Still Mine thriller series author Amy Stuart says returning to P.E.I. is her favourite summer memory
Amy Stuart is a Toronto-based novelist, teacher and short story writer. She is the bestselling author of the Still Mine thriller series, which features the novels Still Mine, Still Water and the latest entry, Still Here.
The novels feature Clare O'Dey, a private investigator caught in the middle of tension-filled mysteries as they unravel. The series of books is being adapted for television.
In Still Here, Clare's colleague and fellow private investigator Malcolm is gone. Clare is determined to find him, and goes to the oceanside city where he has disappeared without a trace. Not only has Malcolm vanished, but so is his wife. Everyone thinks Malcolm is responsible, except for Clare — who believes there's a shady connection to his wife's family business and her father's murder. Clare needs to dig up the dark history the community would rather forget.
Stuart recently took The Next Chapter's version of the Proust questionnaire.
Name your favourite writers.
Fundamentally, my favourite writer is probably Alice Munro because she is the one who I see as part of my own advent into writing. I was reading a lot of her work when I became a writer. And these days, I'm reading a lot of sort of activism related writing. So I would say right now Robyn Maynard right now and Tanya Talaga are two of my favourite writers.
Tell me about your favourite character in fiction.
I would say that my favourite character in fiction is Barney, from Barney's Version by Mordecai Richler, because he is so deeply complicated and flawed. And that complicated, flawed nature really comes through in the story — sort of warts and all. The writer doesn't make any effort to sugarcoat him or present him as a good person.
The writer doesn't make any effort to sugarcoat him or present him as a good person.
And not that I think of myself as a bad person, but I found that very relatable — just to watch your character's struggle with his own imperfections as a writer. Reading that was really important to me, and I love him.
If you could change something about yourself, what would it be?
My tendency to worry — I think that that's something that I've lived with my entire life. There are photographs of me from when I was a very little girl with my eyebrows creased in worry and I've never really discovered the cure for it. I've developed some strategies, but I think I would free up a lot of mental bandwidth if I could figure out how to worry less.
There are photographs of me from when I was a very little girl with my eyebrows creased in worry and I've never really discovered the cure for it.
What do you value most in your friends?
We all value kindness and empathy and patience. But above that, I would say that I value curiosity in my friends, particularly as I get older and my own interests are sort of lowering into a silo where you can only take on so many interests at once. I learned a lot from watching my friends and the interest that they take in the world. So I think having people around you who are curious about things that you're not necessarily curious about is a wonderful way to expand your own sense of the world.
On what occasions do you lie?
I guess you could argue that I lie for a living because I make up stories. And that really is just one large version of lying. I think in real life, I probably lie for the same reasons that most of us do to protect others or myself from something that makes us uncomfortable — some kind of awkward or painful truth
What is your greatest regret?
I think that the regret that I have, it's almost like a circular thing where as time goes on, I find that I regret my regrets, if that makes sense. I regret the times where I fixated on things that I couldn't control, which I guess is a form of worry. I don't like spending a lot of time thinking or worrying about things that aren't going to change. So as I get older, I just regret more and more time that I've spent doing that. Hopefully at some point I'll break the cycle. But for now it goes on.
What is your favourite journey?
My parents are from Prince Edward Island, and so we went back there every summer growing up and the journey from the mainland to P.E.I. is so woven into my memory and my life that every year during this same journey you got this sense on the boat that you weren't approaching the island, but that it was approaching you.
And now I take my own kids — now there's a bridge, but the sea experience is the same. When you cross the bridge, there's still this sense that the island is coming toward you. And I just know when I'm crossing the bridge, or when I was a kid and I was taking the ferry, that I was going somewhere so happy and fun for me. So I still really love that journey.
I just know when I'm crossing the bridge, or when I was a kid and I was taking the ferry, that I was going somewhere so happy and fun for me.
Amy Stuart's comments have been edited for length and clarity.
