social issues

Q&A with Peggy Dymond Leavey, author of Growing Up Ivy

Tell us about your book.
Growing Up Ivy is historical fiction for YA readers, set in Toronto and rural Ontario during the Great Depression. Twelve-year-old Ivy Chalmers is sent to live in the town of Larkin with her grandmother when the girl’s actress mother abandons her in order to try her luck on the stage in New York City. The grandmother is a humourless woman, as surprised by this turn of events as Ivy is. That the two are able to co-exist is largely due to Ivy’s resiliency. She’s a girl with an endless imagination and a flair for writing her own stories.

The father Ivy has never met turns up in Larkin, and he agrees to take the girl with him for the summer, travelling the countryside in a horse-drawn caravan, selling shoes.

A couple of years older than Ivy, Charlie Bayliss grew up on his family’s farm outside Larkin. Although their paths have crossed before, Charlie meets Ivy officially when he buys a pair of running shoes from her father’s leftover stock. Neither of them is aware of the connection they share, but when the secret is revealed their lives will never be the same.

What was the hardest part of writing your book?
The hardest part was figuring out where to introduce the strong secondary character, Charlie Bayliss. My writing group heard early versions of the story, and some members felt I needed to bring Charlie in during the first few chapters. Others found that too jarring, saying that it interrupted the flow of Ivy’s story.

The problem was the different points of view I wanted to use. In the end, I decided to divide the book into three parts: the first is told in third person limited to Ivy’s point of view, the second part is third person limited to Charlie’s point of view, and the final part is told in third person omniscient. That seems to have solved the problem.

What was your first publication?
Although I’d published articles and stories in magazines and area newspapers, my first book was a work of non-fiction called The Movie Years. It was published in 1989 by Mika Publishing in Belleville, Ontario. Sub-titled A Nostalgic Remembrance of Canada’s Film-making Capital, Trenton, Ontario, 1917-1934, it grew out of my interest in local history.

I was fortunate that when I was doing the research for the book a number of local people who had been involved in the movie industry in Trenton were still alive. I was most interested in how the lives of ordinary citizens were impacted by the movie studio in their midst, and I conducted numerous interviews with these people.

Nick Mika closed his publishing company a number of years ago, due to the death of his wife and business partner, Helma, and to his own failing health. My book has been out of print ever since.

In your own work, which character are you most attached to, and why?
I’d have to say I’m most attached to Ivy Chalmers, the main character in Growing Up Ivy. Not only because her story is still fresh in my mind, but also because she’s “lived” with me for the past three years.

Whenever I start a novel, (and I always begin with weeks and weeks of what W.O. Mitchell called “free-fall” writing) it’s usually the character who comes to me first. When Ivy appeared, I knew she was right for this story. She was such an innocent, a girl who believed in the inherent goodness of other people.

When I began, the only part of the story I knew I would write was the caravan section, those weeks Ivy spent with her father, travelling by horse and wagon around the countryside, trying to sell shoes. I’d already met the inspiration for this part of the novel and had been fascinated by the true account of her adventures.

My fictional Ivy shared my love of books and reading, and her determination to become a writer was an added connection between us.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received as a writer?
As a writer, the best advice I ever received came from Barbara Greenwood, a well-respected, Canadian author of YA historical fiction, and a teacher of creative writing. It was during a blue pencil session at “Packaging Your Imagination,” CANSCAIP’s day of workshops for authors and illustrators, held every fall in Toronto.

I was one of the lucky ones to have a session with an editor – Barbara Greenwood. I had submitted to her the first few chapters of what later turned out to be my first children’s novel.

After reading my submission, Barbara told me that I should have started my story at Chapter Two, because that’s where the action began. I’ve since learned that a story should begin on the day that is different for the main character, the day things change. One can always work the back story in later, once the reader is hooked.

I’ve never forgotten what Barbara told me. And I always pass on that particular piece of advice whenever I am speaking to young writers in the schools: take a good look at what you’ve written; maybe you should consider starting your story at Chapter Two.

Peggy Dymond Leavey’s previous books include Sky Lake Summer, The Deep End Gang, and The Path Through the Trees, all of which have been nominated for the Silver Birch Award. She has also been shortlisted for the Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award, the Arthur Ellis Award, and the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award. Peggy lives in Trenton, Ontario.

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