Unwavering Grit, the third book is what author Judy MacPherson has called her ‘Yorkton Series’ has been released.
The book follows Angel of Adversity and Immortal Moment, also set in Yorkton.
The three books to-date, a fourth is planned, is a first for MacPherson, who was asked where the idea of the books came from.
“I come from a childhood of debilitating, horrific abuse,” she told Yorkton This Week. “That abuse affected my adult life in more ways that I can describe.
“I was 23 years old, when the effects of the abuse and my brother's death, came pummelling down. Severe depression set in and I was in such a tattered mental state, that I could see no way to stop the excruciating emotional pain I was in, other than to commit suicide. I was in really rough emotional shape, and thought of my own death as a comfort to end the painful chaos I was existing in. A friend could see the pain I was hiding at the time, and recommended that I sign myself into a "Family Program" at a detox shelter that was in North Bay, Ontario that helped family members of alcoholics who had been subject to years of debilitating abuse.
“After some very intense therapy in North Bay, my counsellor told me to write a "Hate Letter" to my father. He said, "Don't mail it, just write it," which I did a few weeks later. When I sat down to write it, the agony poured and poured onto the keyboard. Twenty years of abuse, chaos and pain poured onto the pages. It was definitely an act of healing. The end document was extremely raw, emotional, profane, and was never intended to be read by anyone.”
But fate had further plans for the letter.
“A short while later, my girlfriend asked if she could read the 300 page hate letter,” offered MacPherson. “I resisted, but she insisted. Once she read it, she wrote PHENOMENAL! across the front of it. She said you need to do something with this, because it can help other people.”
But, MacPherson was initially reluctant to share the ‘letter’ more broadly.
“I put the document on the shelf and didn't look at it again until ten years later,” she said. “By that point, I had done a tremendous amount of healing. When I pulled it off the shelf and read it again, it didn't have the same bite that it did 10-years prior. I was almost bored with my own story.
“So, while I was on maternity leave with my daughter, and had the quiet time, for fun, I buried my own story in a fictional story of another woman. It was during that time, that we were hoping to move to Yorkton and farm there, while our kids were still younger enough to make the move.”
That would be the hook for a setting.
The book then took on a life of its own and was first published in the USA.
“For a laugh, I put a synopsis of the book on a website that linked authors with film producers, and within four-days, it was picked up by a film studio in Beverly Hills, California for consideration,” said MacPherson. “Within weeks, five other film studios picked it up in New York City and Vancouver, and were considering making it into film. In the end, "Angel of Adversity" didn't hit the big screen, but it will someday. It was an incredible rush to have my book under consideration for film.”
By then MacPherson had the writing bug, and more story to tell.
“After my first book went off to the publisher to go into print, I found that I missed the characters very much,” she said. “It was like I had lost a bunch of friends, because I didn't have to work on them every day anymore.
“After all, I knew what they thought, what they wore, what they ate and how they behaved. I missed them terribly.
“To snap myself out of grieving for these fictional individuals, I immediately sat down and wrote a second book. When the second story was half done, it made perfect sense that the books be linked. If you read the series, you'll understand why there are four books to be written.”
As for Yorkton as the setting MacPherson said it just seemed a place to put the stories after she herself had almost moved here.
“I fell in love Yorkton when we were looking to buy a farm in Western Canada,” she said. “We only have 300 acres here in Niagara, and were looking for a full time (sizeable) farming opportunity back then (2004).
“We flew out to Saskatchewan and looked at 11 farms in three-days.
“I couldn't get past how welcoming the people in Yorkton were, how wonderful the town was - so cordial and unhurried.
“As the first book unfolded, a fictional farm family appeared in the story (The Whitman’s) and they farm just outside of Yorkton. Sarah and Joe Whitman are key characters in all four books.”
The author said in using Yorkton as the locale for the books, she worked on making the book city true to the real community.
“I tried to make the books true in terms of locations,” said MacPherson. “I did research every time I used a specific location, though local Yorkton folks may not feel it's as accurate as I was hoping it would be.
“In the third book, Unwavering Grit, a character goes to the local college in Yorkton etc... If something negative was happening to a character, I made up street names so as not to label a certain area as poorly in the town I love.”
So has writing gotten easier as the overall story stretches toward a fourth book?
“Each book is a new adventure for me,” said MacPherson. “Though the series is definitely linked, each story is unto itself. It just seems to flow.
“In working on the fourth book now, there is a rescue dog named, Sarge. I don't know where Sarge came from -- he just appeared in the manuscript last weekend. Writing is a labour of love for me, so there is nothing hard about writing each book.
“The first book Angel of Adversity has a huge chunk of my own life in it, and if you knew me really well and knew my life story, you would be able to pick out those points.
“Every one of the four books has a chunk of my life in them, some realism, fact based situations that happened to me. For example, the second book, Immortal Moment starts off with the same accident and details that killed my 19-year-old brother years ago in real life.
“Each book starts off with a bang, so the reader doesn't have to persevere through several boring chapters before they're interested in the rest of the story. I rivet the reader right away. There's an emotional wallop at the beginning of each book to hook you.”
MacPherson added the immediate hook is probably the best part of her approach to writing.
“The best aspect of the series is that ‘you're right in it’,” she said. “The reader is literally transported into the story and feels the ups and downs emotionally just as the characters do. Like a good Disney movie, The Yorkton Series captivates the reader, and won't let you go until it's over.”
As for the latest release, the author likes what she produced – a lot.
“The newest release is called Unwavering Grit and again has a chunk of my own story in it,” she said.
“As a writer, I definitely feel that my writing has become more mature and polished over the years, and this is reflected in the third book quite clearly.
“I love, love, love Unwavering Grit. I'm immensely satisfied with the story and very proud to share it. It was a lot of fun to write.”
The books are available at judymacpherson.com
