Nova Scotia author takes readers on emotional journey
Moira Leigh Macleod doesn’t bake bread herself, but it didn’t stop her from imagining every step of her main character’s process in her 2016 debut novel, The Bread Maker. And her freshly baked second novel, Or So It Seemed, is and it isn’t a sequel, Macleod said.
“It’s a continuation of the story with the same characters; it picks up where The Bread Maker left off.”
Macleod is originally from Glace Bay and, while she doesn’t say it outright, locals understand that The Bread Maker is set in her hometown.
Macleod moved to Halifax for university, met and married a Glace Bay boy, and settled in the city. They had two children and Macleod spent 33 years working for the provincial government before retiring seven years ago.
Macleod lost her husband in 2014 and, with her children grown and independent, she sought an outlet.
“Gary always said I should write a book,” she recalled. “I had a character in mind and I knew the timeframe had to be the ’30s or ’40s. I’ve always been intrigued by the hardship of the war and the romance of the era. But there was really no storyline when I started. The characters told the story; I just went with it.
“I sat down and in the first day I wrote seven pages. In about six months, I had finished my first draft.”
Macleod became an author using the assisted self-publishing method, which means she enlisted the assistance of a book publisher, Friesenpress, but only the writer pays the upfront costs of having the book produced. “In this case, you have the entire responsibility for the creative look, any mistakes. It’s not for the faint of heart. It’s gruelling and it’s not a cheap process. But it’s about taking a risk and trusting in yourself.”
After the 2016 press run of The Bread Maker, Macleod didn’t think the story should be over. Or So It Seemed was published in about half the time it took to see The Bread Maker through to fruition. “The first time around, the process was new to me and it had its challenges,” she said. “I made some of my own mistakes the first time around but I learned from them and knew better how to approach it this time.”
Macleod said that once the track was laid in The Bread Maker, the second story followed a similar-feeling recipe in terms of her writing process.
The books’ protagonist, Mabel, “leaves the cold shack she shares with her father for the warmth of her kneading table at Cameron’s store and gets caught in a snowstorm, sparking events that expose the raw humanity of those around her. Loyalty and betrayal, guilt and shame, and faith and doubt collide as the dirty secrets of the bleak coal mining community throw lives into turmoil.”
“Readers should expect a very emotional journey (in The Bread Maker),” Macleod says. “People have told me it made them laugh, it made them cry, it made them angry, it made them think; ultimately, you become invested in the characters. For some, it felt like losing a friend when they closed the book.”
Luckily for invested readers, Macleod’s second novel is now available.
(The Bread Maker, FriesenPress, $38.99; Or So It Seemed, Friesenpress, $49.99)