The High Road
Behind the novel: 9
It’s been quite a while since I’ve written a post in the “Behind the novel” category. I thought I’d covered my entire backlist already but it seems I’ve neglected my second novel, The High Road published in 2010. Fear not, I’m about to right that wrong.
When my first novel, The Best Laid Plans, succeeded beyond my wildest dreams, I embraced the old “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” axiom and got busy on my second novel, hoping to elude the sophomore jinx. So, I decided to write a sequel to my debut novel, picking up the story just where I’d left off in The Best Laid Plans. I opted to stay with a Scottish themed title and landed on The High Road. I like titles with more than one meaning—Hmmm… perhaps I might write a future post about book titles. The Best Laid Plans is a phrase from a famous Scottish poem, To a Mouse—“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry…”—written in the late 1700s by an also famous Scottish poet, Robert Burns. Of course, The High Road is a phrase from one of the most famous Scottish songs of them all, Loch Lomond. But in contemporary parlance, the line also means holding yourself to a higher ethical standard—you know, stay on the high road. And that second meaning certainly applies to my honest and honourable character, Angus McLintock.
How do you start a sequel?
When I decided to write a sequel and just carry on with the story I’d started in my debut novel, I thought it would be quite straight forward. After all, I’d already established my characters, set my scene, and created a fictitious Ottawa wherein I could satirize the reality of Canadian politics. Of course, all of this was true, but only for those who happened to have read The Best Laid Plans.
Right! So upon more thought, I realized that writing a sequel is not as easy at it looks. In fact, as I began working on my second novel, I ran smack dab into a problem. How do I start a sequel?
You see, I had two audiences to consider: Those who had already read The Best Laid plans, and those who hadn’t. I discovered that I really needed to balance the needs of these two audiences if the sequel was to work. In other words, for those who had already read The Best Laid Plans, I didn’t want to tax their attention in the early stages of the The High Road by spending too much time reviewing what had happened in the first novel—the one they’d already read. But for those who hadn’t read The Best Laid Plans, I somehow needed to share at least some of what had happened in the earlier novel so that they could appreciate what was going on in The High Road. (Are you still with me? I know, it’s confusing.)
So I spent a lot of time in the early planning of the novel, figuring out how best to satisfy the needs of these two groups of readers. I hope I at least approached the right balance and was able to meet the needs of readers who had already met Angus McLintock and those who hadn't. But it did pose some early challenges as I tried to tread the line between these two subsets of readers.
Sustaining the satire
In The Best Laid Plans I skewered (or tried to) various political practices that I suggest seldom serve the public interest, including:
the over-reliance on polling when tackling (or not tackling) big policy questions;
the Opposition’s knee-jerk rejection of anything—and I do mean anything—the government ever proposes;
short term thinking on long term issues courtesy of the demands of the four year electoral horizon; among many several other issues.
So in The High Road I chose at least two other issues that I hadn’t really covered in the first novel to try to sustain the political satire. I really wanted people to think about important issues, so I was aiming for satire (making readers laugh and think) rather than comedy alone (making readers laugh).
I used an election in the story to examine the rise in negative campaigning and overly partisan and personal attacks. The candidate facing off against Angus McLintock for the Cumberland-Prescott seat in his second election was actually a backroom politico who stepped out of the shadows to run. His name is Emerson (the flamethrower) Fox. He earned his apt nickname as a pioneer and strong proponent of nasty and negative campaign tactics. I had some fun with him.
The other major issue I explored in The High Road was infrastructure decay—yes, I wrote a novel about infrastructure decay. How scintillating! The issue arises in the story when the Alexandra Bridge linking Ottawa and Hull, Quebec collapses because it has not been adequately maintained over the decades. After all, there’s considered to be little short term political gain in investing billions of dollars in simply maintaining bridges, ports, and roads, but it sure is important to the nation’s prosperity.
I’m no soothsayer, but I did find it interesting that just a week and a half ago, the Globe and Mail reported on the need to tear down and replace the Alexandra Bridge as corrosion has rendered it unsafe and unsalvageable.
All right, enough about the story. I hope you’ll read it and enjoy it for yourself.
The High Road podcast
As I did for my first six novels, I recorded and produced the audio podcast version of The High Road starting in May of 2010, releasing one chapter each week until it was complete, all for free. For those interested, you can still listen if you’d like to The High Road podcast, or to any and all of my first six novels in this way. (The easiest way to listen to any of my podcasts novels is to search my name in your favourite podcast app (e.g. Apple Podcasts).) As I’ve noted before, when Penguin Random House started their own audiobook division, I then began recording the official audiobook versions of my later novels. That’s why you’ll only find free podcast versions of my first six novels.
When The High Road hit bookstores
My second novel was published in early September 2010. I was lucky that one of my ball hockey teammates was none other than Jim Cuddy. One Tuesday night in the fall of 2009, I leaned over on the bench in the middle of a game and shyly asked if he might consider reading my second novel manuscript and giving me a positive blurb for the cover. We were both exhausted at the time, but he did make some kind of a noise that I took to be in the affirmative. True to form—Jim is a lovely guy—he read the manuscript and gave me the endorsement that appears on the novel.
A good friend and fellow Leacock Medal winner Ian Ferguson also provided a glowing blurb for the back cover.
The High Road did not immediately hit the bestsellers list (nor was I expecting it to). But when The Best Laid Plans somehow won the tenth anniversary edition of CBC’s Canada Reads in 2011, The High Road rode on its coattails straight onto the bestsellers list. That was part of the Canada Reads Effect. It was very fortuitous timing for me and for The High Road.
A Leacock Medal Finalist in 2011
In the spring of 2011, somehow The High Road was named a finalist for the 2011 Leacock Medal for Humour. My great friend, Trevor Cole, won that year for his funny novel, Practical Jean, but it was a thrill to be a finalist.
Wrapping up…
After The Best Laid Plans and The High Road, I wrote another five novels over eleven years, all different and none about politics, before finally deciding to return once again to the characters in my first two novels for my eighth novel, Operation Angus. For me, it felt like going home.
Thanks for giving this a gander. I hope you’ll consider subscribing if you haven’t already. It’s free and easy. See you in two weeks.
In 2010 did you ever think that your political satire would rival the hilarity (insanity?) of what’s currently being reported in the news today?
Love these books.
Terry, keep up the good work. Many may find the decay of infrastructure to be a boring topic, but it is important to talk about it. Otherwise, nothing will get done.