... can you give us a bit of a synopsis about what it's about and what inspired it?

Yeah, sure.

It's, it's a book about a, a young woman.

Okay, so both of my novels are historical fiction.

They're both set in Toronto.

River of Dreams is set in 1914 and the early 1920s, and we follow the story of Avery Conlin who as a young girl at age 12 undergoes...

You know, she goes through a catastrophic event, uh, an accident that leaves her with heightened perception.

Can you give us a bit of context and tell us what you're reading? And then you can just start.

How do you go about researching the particular periods?

I do a lot of research, and to me that phase is crucial.

I don't wanna just make stuff up.

[laughs] You know, I, I want to inhabit the world in my mind based on what I've read or perhaps what I've seen at a museum or perhaps even what I've seen by walking the streets.

When I wrote The Shining Fragments, I spent a lot of time walking Toronto streets.

It was a novel set in Toronto from the '80s, uh, to the turn of the... or the, I should say the 1880s, uh, to the turn of the 20th century, and I had to be in the settings that I was writing.

So I had to research by going to the library, you know, just, just using the technology at that time, using microfiche to pull up articles.

Is there anything in particular that you'd like to share?

Sure.

Um, and so, y- you know, as I mentioned a moment ago, the, the book is in three parts, and I've been on some other podcasts recently and read from the adult Avery's experience.

But today I'd like to go back and read a little, a little bit from, um, part one.

And really what I'm about to read is a formative moment in her life.

Avery has, as I mentioned, had bizarre things happening right out of the gate in this book.

She, um, she is frankly bewildered and confused by the messages that she's been getting since an accident.

And she's made friends with a little girl... [laughs] Okay, not such a little girl, a 15-year-old girl, who is across the street from Avery's school in Toronto.

Like, where did the- that come from, this ability to, um, embody your- the characters and, and, you know, present it in such a way?