Author Spotlight – Finding a voice
For the September Author Spotlight, Narrelle M. Harris spoke to Netherlands-based author, Brooke Hardwick, about her debut novel, The Fog (Simon & Schuster).
The Fog is a chilling thriller, with the title referring as much to Kate’s missing past and the unknown histories of the other characters at the writing retreat, as to the conditions on Rathlin Island. Was The Fog the title you chose from the start to reflect your theme, or did you begin with other working titles?
Landing on a title for The Fog has been a truly collaborative experience, and no, it wasn’t the title this novel started with. Its first working title was The Retreat. I thought it fabulous, but little did I know someone else had settled on the same title before me. My mentor at the time knew that Sarah Pearse’s next book would be called The Retreat and wisely steered me in a new direction.
From there, I came up with Ten Days. I liked how this new title scaffolded the drama with a built-in time bomb: what would happen on the tenth day? However, it was challenging to interpret the concept visually when designing a cover. My publishers were much better positioned to understand how a title and cover interact and what kind of impact that can have on a prospective reader.
I was pretty flabbergasted when they suggested The Fog; it was perfect! Inspired by both Kate’s fractured memory and the climatic conditions on Rathlin Island, the new title was finally the right choice.
Interestingly, when I looked back on photos of the writers’ retreat I attended that inspired the story, a pervasive fog was present in all of them!
The title of this novel is a true testament to the collaborative nature of producing a novel. There are so many creatives working together that you can’t help but hit on magic along the way.
Kate is a fascinating viewpoint protagonist, a sometimes unreliable narrator, as she’s not always clear about her own history. What challenges did you find in keeping the balance of her character as she clears the fog of her own past and strives for clarity?
I found consistency incredibly difficult. At times, I even mixed up things in the manuscript, my editor pointing out that I’d interchanged names and places, as though I, too, was affected by fractured thoughts and memories. Indeed, I had to make a timeline for both time periods: the ten days on the island and the full duration of Kate’s marriage. But I was careful to avoid recalling the memories in exact chronological order as this isn’t how the mind works. People with lost memories often recall things in fits and starts when triggered by something related to a specific event. I wanted to reflect on the sporadic and haphazard nature of memory recall.
Regarding Kate’s character development, I wanted her to become increasingly stronger as the fog clears. Knowledge is power, and Kate’s journey develops from a place of trauma and silence to a woman who finds her voice.
The characters are very textured – flawed and engaging, with the reader’s sympathies sometimes shifting as more is unveiled. What inspirations did you draw on to create them?
One of my inspirations was motherhood. I’ve never had children, and yet I’m fascinated by motherhood. It may be because now, in my late forties, I’ve seen friends and family members, both men and women, experience different variations of parenthood, from adoption to infertility, abortion, infant loss and more traditional family structures. Because I’ve never experienced these, I’m curious about their impact on a person’s interiority. I wanted to reflect on the wide range of experiences of motherhood by challenging the tropes and creating more (hopefully) complex characters in the process.
The Fog is set on the remote and fascinating Irish island of Rathlin – a real place. What inspired you to use this location in particular?
Geographically, Rathlin is the perfect setting for a locked-room thriller. It’s only six kilometres from east to west and four from north to south, and there’s only one way to get on or off: the ferry. Not only that, but its position in between Northern Ireland and Scotland makes it the perfect hideout. But it’s only a refuge if you can get there.
Situated in the Atlantic Ocean nine kilometres from Ballycastle and twenty-five kilometres from the Mull of Kintyre, the island has three lighthouses to warn sailors of danger ahead. The West Lighthouse, the location of many scenes in the novel, is the only upside-down lighthouse in Ireland; its lamp is positioned at the structure’s base to cut through the dense fog. Even the island’s shape is a powerful motif, unbelievably looking just like the Grim Reaper’s scythe.
Rathlin’s culturally layered history makes it a fascinating setting, too. Thought to have been inhabited for over five thousand years, there is evidence of its occupation by Scots, Irish, English, and even Norwegians. You can find Irish sweathouses, Neolithic standing stones, remnants of Norwegian shipwrecks, and an almost inaccessible cave thought to have once been occupied by the Scottish King, Robert the Bruce, on the run from English persecution.
Lastly, I chose the island because of its small population. I’ve long been fascinated by the dynamics of remote and isolated communities. Even though the characters are in no way related to any living person on Rathlin, the size of the population is accurate. Only just over one hundred people live there, and visitors are restricted. I couldn’t think of any better environment to place a group of already troubled writers, and as I wrote, Rathlin became a character itself, tormented by its own violent history, but wild and beautiful, too.
Did you spend any time on the island? If so, what was the most unexpected thing you gained from the experience? And would you go back? (Not necessarily for a writing retreat!)
I was in my early twenties, living in London, craving adventure, when I found an advertisement in a backpackers’ magazine for Kinramer cottage, a small croft on Rathlin. I travelled there off-season, in the dead of winter, and everyone, from the ferry captain to locals in the pub, knew my name before I’d even introduced myself.
I was quickly absorbed into the community and invited to celebrate New Year’s Eve in the pub, sightseeing along the cliffs and even to a local’s house to celebrate their purchase of a new wood-fired stove. Yes, I attended a stove party! Rathlin is one of the most beautiful islands on Earth, with the friendliest people, and I would certainly go back.
The manor house on Rathlin, where the writers stay, is replete with shades of gothic horror. Would you consider The Fog a novel of gothic horror in any way?
Initially, I set out to write a psychological thriller, but the more I examined the themes of coercion and memory loss, the darker the book became. The gothic nature of the set-up was also inspired by a real writers’ retreat I attended in West Yorkshire. It was held in the former home of Ted Hughes, and not far from the house was a small cemetery where Sylvia Plath is buried. When I ambled up the hill one grisly evening, I noted pilgrims had paid their respects by stabbing the soil of her grave with pens, a decidedly morbid offering. Not only that, her surname at the time of death, Hughes, had been chipped off her headstone. Visitors were mad about Ted’s mistreatment of Sylvia and wanted to remove his surname.
On the final night during our group reading, the doors slammed and the lights suddenly went out, and we were all certain it was Sylvia stating her displeasure at Ted and perhaps even at us for being there in his house. It was psychologically unsettling and certainly affected the gothic trajectory of this novel, which is set in an oppressive manor haunted by the ghosts of dead writers.
What was your favourite or most memorable thing about writing this book?
My favourite thing about writing this novel was the way it transported me during lockdown. When I began writing, I lived in Hong Kong, but halfway through, I emigrated to the Netherlands. Because of all the Covid restrictions at the time, I felt I wasn’t moving countries but merely from one locked room to another. The Fog anchored me throughout the mental duress of Covid and lockdown. Kate’s story took me away from my own, and the more empowered she became, the stronger I felt. I like to think I didn’t find the story, but it found me.
Brooke Hardwick will be speaking at the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts on Monday, September 16, 12.30-1.30 pm. Book here. Avid Reader in Brisbane on Thursday 19 September, 6.00 pm for 6.30pm. Book here. And at Sandringham Library in Melbourne, on Tuesday 24 September, 6.00-7.00 pm, to Sisters in Crime convenor, Leslie Falkiner-Rose. Book here.
More info about Brooke Hardwick here.