About the Book:
In the early 20th century, as homesteaders in Saskatchewan are scratching out hard new lives on the Canadian prairie, William, an adventurer from New Zealand, brings his new bride, Louise, to the freshly broken earth of his farm near Watrous.
Physical and emotional isolation take their toll on everyone struggling to survive in the harsh landscape, and when William and Louise’s second child, Violet, is born “feebleminded,” it plunges Louise—a woman burdened with a dark secret—back into a time of shame and regret, even as the child draws out goodness and loyalty from her neighbours, Hank and Emily.
Then tragedy upends the family, and William, while struggling to raise and protect his daughter and find his way to forgiveness, must come to terms with the fact that no one is infallible.
Critical praise:
“Characters . . . are exquisitely and sympathetically drawn, the plot moves, and the portrait of this small town and its multi-ethnic pioneers rings true and clears as windchimes in a prairie breeze . . .” – Shelley Leedahl
“ . . . an excellently-rendered story to be treasured for its intense understanding of human plight and pluck, tenderness and trauma.” – Saskatchewan Book Awards Judges
“A stunning exploration of love, disability, family, and loss . . .” – Alice Kuipers
“Graceful, poignant . . . Karin Melberg Schwier has given us a novel to treasure.” – Anne Simpson
Purchase Links:
Author Interview:
1: Tell us a little about yourself and what got you in to writing?
My background is in journalism and communications work, beginning when I was still in high school. I worked for the local weekly newspaper, so I’ve been writing for a very long time! I still have the first ‘book’ I contributed to, a collection of stories my grade one teacher collected and ‘published’ with cover art by me. My story was about a duck who couldn’t fly so she borrowed chicken feathers. I remember how thrilled I was when the teacher passed out copies of our book to all the students. I still get that thrill nearly 60 years later when I have something published. I don’t think there was ever a time when I didn’t write. And I’ve always been a big reader. My father, who is 96, always had, literally, thousands of books. As a kid, I always assumed everyone had floor to ceiling bookcases crammed full, plus boxes of books, several on the dining room table, stacks of books everywhere.
2: Do you have a favourite time and place where you write?
It depends on the project. I edit and write for a couple of magazines, and I find early mornings work well. I need quiet; my husband is an academic and he can write with the TV on, music playing, our son watching a movie on the other side of the room where our home office is. I just can’t. I’m not precious, I just can’t concentrate when other stuff is going on. When I wrote the sequel to my debut novel, it was during the pandemic so we were all at home. We had recently finished a guest room addition—and of course couldn’t have guests. Rick and I worked out a plan where I would hole up in that room for two or three days at a time. Sort of mini writing retreats and he would just take care of everything. Our son, meals, housework, cats, errands. He even delivered meals to me. We have a heavy pocket door that closes off the guest room from the rest of the house so it’s really soundproof. It was wonderful.
3: Where do your ideas come from?
For my magazine assignments, many are given to me by the publishers. I also pitch stories about things I come across that I think would be interesting to readers. Sometimes the stories pitched are left up to me to find the nugget of the tale. My publisher will often say, “I think you can find something in this! Do your Rumpelstiltskin!” For my first novel, which is based on true incidents, the story literally walked into my office when I worked in communications for an advocacy organization. We supported people with disabilities and this retired farmer was the executor of his friend’s estate. When the farmer friend died, he asked Hank to take care of his daughter who had Down syndrome. Years later when the daughter died, Hank was to donate the balance to our organization. He asked if I’d like to hear the story about his friend and the daughter. I remember about 15 minutes in, my jaw was on my desktop. I thought, I’ve got to write this story. With Hank’s blessing, I fictionalized a lot of it. But there are many true elements in the novel.
4: Do you have a plan in your head of where the story is going before you start writing or do you let it carry you along as you go?
Again, it depends. For the magazine pieces and other non-fiction I write, I have a pretty good idea of where I want to end up. The fiction, too, but it seems more likely that the characters and situations will steer me in unexpected directions. Again with my first novel, I had the end written early on. In fact, my editor (and original publisher) pulled the end of the manuscript off and set it aside. “This will be the end of your second novel.” I thought she was way off—I had no intention of writing a second novel! She ended the first novel at a critical point that made so much sense. And then, a year after it was published, Hank came back to visit. I asked him to tell me the original story again so I could record it. He got about 10 minutes in a dropped some information he’d not told me before. I stopped him, probably shrieking about it being a new detail. He said ‘oh, sure, didn’t I tell you that part?’ If he had, the first novel wouldn’t have been what it was. But, voila, there was the sequel just handed to me. Again, the bulk of it fictionalized and I’m not pretending it didn’t take a lot of work, but then I knew what to do with that end bit my first editor had set aside.
5: What genre are your books and what drew you to that genre?
I’m a big fan of historical prairie fiction. One of my favourite movies is A Trip to Bountiful. I loved To Kill a Mockingbird, both the book and the movie. When I was very young, Charlotte’s Web was a favourite. When I was a reporter for a weekly newspaper, I collected a series of profiles of local homesteaders and pioneers in northern Alberta. I was fascinated by their experiences and the detail of their lives. Readers seemed to be, too, so the newspaper took the collection and released a book. I was 19, and there was that thrill of having a book come out. That was 45 years ago, and believe it or not, I still get requests for that book. I grew up on a farm, and then when we moved to Canada, we lived in a very remote village near the Yukon border. No running water, outhouses, one room school, wood burning kitchen stove. So when I write about those things, I know it pretty well.
6: What dream cast would you like to see playing the characters in your latest book?
Wow, what a great question! I see Lauren Potter as a great Violet. My son Jim and I met her at a Best Buddies conference in Bloomington, Indiana a few years ago. Let’s see: William is Tom Hanks, or Sam Neill for the real New Zealand connection. Louise is Emily Blunt or Emily Watson. Son John is Jacob Tremblay (I googled him and he looks like John) Hank is John Krasinski or Tom Hardy. Emily is Amy Adams (she’s even got red hair!). Nick Yuzik would be Mark Ivanir. Hanusia would be Vera Farmiga. I’ve got to be careful this is the cast for the first novel, not the sequel since there are additional people in that and the characters are older so maybe this is the cast for the sequel! So now that I have my list, I can’t stop thinking about how that would look. They’ve got to all have a wind-and-dust worn look to them. Some worn down by life, burdens, secrets. Some are worn but still optimistic and hopeful. Great question. That was fun.
7: Do you read much and if so who are your favourite authors?
I do read a lot, mostly at bedtime for maybe an hour. Maybe more if I’m really caught up in the story. I like include Bonnie Burnard, Barbara Kingsolver, Louise Erdrich, Guy Vanderhaeghe. I recently read August Into Winter by Guy Vanderhaeghe, which was phenomenal. One of my favourite authors and I loved his earlier novel, Homesick. The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel made my head hurt in a good way. It’s brilliant. Not too long ago I read Dianne Warren’s The Diamond House. It was great (I was thrilled to be shortlisted for the Glengarry Book Award when she won for that book in 2021. Just to be in her company was a big high). It’s good to read a variety of stuff, not only for enjoyment but I think it helps you as a writer. I often find that I will make myself read a novel through to the end, even if I’m not really taken by it (or the genre) at the start. I somehow feel I owe it to the author to do that.
I’ve just started The Observer by Marina Endicott. I’ve known Marina for years, and always enjoy her work. If Sylvie Had Nine Lives is a complex collection of interwoven stories by Leona Theis, and I really liked that. I have a stack of a few others waiting on my bedside table. I look at the books mentioned above and see that Guy, Yann, Leona and Marina are all Saskatoon neighbours, and Dianne lives in Regina. Something about Saskatchewan! I like a story that sticks with you, something you keep turning over in your mind, wondering about, thinking about the characters.
8: What book/s are you reading at present?
I just finished Wherever She Goes by Kelley Armstrong. A read that really held my interest. Not typically my genre, but like I said, really important for you to read widely. It’s like taking a multivitamin 🙂 As I mentioned, I’ve just started The Observer by Marina Endicott. I recommend her novels.
9: What is your favourite book and why?
This is a really tough question. Often I’ll read something new and think, “I love this! This is my favourite book now!” I think so much depends on your experiences, what is happening in your life at the moment, lots of things affect how you feel about a story at any given time. So I could name several more than the ones I mentioned earlier. But I guess my perennial favourite is the classic To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s one of the few I re-read.
10: What advice would you give for someone thinking about becoming a writer?
Read, read, read. Write, write and write some more. This sounds silly, but write letters. Write in a journal. Come up with a word prompt and write something about that. Write about an incident you remember from childhood. Writing is like exercising; you have to do it to see results. You don’t have to launch into marathons, but you do need to be steady. If you are working on something and get stuck or it’s frustrating, set it aside but write something else. I’m not kidding that even writing a letter to an old friend, your gramma or one of your kids can keep your writing brain in shape. And when you read, read for enjoyment but also pay attention to what you like about the author’s work. Is it the dialogue that captivates you? The setting details? Turns of phrase? Pay attention to what resonates with you and figure out why.
11: What are the best Social Media Sites for people to find out about you and your work?
I’m not a big social media person. My publisher’s website works: shadowpawpress.com And my site is: karinschwier.wordpress.com There you can find info about all my other books, too.
About the Author:
A freelance writer, editor and illustrator in Saskatoon, Karin edits and writes for Saskatoon HOME and contributes to Prairies North magazines. She began her career as a reporter for a northern Alberta weekly newspaper while still in high school. Her series of profiles on pioneers of the Peace River country was published as a book, Yesterday’s Children, when she was 19. In Saskatchewan, she spent over 25 years in communications work for an advocacy organization for people with intellectual disabilities, and produced an award-winning newsmagazine.
Karin has written or co-authored six non-fiction books and two illustrated children’s books exploring the lives of people with disabilities, and edited several others. Other creative non-fiction has appeared in anthologies in Canada and the U.S. In 2013, Karin received a YWCA Women of Distinction Award (Arts, Culture and Heritage) for her writing on disability issues.
Small Reckonings, first published by Burton House Books in 2020 and now out in a new edition from Shadowpaw Press, is her debut novel. It received the 2019 John V. Hicks Award for Fiction, a Saskatchewan Book Award in 2021, and was recognized by the national jury for the inaugural Glengarry Book Award in 2021, named to the Jury Short List, Recognition of Literary Excellence. Most recently, the sequel to her debut novel was awarded first prize in the 2022 John V. Hicks Award for Fiction, the first time an author has won this genre category twice in a row.
She lives in Saskatoon with husband Richard, Professor Emeritus, University of Saskatchewan, and son Jim. She has two other children, Benjamin (Julia, grandaughters Pearl and Dahlia), and Erin (Michael, grandson Alexander).
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