Lucy E.M. Black is the author of the novel A Quilting of Scars. Her other books include Class Lessons. She is based in Canada.
Q: What inspired you to write A Quilting of Scars, and how did you create your character Larkin Beattie?
A: This novel began in an antique store when I fell in love with a reproduction poster from May 1874. I was charmed by the poster but also intrigued. Gradually Larkin’s story revealed itself and the novel unspooled.
I was an educator for nearly 30 years and during that time, I interacted with many young people who were frightened of revealing their sexual identities to parents and family members.
Sadly, many students I knew were asked to leave their family home as a result of such disclosures and spent weeks, if not months, couch-surfing while attempting to find a more sustainable living arrangement. It broke my heart to see young people turned away by the very individuals who should have embraced them and celebrated their life choices.
Larkin came to me after I had completed a great deal of research on farming in Ontario during the time period. Once I had his name, his limp, his character, his manner of speech, all of him came together.
He’s a gentle man from a gentle family and it was important to me, and the storyline, that that aspect of his character was developed. He is a character that I have quite fallen in love with. He embodies a number of characteristics belonging to family members and farm folk that I have known.
He also represents those vulnerable young people I have encountered over the course of my career as an educator. The secrets that are kept throughout the story changed Larkin’s life and left him feeling isolated and lonely.
Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: The title comes from a line in the book when Larkin sees a quilting of scars on his friend’s back. His friend has been abused, and the scene is taken from one of my childhood memories when I recognized that a very young school friend was being viciously beaten by his father.
The quilting reference also represents the memories that Larkin recalls during the one very long night of his storytelling narrative. Larkin is piecing together or quilting his memories as he flips through a scrap book and remembers the events of his past.
Quilts also appear in the text in that they a hide secret letter.
And finally, we learn that Larkin doesn’t want to part with his mother’s dresses to have them cut up and turned into community quilts.
For me, personally, quilts hold history – scraps of fabric from favorite shirts, for instance, may bring back memories of the person who once wore the shirt.
I love quilts, we have a number in our home – very old family ones and newer ones that we have purchased. There is an infinite number of patterns and colour combinations and each of these also represent various traditions and hold meaning.
Q: What do you think the novel says about secrecy?
A: The secrets that are kept throughout the story changed Larkin’s life and left him isolated and lonely.
As the novel took shape and I came to know Larkin and his best friend Paul, it became important to me to tell their story – which is a love story of sorts and a celebration of male friendship.
But many secrets are revealed as the story unfolds. Larkin calls himself the keeper of secrets and the weight of that is quite profound.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: No, I definitely did not know how it was going to end. I thought I was writing a story about breeding horses. But then as the novel took shape and I came to know Larkin and his best friend Paul better, it became important to me to tell their story.
The ending wrote itself, as it was the only possible ending for Paul in that place and time, and he needed to leave and create a new identity. Larkin denies his friendship with Paul when on cattle drive and it was this denial that ate away at him and made me realize that there was only one possible way to invoke closure for Larkin.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’ve just completed compiling a short story collection and will be pitching the collection to publishers soon. I am co-editing a book on mothering called Tender Voices and we are currently beginning to pitch the collection. I have a new novel coming out April 15 called The Mural and will soon be preparing to launch that book.
And I’ve begun a new writing project based upon a spinster’s diary who lived in my community from 1843-1944. It will be a work of historical fiction that highlights the incredible changes that took place during her lifetime. It’s an honour to have been entrusted with her diary and I’m looking forward to the work.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Merely my thanks for your interest in Larkin and for taking the time to discuss his story.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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