Exploring relationships in a literary world
Corner Brook writer Aley Waterman releases first novel, Mudflowers
For her first book, Aley Waterman wanted to explore a situation where relationships become difficult to navigate.
The Corner Brook writer/ musician tells West Coast Wire that in recent years she has seen situations where people have been quick to cut others out of their lives.
Her debut novel Mudflowers, released by Dundurn Press in September, finds three friends caught in such a difficult situation.
“It’s centred around these three friends and what happens when they push through the difficulty and renegotiate what their relationships are to each other so that they can stay in each other’s lives,” Waterman explained.
The story follows a young woman named Sophie.
“In the year following her mother’s death, Sophie navigates a complicated love triangle between a new flame and a past partner,” the synopsis reads.
Waterman started writing it about five years ago while doing her master’s in creative writing at University of Toronto under the mentorship of novelist Sheila Heti. Her idea was to write a story where people have a baby in an unconventional family structure. The book’s interest in unconventional relationships has been compared to the Irish novelist Sally Rooney.
“She writes a lot about people in their 20s navigating relationships that are a bit unconventional,” explained Waterman. “When I say unconventional, I mean it’s hard to know where the line is between friendship and romance … I think there’s a bit of an exploration of, like, monogamy vs. nonmonogamy and how to shift between romance and friendship with all the characters in the book.”
Grief is a prominent theme in Mudflowers. Waterman notes Sophie is from Newfoundland but leaves the province quickly after her mother’s death to escape the fallout. She must come back when her friend Alex, who is also from there, returns to find his mother who went missing from his life when he was young.
“As she returns to look for him, she has to deal with certain parts of her grief and parse that grief in ways that she hadn’t been forced to before,” Waterman explained.
She notes there may be aspects of the characters based on real life, whether qualities of herself or people she knows. But she estimates the book is 80 per cent fiction.
Waterman describes her style of writing as “meandering” and not very plot driven. She’s interested in the interiority of her characters and character dynamics. Sometimes, she suggests, it possibly veers into a stream of conscious style.
LEARNING PROCESS
When she started writing, Waterman didn’t know where the story would end up. She felt the story created its own path.
“If there are other writers who are reading this, maybe feel doubtful about what they’re working on, it’s really best to just try and finish something even if it’s imperfect,” she advised. “Then you can come back to it. Just to complete some version of something and allow it to go where it wants to go, it’s an important process I think.”
She describes the process of writing, editing and publishing as “humbling.”
“Maybe originally I was like, ‘this is just mine and I’ll just have it be how I want it to be’ and actually all the insight and help from other people has made it a lot better,” she explained.
Waterman has published short stories and poems before but releasing her own novel is a whole new experience. She has found that though her book is fiction, there is something very “exposing” about having it out there.
She’s been navigating having people approach her to say they’re reading her book before giving their opinion on it. Waterman feels one must develop a thick skin for such interactions. She is also learning to accept that as soon as the book is written and handed over to the publisher, it’s not really your own anymore.
“It’s really weird to just have something be your narrative and then it’s like, kind of a commodity, it’s something that other people own and profit from,” she said. “I’m still getting used to that. But it’s cool. I’m not complaining, but it’s just weird.”
Waterman performed a reading from Mudflowers at the Woody Point Writers Festival in August. She will travel to Toronto for an official launch on Oct. 10 and will be reading at the Horseshoe Literary Festival in Corner Brook later this month.
The book can be purchased at online retailers or via the publisher at dundurn.com
Waterman also has copies and she can be emailed for them at aleywaterman@gmail.com.