HANNAH - Author Q&A (Part Two)

Debut Novel Out Now.

Book Release & Live Reading

The Book Release and Live Reading Event for HANNAH, the debut novel by Calgary-born author JON-PAUL KHOURI, was held at the Fish Creek Public Library on December 10th in Calgary.

The Fish Creek Library opened in June of 1985. The design of the building was inspired by the mountains that can be seen from the surrounding neighbourhoods, including from the ridge overlooking Fish Creek Park.

The headwaters of Fish Creek originate in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains that you can see from that ridge, before joining the Bow River just past Hull’s Wood south from there.

The headwaters of the Bow River also originate in the Canadian Rockies, winding its way through the mountains, then through the Bow Valley—as can be seen clearly from the top of Îyâ Mnathka (Yamnuska).

That’s where the storytelling began on Wednesday night, and what follows below is a sampling of the conversation with those who were in attendance, along with the questions that were sent by those who were too far away to be there.

Author Q&A (Part Two)

Tell us about your book. What is it about?

HANNAH is a story of the discovery and creation of self. When the story begins, Hannah, who is 19, is called to her purpose. In that call, she is confronted by the unsettling realization that there is a missing person inside of her, without whom it is impossible to fulfill her promise. She calls on her spirit guides and begins the process of gathering the bones of her life, that she will need to sing over when she finds the place where that can happen.

Her emotional journey is reflected in the distances she travels—from the prairies of Saskatchewan to the foothills of Alberta, from the Rocky Mountains east to Montreal, then back across the land to the West Coast—and through the wilderness she encounters there, and the people and relationships that remind her of where she belongs.

What was the most unexpected challenge you encountered while writing the book?

Hannah is 19 when her selected life begins, and I recognized before writing the book that one of the challenges would be to voice the experience of being 19—an experience that if I were to name its essential quality or character would be ‘raw.’ There is a rawness of emotion and vulnerability that defines that passage in a young person’s life into adulthood. In Hannah’s case, she is an artist as well, so there is the added demand to ‘live on the front lines of her life,’ as the artist is ‘constantly in a state of becoming.’

The story begins with Hannah being called to her purpose, but when we meet her, the chaos of her life and the grief that she is experiencing there are overwhelming her. She lacks the structure to process that grief and therefore is incapable of taking the first steps towards the emotional journey that will allow her to restore the balance that is required of her to live a life of purpose.

The challenge, as the writer, was to create the structure that I needed in order to be able to express the rawness of Hannah’s thoughts, feelings, and emotions on the page; while at the same time allowing for the space and spontaneity I found there to colour what she is experiencing—with all of the contradictions and messiness that live at the heart of being human, but that can feel especially acute when a person is 19.

Can you share a moment from your personal life that inspired a scene or character in the book?

The character of the wilderness in HANNAH plays a central role in the telling of the story. As a writer, you write what you know, and the wilderness that is described in the book speaks to the wilderness that inspired me when I was growing up: the wilderness of the prairies, the foothills, the mountains, and the West Coast. In HANNAH, much of the story unfolds within that wilderness and much of what is experienced there reflects the interior landscape of Hannah’s psyche, and the state of being that she finds herself in in the moment that she is called to her purpose.

How did you choose the title for your book, and what significance does it hold for you?

HANNAH could not have been titled any other way. It is significant in that it reflects accurately what the book is about, which is the interior life of Hannah, and how she comes to ‘know’ herself through the emotional journey she goes on. As well, it is significant as it relates to the process in which I write—which is to begin with the characters, and to serve the circumstances of their lives: Circum - ‘about; around;’ Stance - ‘the way in which someone stands.’ This is Hannah’s story—‘here she stands.’

Were there any themes you consciously set out to explore in this book?

Only the themes that arose out of understanding the circumstances of Hannah’s life. From a very young age, Hannah experienced a great deal of loss, but also a very special kind of love and relating to the world and to the people with whom she had relationships. For Hannah, the crux of that dynamic is that it was the loss of those loving relationships specifically that haunts her—and in the case of her brother Charlie, especially, through tragic circumstances.

To understand Hannah’s grief requires living at the heart of that loss, and the fragmentation that it has created in her psyche—and to listen in those places where she now finds herself most alone. The story begins in the moment that she is called to her purpose, and in that call, she learns that she is bound to her promises—the promises to those that she lost, but most importantly, the promise she made to herself.

Very often in our lives, if we are lucky to know such relating, the disappearance of those people can make us feel lost: There is a missing person inside of Hannah, and she goes in search of that part of herself, gathering the bones of her life as she does—her spirit guides, if you will—so that she may one day find the place where it is time for her to sing over those bones.

What research did you conduct for this book, and did you uncover anything surprising or fascinating?

In the case of HANNAH, there was a lot of reading about the time and place that her selected life begins: Listening to the music and watching many films of the day—along with listening to the music and watching the films that the characters would have grown up experiencing for themselves in their day; Spending time with the artists and the compositions that live in the story HANNAH tells; Going out and experiencing the wilderness and the terrain that I write about in the book for myself. These are a few of the components that were integral to the research I did.

How do you approach world-building in your writing?

I begin with the characters: I try to understand their circumstances, their relationships, and the emotional conflict that those dynamics create. Beyond an attempt to understand who they are, that exploration will invariably lead me to understand the time and place in which their selected lives begin. Their experience, both within and without, informs the world that they inhabit and ultimately the world that they seek to create for themselves.

Do you think about your audience or write primarily for yourself?

I think about the needs of my characters given the circumstances of their lives and the relationships that exist within the world that they create and inhabit.

Are there any characters in the book that you relate to on a personal level?

I relate to all of them; otherwise, it would not have been possible for me to write for them in the book.

How did you approach writing dialogue, and how do you go about crafting authentic conversations?

Again, I begin with the characters—their circumstances, relationships, and the emotional conflict that arises between those dynamics. Once I’ve lived sufficiently at the heart of those dynamics, I begin to understand for myself what the characters’ needs are—what they want, what is in the way of what they want, and ultimately what the actions are that they take to get what they want.

The writing, including the dialogue, is born out of the circumstances and relationships, but more specifically out of the actions—the doing. It not only informs the kinds of conversations that the characters are having, but also colours the language with the emotions that are existing within them at the moment that they are in dialogue; In those moments I am listening from the point of view of both characters, and the authenticity comes from the specificity that I find within the dynamic of their relating.

Is there a particular scene or passage you’re incredibly proud of?

I have found myself going back to the second part of the book since writing it on different occasions. That’s where a lot of the dialogue I describe unfolds. The relating and sharing that Hannah experiences in that place is very comforting, and I feel comforted myself when reading it.

What was the most rewarding moment you experienced during the writing process?

The writing itself. Once Hannah emerged on the page, it was a joy to write for her, even in the moments that were challenging. In fact, the most rewarding moments in our lives are very often born out of challenging circumstances; and the story that the book tells mirrors that to some degree—the emotional journey that Hannah goes on in the book mirrors the process of self-discovery, and for me as the writer it was rewarding to experience what Hannah discovers there.

What was the most challenging scene for you to write, and how did you overcome it?

There is a degree of fragmentation that Hannah is experiencing in her psyche throughout the story, but that is more pronounced in the first part of the book. In that moment she is experiencing a profound level of grief, and trying to understand its root causes and what she needs to do to alleviate the discomfort that she feels, and the distress that it is causing her. It marks the beginning of the emotional journey that she goes on, and that is the most important thing—that she goes on that journey.

The challenge in writing from that state of being is that there is a degree of spontaneity that is required in order to write those moments, and that is a spontaneity that Hannah is unable to locate within herself. Most fundamentally because she has not the support or structure in her life to confront the chaos that she is living with. She is struggling to be alive and present with it, and yet, the psychic energy that lives at the heart of that chaos is what she needs—not only to survive—but to overcome the obstacle that is keeping her from realizing her own person—her purpose.

To go back to what I said before, when you are 19, there is a rawness about how you are experiencing yourself in the world, so I understood that the challenge in writing those passages would require a rawness of emotion that will sometimes disfigure the perfect image of the prose that you may have in mind. In the same way that we have a perfect image of ourselves that keeps us from touching on those emotions in the first place for fear that things won’t look the same after.

At some point, I just had to let that go, and trust the structure that I had built with the outline—trust that the spontaneity I needed to write those passages would be there—and allow for what I experienced there, with all of its contradictions, to exist on the page.

Were there any authors or artists that you drew inspiration from in the writing of this book?

There is a piece of music that Hannah hears, the Elgar Cello Concerto performed by Jacqueline du Pré, and it haunts her: It haunts her until she is able to find expression for it in her own way; and the piece, along with the history of it, becomes a part of her emotional journey… The music itself is so beautiful and the performance that Jacqueline du Pré gives is so masterful, you really can’t help but be inspired by it in some way.

What would be essential to preserve if your book were adapted for film?

The character of time and of place. The relationships within. The emotional core. The wilderness. The music. The dancing.

What do you think makes your book stand out? 

Hannah’s story is emotionally impactful. Those are always my favourite stories. The characters and the relationships are resonant, and the world in which the story unfolds is vital and alive.

Many writers describe the strange experience of rereading their work years later. What aspects of this book might surprise your future self?

If I knew the answer to your question now, it would hardly come as a surprise to my future self! Following the thread of our conversation around the structure of the work itself, my hope is that I will find it to be as spontaneous, playful, and emotionally impactful as I do now.

How do you hope the book will impact your readers?

In the same way that Hannah is impacted by the emotional journey that she goes through.

What are you working on next?

I’m writing a piece for the theatre.