Lenore MacAdam on CBC Ontario Morning

Mysteries, old secrets, and a traumatic death that sets everything in motion. Step into the fictional world of Cork Bay, which draws on real-life Kingston for inspiration. It is the setting for Lenore MacAdam's debut mystery novel, For Maria, and it is the first in [her] series. Lenore joins us in studio to tell us more. Good morning, Lenore.

Good morning.

So tell us, what is For Maria about?

So For Maria is a woman having coffee on a beautiful fall day. It's a wonderful day with her father, and then, bang, he's murdered in front of her. And the shooter says "For Maria," and the book is basically figuring that out.

Okay. And do we ever figure out who For Maria is throughout the book?

A hundred percent. Yes.

Okay. So I mentioned in the intro there that Cork Bay is fictional, but it's based on Kingston.

Yes.

What is it about Kingston specifically that captivated your imagination?

So I went to school at Queen's. I lived in Kingston for four years, and those are very formative years, the years that you're at school. All I can say is Kingston was in my head throughout writing this book. There's something about the combination of the limestone, and Kingston is steeped in history, going back thousands of years, actually. And so I just loved all of that combined with murder. For some reason, there is something about this beautiful setting. Maybe it's because I had to write exams there, but, exactly, right. It's like, well, I'm used to feeling this way in Kingston. So, you know, maybe it was just a short step to that.

So will people recognize landmarks or certain places when they read about Cork Bay?

I would hope so. There aren't landmarks in the sense of pointing out specific Kingston places, because it is a fictional town. I would hope that it evokes the feeling of it: being on the water, again the limestone, the stones, the downtown core. Who knows if anyone else has access to my head, but I would hope that it at least evokes it when people are reading it, if they're from the area.

So there's a lot of history, like you mentioned, in Kingston, but it is also combined with new life because of the university that's there. How much history is in your book, and how much real life did you pull from your life?

I didn't pull plot points from my life, but I did pull a lot of the emotion from my life. Over the last few years, I've had a very difficult couple of years in some ways. I lost both of my parents within 12 months. My mother died after a long illness, and then my father on the exact same day, 12 months later. I mean, the exact same day, and he dropped dead, sort of a heart attack. I'd chatted with him that morning, wasn't even sick. So, of course, that's something to process. Everyone has to process the deaths of their parents. But that sudden death, having it come out of the blue like that, I had a lot of emotions going on in me because of that, and I used them in the book to a great deal. What I also incorporated a lot in that book is my group of friends. I'm very much a friends-are-as-much-my-family-as-my-family person. And I've talked to some of my friends who've read it and they're recognizing little bits and pieces, lots of Easter eggs for my friends. But just driving home that idea that friends are family as much as family is family. Very big theme in the book.

I would imagine that would have been a very personal thing for you. Although the book is not based on you and it's not based on your life, to have a character who also loses their father in a sudden way. What was that process like for you to write that?

You know, I went back and forth because, poor Dad, he dies and then I murder him in a book. And if you knew my father, I have no doubt he would approve of this. He's kind of my Ned Stark in a way. He's this symbol throughout the book. But yeah, it was very emotional. The first few scenes I wrote probably a hundred times and rewrote. They brought me to tears a few times. And I think it was a bit cathartic for me to write it. I wasn't longing to write a book for years and years. I think I'd watched every murder mystery on the planet and I was in a dark place a couple of years ago. And all of a sudden I thought, I wonder if I could write a mystery. And I don't think of these as people I've created. I think of them as characters I found, and they kind of saved me in a lot of ways. It just was something I didn't know I needed. So writing and rewriting those scenes, but all the scenes in the book really helped me get in touch with a lot of emotions I was feeling.

So it was just your love of murder mystery.

Yeah. The story, TV, novels, TV, exactly.

And then just the idea, you were like, I'm going to write a book.

What happened is I thought, I wonder how hard could it be, in one of those moments, right? And I thought, I wonder if I could write a mystery. It was the story. And then it turned into a book.

And how hard was it?

Once I got going, it was mostly just hard on my body, because when you write your first book when you're 54, it's all about ergonomics. I was icing my arm at the end of the day. I was getting lumbar support. But no, the book process itself, it was the distraction. It was the catharsis. I'll use that word again, that I didn't know I needed.

So do you have a background in writing at all?

So people ask me that a lot. My background is corporate. I worked in HR and management consulting, the last 10, 15 years in diversity, equity, and inclusion. So what I tell people is I was trained for 30 years on getting to the point in writing. No one's going to argue that my book is too flowery. No one's going to come back with that. And it's probably an area of strength for me as a writer to make my scenes a little more evocative. But that is what I call the training. And so I tell people in corporate, if you want to write, you can write. You can get to the point. You can make the information come alive if you need to.

It's such a great point. I think a lot of people think corporate, structured, and not creative at all. But there is creativity in corporate as well. You have to think outside of the box in a lot of situations.

Absolutely. If you're sending an email to an executive with a complex thought and you have to be able to communicate that in about seven words. Yeah, I'm sorry, that requires creativity.

Agreed. I totally agree. So what did you learn about yourself, Lenore, writing this book?

I think it was around the creativity and it was around the stories we tell ourselves. So growing up, my brother and my mother were the creative ones and my father and I were the math ones. I was in the math club in high school and I was always told, I'm not creative. I'm not a creative person. And when I started writing this book, someone said to me, "Lenore, you are a creative person." I said, well, I did write this book. And so, yes, I learned I was creative. More, I just learned that we tell ourselves stories and sometimes we have to understand that the stories we've been telling ourselves can be revisited at times. We are so much more expansive than we give ourselves credit for.

So I did mention this is the first in a series. Have you already started a second book?

Yes, I have it mapped out. These Cork Bay characters are now part of my family. They're in my head, and my desire is to continue this series. I don't have a timetable yet, but the second book is very much underway.

Okay, so I look forward to reading the second book. Well, I look forward to reading For Maria, the first book, and I look forward to the second book. Lenore, thank you so much for joining us in studio today.

Thank you. It's been great.

Lenore MacAdam is the author of For Maria, the first in a planned series of mystery novels set in a fictionalized version of Kingston. For Maria is available online and it will be coming to bookstores very soon.