Although I grew up in Vancouver, as a young girl I spent summers with an aunt in a small town in the mountains of the West Kootenays. Why was it important that the novel take place on a dairy farm in the Cascades?ĭuring the 1960s, many Vietnam War resistors took refuge in that area of the province. The setting of After River truly sets the tone for the novel. The priest and confessor finally did make it into the story but in a much smaller role. Of all the chapters in the finished novel it is the least revised. Those first 10 pages, starting with that four-word sentence, ended up being the second chapter of After River. So I followed where those characters led. I had the immediate feeling that this could be the beginning of a novel. But I did like the characters, the entire family, who showed up. Ten pages later I still hadn't mentioned those two. I had expected those four words to be the lead-in to a short story with the main characters being a priest and a confessor. What came out was completely different from where I thought I was going with it when I sat down. I mentally played with the 'what ifs' of the aftermath of that incident then went inside and used those four words as the start to a free writing exercise. Mulling those words over and over, I recalled an incident that happened to someone I knew briefly in the 1960s. A four-word sentence popped into my mind early one morning when I was outside working in the garden. What was the inspiration for After River?Īfter River started out more or less as a writing exercise. Read on to find out more about the book and her inspirations. The Canadian Living Book Club pick for June is After River by author Donna Milner.
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