A novel approach

For most authors, releasing one book a year is a pretty good turnaround — especially when you spend most of your time as a teacher.

But for local author and teacher/librarian Sara Leach, this summer’s release of Sounds of the Ferry just didn’t cut it for 2011. She’s back again with a new book — Count Me In.

However, unlike Sounds of the Ferry, which is a picture book aimed at youngsters, Leach’s latest book is a novel geared towards young adults.

“The process is a lot longer for writing a novel, compared to a picture book of less than 100 words, so it is more difficult in that aspect,” said Leach on the difference between writing the two books. “But I enjoy being able to get to know the characters so well. I feel like they are real people — I’ve just never met them in the flesh.”

Count Me In follows young Tabitha during a hiking trip with her cousins and aunt. While Tabitha isn’t too happy about being sent away with cousins that seem to hate her, things take a turn for a worse when everything that could go wrong does.

When asked about the basis for the story, Leach said her inspiration grew out of a story a friend told her.

“About eight years ago, (a friend) shared an amazing experience she had as a teenager. She went hiking with her (family) near Squamish. While they were there, the river flooded and they couldn’t return home,” said Leach. “Her dog got lost, and when they were rescued they had to leave him behind.”

After hearing the tale, Leach wanted to make it into a picture book and the friend agreed she could use it.

“I sat down to write the story, and after 3,000 words realized that it would be a lot longer than a picture book,” recalled Leach. “I wound up changing a lot of the details of the real story — I made one of the cousins really mean, killed off the uncle and had a whole lot of other awful things happen to them while they were stuck — but the basic framework of the story is still based on true events.”

The result is a book that Leach said she’s most proud of out of the four books she’s published thus far.

“I think I’ve said that after each book,” she said. “I think the writing process is more rewarding with novels, but I also run into a lot more people who have read and enjoyed my picture books than my novels — so perhaps there are more external rewards from the picture books.”

But unlike her shorter works, the novel format offered a chance for Leach to create and mould characters in a way that just can’t be done in her picture books.

“In my novels, creating the characters and then coming up with ways to make life hard for them is the best part of writing,” she said. “For Count Me In, I imagined what it would have been like for me, at age 12, to go hiking with a group of people who were hardcore hikers when I knew next to nothing about hiking or camping. Then I kept throwing more and more challenges for the main character, Tabitha, to deal with.”

And it’s those challenges that seem to be a hit with readers, as Leach has heard good things from both students and adults alike.

“I’ve had great reviews from friends and students who have read it,” said Leach. “There have also been positive reviews in School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews and Canadian Materials. The feedback I love best is when a child tells me they read it in two days because they couldn’t put it down.”

As for the future, Leach said that she’s finishing up a sequel to her first novel, Jake Reynolds: Chicken or Eagle?

“I don’t know yet if it will be accepted by my publisher,” she said. “I plan to keep writing something new after that, although I’m still playing around with ideas. I’m also hoping to teach another course on writing for kids here in Whistler in the new year.”