Cape Breton author pens first novel
Brenda MacLennan-Dunphy currently teaching in China
It’s a long way from Skye Glen to Guiyang, China, but mere distance isn’t going to stop Brenda MacLennan-Dunphy from publicizing her first novel.
The 54-year-old mother of four is currently teaching in China with her husband Ed and they won’t be back in Cape Breton until July 2. She’ll officially launch the book, “Never Speak of This Again,” at Whycocomagh’s Waterfront Centre on July 21.
But for now, she’s busy enough finishing up her teaching year a long way from home.
“I am the principal and teaching Canadian History 11 at an international school in Guiyang, which is teaching the Nova Scotia curriculum so students get a combined Nova Scotian and Chinese high school diploma,” said Dunphy in an email interview. “The students will then head overseas, the majority to Canada, to go to high school. My husband Ed is teaching math, physics and economics.”
It’s been an interesting experience because of how different everything is, says Dunphy.
“There is very little English spoken in the city we are living in, which has over five million people. We live on the campus of
Guiyang No. 1 High School which has 5,500 students, and feels a lot like walking around St. FX. The students are motivated to learn since they have to be proficient in English in a short time, and it is challenging to take our courses in English. The Chinese school day, especially for the Chinese students in the regular stream of things, starts at 6:30 a.m. when they are awoken in their dorms (it is a residential school), and except breaks at lunch and supper, they go until 10 p.m. Some regulations are strange to us, but we need to comply since we are within their system.”
While she’s not discounting the possibility that another book could result from her year in China, “Never Speak of This Again” resulted from a desire to tell the story of her grandparents. She did this initially by writing a musical, “John Archie and Nellie,” which was staged at Mabou’s Strathspey Place in 2012 and 2016. When the shows were well received, she decided to expand the idea into a novel.
“Writing the book was a long process, between asking people who I respect to read it and working with Gaelic speakers to ensure I got the Gaelic mentality and the spelling right, to actually
getting published,” said Dunphy. “When I won the Nova Scotia Writers Federation prize in June 2017 in the unpublished novel category, it started the ball rolling in the publishing department.”
For Dunphy, who always wanted to write, having her first novel published is a big deal and she hopes to eventually follow it up with another book.
“Ah, you never know. I’m playing around with another idea that’s been buzzing around my head.”
“Writing the book was a long process, between asking people who I respect to read it and working with Gaelic speakers to ensure I got the Gaelic mentality and the spelling right, to actually getting published.” Author Brenda MacLennan-Dunphy