What was your biggest challenge in writing Majeek?
How to create simultaneous lives. I didn’t want the sense of past and present even though one
life is ancient and the other modern. The two lives had to exist simultaneously but I didn’t know
how to create that on paper.
How did you finally achieve that?
I stopped trying. You see, at this point, I’d started the novel four times, each time going a little
further before it crashed. I was familiar with the format of writing a novel: character interviews,
detailed analysis of plot, timeline, etc. Well, you can imagine how the character interviews went;
Samantha leaned over backwards to be helpful and answer all the questions correctly, Sally was
bored silly and left in the middle of the interview, and Jacquelyn, well frankly, she intimidated me.
Then it dawned on me that if I knew exactly who these women were and where the story was
going, it was dead before it hit the page. I had to be willing to take the journey with them.
Are you saying you didn’t know what was going to happen?
No idea. But that shouldn’t have been such a shock to me, it’s been the theme of my life. I
followed the old horsemen’s adage, Throw your heart over the fence and the rest will follow. After
all, that was how my racing career began. The first time I broke out of the starting gate, I had no
idea what I was doing or what would happen when the latches sprung open. I had to trust the
horse, Nina Count. She took good care of me and we were brilliant. With Majeek, I had to put my
trust in Sally, Samantha and Jacquelyn, and their counterparts, Intami, Selima and Oma. I loved
the ride and I hope my readers feel the same way.
Excuse me for going off course, but you were in the starting gate and didn’t
know what you were doing? Didn’t you grow up with horses?
I grew up with an invisible horse. There were no real horses in my family, and no horse people in
the last three generations. I grew up in apartments in Lachine, Quebec, reading all the Black
Stallion books, My Friend Flicka, and anything I could find on riding. When I was sixteen, I made
friends with a girl who knew of a livery stable where you could go on group trail rides. I went and
checked all the horses out, with their western saddles and then saw a little brown mare with an
English saddle. Her name was Fireball. I convinced the guide that I was an experienced rider and
he put me on Fireball. When we came to the first galloping stretch, Fireball took off. I lost my
stirrups and grabbed mane but when she came to a stop, I was still in the saddle. I loved it!
I see why you were drawn to racing. How did you actually get to the racetrack?
The rental stables were my only experiences with horses and there didn’t seem any future there
for me, so when I graduated from high school, I went to college and took a two year diploma
course in physical education. I met someone who knew of a riding school, Green Acres Riding
Academy. I began lessons at the age of nineteen. I gave myself six months to catch up to the
fourteen year olds, who could literally ride circles around me. Five and a half months later, Green
Acres had their spring show. While I was waiting for the adult class, the instructor came over and
told me she needed an extra rider to fill the junior class. In helmet and breeches, you couldn’t tell
I wasn’t a junior, so I joined the class. The judge placed me first. My goal was attained.
From Green Acres Riding Academy to the starting gate...for most people, that’s
worlds apart.
Only for people who believe in past and present lives. Once you get the concept of simultaneous
lives, there’s nothing to it. I believe the reason I could have my first riding lesson at age nineteen
and get my jockey’s license by twenty-three is because I tuned into abilities from other lives. I did
things on racehorses that I shouldn’t have been able to do, like break out of the starting gate. In
those days, nobody was interested in training women jockeys. They were hoping we’d forget the
whole thing and go back to the kitchen where we belonged. The trainers wouldn’t let me go to the
gate if they knew I’d never been there so I kept my mouth shut and grabbed the first opportunity.
Yes, I trusted the horse, which helped, but somehow my body knew what to do. That happened a
lot on racehorses, I’d do things instinctually. If I’d grown up with horses, it would make sense, but
the knowledge seemed to come from somewhere else. The really amazing thing is that I never
questioned it, I just accepted it and moved on.
Shades of Sally O’Sullivan?
I guess we have a few things in common, except Sally grew up with horses. Her ability on
horseback makes sense but her healing abilities definitely come from the ancient world. Sally’s
putting it together faster than I did, but with Samantha and Jacquelyn helping, that’s not
surprising.
Which brings me back to the character interviews. I understand Samantha
being helpful, that seems to be her nature, and Sally was in the same
profession as yourself, but how did you interview Jacquelyn?
I didn’t. Jacquelyn interviewed me. I had to convince her to be a part of the journey. Midway
through the novel, she threatened to leave. I know this sounds psychotic but I’m trusting that if I
can actually put the experience down on paper and make it legible that I’m not certifiably
psychotic. Anyway, I had been dutifully sitting at the computer, sometimes in the middle of the
night if that was when it flowed and everything had been going well. I didn’t know until my fingers
were on the keyboard where we were going and it would all work out, until this particular day.
Everything I wrote came to a dead-end, the whole session wasted. Again, the next day. By the
third day, I was terrified that I’d lost the whole thing and would have to trash three months of
writing when I found myself face-to-face with Jacquelyn. She told me she was leaving. I was
horrified, there was no way of replacing her or continuing without her. I asked her, very politely,
why she was leaving. She said I wasn’t portraying her correctly, that I was confusing her with
someone else. I promised to let go of any preconceived ideas of who she was and follow her
lead. Everything went beautifully from that time on.
Now that the characters are established, do you think it’ll be easier to follow
them into other lives, i.e. a sequel?
Sally has insisted that I sign a contract with her this time, promising to follow wherever she leads.
That makes me a little nervous, but I’ll just have to trust. Samantha is giving me glimpses of what’
s happening in her life. And Jacquelyn, well… maybe she’s ready to trust me. I have no doubt it’ll
be another exciting ride.
