- Did your occupation as an educator lead to you writing?
I grew up in Michigan and came to Canada in the 1960s to attend the University of British Columbia, where I more or less flunked out of my PhD program in Modern Chinese History. This turned out to be a blessing as it opened up a world of opportunity and experiences I had never contemplated, starting with a two-year stent (1970-72) in a remote outport community in rural Newfoundland. (In those days Newfoundland faced a grave shortage of teachers and were so desperate they hired me, never having taken an education course, to teach in the high school and my wife in the elementary school.) These were two magical years as I learned from my students how to teach (highly recommended) and the town about community, self-sufficiency and resourcefulness.
And I got my first book out of it: Tomorrow Is School and I am Sick to the Heart Thinking about It. (Described as “the moving tale of two novice teachers who find themselves in a place like no other, facing challenges many teachers can only imagine,” the title was taken from a note left by one of our students, who took to coming up to visit many evenings.) It turned out I was also a pretty creative teacher, spinning ideas from the raw materials of the physical and social environment where I taught and seeing how the kids responded.
During that time, I wrote letters (yeah, real hand-written letters) to friends describing our adventures. When we left to return to grad school, a poet friend convinced me that all those letters I had sent him could be the basis of a book. Really? A book? But I knew I had a story I wanted to tell, a story that needed to be told to honour the students who had taught me how to teach. It might be worth a try.
By then, my wife and I had finished our university programs and had taught for two years in a small indigenous community in the Fraser Canyon. This too was a transformative experience, but I left to be with my father, who was dying of cancer. During this period, I had most of the days to myself. The experiences in Newfoundland were still fresh and strong, demanding to be written and shared. So I wrote a book. And it became a Canadian best-seller. And I was amazed. And then it was used in teacher training programs, and I realized my creativity could not only entertain, but have an impact, contribute to change for the better. The rest of my career was shaped by those experiences in Newfoundland – I became an educator and an author.
- You have lived in many locations, how have these affected your stories?
I once listed “travel” as one of the 5 keys to being a successful writer. For example,
“The cement floor was crowded with a jumble of mismatched tables and chairs, worn sofas and several bathtubs filled with cushions and pillows. The old plaster walls, broken in patches with grey laths behind, were decorated room was a gigantic crypt trembling to the bass of a metal band playing loudly somewhere in the desolation.” (from The Burning Gem)
It is really hard to describe a ruin bar in Budapest if you haven’t been there. Or a café in Paris, or a beach bar in The Gambia, or a traditional sweat lodge ceremony. Description stems from experience, vivid memories, details you tucked away for future use. These include cultural nuances, eye contact, interaction patterns, transactions.
We create believable places and characters because we believe them. We see them and describe them so our readers can see and feel them as well. Travel exposes you to more raw material for writing than any other activity. Do it, and pay attention while you are enjoying new people, places and ways of being in the world.
Perhaps more importantly, travel, especially when working in a new setting and becoming immersed in the culture, norms, values, attitudes and behaviours of a place broadens you as a person and as a writer. I have had the privilege of working with youth and adults from many cultural backgrounds and in a variety of locales, including teaching in a small Newfoundland outport, training community workers in West Africa, teaching adults on a First Nations reserve in British Columbia and designing a climate change action course for Jamaican youth.
Inevitably, these experiences have made their way into his writing.
- When you approach a new topic for a book, what is your process?
It’s not very systematic, I’m afraid. I do a lot of pre-writing in my head – maybe in the gym, lying awake at night, or even while eating breakfast. And then I love to talk a book out with people, generally before much of anything is actually written. I’ll try to get my wife (of 55 years, so she’s kind of sick of it) or friend to talk through the concept with me. I particularly like running ideas by people who inhabit the world I’m drawing from – a fantasist for my urban fantasy, a high school kid for my YA books, a group of adult learners for my Novels for Adult Learners.
Then I lay out a loose outline to provide some general direction and distinct plot points. I am a big fan of outlining, but in a pretty informal way – nothing like the pre-writing technique I taught my students in English class! But I like to draw out at least a rough plot arc – putting on paper the fragments and ideas I’ve been thinking about and beginning to string them together in some plausible sequence. I also write character sketches that flesh out my characters even though I rarely actually use the writing itself. But these sketches help me better understand who I’m dealing with, his or her motivation and the background that has shaped who they are. At this point I would never use chapter headings as I have no idea at the outset how the story will play out and where the natural breaks will occur.
- Has writing always a creative craft for you?
Yeah. I have no musical or artistic abilities whatsoever, so writing became my creative outlet. My mother claimed I didn’t talk until I was two (apparently “moon” was my first word) and hadn’t stopped since. I liked words. I liked the worlds that I was able to visit through books (as far away from my barren suburb and home as possible, hence my love for fantasy and undying gratitude to Tolkien for saving me from a soul-crushing adolescence.) And I could use them pretty well, but because I was shy, I was better off with writing than public speaking.
My first published writing, when I was about nine, were anti-church poems in the, uh, church newsletter. (Alias: Wayne King.) Wow, that caused quite a stir, and I got a thrill from seeing my work in print – and seeing the range of reactions (murderous outrage to bemused interest). School was so boring, my friend Bill Schreffler and I completed a three-act play by passing notes in the back of our English class for a semester. I had three poems published in the school paper. I still have them. They’re not bad.
I credit some of my facility with words to my father, who always had enough respect for me and my ideas (no matter how dumb) to argue with me. He challenged me to think, to support my position, to use words clearly and effectively. To find and use new words. I envied my father – an engineer who could build anything – and friends who played instruments or created art.
I could create. My head was stuffed with observations and ideas – but for the most part it wasn’t tangible – unless I wrote it. Then it was real. Then I had moved from that over-active imagination – after all, the birthplace of all creativity – to the concrete.
For some reason, I seem to have a facility with words and to be able to get from point A to point B by stringing them together with some efficiency and clarity. And I have been privileged to use that skill in applications from novels to curriculum writing.
- Who are your inspirational and favourite authors?
Three writers immediately come to mind: Barbara Kingsolver, Ursula LeGuin and Ken Kesey. Magical, intelligent writers all. Books? Morgenstern’s The Night Circus is as elegantly written a piece of urban fantasy you will ever read. The Poisonwood Bible is simply a narrative masterpiece and a searing indictment of colonial attitudes and their impacts. Cloud Cuckoo Land is an exquisite novel that carries the reader through a thousand years of history via a collection of riveting stories all connected to a mysterious document. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, quite simply provided me with a life perspective that sustained me then, while in the midst of political and personal turmoil, and through my life as I faced professional and individual challenges of all sorts. I have told numerous people that I want McMurphy’s comment (after he tried to lift an impossibly heavy sink) on my tombstone. “But I tried, goddamn it. At least I did that much.”
- What is your fundamental basis for writing your books?
Passion. Virtually every book I’ve written has been a work of (more or less) passion. To tell the story of courageous men and women overcoming the social adversities that would (and do) crush most people in their situation. Or of students whose imagination and creativity shamed the classrooms they were trapped in. And in the Burning Gem, the determination to stop forces that undermine democracy through division, catering to the “tribal drive,” and legitimizing inequality.
A writer friend of mine says this is what he wants engraved on his tombstone: “Well, at least he got a book out of it.” I am much the same way – I write what I care about and from direct experience. As mentioned, I have worked and travelled widely, and the exposure to different cultures, beliefs and stories has influenced what I write and how I write it. It has also motivated me to write books that celebrate diversity and challenge the forces of hate, division and inequality.
- Do you feel fantasy can bridge the gap into reality?
Absolutely. Read virtually any of Ursula Leguin’s books (especially The Left Hand of Darkness or The Word for World Is Forest) and you will be transported to another world where we confront the social, environmental and political issues we face in contemporary society in a provocative narrative that forces us to look at ourselves more honesty and critically.
In the case of The Burning Gem, one reviewer commented that the book is a “deep and magical allegory creating a world that mirrors the dark forces at work on our planet today. Entertaining and compelling, I enjoyed inhabiting its realm.” Another wrote, “As each page turns, the alternate reality draws us in ever closer. Don Sawyer’s deft research blends fact with magical possibility and it begins to really matter to us that the forces of evil that can control others’ souls can be surmounted. Hope, love, and the courage to face death give these compelling characters exactly what we all might wish for ourselves.”
I want readers to come away reflecting on the forces in society at work to promote the worst of Nietzsche’s Weltanschauung and how they can be combatted. The Burning Gem and its sequel wrestle with a fundamental question: As a species, are we really so unevolved that when facing existential challenges, such as climate change, is the best we can do is fall back on primitive and counterproductive responses such as tribalism, distrust of the Other, and a demand for simple answers to increasingly complex questions? I find that truly troubling, and The Burning Gem suggests that these reactions may be more than simple limitations in imagination and adaptation but actively cultivated by a cabal of shadowy figures to sow confusion and greed through the use of a wide array of strategies, including using “influencers” armed with their magic gems.
So it’s a metaphor, but hopefully a compelling adventure as well.
- Where did the idea for The Burning Gem originate?
The Burning Gem is the first book in the Soul Catcher series. I have worked in Indigenous communities for many years and was aware of the resistance some aboriginal people displayed when photographers such as Edward Curtis, who was termed the “shadow catcher,” to having their photographs taken. Whether, as some claim, they feared a part of them remained in the box cameras or that they understood that the photo did indeed steal a bit of their soul and freeze it forever in that instant while their lives and the world around them went on, their initial unease is understandable. But what if, I wondered, there was an apparatus that really did extract a portion of a person’s soul and instead of transferring it onto paper, crystalized it into a gem? A gem that enhanced the character, strengths and values of the owner? And what if that gem was used to promote evil for the benefit of a cabal of shadowy aristoi determined to secure and maintain power in the hands of those meant to rule?
- How do you see the series developing? How many books?
With The Tunnels of Buda, the two books complete the story arc I originally envisioned, and in fact I wrote them at them at the same time. But I like the worlds I have created, as well as the characters, and since it is so darned hard to eradicate evil, I have left the door open for a third book (trilogies seem to be all the rage). I hope the current books will find an audience that enjoys the adventure as well as the provocative questions it asks about who we are and why we are here.
- Where can readers find you and your books?
As another writer put it, all of my books are available through your favourite online bookseller. They can also be ordered through bookstores, from the publisher, Castle Bridge Media (https://www.castlebridgemedia.com/) or directly from me at Don Sawyer Books (https://www.donsawyer.org/). For more information on my books, please visit my web page: www.donsawyer.org or Don Sawyer Books FB page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558529432508
Bio: An educator and writer, Don grew up in Michigan and came to Canada in the 1960s. , where I more or less flunked out of a PhD program in Modern Chinese History. This turned out to be a blessing as it opened up a world of opportunity and experiences I never contemplated. From teaching in a small Newfoundland outport to training community workers in West Africa to teaching adults on a First Nations reserve in British Columbia to designing a climate change action course for Jamaican youth, I have worked with youth and adults from many cultural backgrounds and in a variety of locales.
Inevitably, these experiences have made their way into my writing. I have authored over 12 books, including two Canadian bestsellers: the YA novel Where the Rivers Meet (Pemmican) and the adult non-fiction Tomorrow Is School and I Am Sick to the Heart Thinking about It (Douglas and McIntyre). The first book in his Miss Flint series for children, The Meanest Teacher in the World (Thistledown) was translated into German by Carlsen (hardback) and Ravensburger. My articles and op-eds have appeared in many journals and most of Canada’s major dailies
I was never a very good boxer, but I continue to train in the ring and walk in the woods whenever my hips don’t hurt too much. I currently live in St Catharines, Ontario, with Jan Henig Sawyer, my very tolerant wife of 54 years.
From a rural outport in Newfoundland and a First Nations community in British Columbia to West Africa and Jamaica, I have worked with youth and adults from many cultural backgrounds and locales. Inevitably, these experiences have made their way into my writing. I have authored over 12 books in several genres, including two Canadian bestsellers.
A writer and educator, Don Sawyer grew up in Michigan and moved to Canada in the 1960s. He has worked with youth and adults from many cultural backgrounds and in a variety of locales, including teaching high school in a small Newfoundland outport, training community development workers in West Africa, teaching First Nations adults in British Columbia and designing a climate change action course for Jamaican youth.
Inevitably, these experiences made their way into his writing: Don has authored more than 12 books – including two Canadian bestsellers – in a variety of genres. His articles and op-eds have appeared in many journals and most of Canada’s major dailies. He currently lives in St Catharines, Ontario, with his wife of 54 years.
We loved the interview! An anti-church poem at a young age! The epitaph of McMurty’s would truly work for you: But I tried goddamit—-at least I did that much. (But of course, so much more!!)…Jane and Frank