Natalie Appleton on "Mad Hell-Rush of Days," Writing, and Historical Fiction
Natalie Appleton studied journalism at the University of Regina and creative writing at City St. George’s in London, England. As a young journalist, she worked at newspapers across western Canada and her stories later appeared in publications such as The Globe and Mail and The New York Times. She has won the Room Magazine creative non-fiction award and Prairie Fire Magazine’s Banff Centre Bliss Carman award. She is the author of three books: the literary travel memoir I Have Something to Tell You, and two works of literary historical fiction, I Want to Die in My Boots and Mad Hell-Rush of Days. By Day, Natalie supports communications for arts organizations and she runs Rose Moon Books, an independent bookstore proudly featuring Canadian books.
INTERVIEW
MG: In your new novel, Mad Hell-Rush of Days, both Spencer and Josie are misfits carrying profound secrets and losses: Spencer is haunted by the boyish pact and tender connection he shared with Valerius back in Suffolk, while Josie is haunted by a childhood action in the Dakotas. How did you navigate writing two central characters who are so geographically and emotionally isolated from the lives they originally envisioned?
NA: You’re right, both Spencer and Josie do have these hauntings, and this belief that either because of a legend or a misdeed, their life course has perhaps been pre-determined. Each character revisits these memories in their own ways. They sort of build them up even more in their minds over time. Then, as adults, both go back to the settings of their childhood. This seems to be when Spencer and Josie both realize they are not who they once were or what they once did—I’m thinking of Spencer looking at the family painting and seeing himself as a ‘misfit’ with those oils—and that perhaps they have more agency than they thought.
I suppose they are both emotionally tethered to these places and memories, until they are not.
MG: Mad Hell-Rush of Days oscillates between the 1870s and the 1940s. What were the structural challenges of weaving together these distinct eras? What made you choose this structure over a more linear narrative?
NA: I think I could write a book about how not to write a book involving two central characters whose lives are entwined across timelines and locales.
At first, Spencer was meant to be a passing character in the story of Josie, but the more I learned about his secrets and the way he was swindled, the more compelled I felt to give voice to his story in equal weight. I also came to be much more interested in the life of Josie as a woman rather than as a girl, where I’d started her writing originally.
I tried every kind of structure possible, from giving entire parts of the book to a one character and following events chronologically, to flipping between characters much more quickly and out of order.
In the end, it seemed to work best to start both character’s story near a turning point in their lives as young adults, and hop back just a little with some signposting, but mostly go forward in time.
I think I’d still be picking at the structure!
MG: Josie’s husband, Clifford, is a deaf homesteader who expresses himself through painting and singing, while Josie herself struggles with faith, longing, and grief. Did the quiet, complex dynamic of their marriage develop throughout the writing process, or was that your intention from the outset?
NA: I had read that Cliff was a painter and singer, and that he was deaf, but I didn’t begin to fully draw him in as a character until later drafts. I was quite fixed on Josie’s experience and perspective, but eventually in the writing I began to consider what this was like for Cliff, being childless, how he would have seen it. He plods along in this quiet, kind of beautiful way, and you’re right, his way of being is such a contrast to Josie’s. She’s suffering from her troubles but also the isolation of homesteading, and with a husband who is deaf. She seems to feel she can only go in and in with her troubles, until she cracks or does something drastic. In the end, though, it’s this almost magical stroke of her own faith that brings her toward what’s she’s always wanted.
MG: Spencer’s journey is anchored by a folklore rite involving a toad’s bone and a dream of living among horses far from public scrutiny. How does this motif of rural superstition and hidden desire shape his identity as he builds a life in Assiniboia?
NA: In a way, I think it gave Spencer the ability to believe, I am a horseman. I will raise horses and I will do this so well that no one will question things. He emigrated to Canada in 1892 and didn’t marry until 1943. He was a bachelor on a ranch for nearly 50 years. Neighbours must have understood quite well that he was gay, but he’d always been there and had always been such a fine man, that perhaps he could not be outcasted. Perhaps the toad’s bone was a kind of talisman simply for himself—but I do picture him rubbing it and thinking of Val, and that as long it lasted, there would be the possibility of Val’s return.
MG: What do you wish someone would ask you about Mad Hell-Rush of Days? Pretend we asked that question.
NA: OK! What do you think these characters would think of being written about like this?
Some of Spencer’s pioneer questionnaire responses seemed a little salty, and others, just so sweet and funny. I got the sense there were parts of his surviving and making it he wanted known, and that he’d held certain cards quite close to his chest, and also must have been terribly embarrassed about what happened in Vancouver. He’d told this story about a bride who never made it when asked why his cabin was furnished so beautifully. Those who wanted to, believed that story. When I look at photos of him, I see someone who was damn proud of the life they’d made, as he ought to have been. He spent his whole life hiding. I somehow think he’d appreciate the chance to let himself truly be seen, in this very different time.
When I read the accounts of the woman who became Josie, it felt very much like she was desperate for this tiny account of what her life was really like. She was so stoic, but there seemed to be some lamenting in her voice and then she shared the magic of what happened in the end in a very matter-of-fact way.
Homesteading stories have traditionally been told from the male perspective, or the perspective of a woman who is perhaps glossing over hardships. I think ‘Josie’ would also have appreciated the chance to be seen.
MG: Your debut novel, I Want to Die in My Boots, is about the infamous Belle Jane who ran a horse and cattle thieving ring in the 1920’s. How did you write the fictional aspects of Belle Janes’s life in a way that honored who she was? Was that aspect challenging, or did it come easily?
NA: I felt I knew Belle Jane’s character and voice very strongly, perhaps because I grew up around some incredibly tough women who also had their multitudes. On the exterior, Belle Jane was steel and cussing. On the inside, she was a woman, torn and regretful and reinventing herself yet again. Once I had mapped out all her names and husbands and destinations, and understood the mystery of how she was caught at the horse and cattle-thieving, I felt more drawn to the story of her inner life, her fears and regrets and her wondering about the son she gave up. I was really trying to uncover the complexities of such a woman. She had so much gumption. Often, in my own life, when I feel myself hesitating, I think, What would Belle Jane do here?
MG: Your background spans investigative journalism, creative non-fiction, poetry, and literary memoirs like I Have Something to Tell You. How does your training as a journalist and non-fiction writer influence the way you research and construct historical fiction?
NA: Discipline! When you are working at a newspaper, there is no sitting around waiting for a time when you feel inspired. You have a deadline and a page to fill and that starry line might not be first but it will come. I think that training has been good for simply sitting down and doing the writing.
MG: Between running Rose Moon Books, supporting local arts organizations, and volunteering with the Valley Voices reading series, you are deeply embedded in the Okanagan writing community. How does being part of a vibrant regional literary community feed into your personal writing practice?
NA: It’s so uplifting to spend time with readers and other writers. You only have to spend a few minutes at a poetry reading to feel calm and inspired and quietly connected to those around you. I was at a poetry reading last week, just after the elections in BC, which was stressful. I think we all felt so much better about humanity and the break from those stresses. I told a friend, who knew a night of poetry was just the antidote!
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