Rosey Edeh & C.L. Polk discuss Canada Reads contender The Midnight Bargain
Rosey Edeh is championing The Midnight Bargain on Canada Reads 2021
Rosey Edeh is one of the panellists taking part in Canada Reads 2021. The Olympian and broadcaster is championing the fantasy novel The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk.
In The Midnight Bargain, Beatrice is making her debut at "bargaining season" — an annual event where wealthy young men and women gather from all over the world to make advantageous marriages. But she harbours secret plans that will upend society. Rather than get married, Beatrice plans to bind a greater spirit and become a full magician.
Performing the secret ritual goes against the rules of her world, which prohibits women from practicing magic while they can still bear children. With the help of the wealthy Lavan siblings, fiery Ysbeta and her handsome brother Ianthe, Beatrice searches for a way to change old patriarchal traditions.
Canada Reads will take place March 8-11, 2021.
The debates will be hosted by Ali Hassan and will be broadcast on CBC Radio One, CBC TV, CBC Gem and on CBC Books.
Edeh and Polk got together virtually to discuss the great Canadian book debate and The Midnight Bargain.
You can watch their conversation above or read an excerpt below.
Rosey Edeh (RE): To dive into this book that has been my saviour, The Midnight Bargain, in the dead of winter: you get to read a fantasy novel that takes you to another place and gives you hope. There's adventure and thrills. There's a protagonist that I just love. Her name is Beatrice and this whole world is colourful and magical. OK, so Chelsea, tell me this. What inspired you to write The Midnight Bargain?
CL. Polk (CP): I was mostly inspired by the desire to break away from the things that I was supposed to be doing. The Midnight Bargain was like me sneaking out the bedroom window in the middle of the night to go have an adventure. I basically wanted to write something that I felt was fun and indulgent. I wanted to write about big, pretty dresses and the whole marriage-hunting season.
I wanted to write about ritual magic, and I decided that I wanted to write a book about women's power, about women having agency and about wanting something that the world tells you that you shouldn't want or are not allowed to want, but you're going to go after it anyway.
RE: It's fun that you touch on that right off the top about women's power, women's agency. Because you write about the importance of a woman to literally take her power into her own hands. And you do it through the world of magic. That was obviously very important for you to tackle that.
This whole world is colourful and magical.- Rosey Edeh
Tell us why.
CP: I write fantasy novels because I like the idea of making up worlds with different possibilities. I just love magic. Magic is this thing where you can literally make your wishes come true, using certain techniques.
But you can basically put a desire out in the universe and the universe listens to you. Like, come on, who doesn't want this? I wanted to use this world that wasn't like ours, it was more old-fashioned than ours, it was more elaborately mannered than ours. I wanted to talk about women's power in a society that is right on the threshold of believing feminism is probably a great idea. Let's start working on that.
And I basically used magic as this cool thing I like, but also to stand in for your engineering degree, if that makes any sense.
RE: This unlikely thing, this thing that's not associated traditionally with women, is that what you mean?
CP: Yeah.
RE: Let's talk about Beatrice, the protagonist. Where did Beatrice come from and how did you develop her?
CP: When I first started, all I knew about Beatrice was that she really, really, really wanted this book in this bookstore. The reason she wanted the book was because it was a grimoire. She needed to get her hands on it in order to increase her power. That's all I knew about her. Everything else developed as I was exploring the character. And then I was like, "Why does she want this?" And she wants it because it's the best thing in the world to her.
She's not supposed to do magic, but she's been messing around with it and she thinks it's great and she doesn't want to stop. And she uses her desire as the key ingredient to solve all of her external problems. She has problems with her family's social standing and their financial situation is very bad. And she's like, "I can use magic for this."
But I know a lot of us, when we were growing up, we wanted to do something and a lot of us were told that we could not do it or that we shouldn't do it or that it wasn't wise or wouldn't make us any money, wouldn't give us any security. I was told not to be a writer because I would starve in a garret and that I should do something sensible, like public accounting.
And even though public accounting is super cool and you can do neat things with it, what I wanted to do is write. I wanted to solve my life problems with this thing that I loved. Everybody's like this.
Growing up, you wanted to be a hockey player. Growing up, you wanted to be a scientist. Growing up, you wanted to be an actor. We all have these dreams and a lot of us could benefit from thinking about those old dreams. And if we're not doing them, is there a way to bring them back into our lives? Can we put the ice skates back on and go play a game? Can we continue to connect with this thing that made us happy when we were growing up?
RE: When I read about a warding collar in the book, which is a collar that women who are of a certain age, childbearing age, need to wear once they're married because that means they're going to bring forth children into the world. And heaven forbid that they don't have the warding collar on because then the babies will come out possessed by these spirits because women can't control their own magic.
So they have to put the warding collar on and then everything is dimmed. Colour, lights, sound, taste, the world goes whoosh once you put the warding collar on. Now you're tamed. I actually had a physical reaction when I read that. I was like, wow.
That is the negative voice inside of you taking away all your hopes and dreams and telling you "You can't do this, you can't do that." What does the warding collar represent to you?
CP: It's a bunch of things. For me, the warding collar is this idea that women absolutely need to be controlled because they are dangerous. If you leave them to their own devices, they will get up to all kinds of mischief, trouble and danger, and for their own safety, you have to control them. So there's that going on.
It's also a status marker. If you're wearing this elaborate silver collar around your neck, everybody who looks at you knows that you have magical power and that you are married and you're probably married to somebody with a lot of power and status and they probably shouldn't mess with you as a result.
The other thing that I was thinking about with the collar was, this is a little bit of an out-there symbol, but it represented to me a lot of the ways that I was told to not be my full self, that I had to make myself small.
I wanted to write a book about women's power, about women having agency and about wanting something that the world tells you that you shouldn't want or are not allowed to want, but you're going to go after it anyway.- C.L. Polk
When I was a little girl, I was a fast reader and got the highest marks in the class. I was very proud of my academic achievements.
But I was told that I had to tone that down because I would be threatening to boys. And OK, I was like, "Sounds fake." But I bought it.
And the result of buying this was that I had to be someone that other people expected me to be and not who I was myself, when I was experimenting with this.
Then I was like, "Oh, this is dumb. I'm going to be a smart, nerdy bookworm who likes music. I'm just going to be that. And people are going to have to cope."
RE: Wow, Chelsea. That brought me back to when I was younger in high school. I have a deep voice and my voice was pretty much like this in high school. What I would do when I would answer the phone is that I would go [raises voice] "Hello. Hello."
Because I didn't want my deeper voice to come through because boys would make fun of me. "Oh, you sound like a man." I felt very embarrassed. I wanted to be lighter and different. I wanted to fit into this box that people thought was acceptable.
I raised my voice until I started running track and I started to feel myself in my power. And then when I finished running track and finished representing Canada, I got into broadcasting. Then they said, "You have a great broadcasting voice. Let me hear it!" I went, "Whoa! Really?" All of a sudden, it was this release. I can speak in my real, deeper voice.
I totally can relate to what you're saying about people around you saying don't be too this, don't be too that or else they won't like you or they'll feel uncomfortable. Now it's a big old "Too bad. I am me." Which is so good.
What was it like when you found out that your book, The Midnight Bargain, was chosen for Canada Reads?
CP: I had to stop for a second. I didn't say anything for a few seconds because I was running the last few moments of the conversation back in my head to make sure that I had actually heard what I thought I had heard.
RE: Oh, my gosh. It must have been incredible.
CP: It was really incredible. I was bursting with it. I was washing my dishes and I was like, "I'm on Canada Reads!"
RE: Yes! Yes!
Do you have any tips for me in championing The Midnight Bargain? I think it's going to get pretty intense up there. What should I do?
CP: Know what the core of your reasoning is — and always go back to it. When you're in the conversation about that, link everything back to it. Link everything to something that is pertinent because of this great book you read. If you hold onto that core, and you're always thinking back and you're always moving forward, I think that's the way to go.
RE: That's great advice. That really is. I'm definitely taking that to heart.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
The Canada Reads 2021 contenders
- Rosey Edeh champions The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk
- Scott Helman champions Two Trees Make a Forest by Jessica J. Lee
- Devery Jacobs champions Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead
- Paul Sun-Hyung Lee champions Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
- Roger Mooking champions Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi
