Cheryl K. Tardif is the author of Whale Song, an emotional novel that has been getting a lot of attention lately. Cheryl took some time off from her busy schedule to do this interview. Among other things, she talks about her recent virtual book tour and finding a publisher.
Why don’t you start by telling us a bit about your book, and what inspired you to write such a story?
Whale Song is an emotional novel about choices and consequences, suitable for adult and young adult readers. It’s the story of Sarah, a young woman who is haunted by her past and by the assisted suicide of her mother. A teenaged Sarah moves from Wyoming to Vancouver Island where she is suddenly thrown into a world of racism, hatred, school bullying and more. Thankfully, Sarah befriends a native girl, and through stories told by her friend’s wise old grandmother, Sarah learns the legends of the animals around her—of Seagull, Whale and Wolf. As these legends begin to parallel her life, she moves through the tragedy of her mother’s death and the partial amnesia that has blocked out the truth, becoming a jaded young woman who has hardened herself to love and life. And then someone from her past returns to make her finally face all that she has forgotten. Whale Song is a mixture of coming-of-age, family drama and mystery, and it’s a novel that will change the way you view life… and death.
The story was inspired from two separate influences. The first was a native legend I had heard when I was a teen growing up on the Queen Charlotte Islands (north of Vancouver Island). The legend stated that if you saw a killer whale close to shore, it was really someone’s spirit coming to say goodbye. The very thought of that haunted me and has always stayed with me. The second influence was the controversy surrounding the assisted death of someone who was dying a painful death. I wondered about that, about why it is so easy and acceptable for us to put down our family pet when they are suffering and yet we can’t find a more humane way to help the dying to pass on. The two elements combined, and for two years I played with the idea of writing Whale Song. And when the time was right… I did.
How would you describe your creative process while writing this novel? Was it stream-of-consciousness writing, or did you first write an outline? How long did it take you to write it?
For Whale Song (and all of my novels), I have allowed the story to brew and simmer in my mind. For two years I thought about writing it, and by then the characters were almost lifelike. Finally, I began. And yes, it was more a stream-of-consciousness event. Writing the story was like a journey in some ways… one that had been planned and plotted, the course already lined out. All I had to do was get from point A to B. And then to C. You get the picture. There was no struggle in writing the story — other than I can’t type fast enough to keep up with my thoughts. Like good beer or fine wine, the story had fermented into something wonderful when I gave it the time it needed. There was no outline, maybe a few notes. Whale Song was written, edited by me and two editors and at the publisher’s within 3.5 months.
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