Contemporary Authors

• The Clay Girl ECW Press (Toronto, ON, Canada), 2016

• Author Homepage / about me - http://www.heathertucker.ca/bio/

  Bio

  Throughout a long and varied career in the health sciences Heather has gathered stories— from working as a nurse in Ethiopia, Columbia, France, Belgium and Northern Ontario, to her experience as a teacher, a public health and psychiatric nurse and bereavement counsellor. She worked extensively as a professional writer, developing educational resources, policy and curricula… until discovering that ‘playing with words’ is more fun than working with them.

  Her stories have appeared in literary publications, anthologies, including Wicked Words, From the Cottage Porch and Wild Words as well as online. She is the winner of New York’s Literal Latte Fiction Award and the Writers’ Union of Canada short prose competition, a four time winner of the Writers’ Community of Durham Region short story contests, as well as a finalist in the Australian Book Review, Elizabeth Jolley Prize, Writers’ Union of Canada Short Prose contest, PRISM International Non Fiction ‘Prize’, Malahat Novella ‘Prize’, the Constance Rooke Creative Non-Fiction ‘Prize’, the Malahat Open Season Award and Far Horizons competitions. Her debut novel, The Clay Girl, will be released October 2016 by ECW Press.

  She is a graduate of the University of Toronto, The Humber School for Writers, the Institute of Children’s Literature and is a member of The Writers’ Union of Canada and The Writers’ Community of Durham Region(WCDR).

  Heather and her imaginary friends can be found in Ajax or North Kawartha, Ontario.

  ===

  Awards
  American Booksellers Association Indie Pick 2016, The Clay Girl
  “This is a beautifully written story of strength and resilience, leading to ultimate victory over seemingly impossible challenges. This book, which is like no other in terms of character, voice, and plot, rewards the reader with a memorable heroine who triumphs over daunting odds.” —Joe Strebel, Anderson’s Bookshop (Naperville, IL)

  “ This novel is full of those take-away-your-breath lines, the ones you want to write down and keep in your pocket for when you need them. Ari joins the ranks of heroines like Lyra Belacqua or Liesel Meminger, girls who take the worst society has to offer and turn it into strength and kindness.” — Linda Sherman-Nurick Cellar Door Bookstore (Riverside, CA)

  Finalist: Australian Book Review, Elizabeth Jolley Prize 2015, Butterfly as Metaphor

  Finalist: Writer`s Union of Canada Short Prose Competition 2014, Butterfly as Metaphor
  “Stylistically this piece is an electric storm; frightening and awesomely beautiful…”

  Winner: Literal Latte Fiction Awards 2013, With All The Trouble Jesus Went Through He Should at Least Get a Jelly Bean Brilliant story! Complicated, compassionate.This little gem quivers on the razor’s edge between hilarious and heartbreaking. I’m still bleeding.

  Finalist, SLS Unified Literary Contest 2012, Vanishing Point

  Finalist: PRISM International Non Fiction Contest 2012, Vanishing Point

  Finalist: Malahat Novella ‘Prize’ 2012, Time Flies

  Finalist: Constance Rooke Creative Non Fiction ‘Prize’ 2012, Frozen Section

  Merit-based Scholarship, SLS Unified Literary Contest 2012, Clay Children

  Semi-finalist: Writer`s Union of Canada Short Prose Competition 2012, Colour in Air
  “Acute sense of humour and word play. Energetic momentum, distinctive voice and extravagantly original take on senses and sensibilities.” Judge’s comments.

  Finalist: Malahat Open Season Award for Non-Fiction 2012, Vanishing Point

  Merit-based Scholarship, SLS Unified Literary Contest 2011, Butterfly as Metaphor
  “Smart, energetic, coolly idiosyncratic, fast-paced and engaging.” Mikhail Iossel, Summer Literary Seminars Director

  Finalist: Malahat Far Horizon`s Award for Short Fiction 2011, Butterfly as Metaphor

  Winner: Writer`s Union of Canada Short Prose Competition 2011, For All the Trouble Jesus Went Through He Should At Least Get a Jellybean
  “This writer features quirkiness and original characters and the humour in this wonderfully tilted story is sharp and delivers much emotional impact…”

  Finalist: Writer`s Union of Canada Short Prose Competition 2011, Stages of Grief
  “This story is a gorgeous tour de force! Of all the stories I read, this one was the most confident, the most artistic and the most accomplished. Ms. Tucker makes fantastic use of the word limit, telling the story of a married man’s extramarital affair on an office building rooftop by breaking it into four stages of grief. Tremendous use of tiny details that make this story and its characters come to life. This piece beat the others in my pile by a good country mile!”

  Finalist: 2010 Writer`s Union of Canada Short Prose Competition 2010, Damn Yangtze

  First Place: WCDR Wild Words Contest 2010, 6. She`s stunningly unpredictable
  “I was impressed by the unique style of this storyteller – to convey so much character solely through dialogue is a true measure of a writer’s craft. And watching the heroine’s personal journey to strength .” Susanna Kearsley, Author

  Second Place: WCDR Wild Words Contest 2010, A Windowed Wall
  “A very full story gradually revealed through interactions between characters, so that we as readers are constantly re-adjusting our lens on what we think is going on. This memorable story really stood out for me, combining vivid and sympathetic characters and a strong writing voice.” Susanna Kearsley, Author

  Finalist: WCDR Wild Words Contest 2010, Overwintering
  “The heroine of this story is instantly likeable, and very, very real, which made me want to walk along with her and see things through her eyes. Nice ending.” Susanna Kearsley, Author

  Honorable Mention With Distinction: WCDR Wicked Words Contest 2009, Dirty Scrabble
  “Nicely constructed story, with several layers. Controlled humour. Fully realized characters. Although there are several events depicted here, their presentation never feels episodic Beneath the veneer of humour is a poignant story, told with restraint. This is the type of story that could easily have gone astray with less control. Very accessible and audience friendly.” Rabindranath Maharaj, Author

  Honorable Mention With Distinction: WCDR Wicked Words Contest 2009,Animating Daisy
  “Great dialogue The characters are well constructed.” Rabindranath Maharaj, Author

  Honorable Mention: WCDR Wicked Words Contest 2009, Beyond Ideas
  “A fine story. Dense. Quite original.” Rabindranath Maharaj, Author

  First Place: WCDR Short Fiction Contest 2008, Coming and Going and Life in Between

  Finalist: WCDR Short Fiction Contest 2008, Woman is a Four Letter Word

  First Place: WCDR Short Fiction Contest 2007, Time Flies
  “I like everything about this story. The characters are strong, and I feel for them all. I like the use of humour, especially in that it doesn’t interfere with the genuine emotional heart of the piece. I like the texture, the background details which add up to a fully realized world.” Robert Weirsma, Author

  Honorable Mention: WCDR Short Fiction Contest 2007, Layers

  First Place: WCDR Short Fiction Contest 2006, Warning: University education may cause premature graying, recent study finds

  Second Place: WCDR Short Fiction Contest 2006, Colour Outside the Lines

  Second Place: The Writing Fairy Humour-Writing Contest 2006, Freudian Slippers

  Honorable Mention: WCDR 24-Hour Non-Fiction Contest 2006, Light Flight

  Finalist: WCDR 24-Hour Non-Fiction Contest 2005, Company of Angels

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  ===

  In the news…
  The Winnipeg Review, March 2017

  The Humm, February 2017

  Now Magazine, December 2016

  The Literary Hub, December 2016

  The Toronto Star, November 2016

  Open Book In Character Interview, November 2016

  The Chaotic Book Corner Review, November 2016

  Vicki Lane Mysteries Review, October 2016

  Ajax’s Heather Tucker Moulds a Hero Tale in The Clay Girl , Metro Land, October 2016

  American Booksellers Association Interview, October 2016

  Flavia the Bibliophile Book Review, October 2016

  WCDR Member Spotlight, September 2016

  The Book Trail Interview, September 2016

  Publishers Weekly, August 2016

  The Clay Girl is an ABA Indie Pick!
  10 adult titles and 10 children’s titlesindie [3] chosen by panels of ABA member booksellers from across the U.S. as the top debuts of the upcoming publishing season.

  Addressing his fellow booksellers, Pete Mulvihill of Green Apple Books, the chair of the adult selection panel, said, “Our crack bookseller panel has done the heavy lifting in identifying the 10 most promising books landing this fall. We read debut after debut so that you don’t have to. We ranked and argued and read some more…. How can you possibly show your gratitude? Sell a ton of these books. They’re fantastic, and we need to keep reminding publishers that indie bookstores are where discovery happens, where debut authors are launched. But mostly, they’re just fantastic books that deserve to be stacked up in the front, blurbed in your newsletter, and handsold ad nauseam. Have at it! Your customers will thank you, as will I.”

  Australian Book Review, Elizabeth Jolley Prize, 2015

  This year the Jolley Prize – one of Australia’s most lucrative and prestigious awards for short fiction –attracted over 1,200 entries from around the world. The judges were Amy Baillieu (Deputy Editor of ABR), poet and academic Sarah Holland-Batt, and author Paddy O’Reilly. Butterfly as Metaphor received one of three judge’s commendations.

  Constance Rook Creative Nonfiction Prize, September 28, 2012
  Congratulations to the finalists for the 2012 Constance Rooke Creative Nonfiction Prize chosen from 125 entries: Josiah Neufeld, Eve Joseph, Sean Minogue, Carol Matthews, Trevor Corkum, Heather Tucker, Kate Neuman, and Tik Maynard.

  Malahat Novella Prize, March 26, 2012
  Congratulations to the finalists for the 2012 Novella Prize chosen from 215 entries: Kris Bertin,Dan Mancilla, Matthew Mott, and Heather Tucker.

  Writer’s Union of Canada, February 15, 2011
  The Writers’ Union of Canada is pleased to announce that Heather Tucker has won the $2,500 cash prize for its eighteenth annual Short Prose Competition for Developing Writers, for the best story under 2,500 words, with her piece “With All The Trouble Jesus Went Through He Should At Least Get a Jelly Bean.” In addition to her winning entry, another one of her stories was shortlisted this year.

  Metroland News, May 2009
  The Wicked Words prose competition attracted entries from across Canada and around the world. Novelist Rabindranath Maharaj awarded Honorable Mentions with distinction to WCDR’s Heather Tucker for Dirty Scrabble and Animating Daisy. Tucker, an astounding Ajax talent, won three spots in the top ten; her story Beyond Ideas garnered an honorable mention as well.

  The Word Weaver, May/June 2007
  Modest Heather Tucker is still learning to call herself a writer, even though she convinced the rest of us last year by scooping a first prize and an honourable mention in WCDR’s short fiction contest, a second place win in The Writing Fairy’s humour writing contest and an honourable mention in WCDR.s 24-hour creative non fiction contest. Not bad for an emerging writer!

• American Booksellers Association - http://www.bookweb.org/news/indies-introduce-qa-heather-tucker-34810

  An Indies Introduce Q&A With Heather Tucker
  Posted on Friday, Oct 21, 2016
  Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly versionSend by emailSend by email
  Heather Tucker, author of The Clay GirlHeather Tucker is the author of The Clay Girl (ECW Press), a Summer/Fall 2016 Indies Introduce debut novel and an October Indie Next List pick.

  “This is a beautifully written story of strength and resilience, leading to ultimate victory over seemingly impossible challenges,” said Joe Strebel of Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville, Illinois. “Hariet/Ari/Arielle (known by various names to different people at different times) was born into an epically dysfunctional family. She must deal with an uncaring mother, a sexual predator father, and an abusive stepfather while being denied escape to a loving, supportive aunt. Despite these and other challenges, the girl not only survives but, with help from caring teachers, grows into a strong young woman who finds love and is able to nurture others as well as herself. This book, which is like no other in terms of character, voice, and plot, rewards the reader with a memorable heroine who triumphs over daunting odds.”

  Strebel, who served on the Indies Introduce Adult debut committee, recently spoke with Tucker about her book.

  Cover image for The Clay GirlJoe Strebel: Ari Appleton is also known as Hariet and as Arielle. How are the various names reflective of how she views herself or of how others regard her?

  Heather Tucker: A name is a weighty thing. The history of why or how our name was bestowed follows us our entire life. Hariet is not a pretty name, especially when it’s misspelled. It could be a proud name, if it belonged to a beloved relative, but this ‘Hariet’ was given out of spite. It signals that she is excluded from the poetically named ‘J’ Appletons. Finding ‘Ari,’ a lioneagle, inside was akin to finding buried treasure.

  Ari grows fearlessly into her name, comes to believe that she is Ari Joy Zajac, not the one-r Hariet her mother produced. Though her mother is deaf to it, her champions hear Ari roar.

  JS: Ari faces great challenges because of her incredibly dysfunctional family. What accounts for her resilience?

  HT: For Ari, three distinct elements weave together to build resiliency: her internal voice, a community of caring people, and the creative outlets she finds. Ari has a spectacular imagination, where wonder, more than fear, fuels fantasy. Her bright little mind spins possibilities, conjures up safe places, consults a steadfast confidant, and goes on treasure hunts.

  A host of everyday heroes counterbalance the craziness in her world: a teacher telling her she’s of more worth than trouble; an aunt showing her she’s clay, not dirt; a train conductor tucking a sandwich in her carryall and promising there’s good ahead. And all the energy, from both the horrors and hallelujahs, is transferred into creating something dynamic, meaningful, and beautiful.

  JS: Why did you choose Jasper, a seahorse, as Ari’s imaginary friend?

  HT: Jasper was more of a discovery than a choice. He was tucked inside Hariet’s pocket when I met her. As the story unfolded, the seahorse made perfect sense because of the astonishing balance of its off-kilter shape. Parallels could be drawn. Ari’s internal spaces, like a seahorse’s, give balance and buoyancy. In rough water their tails grasp a bit of seaweed and hang on. But, really, it’s more that they are unique, whimsical, and colorful… what better companion for Ari?

  JS: Your career includes nursing, counseling, and teaching. How do these experiences feed into The Clay Girl narrative?

  HT: A debut novel in my 60s may seem a little late to the party, but I had 50 years of research to conduct before I was ready to start writing fiction. My eclectic experiences are laced throughout The Clay Girl. I know firsthand that people can drown in grief, pain, addictions, and loss… and too often children are swept away by the force of it. That being said, what fed the narrative most were the countless heroes I’ve met in my career, both in the families facing overwhelming challenges and in the communities that help.

  The Clay Girl is woven with observations gathered over my life and career: Life is both hard and glorious. Creativity and meaningful work make us buoyant. There is a Jasper in everyone. What we imagine we are likely to become. A little humor keeps us afloat. And, most importantly, the extraordinary power of one — a teacher, a friend, a relative — to reach out and pull a child to safety.

  JS: Does the book’s title suggest Ari is molded by various forces — by good and evil?

  HT: It does exactly that. A lump of clay is not going to become a graceful pot without being unearthed from its environment, cut, pounded, spun, watered, sculpted, glazed, fired...

  Some aspects of the process are fun and gentle, others brutal and harsh. Like life. And like life, it’s often surviving, overcoming, and growing through seemingly impossible difficulties that bring out the most extraordinary strengths in us.

  JS: The book’s final pages include references to both positive and negative future possibilities for Ari. Are you thinking about a sequel?

  HT: The Clay Girl began as a short story, “On the Way to Sydney I Met a Walrus.” A judge in a contest made the remark, “I want to know where this little girl came from and where she is going.” For a long time I sat on an imagined train and watched her. I knew Hariet Appleton was going to take me on a hell of a journey, but her optimism was so alluring I had to follow.

  When I read a novel, I love stories that end leaving me wondering, creating ongoing worlds in my head. It keeps the adventure alive for me. As a writer, though, I’m curious — downright nosy — with my characters. So, yes, I stayed on the train with Ari, got off in Toronto, discovered that more mischief and mayhem were afoot and wrote [the sequel] Cracked Pots.

  The Clay Girl by Heather Tucker (ECW Press, paperback, 9781770413030) Publication Date: October 11, 2016.

  Learn more about the author at www.heathertucker.ca or by following her on Facebook.

  ABA member stores are invited to use this interview or any others in our series of Q&As with Indies Introduce debut authors in newsletters and social media and in online and in-store promotions. Please let us know if you do.

• Huffington Post - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/heather-hummel/qa-with-bestselling-autho_b_7988400.html

  HE BLOG 08/14/2015 03:40 pm ET | Updated Aug 14, 2016
  Q&A with Best-Selling Author K.A. Tucker
  By Heather Hummel
  2015-08-14-1439564344-2398932-KATucker.jpg

  With over a dozen novels under her pen, K.A. Tucker recently added a new novel, Chasing River, to her Burying Water series.

  2015-08-14-1439565011-3056365-BuryingWaterSmall.jpg

  I caught up with K.A. just before Chasing River’s release to chase down some answers about her fascination with Ireland, the depth of her characters, and her dream automobile.

  2015-08-14-1439565045-9388163-ChasingRiverSmall.jpg

  HH: Your passion for Ireland is palpable in Chasing River; what is your connection to it?

  KA: I dreamed of visiting Ireland long before I ever set foot there. I have Irish roots (as so many people do, it seems). I finally made the trip last summer and, though I was there for less than a week, I fell in love with the people, the culture, and the countryside. I plan on visiting again, and braving the “wrong side of the road” driving in order to see the rest of the countryside.

  HH: Amber’s character is complex in a common theme—torn between striving for independence and living up to her father’s standards; was it a conscious choice to downplay the role of her mother?

  KA: I don’t know that it’s so much about downplaying the role of her mother as it is that Gabe Welles has always been such a strong and authoritative figure in his children’s lives. We first see this in Burying Water, with the situation that Amber’s brother, Jesse, finds himself in. Gabe Welles is the sheriff, after all. It felt only natural that it would be Sheriff Welles who would come running to Amber’s rescue in Ireland, just as he did for his son. Plus, Amber is still very much daddy’s little girl.

  HH: Chasing River has so many layers—love, friendship, family—and yet the landscape around these relationships is painted with great historic detail; how much research did it take versus innate knowledge?

  KA: Before beginning this book, I spent weeks delving into both Ireland’s history and its current political situation. I knew that I wanted to weave the IRA into the story, but I didn’t have a good grasp of what that would entail. So I began digging... and digging... and digging... and so many dots in my knowledge base began connecting—the religious strife between Protestant and Catholic, the political strife between England and Ireland, the mass exodus of Irish to North America. Ireland has a rich history (much richer than I anticipated) and having a handle on it made spinning an authentic story much easier.

  HH: What is your dream automobile?

  KA: A Hummer (deer have a tendency to jump out in front of me on the road and tanks are illegal).

  2015-08-14-1439564438-4481761-5177EJM1fOL._UY250_.jpg

  HH: With over a dozen and counting novels under your pen, which character was the hardest to create?

  KA: I struggled with both main characters in Surviving Ice (Ivy and Sebastian), because they’re quite similar to each other. Ivy is not necessarily “likeable” as far as suspenseful romance characters go, and going out of my way to make her softer didn’t feel like the right thing to do. Her character does grow and change, but it’s done in a more subtle way. I hope readers see and appreciate that.

  Click here to read my New York Journal of Books review for Chasing River.
  Thank you, K.A.!

  This article originally posted on Heather Hummel’s Blog.

  Follow Heather Hummel on Twitter: www.twitter.com/HeatherHummel

• Fantastic Fiction - https://www.fantasticfiction.com/t/heather-tucker/clay-girl.htm

  Heather Tucker

  Throughout a long and varied career in the health sciences Heather has gathered stories from working as a nurse in Ethiopia, Columbia, France, Belgium and Northern Ontario, to her experience as a teacher, a public health and psychiatric nurse and bereavement counsellor. She worked extensively as a professional writer, developing educational resources, policy and curricula until discovering that playing with words is more fun than working with them.

  Her stories have appeared in literary publications, anthologies, including Wicked Words, From the Cottage Porch and Wild Words as well as online. She is the winner of New Yorks Literal Latte Fiction Award and the Writers Union of Canada short prose competition, a four time winner of the Writers Community of Durham Region short story contests, as well as a finalist in the Australian Book Review, Elizabeth Jolley Prize, Writers Union of Canada Short Prose contest, PRISM International Non Fiction Prize, Malahat Novella Prize, the Constance Rooke Creative Non-Fiction Prize, the Malahat Open Season Award and Far Horizons competitions. Her debut novel, The Clay Girl, will be released October 2016 by ECW Press.

  She is a graduate of the University of Toronto, The Humber School for Writers, the Institute of Childrens Literature and is a member of The Writers Community of Durham Region(WCDR).

  Heather and her imaginary friends can be found in Ajax or North Kawartha, Ontario.

5/9/17, 4)17 PM
Print Marked Items
The Clay Girl
Helen Dumont
MBR Bookwatch.
(Feb. 2017): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2017 Midwest Book Review http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Full Text:
The Clay Girl
Heather Tucker
ECW Press
www.ecwpress.com
9781770413030, $16.95, PB, 352pp, www.amazon.com
Vincent Appleton smiles at his daughters, raises a gun, and blows off his head. For the Appleton sisters, life had unravelled many times before. This time it has exploded.
Eight-year-old Hariet, known to all as Ari, is dispatched to Cape Breton and her Aunt Mary, who is purported to eat little girls. But Mary and her partner, Nia, offer an unexpected refuge to Ari and her steadfast companion, Jasper, an imaginary seahorse.
Yet the respite does not last, and Ari is torn from her aunts and forced back to her twisted mother and fractured sisters. Her new stepfather, Len, and his family offer hope, but as Ari grows to adore them, she's severed violently from them too, when her mother moves in with the brutal Dick Irwin.
Through the sexual revolution and drug culture of the 1960s, Ari struggles with her father's legacy and her mother's addictions, testing limits with substances that numb and men who show her kindness. Ari spins through a chaotic decade of loss and love, the devilish and divine, with wit, tenacity, and the astonishing balance unique to seahorses.
Critique: An impressively talented novelist, "The Clay Girl" by Heather Tucker is an extraordinary read from cover to cover. This is one of those all to rare novels that will linger in the mind and memory long after the book itself has been finished and set back upon the shelf. While very highly recommended, especially for community library General Fiction collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "The Clay Girl" is also available in a Kindle format ($7.99).
Helen Dumont Reviewer
about:blank Page 1 of 3
5/9/17, 4)17 PM
Dumont, Helen
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Dumont, Helen. "The Clay Girl." MBR Bookwatch, Feb. 2017. PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA487601173&it=r&asid=2e0698d5dadd0af7ae554eedd0252cd3. Accessed 9 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A487601173
about:blank Page 2 of 3
5/9/17, 4)17 PM
The Clay Girl
Publishers Weekly.
263.34 (Aug. 22, 2016): p86. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
* The Clay Girl
Heather Tucker. ECW (Perseus/Legato, U.S. dist.; Jaguar Book Group, Canadian dist.), $16.95 trade paper (368p) ISBN 978-1-77041303-0
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Tucker's triumphant debut novel is the story of a childhood lost, a family found, and a coming-of-age, recounted in precise and poetic language. Harriet Appleton is eight years old, the littlest of the six sisters scattered among their relatives after a tragedy befalls the already struggling family. Sent to Nova Scotia to stay with her aunts Mary and Nia, who rename her Ari, a name she keeps, she finds herself safe and loved for the first time in her life. The idyllic period is cut short when Ari's mother insists that she be sent back to her family in Toronto. Ari will spend the rest of her childhood trying to get back to the only place where she was allowed to be a child. She is aided by sympathetic teachers and a beloved stepfather, held back by her mother's cruelty and a sense of duty to protect her step-siblings. Ari writes, "all the houses that have kept me, slept me, have written their own songs," and indeed the broken homes that Ari moves between, while devastating to consider, contribute to the intricate beauty of the tale. It is at times difficult to read, but this novel is worth every moment of pain and every tear. Agent: Hilary McMahon, Westwood C reative A rtists. (Oct.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Clay Girl." Publishers Weekly, 22 Aug. 2016, p. 86. PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA461609278&it=r&asid=7b2f45cae0e957d71489f78a5f662bcd. Accessed 9 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A461609278
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• The Star
  https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2016/11/06/the-clay-girl-will-take-your-breath-away.html
  Word count: 546

  The Clay Girl will take your breath away
  You've never met anyone quite like Ari Appleton, the bright young heroine of Heather Tucker's debut novel.

  Heather Tucker, author of The Clay Girl.
  Heather Tucker, author of The Clay Girl. (BRIAN D. TUCKER / BRIAN D. TUCKER)
  Heather Tucker's The Clay Girl follows Ari Appleton's chaotic childhood.
  Heather Tucker's The Clay Girl follows Ari Appleton's chaotic childhood. (ECW PRESS)
  Heather Tucker, author of The Clay Girl.
  Heather Tucker, author of The Clay Girl. (BRIAN D. TUCKER / BRIAN D. TUCKER)
  Heather Tucker's The Clay Girl follows Ari Appleton's chaotic childhood.
  Heather Tucker's The Clay Girl follows Ari Appleton's chaotic childhood. (ECW PRESS)

  By MARCIA KAYESpecial to the Star
  Sun., Nov. 6, 2016
  You’ve never met anyone like Ari Appleton. Feisty, bright young heroines forced to deal with devastating family circumstances have long made for memorable characters in Canadian fiction, from Anne Shirley of Green Gables fame to Yolanda in Miriam Toews’ All My Puny Sorrows.

  But Ari Appleton will take your breath away.

  In Heather Tucker’s astonishingly exquisite debut novel, The Clay Girl, we meet Ari in the 1960s as a quirky eight-year-old, the youngest of six sisters who are being split up and farmed out to relatives around eastern Canada. The girls are escaping horrific dysfunction: their abusive father has blown his head off, and their skanky, addicted mother can’t look after herself, let alone six kids. (Did I mention this is not a children’s book?)

  At first, Ari lucks out. She’s sent to loving aunts in Cape Breton who tell her she’s not dirt, as she’s always been told, but clay, which is malleable and full of possibilities. Clay soaks up water, they tell her, just as bright little Ari soaks up everything in her path. “And with a little added grit, but not too much, the clay becomes stronger.”

  But the grit piles up when Ari’s mother, now living in Toronto, regains custody. Over the next eight years Ari deals with an increasingly chaotic and violent home life while forging outside relationships with teachers and others who recognize her astounding creativity and burning intelligence. To counter loss after loss, she keeps close an imaginary sea-horse totem named Jasper, a refuge of stillness and balance in her life where none exists. Heading toward her 16th birthday, Ari realizes that escaping her hellish home life is more fraught than she thought.

  The Clay Girl leads us into very dark places, but Ari keeps herself — and us — from despair by being funny without being naive, edgy without being cynical. Author Tucker’s prose is as lyrical and powerful as the ocean, Ari’s voice as sure and strong as a rudder through wild seas.

  Tucker, of Ajax, has clearly drawn on her experiences as a psychiatric nurse and bereavement counsellor who has worked in Africa, South America and Northern Ontario. Her rare gift of showing us beauty, hope and humour amid profound trauma make The Clay Girl an extraordinary debut novel.

  Marcia Kaye is a frequent contributor to the Star’s book pages.

• The Winnipeg Review
  http://winnipegreview.com/2017/03/the-clay-girl-by-heather-tucker/
  Word count: 1231

  ‘The Clay Girl’ by Heather Tucker
  Posted: MARCH 20, 2017
  Book Reviews

  claygirltuckerReviewed by Stephanie Domet

  Like another fictional Canadian ragamuffin, the child at the heart of Heather Tucker’s first novel—which is set in the 1960s—The Clay Girl, is very concerned about the spelling of her given name. Her mother, Theresa, who has a long track record of making very bad choices about men and drugs, adds to that record by bestowing the misspelled name Hariet on her youngest, who comes into the world yet another not-son, at the end of a line of girls named Jennah, June, Jacquie, Jory and Jillianne. Hariet has Anne Shirley’s spunk, imagination and romantic temperament, but unlike the famous orphan, she also has a home and a family.

  Despite that, Hariet is deprived of more than a second “r” in her name. Her father Vincent Appleton is a sadistic pedophile who’s interfered sexually with most of his daughters, and in one final blaze of hatred blows off his own head. Theresa, addled by drugs and selfishness, is unable to care for her girls at all—she fails to protect them while Vincent is alive, and after his death, she farms them out to aunts, scraping the bottom of the barrel for Hariet. At the age of eight years old, and without so much as a pair of underpants to her name, she’s sent to stay with Vincent’s sister Mary Catherine, who Theresa disparages for her lesbianism. The ticket-taker, William, takes young Hariet under his wing for the journey:

  “Quite the journey you’re taking. Someone meeting you in Halifax?”

  “No. My Auntie Moral Corruption is collecting me in Sydney.”

  “Who?”

  “After my sisters got doled out she was the only one left.” I heave the God-have-mercy load off my chest. “Beans. There’s big trouble with them.”

  She needn’t worry. By the time the train arrives in Sydney and she meets up with Aunt Mary Catherine (who lives with, as Hariet puts it to a kind woman on the train, “her lady friend. They eat little girls like bean burritos…”) and is bundled home to meet the lady friend in question, Nia, it’s clear Hariet has found a soft place to land. Before long, Aunt Mary has found a new name within Hariet’s misspelled abomination, and she becomes Ari Appleton. The Aunties are artists, and soon Ari is throwing pots alongside them and selling them to tourists who wander up the road. Their work with clay provides the central metaphor for the novel: “Jacquie’s the smartest Appleton,” Ari tells Nia during a game of Scrabble. “I’m dirt stupid.” Nia assures the girl she’s clay, not dirt.

  Her time in Cape Breton molds Ari from a scared, neglected, but plucky near-orphan into a confident, bright ten-year-old by the time her mother is back on her feet and demands the aunts send Ari home.

  And in fact, there is a bit of a home to return to. Ari’s mother has taken up with a new man, a kind and gentle soul named Len. He owns a general store and Ari works there as she grows into her teen years. That adolescence coincides with the mid and late sixties, and Ari puts to use the artistic and entrepreneurial lessons learned from her aunts, making beaded jewelry and tie-dyed shirts to sell at the general store, turning it into an Age of Aquarius hotspot. The lessons in her own worth and potential stick, too. Despite the positive influence of her stepfather, Ari’s mother continues to be a disaster and it’s not long before she’s finding ways to complicate Ari’s life. Meanwhile, all our heroine wants is to return to Cape Breton, to her aunts and her love interest, Jake.

  Heather Tucker has created incredibly memorable characters here. Ari is bright from the beginning, even in such grimy circumstances, and her love of language rivals, maybe even exceeds, that of Anne Shirley herself. She mis-hears grownup conversations with hilarious results, as when she comes to understand her sister Jacquie has a bustard in her belly and, confused, takes a trip to the local library:

  I walked to the counter. ‘Excuse me, ma’am. I’m looking for a book about…’ I hushed my voice, ‘…bustards.’

  The library lady peeked over her glasses. ‘Would that be greater or lesser bustards?’

  With all the wailing going on I knew the situation was big. ‘Greater, ma’am.’

  Ten times through the book and I still couldn’t figure out how such a thing had happened. Bustards were long-necked, pea-eyed birds not even common to these parts. How one got in Jacquie was a Jesus-landing-in-Mary mystery.

  She’s also prone to more poetic flights of fancy that describe her feelings about Jake as she prepares to leave Cape Breton with her sister Jory, who’s come to bring her home to Ontario:

  His grease-mucked hands have me feeling fiddle music in my toes until he looks past me to Jory. Buttery hair melts on her shoulders. Her fourteen-year-old chest is near spectacular. She’s as beautiful as a lynx. Next to her, I’m a gerbil with stressed fur.

  The language changes as Ari does, signalling the passage of years as it grows more coherent. It’s a relief when it does—though Tucker’s language is fresh and florid, it is almost too much of a good thing, especially in the first fifty pages of the book, during which readers must get to know a dozen characters quickly through the eyes of a child who sees a lot but doesn’t understand much. Tucker’s hardscrabble family story with heart is reminiscent of Sarah Mian’s When the Saints, or even Ann-Marie Macdonald’s Fall on Your Knees.

  As the book follows Ari through her adolescence and brings her closer to the life she wants despite the formidable obstacles she faces, the story sometimes strains against the pacing. Ari becomes a star of the Yorkville scene in the late 1960s, waiting tables at the famous Riverboat Cafe, and making crates of cash selling love beads and the aforementioned T-shirts at her stepfather’s general store. She finds kindred spirits in the unlikeliest of places, and takes on responsibility for young and vulnerable step-siblings. She even hob-nobs with the chief of police and is interviewed by June Callwood, a real-life journalist who was just hitting her stride in Toronto in that era, and photographed by real-life artist Lorraine Monk.

  There’s little doubt Ari’s story will have a happy ending, and there’s also little doubt she’ll meet the challenges that arise in order to shelter others from the abuse she and her sisters endured. The gentleness of those stakes can make the book’s latter third feel like a long, slow denouement. Too long, and too slow. Still, the language that takes us on the journey makes it a pleasant one, and Ari Appleton a most welcome travelling companion.

  ECW | 352 pages | $18.95 | paper | ISBN# 978-1770413030

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