Q&A: A Candid Discussion with R.M. Doyon
Q. Upcountry deals with serious social issues, such as spousal abuse.Where did the idea for Upcountry come from?
A. Upcountry is based on a very real dilemma that a couple of sisters I know actually faced. In the fall of 2003, I had a very haunting conversation with the sister of a childhood friend who shared with me a very troubling story. Though she and her sister were not twins, as the lead characters are in Upcountry, they faced a similar predicament to the one I document in my novel. And the moral dilemma was this: what would you do if you discovered your sister was the victim of horrific abuse by her spouse? Do you simply remove your sister from the source of the abuse, which you know will likely never end, even in divorce, or take justice into your own hands? A very difficult choice indeed.
Q. Your novel, Upcountry, is based on a screenplay that you co-wrote with your wife Shelley Anthony. Isn’t that putting the cart before the horse? Usually novels are turned into screenplays, not the other way around.
A. That’s true. Shelley and I began writing the movie version of Upcountry nearly two years ago and completed an awful first draft in January, 2009. However, from that terrible first effort came a better story. For example, one of our close friends in California, whose opinion we treasured, told us she had “to hate (an important character) more.” And that’s when Shelley came up with a great idea that was incorporated into the story, and really what became Jane’s primary motivation for doing what she did. Shelley is superb when it comes to plot, story, character and dialogue—I couldn’t have written this novel without her, and that’s what I wrote when I dedicated Upcountry to her. From day one, however, I had always thought Upcountry would work well as a novel. A novel would allow me to really bring these characters to life. I mentioned this to my Chicago agent (Marsha Caspar Cook) and she simply said, “get busy!” Thus, I had a 120-page outline for the novel, and the first draft came fairly easy. It was the 50 to 60 subsequent drafts that were very difficult. Hopefully, if this novel takes off, we can sell the screenplay too.
Q. You’re Canadian, born in northern Ontario and spent your career in Ottawa. But this story is based in northern New York? Did you set out to write the ‘Great American Novel’ from a Canadian perspective?
A. (Laughs). Not at first, but not a bad idea. But there are millions more potential readers in the United States than in Canada, although I’d love to have it become a best-seller in Canada. Much of my own character revolves around my ‘being Canadian’, and when you read Upcountry, you’ll see a number of oblique references to Canada. For example, many of my characters’ last names are actual towns near my birthplace about 350 miles north of Toronto: my lead character is named Schumacher, I have a nurse named Kirkland, a judge named Englehart, a lawyer named Cochrane, a daughter named Monteith, and so on. Go to Google Maps and check out my birthplace (Kirkland Lake) and you’ll see these towns! But my wife and I have a cottage on the St. Lawrence River, in New York, and have met a number of very interesting people who now populate Upcountry. And then there is my life-long interest in the American presidency, and thought my main character should be very political in nature.
Q. Let’s talk about your interest in American politics and the presidency in particular. Your lead character, Jane Schumacher, is the press secretary to the Governor of New York who is running for president. Where did she come from?
A. Well, I’ve always been interested in the U.S. presidency, and politics in general. As a reporter a million years ago, I once covered a visit to Washington by (Canadian prime minister) Pierre Trudeau, and was invited into the Oval Office to witness his meeting with Ronald Reagan. Even today, I ask my American friends ‘how many people do you know, let alone Canadians, who have been in the Oval Office?’ But back to Jane. At first, we wanted to do a story about a smart, powerful and driven woman who was important. Hollywood tends to portray women in lesser, even dumber, roles, and we wanted to do the opposite. We wanted Jane to be a force to be reckoned with. And so we made her a political operator. Remember, this story began in the fall of 2008 in the heat of the presidential election. So we decided Jane would be a smart and savvy beautiful woman who was shepherding her boss towards the presidency—at least until unforeseen events caused her world to come crashing down. Making her vocation aggressively political in nature was topical, and hopefully different and interesting. And it was something I could write about with confidence.
Q. You’ve been a journalist and a writer for over 30 years. You’ve worked in government and the consulting industry. And you co-created a very successful public relations firm (High Road Communications). But how did your career translate into fiction writing?
A. I’ve always loved writing and fiction in particular. In high school, my best marks always came from short stories I wrote for my favorite English teacher. That was why I chose journalism as a career, and was lucky enough to cover interesting people. I loved my time with United Press International, since I got to cover Canada’s role in the world during a very dynamic time. Pierre Trudeau, probably Canada’s most famous prime minister, was in office. He was a fiercely brilliant man on a mission to transform the country, and I had a front-row seat. And I wrote hundreds of thousands of words. But I also loved the PR business, since it allowed me—well, forced me—to be creative on behalf of my clients. My job was to come up with ideas to get them positive media coverage. This was a very creative process, and very enjoyable. But although making a living, and raising two children, always came first, my love for fiction writing never left me. In the 80s, I nearly sold a teleplay to the CBC, and even met with an executive producer but that deal fell through. So when my day-to-day PR career ended, I always knew I’d return to this passion of mine. I’ve heard interviews from famous writers—more famous than me!—who said, simply, writers write! It’s what we do. And I love it.
Q. Let’s return to your book. Can you tell us more without giving away the story?
A. Well, it’s a tale about two estranged sisters. Jane Schumacher is a driven and intelligent political operative. She has walked the corridors of power and is attempting to get her candidate elected president of the United Sates. But Jane, as we find out, has lived a haunted and conflicted life, and is confronted with some horrific news. So abruptly, she decides to return home to make amends with her family. That is when we meet her sister, Joanne, who stayed behind in their forgotten town in the shadows of the Adirondacks. Her life, we learn, has been drab, desperate and almost irrelevant. But both are clearly suffering. When they come together after many years, Jane is faced with a dilemma: should she rescue her sister from the horrific abuse at the hands of her alcoholic husband, or take justice into her own hands? They embark on a journey–one that is not only geographic in nature, but emotional and redemptive as well. And in the process they get to know each other again, trying to find out what’s really important in life–and death. Granted, there is violence and strong social commentary. But it’s really a story of love and rebirth. I hope my readers will like it.
Q. What’s next? Do you have any future projects in mind?
A. Yes. Some friends who have read Upcountry have told me that it begs a sequel, because the characters—their words, not mine—are real and compelling and deserve to be heard from again. I particularly liked my county sheriff’s character, and several others, and think a suspense drama built around them would work. But there’s another story that I’m pursuing, a true one set in upstate New York in the early 1960s. It’s about a teenage boy who killed his drunken, abusive father after his dad refused to allow the family to take their pneumonia-stricken sister to the hospital. Well, once the community came to the boy’s defense, and when the true character of the father came to light, the young man was acquitted. A very powerful story that could lead to a powerful piece of fiction, if I do it right.
