Interview with author Stef Penney

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Our January Book Club pick is The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney, a gripping tale set in late-19th-century Canada. (Click here to read an excerpt from the book.) We chatted with Penney about her novel, her inspiration and her writing process.

Canadian Living: What was your inspiration for this novel?

Stef Penney: In a word, complicated! It grew, very slowly, out of the first screenplay I ever wrote, 12 years ago, which ended with Mrs. Ross and Angus emigrating to Canada as part of the Highland Clearances. I loved the characters and always felt that I would go back to them somewhen. At first, all I knew was that it was a story about Mrs. Ross looking for someone in winter -- that was the starting point -- I didn't know who she was looking for, or why. And I have long had an obsession with cold climates, snow and ice (Why? Good question…) and devoured books on the subject -- the history of polar exploration, for example.

CL: How did you research your subject? Did you travel to Canada?

SP: No, I've never been to Canada! Until quite recently I was agoraphobic and couldn't fly (or even travel by train). But I live near the British Library in London, and so I read everything I could find on the Canada of the period -- a lot of it written by Hudson Bay employees. In fact, the more I read, the more I became convinced that the Company had to be a part of the story.

CL: Can you describe your writing process?

SP: I try and keep office hours, but I'm not as disciplined as I'd like to be. I start out with research, then write some stuff longhand, often writing around the story -- characters' backgrounds or particular scenes. I need to know (roughly) where I'm going before I hit the computer.

CL: How did you keep track of all the characters?

SP: It wasn't that hard. It seemed very natural to have a lot of different perspectives and I always knew exactly where everyone was. But latterly I did make a chapter plan with the characters colour-coded so that I could assess the structure and check I hadn't left anyone hanging around for too long. Some people (my mother is one of them) have suggested it would be a good idea to have a sort of cast list at the beginning, so you can check back -- maybe in the paperback edition…

CL: What were your feelings on tackling such issues as homosexuality, racism and sexism in 19th-century Canada from a 21st-century Scottish perspective?

SP: Hmm. I'm not sure I had any particular strategy, and I certainly didn't set out to tackle any "issues" as such; they just arose from the story. I don't think you can avoid tackling sexism if you're a female writer, whether writing about the past or the present -- likewise racism if you're dealing with a culture-clash scenario. My feelings were always governed by "how would I feel if I was in this situation." In other words, I didn't try to remove my 21st-century perspective -- it may not be the most accurate way to portray how people felt in the 19th century, but it was the way I wanted to write it.

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