Groundwood Books: You recently did a web launch for Tuk and the Whale. What was the reason behind that? (Find the web launch here: http://www.imho-reviews.com/opinion/266_0_1_0_C/)

Raquel Rivera: I did a web launch for Tuk and the Whale as a way to honour its release into the big wide world, more than anything. Friends and family are spread all over the place, so a traditional launch at my local bookstore might draw maybe a dozen people — easier to have them over for dinner, really. A web launch is also more valuable to me because it doesn’t go away. Interested folk can always find the material, my reading, if ever they want, whenever. My experience with online encounters has always been fun and magical. In one online interview I mentioned a book I was reading at that time and some months later, as a result of this mention, the author contacted me! We had a delightful correspondence from this. With regard to the web launch for Tuk and the Whale, who knows what the experience will continue to bring? I’m looking forward to it.

GW: Tell us a bit about the research of whaling practices that went in to writing Tuk and the Whale. How topical is this story for young readers?

RR: I started research from an Arctic-centric point of view (or as close as possible). The most important sources are listed in the book's bibliography, but at the beginning, I really wanted to keep myself innocent of the information available on the European side of things. I read recorded memories of Inuit elders who had contact with American Whalers in the last century, then branched out looking for inuit-European encounters in the time of early explorers. I looked to archeological works for insight on what Arctic life and culture might have been like 400 years ago. I read myths and stories, too. I tried, by osmosis almost, to gather enough “stuff” so I could sink into another world. A fictional one, yes. . . but hopefully a believable world. Later on in the process it became necessary to look into the nuts and bolts of European whaling techniques of the time.

The story is topical for young readers for the same reason that it is interesting to me: How on earth can we all finally learn to get along? I mean, it’s a big enough challenge for one family to live under one roof, as far as I can see. To co-exist peacefully with neighbours, with fellow-creatures, with other groups who’s interests may be in direct conflict with ours? It’s a challenge. Success still eludes us—but not always, and that’s why it’s worth it to continue the effort. I also think that by looking back at ancestral ways of doing things we can bring in some much-needed perspective in our industrialized world.

GW: Mary Jane Gerber illustrates Tuk and the Whale. Did you have a vision of what the final artwork would look like, or were you entirely surprised? How do you feel the illustrations enhance your story?

RR: I had no idea what the final illustrations were going to look like, although I had seen the rough sketches and liked them as is! Of the finished drawings, I especially love the small landscapes . . . they are so simple and yet give such an eloquent sense of place. There is stillness and precision in Mary Jane’s illustrations that reminds me of what I most admire about Inuit drawing and printmaking. I think the images and text work really well together. And I’m sure kids will understand and appreciate the story more with Mary Jane’s visuals.

GW: What compelled you to start the collective book review website, In My Hysterical Opinion?

RR: When my co-creator Nette and I first started up IMHO?, I thought I was just heaving opinions up into an online storehouse. Actually, I ended up refining and developing my writing through it. The more books I read, the better justice I wanted to do them in my reviews. It’s interesting now to read an early review of a much-beloved book, versus a later one. I got way better. While doing that, I also began to crystallize for myself what was important to me as a reader and a writer — what was admirable, what was not so much.

As I got into doing my own fiction writing, I didn’t want to think about books in that analytical way anymore. I realized it had begun to affect the way I was reading — always with one reviewing eye over my own shoulder. I didn’t want to read that way any longer. Now I wish I had been able to do both at the same time. I’ve read a lot of excellent books in the past few years; the public has a right to know!

But other folks are reviewing and offering up their hysterical opinions, so the site is still doing its job. We get enough mails from readers to feel like it has some use (with apologies to all the students looking for help writing their high-school English papers).

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