Visit the website ( http://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/editorial-1130/An-Interview-with-Anita-Daher) for book summaries and a chance to win a copy of my just released On the Trail of the Bushman! This book will be launched at McNally Robinson Grant Park, Winnipeg, MB on Wednesday, April 29, 8pm. The celebration will feature special guest storyteller Joe McLellan, who will share stores about the windigo.

An Interview with Anita Daher

by Chadwick Ginther - Tuesday Apr 14 2009 12:44 pm

Posted in: Interview, Contests and Giveaways



Anita Daher
has lived all over Canada but now calls Winnipeg home. She has won the
John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer, and her novel Spider's Song
is up for the McNally Robinson Book for Young People Award (Older
Category). On April 29th, Anita will launch the latest book in her
Junior Canadian Rangers series, On the Trail of the Bushman. Recently she was kind enough to answer some questions for our website.
CG: Why did you decide to become a writer?

AD: I can blame that on faulty
memory. From the time I was about twelve, devouring every book that
interested me in the small school library in Baker Lake, Nunavut, I
considered writers my heroes. I'd never met a writing hero, and
certainly didn't think I could ever be one, and so I set that dream
aside. It was toward the end of an eight-year career in Canada's
aviation industry, struggling to balance shift-work, and life with two
pre-school age children, that my mind turned again to stories. By this
time I'd forgotten all about how I used to talk myself out of following
my dream, and so off I went, chasing it, with focus and determination.
I began my "re-education" in 1995, and writing with the intent to be
published. My first book was on shelves in 2002.

CG: Your most recent book, On the Trail of the Bushman, is the third in your series about the Junior Canadian Rangers. What sparked your interest in the JCRs?

AD: Because I have lived in a
number of northern communities I have been aware of the Canadian
Rangers for a very long time. However, it was after I moved to
Yellowknife about ten years ago that I became aware of the Junior
Canadian Rangers -- then, a brand new organization. The JCRs are an
organization of young people ages twelve to eighteen. Each patrol is
established by a community, and led by Ranger leaders. Their values are
strong, and I was impressed by how they focus on developing skills in
three areas: traditional, survival, and Ranger. Often when there are
difficulties in a community, whether threats from nature (forest
fires), or difficulties with water, or someone lost on the land, they
are there, pitching in with their Ranger leaders to do whatever they
can to help. JCRs make fine role models, and excellent characters.

CG: Do you have a favourite among your characters?

AD:
Oh wow, tough to answer! There are aspects of all my characters I
really like -- even the nasty ones! From the JCR books I think I am
most drawn to Colly, my blue-eyed Dene boy. His waters run deep, and I
haven't yet explored all aspects of how he thinks, and what he will do
as time goes on. I also really like Ed from Spider's Song. His manner of thinking is different from anyone I have ever known, and fascinating.

CG: Many of your novels are set in Canada's North West Territories. How important to you is protecting the north?

AD: I suppose there are
several answers to a question like this depending on whether one is
concerned with sovereignty, environment, social issues...perhaps
something else. I think there are many very special regions in Canada
worth protecting in a variety of ways, but the North is the one I am
most drawn to. I am not sure why I feel such a connection, whether it
is the land, or its people. The people are accepting and honest in ways
I have never encountered elsewhere. But the land ...oh. All I know is
that every time I go back to Yellowknife, set foot on the tarmac, and
breath in that good, clean air, I am infused with an almost electric
feeling from toe to top. It feels like home.

CG: What role does research
play in your writing? Do you favour reading books on a topic or getting
out in the field and trying things yourself?

AD: Both, really. When I set Flight from Bear Canyon
in the Nahanni area of the Northwest Territories, I read every book I
could get my hands on that was either about the area, or set there.
But, when I actually planted my feet on the west bank of the South
Nahanni River, just above the magnificent Virginia Falls, I found the
undergrowth very different from what I had visualized despite the many
books. Being there was invaluable. Also...there was a feeling,
something so magnificent, powerful, and soul-filling that I suspect I
will spend many books trying to recreate it for my readers.

Another example, and a story. In researching my parkour book, Two Foot Punch,
I read as much as I could about technique and history, watched videos,
corresponded through email with traceurs (male) and one traceuse
(female), and met with the Winnipeg Parkour team. In order to get
myself in the right frame of mind, I took to running every day,
thinking that once I'd returned to a level of fitness I was pleased
with I might take up the Winnipeg Parkour team up on their offer and
join them for a jam or two. One morning I jogged past a preschool aged
child, who was very interested in what I was doing. She told me she
could run too. Not wanting her to follow me out of her yard, I
challenged her to do a somersault. She did. I asked her if she could
also do a cartwheel, and she didn't know what that was. I showed
her...but the shifting of gravity caused me extreme discomfort. At that
point I decided that I would be a traceuse only in my imagination...and
in my mind, I was a great one!

CG: Your books often touch on
tough or serious issues. Do you think it's important for kids to be
challenged by the fiction they read?

AD: I think much more important than challenge, is connection.
In finding their way through adolescence a young person might feel that
they are completely alone in what they are feeling or experiencing.
Outside of turning to someone they trust, a book is a safe place to
connect with a character that is experiencing something similar. In
seeing a character find their way through, a reader might find
something positive and encouraging they can apply to their own lives.
That is my greatest hope.

CG: Many of your books also have a mystery theme. Why do you think kids love a good mystery?

AD: In one way or another, we
all love solving puzzles, don't we? We also love strong characters. I
know that when I crawl inside the skin of a character I want to see
them come out ahead in the end, and when they put together all the
pieces and succeed...what a rush!

CG: You write for teens as well as younger readers. Which age group do you find more challenging to write for and why?

AD: One is so different from
the other, and I must be in exactly the right frame of mind when I sit
down to each. That is, when a middle grade story is unfolding under
fingertips I must be my twelve-year-old self with all the curiosity and
determination I had at that age. When I write a teen novel, in my mind
I am sixteen again, and feeling all of the tortured emotional
uncertainty of that age. The latter is more of a workout for me and so
I suppose teen novels are the more challenging of the two.

CG: What has been the best moment of your writing career so far?

AD: Oh man, that is really a
tough one. There have been a great many joyful moments. I don't think I
can name just one. Recognition in terms of book award nominations and
hellos on the street are cool, and moments of discovery when
researching and working out plot are pretty rocking, but I think what
really makes my heart swell is when readers take time to get in touch
-- either though email, or snail mail -- to tell me how meaningful a
story has been for them. Yeah, that is the best!

CG: Do you have any advice for young, aspiring writers?

AD: Know that success is not
in having your work published, it is in finding your story in the first
place and writing it all the way through to "The End." Be pigheaded in
your pursuit. Know the journey is sometimes long, and that is a good
thing. Explore every moment, and know that you are a writer and so you
will write: always, and all ways.