all the back end work, it’s just an idea. There are a million
ideas out there for good books, but the hard work is taking the time to sit in
a chair and put your hands on a keyboard to transfer that inspiration to paper.
I now fully understand how much work goes into achieving that final product.
It’s not for the faint of heart.
What are your thoughts
on Newfoundland's literary scene?
This is an amazing place to
live–there’s inspiration everywhere you turn so it’s little wonder that our
literary landscape is so rich. We’ve got literary giants like
Michael Crummy and Lisa Moore, but we’ve also got a younger generation
of self-starters; trailblazers in the self-publishing world like USA
bestselling author, Victoria Barbour, who became an overnight success with
her romance series, Heart’s Ease, set entirely in Newfoundland. There’s
something powerful about living on the edge of the world that sets us apart. We
constantly push limits, we rarely heed the word “no” and we’re ingenious by
nature because we’ve had no choice but to be.
What's next on your creative agenda?
I’m currently working on
adapting A Splendid Boy for the big screen and I’ve got book
two underway. I’m not quite finished with the First World War yet. There
are some fascinating stories about women and their role in the war and
I’ve got my sights set on exploring that a little more.
