My Thoughts on “Scribbling Women”

I really enjoyed exploring the lives included in Marthe Jocelyn’s "Scribbling Women". This book was interesting not just because of the rare writing that it explores, but because of the adventures portrayed. Real women – wives and mothers, sisters and slaves – who struck out in new and unconventional ways, and managed to write about it. The fact that many of them were literate at all is impressive for their eras.

One of my favourite "Scribbling Women" was Mary Hayden Russell in Chapter 3. She’s a bit like a real-life Elizabeth Swann, sailing the high seas and being entertained at various seaports in the Atlantic Ocean. Through Mary’s accounts, we get a glimpse of what life was like for other adventurous women – the wives and daughters of colonial governors. Perhaps for the same love of Pirates, I was also intrigued by Mary Kingley, who made a similar voyage to the Canary Islands and spent her life exploring and recording.

To me, "Scribbling Women" is the kind of book you want to put into the hands of any young woman who is destined for great things. It proves over and over again that life can take you anywhere. In a world where we record pretty much everything about ourselves and share with the public, the significance of a book like "Scribbling Women" could easily be lost. I hope it finds more readers like me who will treasure the life stories with in.

20 Writerly Questions for Marthe Jocelyn

How would you summarize your new book in one sentence?

Profiles of eleven under-known writers and how their writing illuminates their lives.

How long did it take you to write this book?

Including the “reading around’ phase and the selection process, it took about three years.  

How did you choose your characters’ names?  

The women in my book were real so their mothers picked their names.

How many drafts did you go through? 

Non-fiction is not like fiction, where you gallop through to the end and then start over to revise. It is built slowly, in patches, like a papier-mâché model. Short answer, no idea.

Who was the first person to read your manuscript?

The first reader was the editor at Tundra Books, Kathy Lowinger, to whom the book is also dedicated.  

If your book were to become a movie, who would you like to see star in it? 

Since this is not a novel demanding a single star, I can’t really answer this question. But I am working on a short one-woman play about one of the ‘scribblers’, Mary Kingsley, and I’d cast Emma Thompson.

What’s your favourite city in the world?  

Ask me again on my death bed.

Did you always want to be a writer?  

No, it just kind of happened.

What was your very first story about?

A polar bear.

When did you write it? 

In first grade.

What was your favourite book as a kid?

I refuse to choose a favourite.

If you could be any character from any book, who would you be? 

Hmmm… How long do I have to be the character? Can I slip in and out of different books and snatch the best parts from each? Or do I have to move in and commit to one set of pages? Clearly this question needs a lot of thought.

If there was one book you wish you had written what would it be?

Isn’t this kind of a repeat of number 11? I’d like a body of work like Joan Aiken or Ann-Marie MacDonald, deep and wide and funny and bold. 

If you could talk to any writer living or dead who would it be, and what would you ask? 

I’m not sure I want to talk to any writer – I just want to read what they’ve written. Real people – especially writers – are often disappointing!

How do you organize your library? 

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

What’s on your nightstand right now? 

Two short story collections – A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan and That Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche.

Where is your favorite place to write? 

Bed, hammock, or train.

Do you have any writing rituals?   

No, but I like to have tea nearby.

When do you write best, morning or night?

Morning. 

What is the best gift someone could give a writer?

Supper out.

What is the best advice someone could give a writer?

Read – your own work aloud. And other people’s all the time.

For more information about “Scribbling Women”, for the rest of the “Scribbling Women” blog tour schedule, and for details about how to enter an amazing giveaway where you could win a giant collection of Marthe’s books, visit Talking with Tundra.

[Editor's Note - This post also appears in Bookurious - A reading community just for teens! If you are a teen who loves books of all kind, then you might just be Bookurious. We'd love to see you there.]