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| Author promotional photos credit: HarperCollins Canada. All other photos belong to Girl Well Read — do not use without written permission. |
Toronto book lovers were invited to meet authors Gilly Macmillan (The Nanny) and Tarryn Fisher (The Wives) to hear about their new books. The event was moderated by Canadian bestselling author, Shari Lapena, and was followed by a candle making workshop.
Psychological thrillers
Tarryn starts with a "what if" question. "What would you do if your husband had more than one wife?" Her newest work is a modern day polygamy story that is the unravelling of one of the wives.
"I love women—how they work, view each other, how men affect them, and how women view other women. Women connect more to each other than men do to one another," Fisher said.
The Nanny is about a woman named Jo who unexpectedly lost her husband. Jo and her daughter, Ruby, return to England to live with her mother—Jo doesn't get along with her mother. She had a nanny growing up and she loved Hannah more than anything, even her mum.
Jo's mother behaves strangely after human remains are found on her estate property, and then someone claiming to be the nanny shows up after all this time. What does she want?
The story spans 2 generations of mother daughter relationships—Macmillan loves digging into family relationships.
On their writing process
Fisher is the author of nine novels. As mentioned, all of her books start with a "what if" question. She also finds inspiration in her own life including her mistakes.
Lapena asked if Tarryn was a "pantser" as in fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants, or a "plotter" to which she replied that she was a pantser, but curious about a plotter and how they outline. It takes her about a year for the first draft and two months for the revisions.
Tarryn used to write with a boiling pot in the background. Now she writes using a rain machine.
Macmillan is the author of six novels. When asked about her writing process, she laughed and said that she constanstantly writes herself into corners. She also sets up too many stories and has to cut material. Gilly has been publishing a book a year, spending six or seven months on her first draft and then a few months revising.
To write, Gilly likes coffee, her dogs, and when her house is quiet.
"When you have good days," said Gilly. "Right stage of the book, and you have a handle on the characters."
Fisher likes the actual writing itself. "I have a baby so it's hard to write."
Before they were writers
Gilly was a housewife with three children. She has an art background and was teaching photography but wanted to see if she could write a book—she committed to a thousand words a day and her efforts turned into What She Knew.
Tarryn said that she has done every job "very poorly." She has been actively writing since the age of five. As a child, she send a letter to an editor. Fisher went to school for psychology (this is very evident in her 'Tuesdays with Tarryn' feature on Instagram). She was fashion editor in Miami and used to write at work.
Suspense
Tarryn is drawn to dark things. She even interned at a mental hospital, to which Lapena quipped "there would have been lots of good material there."
When asked where she gets her own intuitiveness from, Gilly said that she is nosey—she's fascinated by people and what motivates them. "You can see a lot of patterns," she said. And that you have to be careful bringing in real life into your stories.
Fisher on the other hand pulls everything in. Suspense just comes out in her writing, it unfolds. She loves villains and said that if she villainizes you, it's actually a compliment.
Gilly also looks at suspense from the perspective of the reader asking "would I turn the pages if I was reading it?"
Does it ever get easier?
"No, there is pressure to be better than the last," Tarryn said.
Gilly agreed and said that it gets harder.
Tarryn was approachable, warm, and has incredible style. She exudes confidence and I have to be honest, I was a wee bit star struck. And the PLNs were out in full force (way to represent Canada, ladies).
Gilly is so lovely! She's incredibly sweet and has such a kind way about her. I've had the pleasure of corresponding with her via Instagram and it was wonderful to finally meet in person! I was more than excited to meet her and was totally fangirling.
The Nanny
Seven-year-old Jocelyn Holt is devastated when Hannah, her beloved nanny, suddenly leaves and vanishes without a trace. This monumental loss in Jo's life haunts her to this day. She grew up bitter and distant from her parents, eventually leaving Lake Hall, the family's aristocratic residence.
Thirty years later, Jo confronts her complicated relationship with her mother when she is forced to return to Lake Hall after the death of her husband. To add to the sting, Jo's daughter, Ruby, seems to be enamoured with her grandmother, Lady Victoria Holt.
In an attempt at mother-daughter bonding, Jo takes Ruby on a boat ride because it was something she loved to do as a child. The pair make a grisly discovery of some human remains in the lake that is on the grounds of the estate. Jo begins to question her past and everything she thought she knew may not be as it once appeared.
An unexpected visitor comes calling and sends Jo into a tailspin. She is desperate to piece together the mystery of who her nanny really was, why she left Jo all those years ago, and what role her mother played in all of it. The only problem is she can't seem to trust her memories.
The Nanny is a diabolical tale that exposes the dark impulses and lengths people will go to not only protect themselves, but to hurt one another. Sometimes the truth hurts so much that you live the lie instead.
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GILLY MACMILLAN is the New York Times bestselling author of What She Knew (previously published as Burnt Paper Sky in some territories), The Perfect Girl, Odd Child Out, and I Know You Know.
Gilly is Edgar Award nominated and an ITW award finalist. Her books have been translated into over 20 languages.
She grew up in Swindon, Wiltshire and also lived in Northern California. She studied History of Art at Bristol University and the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.
Macmillan lives in Bristol, UK with her husband, three children and two dogs and writes full time. She’s currently working on her sixth novel.
The Wives
Your husband has three wives and you are wife number two. You have never met the other women. Because of this arrangement, you see your husband only one day a week—you're the Thursday wife, the best wife. You convince yourself that this agreement works because you love him so much and he's worth it.
When you are doing his laundry, you find an appointment slip in his pocket for Hannah. She has to be one of the other wives. You can't help yourself, your curiosity gets the better of you and you manage to track her down. The two of you strike up a friendship, she is quite likeable even though she is young and naive.
Hannah shows up to one of your coffee dates with bruises and you know that these marks are because she is being abused by her husband—only he's your husband too. But he's never been violent with you, so why now? Do you even really know the man that you married? And who is his mysterious first wife?
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Born a sun hater, she currently makes her home in Seattle, Washington with her children, husband, and psychotic husky.
Tarryn writes about villains.
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