Local Author Susan Wadds Releases New Book, “What The Living Do”
—submitted
Winner of the Writer’s Union of Canada’s Prose Contest in 2016, Susan Wadds’ award-winning work has appeared in The Blood Pudding, Room, Quagmire, Waterwheel Review, Funicular, WOW-Women on Writing, and many more. The first two chapters of her debut novel, “What The Living Do”, (Regal House Publishing, 2024), won the Lazuli Group’s Prose Contest, and were published in Azure Magazine.
“What The Living Do”: Sex and death consume much of thirty-seven-year-old Brett Catlin’s life. Cole, ten years her junior, takes care of the former while her job disposing of roadkill addresses the latter. When a cancer diagnosis makes her question her worth, suspecting the illness is payback for the deaths of her father and baby sister, she begins a challenging journey of healing and self-discovery. Encounters with animals, both living and dead, help her answer the question, who is worth saving?
A graduate of the Humber School for Writers, Susan is a certified Amherst Writers and Artists (AWA) workshop facilitator. She lives on a quiet river in traditional Anishinaabeg territory on Williams Treaty land with an odd assortment of humans and cats.
I’ve been writing all my adult life. A few poems were published in journals and anthologies in the late 70’s and early 80’s. My first short story appeared in Cross-Canada Writers’ Quarterly in 1982. I stopped submitting work for a number of years. In retrospect, it occurs to me that these in-between years were spent gathering experiences that would inform future stories and poetry.
In 2007, with guidance and encouragement from Anna MacKay-Smith and Sue Reynolds in particular, I was back in the proverbial saddle. The Amherst Writers method of writing workshop facilitation provided me with a generous community in which to write what I needed to write. So in 2014, I took the leadership training, and have been leading workshops ever since. “What the Living Do” was written almost exclusively in AWA workshops from 2012 to 2015.
It’s funny, but although I think of this story as being a woman’s book, I’ve had such great feedback from men who’ve read it. It’s about a strong, seemingly independent woman, who after learning she has cervical cancer, grapples with her self worth. I initially thought only women who’ve had to deal with cancer, reproductive issues, and so on, would be interested in this story, but I see now that anyone who has had to deal with the belief that disease or illness is deserved will find themselves, at least in part, in these pages.
Why do I write? Because I need to, for my sanity. I often find that what I think I’m writing about is only the tip of what I need to address, and as Joan Didion once famously said, to “entirely to find out what I’m thinking.” Or perhaps more accurately, what I know.
I’m just wrapping up final revisions to one novel, and have another one in its first intoxicating flush (about 100 pages in) – which is my favourite part of writing, when the stakes are low and anything goes; before the hard slog of making it into a cohesive whole with an arc and a plot!
Some reviews of “What The Living Do”:
Between a day job dealing with the dead, an unresolved traumatic past, and a cancer diagnosis, Brett Catlin must push her way from self-protection towards learning how to love. Told with elegant, sometimes breathtaking prose, What the Living Do is a satisfying, beautifully written story of one woman’s journey to wholeness.
Masterfully, Susan Wadds entices readers with her stunning prose across a rich, complex emotional topography. What the Living Do is a brilliantly crafted portrait of a woman grappling with her demons and the challenges she must overcome to find hope, healing, and redemption. An incredible debut, this novel is moving and unforgettable and will resonate in your soul long after the final page.
Susan Wadds has written a fierce and fearless novel about a woman drawn to self-destruction yet desperate to live – and maybe even love. A deeply moving and memorable debut.
Susan E. Wadds’ debut novel, What the Living Do, tells a heartfelt and gripping story that speaks of survival and hope, of how one woman rises above challenges in life and uncovers stories–sometimes falsely remembered and retold–that upend her life. Readers will come to love Brett Catlin for her tenacity and spirit. Even as her world seems to crumble around Brett, she puts one foot in front of the other and strives to find contentment in her life, endearing herself to readers through her struggles.
“Compassionate, courageous and lyrical, “What The Living Do” is the passionate and powerful debut novel from Susan E. Wadds. Wadds has the courage to go where few other authors venture, into the deep recesses of a psyche damaged by tragedy and misplaced love. In exploring the deep wounds of the past we slowly begin to discover the possibilities of the healing Wadds’ protagonist Brett Catlin has denied herself for so many years. It is a story laden with hurt, but ultimately a story of redemption and reclaimed hope. Of healing in the face of terrible odds. And of the power of compassion and understanding. It’s a remarkable achievement.”
You can buy “What The Living Do” in person at Manticore Books in Orillia, and online through Amazon.ca.
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