What do a background in psychology and writing about topics like buried bones and a missing uncle have in common? For crime novel writer Barbara Fradkin, who spent 25 years as a child psychologist, the answer is “a lot.”
“My psychology influences every part of my writing,” she says. “Working on the frontlines of a large urban school board, I met people from all walks of life and heard many different life stories. All this inspired and enriched the stories I wanted to tell.”
In 2008, Barbara retired from her child psychologist career because there weren’t enough hours in the day, and the job was emotionally taxing.
“It became too difficult to manage that while trying to write on weekends and evenings, as well as juggling book signings, library readings and other promotional work,” she says.
A few twists and turns lead to Barbara’s discovery that crime fiction is her perfect niche.
“I’ve been writing since I was six years old and have always had stories spinning in my head,” she says. “For years, I wrote dreadful mainstream novels that, fortunately, never got published. Although I enjoyed reading crime novels, it wasn’t until I decided on a whim to write one that I found my home.”
“More than any other genre,” Barbara continues, “crime fiction deals with people’s struggles, their finest hour and their deepest despair. It’s about relationships gone awry and the dark choices people make. Nothing is rawer and more primal than murder. Crime fiction melds my two passions – writing and psychology.”
Barbara grew up in a house where bookshelves lined every wall. “I browsed through some of the great classics at random when growing up. As a teenager, I read every Agatha Christie and Earl Stanley Gardiner I could get my hands on. I learned about suspects, twists, suspense, and the triumphant ‘big reveal.’ I loved playing the ‘whodunit’ game,” she says.
In university, Barbara also studied the classics and read many of the great Russian, Scandinavian and French writers, as well as those from the US and UK.
“Dostoyevsky stands out in my mind,” she says. “He tackled sweeping human struggles and created memorable characters full of conflicts and desires. To me, the best stories have always been about character and that, along with the suspense and game of the early ‘whodunits,’ shaped my own approach to mysteries.”
As inspiration for her characters, Barbara draws on news snippets she’s read, and experiences she’s been through, but mostly from her own imagination. She also borrows bits from people she knows and melds them into the characters she needs to tell the story.
“Characters have to be vivid, real and distinct from one another, and the more points of connection and contrast between them, the better,” says Barbara.
Her first series, featuring Inspector Green, is set in Ottawa, where she lives. After working for years throughout the city, Barbara knew all its neighbourhoods and communities, from the wealthy diplomatic enclaves to the crowded immigrant tenements.
“Many people think of Ottawa as a grey civil service town, but it has many more layers and colours than that. It was the setting I wanted to share and, over the course of 10 novels, I think I have laid bare most of it,” she says.
After the tenth novel, Barbara decided she wanted to explore the broader canvas of Canada. In one of her Inspector Green books, she sent him up to the Nahanni National Park in the Northwest Territories. She had so much fun writing a completely different setting that she decided she wanted to travel again.
With this inspiration, the Amanda Doucette series was born. Each book in this series (the fourth was released in February 2021) is set in a different iconic location in Canada, starting in Newfoundland and moving west, so Barbara can take readers on a journey across the country’s vast, varied land.
When Barbara starts writing a novel, she researches by reading, scouring the internet and talking to people, but what makes the story really come to life is when she walks in her characters’ shoes.
“I want to get a visceral feel for the place – the sounds, sights, and smells. Imagination is no substitute for getting down on the ground and drinking in the experience,” she says. “It gives me details I wouldn’t have thought of otherwise, which brings the story to life.”
The required travel for research has given Barbara some unforgettable experiences, like braving a winter camping trip so she could describe it in The Trickster’s Lullaby, or a horseback trail ride through the Alberta badland coulees for The Ancient Dead.
In the Inspector Green novels, Barbara often wrote about the struggles of people she had encountered in her years of counselling. With her latest protagonist, Amanda Doucette, she’s been able to turn her focus to global issues that she’s become more concerned about, like social justice and human rights.
“Doucette is a former foreign aid worker who has worked in the world’s darkest corners. She always reacts to injustice, so it was a perfect fit for me. Crime fiction, perhaps more than any other genre, often tackles the big social, moral, and human issues of the day,” says Barbara.
Another project Barbara is passionate about is Rapid Reads, an initiative by Orca Books, geared towards reluctant/emerging readers.
“As a school psychologist, I worked with many children who had trouble learning, and I know how important literacy is to their future. Orca Books has always been at the forefront of the literacy effort, and when they approached me and other crime writers with the idea of writing short, easy-read, compelling books for adult learners, I jumped at it.”
The protagonist she chose for her Rapid Reads series is Cedric O’Toole, an unlikely hero who lives on a scrub farm. The setting is fictional, but readers will detect a similarity to the Sharbot Lake area in Eastern Ontario, where Barbara has a cottage.
For most of us, writing sounds like an exciting career, but Barbara admits the process can be a rollercoaster.
“There are days of excitement and thrills when the ideas pour out and I can’t get them down fast enough. Then there are other days when each word is a struggle and the plot crawls along as I push forward through a scene inch-by-inch.”
She admits she’s a “modified fly by the seat of her pants” writer. She has a starting point and a vague idea what the story is about, plus a few roughly imagined characters that she’ll need to tell the story. “But I have no idea where the story will go, what other characters will show up, how it will end, or who the heroes and villains will be. Hence, the excitement and terror of the unknown.”
“It’s like driving along an unknown road in the dark with headlights illuminating the road just ahead while the rest is in darkness,” Barbara continues. “It’s as much an adventure for me as for the reader, but sometimes I don’t know where to go, or I feel as if I’m stuck in a maze. These are the moments of doubt and discouragement that plague every writer, no matter how many books we’ve written. Only once I finish the book and discover what happened and what the story is really about, do I believe it will actually be a book and not gibberish.”
Despite Barbara’s angst, her readers love her books and can’t wait for the next release. She’s also been nominated for several writing awards and is a two-time winner of the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel.
The award she cherishes the most is not a win, but her first nomination in Crime Writers of Canada’s Best Novel category for her second Inspector Green book, Once Upon a Time. In the novel, Barbara tackled a powerful topic, an old war crime from World War II, and she was afraid she wouldn’t do the topic justice.
“It was a story very dear to me, with a personal connection to my late husband, and I had poured my heart into it. When a writer finishes a book and sends it out into the world, we never know how readers will receive it. I had hoped the story would touch people, and that nomination told me I had succeeded,” she says.
Barbara splits her time between her home in Ottawa and her cottage on Sharbot Lake, a peaceful place where she says she finds her best inspiration.
“There are no distractions or temptations, like other people, shopping, revving cars or social demands. Just me, my dogs, my pen and paper and the soft lapping of waves against the shore. I feel a smile spread through me as I slip back into my creative zone,” she says.
As a child, Barbara was a daydreamer, with exciting adventures and imaginary friends, and as someone who still spends a lot of time in the world of her imagination, she doesn’t think she will ever quiet the stories in her head and retire from writing.
“But one day, I hope to find the time to write the story of my parents’ life, primarily my father’s. I have done quite a lot of research about it, so that’s an exciting project I will tackle when I don’t have a book deadline hanging over my head.”
Barbara loves a good adventure and feels that life should be filled with new experiences and places. She particularly loves nature and the “roads less travelled.”
“While I’m still able, I would love to travel to wilderness destinations where I can hike, boat, bicycle, or canoe, to fully appreciate the unspoiled wilds. Australia and New Zealand are high on my list, as are the mountains and ocean coves of South America. But I would also never turn down a trip to the vineyards of Tuscany!” she says.
“Money and safety are the biggest obstacles to some of my dreams,” she continues, “like paddling in the Galapagos, sleeping under the stars on a remote Caribbean Island and going on a jeep safari in Botswana. I’d love to explore the narrow streets of Marrakesh, ramble across the moors of Scotland and see the beauty of the South Pacific.”
Barbara’s immediate travel plan is a trip to the west coast of Vancouver Island, where her next Amanda Doucette book is set. She hopes to make the trip before summer, depending on the easing of the pandemic travel restrictions.
Rather than viewing aging as a hindrance, Barbara sees it as a time of fewer obligations and fewer expectations.
“There’s the obvious freedom from the daily pressures of a job and young family, but there’s also more freedom to think, say and be myself,” she says. “I’m learning to say ‘no’ more often, to choose the friends and activities I want, and not feel guilty. I’ve learned I don’t have to be perfect, do what’s expected of me, or always do the ‘right thing.’ This is a hard struggle, but the older I get, the more I set boundaries to take care of myself. And how freeing it is to wear comfortable old clothes and no make-up!”
With such a rich life of studying and writing about the human behaviour of others, I couldn’t help asking Barbara what one life lesson she would pass on to others.
“I love the old carpenter’s adage,” she answers. “Measure twice, cut once. Some things can’t be undone easily, so before taking a leap, make sure you have all the facts, have listened to others and have weighed the possibilities. Then go for it!”
Wise words.
To learn more about Barbara Fradkin, visit www.barbarafradkin.com
Snapshot:
If you were to meet your 20-year-old self, what advice would you give her?
“Don’t follow other people’s dreams; follow your own.”
What or who has influenced you the most and why?
“My father, for his love of books and learning, and his unwavering moral integrity, and my mother, for the independent, principled path she blazed when women were supposed to make a good marriage and be a good homemaker.”
What are you most grateful for?
“All the gifts I’ve been given in life. From being born in Canada, to those intelligent, inspirational parents, to the love and support that surrounds me.”
What does success mean to you?
“A job well done. That means writing the best book I can, and having the story linger long after the reader closes the book.”
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