It’s 1784. The war of independence is over, and Kate Robinson has decided it’s time to go. Her home is a farm in Tryon County, New York State, but it no longer feels like home. Kate is a Loyalist, later to become part of United Empire Loyalists in Upper Canada.
Kate is a character in my new novel, but she is also someone who has lived within my imagination for the last three years, if not well before that. She grew from my desire to know more about these people called Loyalists who left America to trek north to Nova Scotia and Upper Canada.
Crown land in Canada was typically allotted according to which Loyalist regiment a man had fought in. But Kate did the unheard of: she left with her three children – Charlotte, Molly and Alexander – with no husband accompanying her. She traveled north to a Loyalist resettlement that ultimately became present-day Ontario. Roughly 10,000 refugees went to Quebec (including the Eastern Townships and modern-day Ontario). Nova Scotia (including modern-day New Brunswick) received three times that number: some 35,000 to 50,00 Loyalist refugees.
The Loyalist story has intrigued me for years, throughout high school senior history into my undergrad Canadian history courses. Not until three years ago did I venture forth to mine the fascination I have had for that period of Canadian history.
Accompanying me in my journey (and equally engrossed in the story of Kate) was Emmaline Cartwright, professor of Colonial North American History at an Eastern Ontario university.
These two women across time – Emmaline in 2012, a history professor fascinated with the Loyalist story, and Kate in 1784, a Loyalist herself – were the characters who drew me in to write this novel. From that point, research and imagination stepped in.
I’m an intuitive writer, which means I put pen to paper or fingers to keys and let the characters begin to tell their stories. I write in chapters and, as I move along, I make notes about fact checking and research. Some days I feel untethered, meaning my logical brain wants a destination – those days, I set time aside find an article, read a section of a book, research the era, just to satisfy that voice who needs a path. Often, when I go to the research, a surprise piece of information will fall into my lap that enhances my character’s story.
I’d written about five chapters, all belonging to Emmaline, when I discovered Kate. I shifted into a dual timeline, and Kate appeared on the page in 1784. She was writing in her journal.
Throughout the process, I’ve met (Zoomed) with my coach Jaclyn on a regular basis – her encouragement to follow my intuition has been a lighthouse. Our ways of writing and ways of being complement one another, which is a crucial part of my writing life.
I’m a later-in-life author…which is a whole other topic I’ll come to next time. Let’s just say: If you are yearning to write and you’re wondering, “Am I too old to follow a passion?”
Do it. Today. Emmaline and Kate are a testament to my foray into my older years as a writer/author. Their story is called “Tell It True.”