Sylvia Olsen Interviews

Interview By: On: February 25th, 2007

WL: Do Josie’s experiences relate to your own? How?

SO: Josie’s family and past life experience is not similar to my life at all. She is also a very different kind of girl than I was. However, I draw heavily on how I felt and the kind of images I remember having as a young person when I moved onto a reserve. The isolation, the need to deeply question previous assumptions, the loneliness, the confusion; they are all part of my experience.


WL: What do you think Josie learns about herself when she understands her new family?

SO: Finding her place is a theme that emerged as I wrote the book—finding her place in a house and a group of people who did not easily present a comfortable spot for her. Josie stumbles through each day and circumstance and gradually finds a place with Grandmother (which was easy) with Luke, with Martin and with Rose. Eventually she even found a place with her mother. Josie’s view of the world expanded, her possibilities increased. She found out that she could enjoy things that she would have never even contemplated before—such as spending an afternoon in the hospital with Grandmother. Josie also found out that she was part of something bigger than herself—a world that didn’t revolve around her but in which she played an important part. Her life in the apartment in town provided her with few deeply rooted attachments. Josie found out that she liked being part of a community even though it was not always easy.


WL: Does having had children help when you are creating teenage characters in your books?

SO: Oh yes. I raised 4 teenagers, two boys and two girls. My house was the place where young people gathered so I have a lot of input into my teen characters. I build my characters much more on the experiences of my children and their friends than I do from my own teenage years.


WL: What does your family think of you being a published writer?

SO: My 10 year-old grand daughter thinks it is wonderful. My daughter who had a baby and is my inspiration for Girl With a Baby has been very generous. She lets me tell her story over and over again. My other children also support me, sometimes they will read a manuscript—my son read Yellow Line and gave me feedback on the language a young man would use (that was difficult). He also helped me out with the next Orca Soundings I wrote that is coming out next spring (no title yet). They are my biggest boosters when it comes to book launches and presentations—I always get a crowd because they will also bring their friends. They make jokes about what might show up in a book sometime. And they are right. I will see or hear something and mentally take notes—often peculiar incidences come up in my mind when I’m writing and I realize they come from what I have seen or heard around my children.


WL: Did you always know you would be a writer? If so were you interested in writing at a young age?

SO: No, I never imagined being a writer. When I was young I liked to design clothes and work with wool and beads. I loved to create things with my hands. I didn’t start writing until I was 44 (I am almost 52). I came across writing fiction for youth quite by accident. I am a historian by education and got an idea that I should write the stories of my family (the family I married into) into fiction. My first book No Time to Say Goodbye is the result of that idea. After that book came out the publisher asked me to write another story. Writing wasn’t something I thought I would do but the first book was a great learning experience so I thought I would try to learn how to become a good author. I have spent the past 7 years learning and improving my writing skills.


WL: When you write is the story already fully formed in your head? Or do you develop the story as you write?

SO: A story is already formed in my head but that story begins to change the minute I start to write it. For me it is the characters that are most firmly set in my mind. I got to know the fictitious people like Rose and Luke, in White Girl. I can describe what they look like and their personalities in detail. They have become like someone I know in person. Because the characters are so well fixed in my head the story tends to go the way of the personalities. I might have had something in my mind about story line but when I get there I find that Luke would have done something quite differently and Rose would have reacted in some other way than I had thought so I let the characters lead the way and in the end they create the action and the story.


WL: Did you read a lot when you were a teenager? What were some of your favorite authors or books?

SO: No. I am an unlikely author. I had a different sort of upbringing—in a very small religious group. We were not encouraged to read anything but the Bible. When I left the church and went to university (not until I was 36) I found that I was almost completely illiterate when it came to popular culture—books, movies, music, etc. I could read extremely well from reading the Bible and books about the Bible for so many years but I knew almost nothing about the things other people in our culture knew. I have since read everything I can get my hands. It all has been a very steep learning curve for me.


WL: What authors inspire you the most now?

SO: Margaret Atwood inspires me because she has such a fabulous command of the English language. Her vocabulary and versatility with words is astounding. I am so impressed. Pierre Berton inspires me because he wrote history in such a free flowing style that we can become part of his stories. I love the way Louise Eldridge writes about First Nations people. She so naturally brings the lives of people and their histories and issues together. I read a lot of youth fiction although I don’t have a favorite author. I like the way youth fiction is able to get to the heart of the story. I am more a story teller than a writer—the characters and their interaction are what interests me most about fiction—simply the story. Youth fiction is able to do that.


WL: Have you ever suffered from writers block? If so, how do you get through it?

SO: Not so much. I am very busy in my work—which is building houses and working professionally on First Nations reserves as a housing specialist. Writing is my hobby. When I sit down to write I am usually very excited that I can find the time and space to do it. I am not goal oriented—I don’t have targets of how many pages I need to write or deadlines to work to. Therefore I just create whatever comes my way. I can certainly get stuck on a word and drive myself crazy writing the same sentence a hundred times only to find that in the end I backspace and get rid of the whole thing. I usually work on a number of projects at the same time so I can always find something that inspires me. There is also a lot of other work around being an author, like this interview for instance. This morning I was going to work on rewriting a story I have been working on for a few years but instead, because I went to bed late last night and didn’t have the clarity to write my story I decided to talk to you instead. There is always something like that to do instead of writing.


WL: Do you feel there are enough books for teens concerning First Nations issues? Why or why not?

SO: No. I would love to see many books that include First Nations in the story—written in many voices and from many perspectives. The books don’t have to be about First Nations altogether but it would be great if First Nations people were present and part of many Canadian stories. Authors tend to either write about First Nations or leave them out completely. My stories are mostly about how we interact with each other—different sorts of people coming together. Of course that’s what I write about because that’s what my life is about. I am most interested in how human beings come together and get along (or not).


WL: Do you think that Josie’s point of view (in which she doesn’t give her skin color a second thought) is a common point of view for most teenagers?

SO: I think most people see the world from the inside out. People don’t often stand back from themselves and view themselves in a larger context. Experience is the gift that allows us to broaden our perspective. It is when we come into contact with other people that we can reflect on ourselves more deeply and get a different understanding of ourself. We are tall or short depending on whom we are standing next to. We talk a lot or not too much depending on whom we are around. These things about ourselves become evident when we observe our place in the bigger world that includes people who are not at all like us. It is a wonderful gift to have the opportunity to interact with people who are not the same as you—spend time with old people, young people, people of different colors, poor people, rich people, people with different physical attributes. Take time to observe how you relate to those people. Watch how they interact with you. This is a good way to become conscious of yourself in a very exciting way. In this way you will not take yourself for granted or those around you. This is when unconscious assumptions—like the one Josie had—are dissolved and understanding emerges. Life becomes much more colorful and interesting.


Wednesday L., Age 14