Whether in her slant-roof attic with its view of the mountains, or in the wilderness itself, camped out in a tent, Shelley Read’s inspirational writing spots gave way to her unforgettable and moving novel, Go As A River. Shelley writes here about the extraordinary beginnings of this magical book.
“I’m often asked where I write.
I write in the little slant-roof attic office my husband and I designed and constructed just for me when we built our own home – tool belts on, hammers and power tools in hand, as we built our own house from the bottom up. My little attic office has pale yellow walls and overflowing bookshelves and prayer flags handpicked in Nepal by my daughter and a lovely window with a view of a dozen mountain peaks.
The two best parts: one, the antique mahogany door that occasionally serves its remarkable purpose of closing me in and everyone else out; and, two, the ever-evolving wall collage over my desk – a hodgepodge of wise quotes, favourite photos (family, dogs, authors, bookstores, peak climbs, Prague) and hilarious poems, art, and scribbled love notes from my kids when they were young that never fail to make me smile (Mom, you are so fabuelesss, reads one. Mom, alweez rmember love, peace and joy are the most enportent things, reads another.)
For many years, our lovely rescue cat, Nellie, napped on my desk next to my laptop as I wrote, her long black body warmed by my desk lamp, my heart warmed by her purring. When old Nellie passed on, an elegant lady till the end, our spotted cattle dog, Beanie O’Sullivan – also a rescue – decided my office was finally a safe place to nap. I wrote many pages of Go As A River with sweet Beanie at my feet. I’m sad to say, she died rather suddenly this past summer of an enlarged heart – what melancholy poetry I find in this, the most loving dog I’ve ever known dying from a heart grown too large – and my little office feels rather empty now. Still, as I embark on writing a second novel, I look around at my jampacked bookshelves and my surrounding mountains and know I am still surrounded by friends.
Yes, I have a writing nook in my home, and I am darn grateful for it. When I think back on the long process of writing and revising Go As A River, I often picture myself in my lovely little office built and filled with love.
But I also must say that sitting is not really my style, nor is staying in one place for too long. My most honest answer as to where I write is, well, everywhere.
“I was perched on a log in a high alpine meadow, appreciating the sun’s slow descent behind a mountain ridge and the cast of golden light all around.”
Go As A River began on a summer evening while I was out camping by myself.
I was perched on a log in a high alpine meadow, appreciating the sun’s slow descent behind a mountain ridge and the cast of golden light all around. Just then, a doe stepped into the clearing very near me, followed by one spotted fawn and, eventually, a second, smaller fawn who was struggling to keep up. I gasped; the deer turned their heads toward me in their elegant but cautious way; they crossed the meadow and disappeared into the forest. My heart ached, as much from bearing witness to the simple beauty of their evening walk toward the river as for the vulnerability of that scrawny fawn. How, I wondered, would the doe keep both of her babies alive?
I was so moved by the scene, and by my feeling of kinship with that mother deer, that I wrote it all down in my journal. As dusk faded to twilight, I set my journal aside, donned a down jacket, and lay on my back upon the bare ground to watch the stars come out – one by one until, beneath the entire expanse of the Milky Way, I felt tiny and reverent and filled with wonder. Then I crawled into my tent and wrote throughout the dark night.
In ‘a tent of one’s own,’ I am able to escape from the demands and busy-ness of my domestic and professional life to just BE. Be quiet. Be still. Be alone. Be in the wilderness. There, the words flow.
Much of Go As A River evolved in the same wild landscape as the novel’s setting because, like Torie Nash, it is where I listen and where I learn; where I feel as humble and vulnerable as I feel empowered and alive; where my ignorant but wide open human heart tries to comprehend what the mountains and the rivers know. The more I came to know my character, the more I felt like I had a friend by my side each time I headed out into the wilderness to write, with just a notebook and a pen and a tent of my own.”
Go As A River by Shelley Read is out now. READ AN EXTRACT >>
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