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If you could thank non-humans in your book's Acknowledgements page, what would you include? For my fantasy novel in progress: ᕯ The "askhistorians" subreddit ᕯ Wiktionary ᕯ nordicnames.de ᕯ Inkarnate's map creator ᕯ Genesis albums Foxtrot & The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
My book wouldn’t be what it is without them! ___
Photo © Samantha Garner, 2023.
⋇ IN PRAISE OF OLDER PROTAGONISTS ⋇ What are your favourite books with "older" protagonists? I haven't been in my early twenties for a long time. I find it more natural to explore the ways "older" people grow, fuck up, discover themselves.
I know mid-twenties is still young, but I'm thinking here of all the books written with 19-year-old protagonists saving the world. Those books are fine, but sometimes I worry that there is less room for protagonists with back pain, you know? I do read and enjoy books with early-/mid-twenties protagonists. But honestly, to think that there's no space for your world to be rocked once you hit 30 is laughable. I’m 43. I do NOT have my shit together. I probably never will have my shit together, because I am a living human person always experiencing new things. The last eight or so years have seen the most change of my entire life. The difference is that it's internal, more personal. I may not impulsively cut my own hair anymore or post 2am self-portraits online with a "THIS IS MY ART, DEAL WITH IT" energy anymore, but the desires at the heart of those things are still churning in me. I'm always going to be a little messy. I'm just messy with more life experience. Also, from a storytelling standpoint I just think it's cool to have an older protagonist go on a quest. We know what we like. We often have less energy. We often have more responsibilities. We often face harsher societal expectations. These are ALL things that can add the most delicious tension and perspective to a story. In one of my favourite books, Fool's Errand by Robin Hobb, 35-year-old Fitz reluctantly leaves his safe and comfortable life to go on a quest for the first time since he was 20. Does he complete his quest capably and maturely? The fuck he does! And to me that's more interesting. He fights against his life experience, the lies he's told himself for 15 years, and he changes. From the opening scene of the book: "I no longer had the excuse of callow youth, and I could not yet claim the eccentricities of age." ___
Photo © Samantha Garner, 2022.
"The Lucid Fever Dream" chapter is what I call one of my favourite The Quiet is Loud chapters. Despite it being a very tumultuous night in Freya's life, it was so much fun to let loose with fantastical imagery and Filipino mythology/folklore characters (my dude nuno sa punso says hey later on in this chapter).
It was one of the chapters that flowed out of me quite freely, seemingly without me having to do much. Was I dreaming when I wrote it? Was I awake? Somewhere in between? Who can say? ___
Photos © Samantha Garner, 2023.
The Quiet is Loud came out on May 4, 2021, and to celebrate, I had my favourite Filipino breakfast: longsilog. It's the novel’s main character Freya's favourite too, and I wrote it into the novel twice. I consider longsilog the meal mascot of The Quiet is Loud. Something about the combination of longanisa sausage, garlic fried rice, and a fried egg seems lucky now - especially when you add a dish of tomatoes in vinegar to go with it. Perfect. 👌🏼 If you're unfamiliar with Filipino breakfasts, they're called "silog," which is a portmanteau of sinangag (garlic fried rice) and itlog (egg). The meat you add to it forms the beginning of the dish's name. My favourite is longanisa - longsilog. I also like tocino, a sweet cured pork, in tocilog. Including Filipino food in TQIL was so much fun, and it makes me so happy that readers got hungry while reading!
Photos © Samantha Garner, 2021.
My fantasy novel in progress takes place in a mixed Filipino-Finnish culture where none of its very opposite features are unusual. Ube grows as easily as rye, for example. It's not lost on me that this could not have been plausible outside of speculative literature. Writing The Quiet is Loud gave me a hard look at the ways I have tried to force myself to fit in. I had to learn to extract myself from that expectation without judgement, which was NOT easy. I'm still not great at it. But it helped me notice how good it feels to embrace that ambiguity. After all, I do it happily in other areas of my life. I write and read what I like and don't think about the genre. I support people who feel outside the margins and find their own definitions. When I cook I get excited about flavour combinations that seem weird on paper. Yet, somehow, extending this feeling of acceptance to myself is taking the longest time. To have literally invented a weird homeland for myself in my WIP feels incredible. So I'll keep trying to honour my mixed-up-ness and suspend my own GD disbelief about myself.
I’m going to take my lifelong mixed-up racial identity feeling of never neatly fitting in anywhere and turn it into some sort of creative superpower. I’m excited.
Photo © Samantha Garner, 2022.
When Freya Tanangco was ten, she dreamed of her mother’s death days before it happened. Freya’s life since has been spent in hiding: from the troubled literary legacy created by her author father, and from the scrutiny of a society that is hostile to vekers—people who, like her, have enhanced mental abilities. When her prophetic dreams take a dangerous turn, Freya finds herself increasingly forced to sacrifice her own anonymity—and the fragile safety that comes with it—in order to protect those around her. The Quiet is Loud also features: ✧ Filipino and Norse mythology ✧ Themes of Filipino and mixed-race identity ✧ People with enhanced mental abilities including prophetic dreams, hyper-empathy, and catatonia inducement ✧ Tarot card symbolism ✧ People finding joy and trust in a society that fears and hates their existence ✧ Lucid dreaming, memory, and other facets of the mind ✧ Omens, signs, and superstitions ✧ Unexpected friendships and alliances ✧ Multiple Canadian settings 🇨🇦 ✧ Lovingly- and hungrily-written descriptions of Filipino dishes like longsilog and pancit palabok 🇵🇭
Photo © Samantha Garner, 2021.
In 2016, I'd started writing The Quiet is Loud, where a woman’s tarot readings are a cover for her prophetic dreams. I bought a deck and researched tarot reading so I could make her job believable.
Then, a friend gave me The Creative Tarot: A Modern Guide to an Inspired Life. It's specifically for creative people looking for guidance and inspiration with their projects. I don’t believe that tarot cards predict the future, but I found this book’s focus on creativity really helpful.
Also shown are some of the cards that feature most in my novel, either in a regular reading, or in a life-changing moment. The Lovers, for example, is about being vulnerable to someone, searching for connection, being found - all of which are huge themes in my novel and for my main character specifically.
Photo © Samantha Garner, 2020.
I got a story idea from a dream, and it was so cool I wrote it down when I woke up.
I understand the first sentence (“Society where shared thought is a normal method of communication.”) But what the hell does the second sentence mean?
"Live in a closed environment that also encourages freer movement/exploration than normal?"
🤔🤔🤔
Maybe writing the story would be a good way to find out.
Photo © Samantha Garner, 2020.
