Q&A with Ann Cavlovic

 

 

 

Ann Cavlovic is the author of the new novel Count on Me. She lives in Western Quebec. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Count on Me, and how did you create your character Tia?

 

A: I’ve known for over 20 years that I wanted to write something about love and money. But early tinkering didn’t go far. I parked the topic (but not my curiosity) until I was a more mature human and writer.

 

About 10 years later, with some publications under my belt, my parents landed in a nursing home – a place where heated family conflicts about wills and inheritances often unfold in sour-smelling hallways for all to see. 

 

I realized this was it. Although there are many examples of tension between love and money, it so commonly wreaks havoc in a family when a parent is declining and wounds from the past get ripped open. Yet we so rarely talk about this (or any of the realities of aging) in our culture, whether in art or daily life. 

 

For Tia, the protagonist, I wanted her to come from a family that was neglectful at times, and so in reaction she’d start off hyper-parenting her own child (as many do).

 

Then she could take a dual journey: while uncovering what her sibling was doing to her ailing parents and struggling to fix it, she could also come to a deeper understanding of how to truly be a cycle-breaker herself. 

 

Politics also informed her character. I wanted the subplot to deal with political spin to parallel the spin in this family’s discourse.

 

There are of course no shortage of examples of political spin; I ended up picking the audits of environmental charities that took place in Canada circa 2015, because politicians accusing climate advocates of being “radical” for raising concerns about pipelines just got under my skin.

 

At first, I thought Tia could somehow be fighting against this, then I realized she had to be one of the (reluctant) auditors herself. 

 

Q: The author Farzana Doctor called the book a “paean to sandwich-generation parents everywhere striving to end cycles of intergenerational trauma.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I adore it. Nothing better than feeling “seen” by a writer you respect. 

 

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: I didn’t know. I only knew I wanted to avoid a sensationalist ending, but it took a few drafts to figure out how.

 

Many early readers wanted either: a) a dramatic showdown, or b) some tidy happily-ever-after. I don’t think either are realistic, from all that I’ve read and observed. So (without spoilers) it’s a subtle ending while ultimately hopeful. With any luck it will ring true to people who’ve lived this kind of thing. 

 

Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: It came in a dream! I’m not kidding. I woke up with the title and scribbled it down before I could forget.

 

It plays on two levels: 1) The usual significance of “Count on Me” relates to the themes around parenting and healthy attachment bonds, and 2) the main character is an accountant, and for a reason: she holds things to account, keeps track of financial flows, even though what she’s most curious about is love – sometimes we have to study what something isn’t to know what it is. 

 

I’m glad I remembered that dream, because the working title was lousy!

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m co-writing a play with my friend Crysta Balis that’s a comedy about how we avoid facing up to our mortality. Gee, I guess I like to write about death and crack jokes. 

 

I will come back to the topic of love and money colliding. I’m still noodling around for how that will next take shape. 

 

Q: Anything else we should know? 

 

A: To research the subplot on the audits of environmental charities, I sifted through about 3,000 pages of Access to Information records (Canadian equivalent to US Freedom of Information Act requests). 

 

To inform the novel overall, I interviewed over a dozen professionals: nurses, doctors, lawyers, social workers, bankers, funeral home directors, environmental leaders, etc. 

 

Finally, in a form of “method acting” to understand what it’s like to be an accountant, I signed up to be the treasurer of the parent committee at my son’s elementary school. If you know what those committees can be like, you’ll understand the depth of my commitment to writing!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb