The idea for my second novel grew out of a fascination I had long had with the Fenians. I knew little about them other than that they had invaded the Niagara Peninsula. What could they possibly have hoped to achieve—this small, not well-disciplined group of Irishmen? I started to read background material in the hopes of finding a story. The material was so rich that all sorts of possibilities leapt out at me. But mainly I was caught by one aspect of the Fenians; basically they were terrorists interested only in drawing attention to their cause—the liberation of Ireland from the English—by attacking the nearest outpost of British civilization, which for this group happened to be Canada. Even in 1985, when I started researching the story, the word “terrorist” had current resonance. Now, of course, it is unfortunately in the news almost every day. But it was that “chiming” with the present that first drew me to the subject.
My mother emigrated from Ireland in 1929 so I had long been interested in things Irish, which was another plus for this story idea. But now I had to find the actual story I wanted to tell. Remembering my teen-aged delight in such spy and adventure novels as Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw, I decided the attempted invasion by the Fenians was the perfect subject for a Canadian spy novel. And so it proved. Even though the Fenians were not successful in the long term, they certainly needed information about the territory before they set out. Who supplied that information? They must have had spies on the ground. One of them, I decided, would become a character in my story. Next I needed a strong, interesting reason why my protagonist, a teenager like my prospective readers, might get involved with that spy. And so, as I sifted through my research notes, I kept asking myself, who is this boy, why would he get involved and how might it happen?
Coming up with an idea about a boy who decides to spy for the Fenians is barely the start of a story; to make it rich and deep a story needs many threads. What else can happen in this book, I wondered? I started to think about the ordinary, everyday lives of 14-year-old boys in 1866. He’d be finished school so he needed a job to support himself. If he was lucky, his family could afford to apprentice him to learn a craft. What craft could my boy be learning? Carpenter? Blacksmith? Wheelwright? All useful and necessary trades at the time, but I needed something that would further my story. So what else was happening at the time? Well, 1866 was an exciting year in Canada West. The British colonies in North America had been talking for years about joining together as a country and finally Confederation was going to happen. To celebrate this once-in-a-lifetime event, communities throughout the colonies were planning their own Confederation projects. Big communities were building new town halls, very small ones could afford only cairns at their cross roads. But the favourite Confederation project was a large bell to be hung in the bell tower of the most prominent public building. So, there was the perfect trade for my protagonist to be learning—bell founding.
And that’s how a writer builds a story idea – by asking such questions as who, why and how. And she keeps asking until she has answers so intriguing that she has to start writing the story.