Literary
Writing dystopian fiction during a pandemic By Janet Jarrell
Jerri
Chisholm’s bio There were moments lists young adult author, distance runner, when she asked, and chocolate addict to her credit. She grew up with an eccentric father, a large ‘Am I sane?’ Yet, it imagination and a parrot as a family pet. After completing a master’s degree never entered her in public policy, she became a lawyer and lives in Belleville with her family. mind to quit. When Chisholm had her first child, she switched to consulting work to stay home during the early years and yet still keep her foot in the door with the intention of going back to practicing law full time at some point. In theory, this sounds like a solid plan. However, with her first baby, she found it difficult to be a full-time mom and have the time and focus to complete the consulting work as well. She dropped the consulting work. When things got a little easier at home, she turned to writing. It is something she always wanted to pursue, “so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to give my outlandish writing dream a try,” she says.
She squeezes writing into those moments when the kids are napping during the day or sleeping at night. In the first few years she wrote a couple of books. She sent them around to as many agents in Canada as she could find, with little or no response. She went one step further and sent them along to agents in the U.S., but still had no luck with those early books: “They will never see the light of day,” she says. She learned the process from that experience, and what makes for a good story. She also knew this was just the beginning. She began writing Escaping Eleven about four years ago. It took a little over six months to write and then she sent it around to the many agents and again, the no’s started coming in. Umbrella, Fall / Winter, 2020 - 26
Chisholm persevered and she is proud of that. There were moments when she asked, ‘Am I sane?’ Yet, it never entered her mind to quit. From time to time, an agent would ask for partial manuscripts, and that was an exciting, hopeful breakthrough. She admits, “that is all part of the process, and the process is very, very slow.” Then it happened – an agent based in the U.S. made a request for the full manuscript. Chisholm was aware of the ‘slush pile’ of manuscripts that agents all have to get through, so she was prepared for a wait. Finally, the agent read the manuscript, loved it, and was ready to begin negotiations for a deal; but that was when the real work began. The agent wanted to do edits and give some feedback. Chisholm readied herself for some grammar and spelling, but was not ready for the pages of reworks. It was all a little overwhelming, coupled with the fact that Chisholm now had a newborn (her third child) at home. “For the bulk of the pandemic, March through August, I was working on Escaping Eleven edits, a more demanding process than I anticipated,”
