Bruneau, Carol 1956-

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BRUNEAU, Carol 1956-

PERSONAL:

Born November 21, 1956, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; daughter of John Joseph (an accountant) and Eva Marion Williams (a registered nurse) Bruneau; married Bruce Erskine (a journalist), May 14, 1983; children: Andrew Erskine, Seamus Erskine, Angus Erskine. Ethnicity: "Anglo Canadian." Education: Dalhousie University, B.A. (English), 1977, M.A. (English), 1986; University of Western Ontario, M.A. (journalism), 1983. Religion: Anglican. Hobbies and other interests: Gardening, music, hiking, camping, spirituality.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Cormorant Books Inc., R.R. No. 1, Dunvegan, Ontario K0C 1J0, Canada.

CAREER:

Educator and author of fiction. Writers Federation of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, guest author for writers-in-the-schools program, 1995—; Nova Scotia Community College, Halifax, part-time instructor in creative writing, 1999—. St. Paul's Home (charitable organization), board member.

MEMBER:

Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia, Cancopy.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Explorations grant, Canada Council for the Arts, 1994; second prize for children's writing, Atlantic Writing Awards, 1994; third prize, Sunday Star short-story contest, 1996; Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award, and Dartmouth Book Award for fiction, both 2001, both for Purple for Sky.

WRITINGS:

After the Angel Mill (linked short stories), Cormorant (Dunvegan, Ontario, Canada), 1995.

Depth Rapture (linked short stories), Cormorant (Dunvegan, Ontario, Canada), 1998.

Purple for Sky, Cormorant (Dunvegan, Ontario, Canada), 2000, published as A Purple Thread for Sky: A Novel of Intertwined Lives, Carroll & Graf (New York, NY), 2001.

Contributor to anthologies, including Atlantica: Stories from the Maritimes and Newfoundland, edited by Lesley Choyce, Goose Lane Editions, 2001.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

Sea Bloom, "a novel about survivors of the 1917 Halifax Explosion, the largest manmade explosion before Hiroshima. It is a family saga spanning eight decades during which characters survive catastrophe, war, and sexual misdemeanors. It explores the nature of miracles, small and large."

SIDELIGHTS:

Carol Bruneau told CA: "I've been interested in writing stories since about the age of seven. As a kid I loved the novels of Prince Edward Island-born Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of the popular Anne of Green Gables, and my earliest stories were childish attempts to copy her romantic tales. I couldn't help admiring her; she was really the first writer to prove that you could live and write in my part of the world—Atlantic Canada—and be successful.

"As a teenager and university student, I grew up on the work of Margaret Laurence and Alice Munro. This was my first exposure to writers who capture the truths of being female in milieus not unlike my own—small, rooted communities where connections run deep and provide tons of fodder for fiction. In a big way these writers 'legitimized' my experiences as well as my desire to write. But it wasn't until I read William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, well into my B.A. in English, that the notion of assuming a narrative voice—any narrative voice you pleased—suddenly seemed possible.

"It was another fifteen years or so, however, before I did anything with this discovery. I'd enjoyed a career in journalism—mostly photojournalism—and begun raising my family of three sons before I actually got around to what I always wanted to do: write fiction. That was six years ago, and ever since, my life has been a whirlwind of beat-the-clock juggling of narrative and reality.

"From the beginning I have had to work in fits and starts, bits and pieces, whenever time and opportunity allows. Consequently, a lot of ideas, notes, and even whole scenes have gotten jotted down in check-out lines and at red lights, during soccer games and piano lessons. When it comes to the actual work, I'm a slow and disciplined writer whose most productive time is the morning. My novel A Purple Thread for Sky took five years to complete—three to 'cook,' another two to write. Each story or chapter takes at least five drafts, with the most significant rewriting undertaken at the second-draft stage, and subsequent drafts to hone and polish. For me the most challenging part is discovering structure and plot, which I find grows out of the characters and the narrative itself. My books are character-driven, in the sense that I believe art should imitate life. As a realist, I can't help but bristle at the imposition of plot: to me this is not just artificial but risky, and affect with the potential to compromise a story's integrity.

"For now I am mainly interested in stories that are set in the region I know best, eastern Canada—stories which are rooted in an historical context. And though history plays a role in my work, it's more as a backdrop. Mostly I'm interested in metaphor, and the universal aspects of stories that grow out of contextual experience.

"My favourite authors are presently women from the American south—from Eudora Welty to Lee Smith, Cindy Bonner, and Bobbie Ann Mason. I see parallels between my part of the world and theirs, qualities of voice and character in their work, and a sense of community and of isolation that all ring true for me in a nurturing way. Their stories lend credence to the kinds of stories I want most to tell, stories of 'ordinary' people, particularly women, their triumphs and pitfalls, and the quirks of fate that shape their lives. Humour is especially important—I suppose you could call it survivor's humour, at times quite black. For the stories of survivors, not victims, are the ones closest to my heart, and the fact that people like this abound here in this part of Canada gives me a funny sense of duty. As someone blessed with so much fodder, I feel a responsibility to write it all down."