Tom Douglas talks to Open Book about the Globus Great Canadian War Memorial Tour, writers he admires and his new book, To Wawa with Love (Lorimer).
Tom will be taking part in a War Memorial Tour in Europe on April 4, 2012. For more information, read this article.
Open Book:
Tell us about your new book, To Wawa with Love.
Tom Douglas:
It?s an account of my family?s experiences following my father?s posting to a small Northern Ontario mining town upon his return from overseas after World War Two. Wawa at the time was pretty isolated, with very few amenities. But what a great place for a kid to grow up! We had a lot of laughs and our share of tears, but on balance I?m glad to have had the experience.
OB:
Do you have a favourite story in the collection?
TD:
That?s like asking a parent to name his or her favourite child. They?re all my favourites, for one reason or another. However, if I had to single one out, I guess I would choose The Magic of Christmas. It?s an account of my mother searching in vain at the town dump on Christmas Eve for our presents, which my Dad had inadvertently thrown out with the garbage. The Toronto Star ran it as a Christmas feature and that inspired me to write other stories about our Wawa days that eventually led to enough material for a book. That story, by the way, has a happy ending.
OB:
What motivated you to write this book?
TD:
My Dad went overseas a non-drinker and came back with a major drinking problem ? which he eventually overcame. I wanted to call attention to the hard times families went through after the war in trying to cope with the fact that their lives had been changed forever by the horrors our veterans had been exposed to. A friend who read the manuscript broke down in tears, saying that reading about my Dad?s struggle to overcome his drinking problem was almost a carbon copy of what her family had gone through when her father returned from overseas. They had kept it a guilty secret for years. I also wanted to portray what it was like to grow up in a small mining town in the mid-1940s because, to my knowledge, not much has been written about that time and place.
OB:
Your previous books are about Canadian military history. When writing these books, how do you make the material come alive for your readers?
TD:
If they do come alive, perhaps it?s the fact that I have an immense amount of respect for our veterans and I hope that sentiment comes through in the books. Also, because of the Amazing Stories format, the books have to be short and succinct, so this helps keep the stories from becoming bogged down in too much detail. I consider them more of an overview of a particular aspect of Canada?s involvement in the two world wars. I like to think that they will whet the reader?s appetite to delve more deeply into Canada?s military heritage.
OB:
Do you have any routines or habits that you do before sitting down to write?
TD:
Not really. I?ve been writing for so long that it?s become second nature to me. Not that it gets any easier. Someone once said that creative writing is sitting in front of a keyboard and staring at a blank screen until beads of blood pop out on your forehead. It seems that in today?s electronic age, everyone thinks he or she can become a writer just by buying a computer and switching it on. There?s a vast difference between writing and typing!
OB:
What writers do you most admire?
TD:
Because I make my living from writing, I tend to read for relaxation and so I usually turn to mysteries and humour. Right now I?m gobbling up the crime fiction of Michael Connelly and I think I?ve read everything Stuart Woods and John Lescroart have written. I enjoy humorists like Dave Barry and Carl Hiaasen. And I still haven?t gotten over the death of the creator of the Travis McGee series, John D. MacDonald.
OB:
You'll soon be departing to lead the Globus Great Canadian War Memorial Tour. What books will you bring with you?
TD:
I?m not exactly leading the tour. They have a tour director to do the ?heavy lifting?. I?ve been asked along as a kind of resource person because of my military writing. We?ll be visiting many of the World War One and Two Canadian military sites, including Juno Beach and Vimy Ridge. Participants will be given complimentary copies of my D-Day book and the motor coach taking us from one site to another will have reference copies aboard of my other military books that Lorimer represents, including Valour at Vimy Ridge, Great Canadian War Heroes and Canadian Spies.
OB:
What will you be writing next?
TD:
Actually, I helped write a book about Canadian soldiers who were awarded valour medals in Afghanistan and it should be out shortly. It?s being produced by a division of the Department of National Defence called the Canadian Forces Leadership Institute. The title is In Their Own Words: Canadian Stories of Valour and Bravery from Afghanistan, 2001-2007. I did a substantive edit on transcripts of interviews with about 30 members of the Canadian Forces who performed acts of heroism in Afghanistan . I?ve also done some preliminary work on the life story of my great uncle, Duke Schiller, who was killed in a plane crash off Bermuda while he was in the Ferry Command in World War Two. To paraphrase an old expression: So many books; so little time!?
Tom Douglas is the author of four best-selling books of military history: Canadian Spies, D-Day, Great Canadian War Heroes and Valour at Vimy Ridge. Tom started out as a teacher before becoming a reporter with his hometown newspaper, the Sault Daily Star. He has also worked with The Canadian Press and served as the publisher and owner of a weekly newspaper in Australia.
For more information about To Wawa with Love please visit the Lormier'swebsite.
Buy this book at your local independent bookstore or online at Chapters/Indigo or Amazon.
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