WRITING
On completing Toward Another Shore
Updated 10/25/24
Today marks the culmination of nearly five years of work.
After editing and expanding Toward Another Shore, the novel written by my late husband—Canadian visual artist, author and educator, Alex Turner—today I made my first manuscript submission! Mum’s the word on the press; I don’t want to jinx this!
The book begins in 1956 when fifteen-year-old Teddy—a lonely boy drawn to the water and woods surrounding his small town of Harrison Hot Springs—is overwhelmed by his feelings upon meeting the bad boy Wade. The narrative tracks the two friends’ rapturous early years ranging over the area’s mountains, their falling out after high school because of Teddy’s sexuality. Their separation, during which Teddy experiences love and loss in the surprisingly wild early ’60s gay Vancouver. The conclusion delves further into Teddy and Wade’s shared past, bringing the cycle of their friendship forward another revolution.
In addition to being a poignant tale of personal development, Toward Another Shore vividly describes small-town and family life in Alex’s beloved Upper Fraser Valley. It also offers insight into a little described moment in queer Canadian history—the decade prior to the 1969 Stonewall riots, when despite the era’s drive for civil rights Vancouver’s gay enclave continued to suffer discrimination and police harassment.
Alex generated a lot of material over the nearly two decades he laboured on the work. He had a natural dramatic sense that lent tension to each story. His language was poetic, humorous and exuberantly down to earth. But with only scant training in writing fiction, he didn’t always know how to shape this material. When I took on the project after his death, I found a few of the stories worked well. As for the rest, it was a bit like archaeology—requiring me to dig through draft after draft to find the shape he was driving toward and to sharpen its arc.
Fortunately, Alex was a huge pack rat. So, on the occasions where beats needed fleshing out or new scenes added, I was able to utilize text and incidents gleaned from his copious editorial notes, letters, journals and photographs from the period.
Excited as I am today, this first submission is only a start. Finding a publisher who’ll fall in love with a manuscript takes time—a lot of time usually. Cross fingers. I’ll keep you posted.