Marc MacDonald always knew he had a book inside him just itching to get out. And when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world in 2020, the chief communications and engagement officer for the City of Welland got the chance work on what eventually became his first fiction novel, Autumn, which hit bookstore shelves on Oct. 22.
“I wanted to write it for probably 10, 15, years now, it's always been something I've wanted to do,” said MacDonald, who prior to taking the job in Welland was the Town of Pelham’s public relations and marketing specialist. He left for the Rose City in July 2021.
“It was a story that I kind of always had my head, just spinning around, and I finally sat down and put pen to paper,” he said.
MacDonald set a goal of finishing a first draft over the autumn of 2020 to reflect the same amount of time that passes over the course of the 280-page novel.
“I kind of wanted to be living this season while I wrote it,” MacDonald said. “So I can really immerse myself in the sights, the sounds, the smells of the season, and translate that onto the page, hopefully as authentically as possible.”
The pandemic, and its accompanying periods of lockdown meant MacDonald was able to squeeze in some time to work on the project, but it wasn’t always easy.
“There were these pockets of time where you really were stuck in the house and trying to find that creative outlet at home was tough with the family and everything else," he said. "We're all in the same space and, you know, sometimes you just need to find that little bit of you-time.’
And to MacDonald, who is married with two children, that “you time” meant time to write.
He credits his wife, Tricia, with helping to make that all possible.
While some elements are things that happened to him, the book is by no means autobiographical, the St. Catharines resident said.
“I've taken some things from real life and that I've experienced and completely fictionalized them,” MacDonald said. “For example, the character in the book, he moves from where he's living when he's 16 years old. I moved from Alberta to New Jersey when I was 16 years old. But what the character experiences is just totally made up after that.”
Autumn chronicles a journey of self-discovery by its central character Alex Chambers, who enters a health and rehabilitation centre looking to straighten out his life. While there, he meets Mae Seasons, described as a “plucky, foul-mouthed senior resident” of the faculty. The pair forge an unlikely bond.
When he finally was able to start writing, he had a general idea of how the book would go.
“I kind of had those pieces in place,” MacDonald said. “I knew the beginning, I knew the end, but I didn't know what the middle was going to be. I just got the story out of my brain and on the paper, and then after that, going back to kind of re-look at everything to make sure that it was actually cohesive.”
MacDonald went out on a bit of a limb and contacted Amy Jones, one of his favourite authors and asked if she’d be willing to read Autumn. Jones agreed and emailed MacDonald later to tell him how much she enjoyed it.
“I was blown away. I remember, I got the email, and I just stared at it for a while,” MacDonald said. “I was trying to comprehend what I was reading. I didn't expect something as complimentary as that.
Jones called MacDonald’s book a “whip smart debut full of humour and humanity.”
Now that Autumn is out, MacDonald is already looking ahead to writing novel number two.
“I'm working on my next one right now,” he said. “I broke my elbow earlier this year. That kind of put me out of commission for all things and then with the launch of Autumn all my focus had shifted to that. I'm looking forward to getting back into it, because I got that one on the go and I’ve got about six more in my brain.”
He says the next book will not be a continuation of Alex Chambers’ story.
“It will be a different group of characters, a completely different story,” MacDonald said.
Autumn is available at Chapters Indigo, Amazon, and Friesen Press in Canada, as well as Barnes & Noble south of the border.
MacDonald will be at the Fonthill branch of the Lincoln Pelham Public Library tomorrow, Nov. 2, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., to talk about his work, answer questions and to talk about his writing journey. He will also be a part of the St. Catharines Public Library’s Literary Festival on Nov. 16, from 1 to 4 p.m.
More information about Autumn and MacDonald can be found at marcmacdonald.ca.
Read an exclusive excerpt from Autumn here
