Karen Barrow is a Trinidad-born Canadian author. Her post-secondary studies brought her to Canada, where she eventually settled. Years later, Karen fulfilled a lifelong dream by combining a love of storytelling and her passion for travel to inspire her historical fiction novels. Palmyra, her debut novel, won the Whistler Independent Book Award for Fiction and was a finalist for the Guernica Prize, the Page Turner Awards and the Eric Hoffer Award. She lives in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia.

INTERVIEW

MG: Tell us a bit about your book, Palmyra.

KB: Palmyra is a historical fiction, self-described as a Caribbean Gothic suspense novel. The novel is set on a cocoa estate on the island of Trinidad at the turn of the 20th century. The narrator, Joe, is an eleven-year-old boy who is the son of the housekeeper to a wealthy French Creole family, who owns the cocoa estate, the name of which is Palmyra. Partly a coming-of-age story, Joe is essentially the fly on the wall who bears witness to half-understood incidents and undercurrents in the lives of Palmyra’s residents. As we say in Trinidad, there is a lot of bacchanal in this story!

MG: What makes this story Gothic literature?

KB: It is Gothic in the sense of the ‘Romantic Gothic’ period, as perfected by authors like Daphne du Maurier in Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel, and Victoria Holt’s romantic suspense novels. In essence, the gothic aspect is the brooding nature of the story, usually centered around a house or property where mysterious things have happened in the past and which continue into the present. In Palmyra, the unearthing of buried family secrets creates divided loyalties and drives some to extremes in pursuit of their ambitions. Referencing local folklore further enhances the gothic touch, as does a minor character known within the valley as an Obeah woman, essentially a ‘witch doctor’. 

MG: What is your favorite thing that you learned when researching for Palmyra?

KB: Ooooh, great question. Learning about cocoa harvesting and chocolate production and how little has changed in over a century, as the process is very basic, with minimal technological application. I have developed an appreciation of the subtle differences in flavour of single sourced dark chocolate.

MG: What’s your favorite quote from your novel?

KB: “If there’s one constant in life, it’s change.”

MG: What’s the most difficult part about writing historical fiction?

KB: Some might say the research, but that’s what I love about writing historical fiction; you learn so much. Perhaps it’s all the rabbit holes you dive into, which are fascinating, but pull you from the focus of your story. 

MG: What got you into writing historical fiction?

KB: Write what you know. After a steady diet of Enid Blyton and Nancy Drew mystery novels in my early youth, I graduated to writers like James A Michner, James Clavell, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Daphne Du Maurier, Philippa Gregory, and Victoria Holt, to name a few, devouring any and everything they wrote. I actually started book clubs to force myself to read genres outside of historical fiction, with limited success. 

MG: What do you think readers will like most about Palmyra?

KB: People seem to like the cinematic aspect of Palmyra, with many saying that they can clearly see everything as described. Quite a few have said that they can see it as a movie or a mini-series. 

MG: Are you currently writing anything new? If so, can you tell us anything about it?

KB: I am putting the finishing touches on another historical fiction, set at the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain. It has two timelines, one present day, the other set in 1429, when the Moors still ruled southern Spain. Place is the catalyst for all my writing, which allows me to combine my passion for travelling with my need to write. Even before I’d visited the Alhambra, I’d decided to set my next novel there. Though it took a while, once the story line took shape, it just flowed out of me. 

MG: What is the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

KB: It sounds cliche, but after 10+ years of writing, the mantra ‘Write what you know’, really resonates. And that doesn’t mean you can only write about your life experiences. It could be a place you know well or have visited. You can incorporate a lived experience, family history, or someone else's lived experience into a fictional scene. Or you can use personality traits from someone you know well to help build a character. But the more you write from experience, the more your characters and scenes will resonate with your readers.

MG: Is there anything else you’d like to share?

KB: I’ve learnt that we all have some sort of artistic talent buried deep within us, yearning to escape the confines of practicality. While it is difficult to make a living wage from art, that shouldn’t stop us from exploring that interest, no matter our age. 

MG: Where can people find you online? 

KB: At my website: kamabarrow.org

On IG: @kamamacd

On Facebook: Karen Barrow-MacDougall