Christine Whelan, FEO
Feb 17th, 2022, VOL. 3 ISSUE 13
In these days of adversity, when self-care has become paramount, one way to lighten the mood, the feel, the vibe, escape the heaviness of reality for just a while, is to indulge in a little literary mystical, magical, fictional fantasy.
Introducing the Sea Glass Trilogy, and its whimsical creator. Fort Erie welcomes author, Melanie Leavey.
Born in the northeast of England, Melanie emigrated to Ontario with her family when she was nine years old.
Now, Melanie explained, “Quite by chance, we live in Fort Erie.” The author was referring to herself, her husband and two kids. “We were living in rural Hamilton, out in the middle of nowhere. We were living on a tree farm, lived there for about seven years. We rented the farmhouse from a tree farmer.”
Then September 2019, the tree farmer needed the house back to use for his migrant workers. leaving Melanie and her family with 60 days to find something else.
“Honest to God, it was so traumatic.” After living there for seven years, they had chickens and a horse. “We were deeply rooted there.”
Through trauma, came Fort Erie. “My husband had family in this area. Years ago, when the kids were little, we would come to Crystal Beach to visit. Every summer we’d go to the Friendship Festival. So, we thought, why don’t we look in Fort Erie? And here we are.”
When asked what she thought of Fort Erie, Leavey replied, “I love it. I absolutely love it. I love that it’s small but it’s not really small. It’s just the right size. I’m a quiet person. I could not handle living in a big city.” Melanie spent several of her growing up years in Burlington so she knows the city is not for her now.
“Fort Erie has so much to offer. I love all the green space, the river, the lake. It’s like the best of both worlds. You’ve got the sidewalks and highspeed internet but there’s lots of green space, too.”
Connecting With Her New Community
Melanie commented that she would love to connect with other writers. She was aware, when moving to the Fort Erie area, that there was quite a group of artists of all kinds living here.
“I love talking about books and art. That was one of the things I was excited about when moving here. When we first moved in, in November 2019, I was looking at all these brochures about what goes on in Fort Erie, all these activities, and I was going to join this and do that — and then the pandemic hit, and that was that.”
Another Connection To Fort Erie — The Racetrack
Before their two kids came along, when the writer was in her early twenties, “Both my husband and I rode races here. We were both jockeys at one point.”
Melanie shared that, while her husband rode races at the Fort Erie Racetrack for a lot of years, she admitted, “I only worked as a jockey for about a year, then I packed it in.” Being in front of a lot of people doesn’t always suit someone who likes her quiet and solitude.
She and her husband met at Woodbine Racetrack while they were both working there. “We met through horse racing.”
Melanie’s Writing Journey
I asked the author when she first started writing. “Oh, very typically, when I was a kid. I’ve been writing since I could hold a pen. I was always a big reader. I love to read. I’ve always had my nose in a book so it was the natural thing for me to think, ‘I’m going to write my own stories.'”
When asked if her writing, as a child, helped her in any way in dealing with life, she shared, “Oh ya, for sure, I was very shy, especially after we moved from England to Ontario, it was a really hard adjustment. So, I think I kind of lost myself in books and stories.”
Regarding the topics and characters of her writing in the earlier years, Melanie described, “There was probably magical aspects to everything and there were horses and ponies because I was a horse-crazy kid. Those were the kinds of things I liked to read, and still do.”
She continued, “Once I got into high school, I didn’t really have much time for that kind of thing.”
However, she did find ways to fit writing into her social life in those days. “This was back, before the days of cell phones, so my friends and I would pass stories around. One would start a story and then pass it to the next person.” She laughed, “We used to write scathing, satirical poetry about the staff. You know, typical teenage stuff.”
Once Melanie went off to university that all ended. “I was just too busy with life. I was in school for two and a half years for English Literature. And then I had to drop out because I had to work. I eventually went back and became a Vet Tech. I worked at the University of Guelph for a year. Then I just ran away and joined the racetrack.” Again laughing, she shared the story of how she once intended to help a friend at the track for a short period of time, fell in love with horseracing, dropped everything, and stayed with the track for a while.
“I didn’t write for a long, long time. I actually didn’t start writing again until I was pregnant with my daughter. We were living in Burlington at the time. I took a night class on how to write for children so I could write for my baby. And that’s how I got back into writing.”
Melanie described this time in her life as her most prolific time. The pregnancy brought on a wave of creativity and life changes created the time to release this wave.
“Since we’ve moved to Fort Erie, the horses have kind of faded into the background. The writing and my garden came to the forefront. Working with horses doesn’t leave a lot of spare time or energy for the writing.”
The Sea Glass Trilogy
However, as most authors, Melanie brought those life’s passions into her writing, into her novels — horses and magic. “There are horses creeping in but they’re more like a fairy-type horse. They are underlying characters.”
There is also the theme of the water within the trilogy. When talking about Leavey’s inspiration to write about the water, “I think it has a lot to do with my English upbringing because we lived on the North Sea, the ocean. That was a big part of my childhood. And when my husband and I were first together before we got married and the kids came along, we traveled to Florida every year, with the racehorses, so we were always on the ocean there. The ocean has always been a fascination for me.”
The author provided a glimpse of what the storyline of the trilogy entails. “It’s a story of three separate women who are ultimately drawn together from different walks of life to the same place, to this island in Scotland, where there’s been an ongoing feud between the sea folk and the people living on land.
“It goes back centuries where there’s one entity in the ocean that is repeatedly having revenge on the people so he sends these violent storms and threatens livelihood. These three women are brought together to try and deal with it all.”
When asked about symbolism, “Yes, there are a lot of symbols. I mean, there is a story on the surface but there are also underlying themes. The story symbolizes the role women play in saving the planet. But it’s also about women’s power, how we give it away and how we get it back.
“Each of the women has their own individual obstacle they have to overcome. In Skelly, Frances has to overcome her lack of confidence. In Wind Singer, Cliona struggles to figure out where she belongs. She has all these family obligations but she also wants to live her own life. In Soul of the Sea, Trudy is faced with questioning if she is doing what she is meant to be doing.”
Each book tells a tale of each woman. “And then the fourth book, Sea Bride, is a prequel to the three and it’s the story of another woman, again who has her power taken away and gets it back.”
The four novels make up the Tales of Glencarragh Series.
To learn more about Melanie and her published books, you can check out her website: threeravens.ca
To contact Melanie about her books, or if you want to just talk about writing and art, email: mel@threeravens.ca
Her books are available at Lakeside Bookstore and Art, 341 Ridge Rd. N, (downtown) Ridgeway.
Photos:
Photos taken at Lakeside Books and Art – provided by Karin DiBiase of Lakeside Books and Art
