Jodi Picoult's A Spark of Light Book Tour

Book cover and author photo source: Random House Canada.  All other photos by Girl Well Read—do not use without written permission.

Jodi Picoult in Conversation was hosted by Indigo Books & Music and the Toronto Reference Library.  Picoult is the bestselling author of 25 novels and one of the most provocative writers of our time. She discussed her new novel, A Spark of Light, which addresses one of the most relevant and politically heated issues of today, women's reproductive rights.

If you haven't had the pleasure of attending an event featuring Jodi Picoult, I highly encourage you to do so! She is incredibly well spoken, engaging, and articulate. She is also warm and funny.

What I enjoyed the most was hearing about her writing process. A Spark of Light opens with the climax and each subsequent chapter goes back in time by one hour. Readers of her books know a few things: Picoult doesn't shy away from sensitive topics, and she tells all sides of a story, even if she doesn't hold the same opinions or beliefs. When she has an idea for a book, she creates an outline which is around three pages.  This book however had a staggering 48 page outline. Jodi also edited the book backwards by each character, and then forwards by each character—she said she would not write this way again.

There are many challenges when writing about a sensitive topic. As part of her research, Picoult spoke to people who were pro-choice and pro-life. Of the latter, Picoult had a lot of misconceptions. She assumed that they were "hard core religious," but was surprised at their level of commitment and compassion. Jodi also spoke with 151 women that had abortions and of those women she interviewed, only one regretted her choice yet all of the women think about it every single day. From this same group, fewer than 25 wanted to be acknowledged in the book because of the guilt and humiliation which is also why most of them hadn't told anyone that they had an abortion.

Picoult noticed that there are a lot of parallels between those that are survivors of sexual assault and those that have had abortions. There is a narrative of blame and shame and women need to take back this narrative. Nearly one in four women in the US have had/will have an abortion (I'm unsure as to the numbers here in Canada) and these women are cast as evil and selfish.

Jodi shared her personal inspiration which sparked the story. When she was in college, her friend was seven weeks pregnant and she wholeheartedly supported her with the decision to terminate. Years later, when Jodi was also seven weeks pregnant, she had a complication yet couldn't help but see the situation differently—to her, it was already a baby. She wondered how she could believe both, to hold both concepts in her mind at the same time. "In America we tend to legislate reproductive rights but laws are black and white and the lives of women are a thousand shades of grey and that was why I wanted to write this book," Picoult said. "Uncertainty exists for the individual woman over the course of her own life. What you believe at 14 is not what you think at 30 or 45."

Dr. Ward is based on Willie Parker. Parker is a devout Christian who performs abortions to underserved communities. Poverty is linked to abortion and reproductive rights—it is hard to extricate race, privilege, and economics out of reproductive rights. At these clinics, only 3% of the work they do are abortions, but you don't hear about the other 97%. I also learned that there are eight states that only have one clinic left because of restrictions and regulations such as a clinic’s distance from a hospital, the size of the procedure rooms, the width of corridors, as well as the need for a surgical suite because of the supposed complications that could arise from the procedure. These restrictions are not economically feasible to accomodate and the clinics can't survive.

Picoult touched on a few of the other characters: George is a single dad (which was a conscious decision because Picoult was sick of the single mother narrative); Joy is recovering from an abortion when the shooter enters the clinic; Janine is a pro-life protester, disguised as a patient, who is literally is in the wrong place at the wrong time. What is interesting is that these are women that are both in a crisis situation and that even though they are on opposite sides of abortion, they choose to have each other's back.

In closing, Jodi answered some questions via Twitter which included writing advice and talking about the most fun she had while researching a project which was for Second Glance. She actually went ghost hunting with the Atlantic Paranormal Society to a few locations, one of which was an abandoned mental institution. (That is literally the stuff of my nightmares!) They also took her to a house in Massachusetts ​where the owners had been in contact after hearing noises coming from the attic. The ghost hunters set up a camera in the attic to record any paranormal activity. Jodi was the last one out of the attic where she closed and locked the door with a padlock. The couple had two kids (6 months and 22 months), asleep in their separate rooms on the second floor. Downstairs, the homeowners were telling the ghost hunters about coming home to find all the faucets running or all the cereal having been spilled into a pile on the kitchen floor. There was even one night where they heard calliope music and found a child’s toy piano playing—without batteries—on the steps of the attic. When Jodi went to check on the kids, there were six pennies dated between 1968 and 1973 on the floor outlining the edge of each crib that were not present just 10 minutes earlier. She then checked the attic, unlocking the door, and underneath the tripod there were another 15 pennies which were all dated between 1968 and 1973 that had not been there when she locked up. Pennies with these dates are scarce. The ghost hunters did determine that there was indeed something paranormal in the house and discovered that two people died there, one in 1968 and in 1973. Say what?!

It was a fantastic evening and I thank Indigo Books & Music Inc., the Toronto Reference Library, as well as Random House Canada.      

A Spark of Light

The warm fall day starts like any other at the Center-a women's reproductive health services clinic-its staff offering care to anyone who passes through its doors. Then, in late morning, a desperate and distraught gunman bursts in and opens fire, taking all inside hostage.

After rushing to the scene, Hugh McElroy, a police hostage negotiator, sets up a perimeter and begins making a plan to communicate with the gunman. As his phone vibrates with incoming text messages he glances at it and, to his horror, finds out that his fifteen-year-old daughter, Wren, is inside the clinic...

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JODI PICOULT received an AB in creative writing from Princeton and a master’s degree in education from Harvard. The recipient of the 2003 New England Book Award for her entire body of work, she is the author of twenty-five novels, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers House Rules, Handle With Care, Change of Heart, and My Sister’s Keeper, for which she received the American Library Association’s Margaret Alexander Edwards Award.

She lives in New Hampshire with her husband. They have three children.