C.A. Logan Author

As I continue drafting my second novel, I am also busy mentoring an older friend who is writing his memoirs. He sends me sections about growing up in India, and his decades of work as an engineer in India, Britain and Canada. And of course, life as an immigrant to Canada. He has a brilliant gift for remembering stories that blend humour with insight. His book will be a perceptive personal glimpse at the colonial system in the twentieth century, interspersed with tales of family courage and love, told with wit and warmth.

My friend writes fast, covering seven decades in no particular order. My own writing plods along into the third part of what was supposed to be a much shorter work than my first novel. It will likely still be a shorter book, with editing yet to come. Each time my inbox pings with a new excerpt of his work, I feel a pang of jealousy. I remind myself that he is writing stories of actual events, whereas mine are all made up in my head. His memories spill out of him, immediate and vivid, like a friend pouring it all out over an evening. It’s clear he can replay it all in his mind’s eye. But therein lies the work, because it’s so real, with facts lining up on the page. The reader wants more. What was the scene, the sounds, the colours? How did people sound? How did they react? So the notes go back and forth, piece by piece, reconstructing a moment in time.

My friend, the writer, tells me that his inspiration to begin his book was reading my first novel, The Irish Within Us, one theme of which is finding ourselves by finding our origins. I tell him that, although TIWU has elements based on my real ancestors in Antrim, my book is a wild and woolly fantasy — magical realism actually — not to be mistaken for truth. For that reason, I changed the name of my grandfather’s natal village (with a perhaps naive glance at Irish place names and a nod to Brian Friel). I turned the street layout inside out. You won’t find a Dundurn Castle on the Antrim coast (but if you were to pick up Dunluce and move it over to where Dunseverick sits, you’d be close).

As a mentor, I ask him to consider whether his work is going to be pure history, or should he provide plausible background details for dramatic effect? I love quizzing him on the details, like a cross-examination, to draw out images to illuminate the action. What colour was her dress? Was the sky clear or stormy? The whole issue of “based on a true story” vs. “inspired by a true story” etc. is so ripe at the moment. However, I think it’s safe to imagine the weather or the background music.

However, I am mindful that my two university courses in the history of India and the diaspora don’t qualify me to be the primary editor of this work that tells a story of an Indian family from the 1940s to today. Luckily, the writer’s nephew is a professional editor and published author, and he will take the lead in the second phase of this project. I have the humble task of helping my friend to pull the work together to prepare for that next phase.

I will update on the progress of both our books.

Ta ta for now,

Carole