Niverville author pens debut novel

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This article was published 02/02/2019 (2654 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A few years ago, Sabrina Falk found herself living in a different province, trying without much luck to enter a new and unfamiliar job market.

But rather than let it get her down, she activated her imagination and rediscovered her love of writing.

The resulting novel, Not Far from the Peach Tree, which hit stores Friday, is a story she hopes will encourage young adults who find themselves “at a crossroads and not really knowing what to do next.”

“Life is hard and challenging and it’s okay not to have it all figured out. But no matter what stage you’re in or what’s going on, there’s always a reason to keep going and to keep having hope,” Falk said.

Ahead of a book launch event tonight at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson Booksellers in Winnipeg, she unpacked the five-year creative process behind the 250-page work. Falk, 28, distanced herself from simple comparisons to her 22-year-old protagonist, Abigail Hartley, but acknowledged some similarities.

“A lot of it is just me having fun and imagining, but the element of anxiety and the element of family dynamics, I think that’s something that most people can relate to, and definitely something I can relate to.”

Falk, herself the middle of three sisters, has Abigail team up with her preteen sister, Maddy, to peel away the layers of a family mystery their parents don’t want to talk about. To do so, the native New Yorkers must travel down to the family’s ancestral hometown in Georgia.

The book explores themes of overcoming fear and the importance of not sugar-coating the troubling stories in a family’s history.

Falk hopes the genealogical subject matter opens up intergenerational conversations and widens the book’s audience beyond that of a typical young adult novel.

“There’s kind of a character for everyone that they could potentially relate to.”

The book’s narrative began to take shape in 2012, when Falk and her husband, comedian Matt Falk, uprooted from Niverville and moved to a suburb near Toronto.

The first pages of what would become Peach Tree started as a way to process the major life adjustment.

“I was kind of looking for work that wasn’t coming, so I had lots of time, and I just kind of channelled that into writing,” Falk explained.

While she excelled at language arts in high school, earning an English scholarship before graduating from Niverville Collegiate, she had put writing on the backburner. By the time she reached southern Ontario, she felt a little out of practice.

“I wasn’t sure that I could do it. There wasn’t a lot of confidence in every path, and then as I kept going I was like ‘okay, I can do this.’”

When she got past the halfway point, she knew she had to finish the manuscript.

The writing process unfolded gradually over a five-year period which saw the couple return to Niverville and give birth to their first child.

The bulk of the creative work was behind her, but another struggle lay ahead: how to get noticed in a competitive publishing landscape.

“It was not fun,” Falk said, recalling shopping her manuscript to various publishers. “It’s really hard to stand out.”

“The rejection letters come. That’s just part of it. I think even the biggest authors have experienced rejection.”

Once again, Falk found a way to keep moving forward by listening to feedback and fine-tuning her manuscript. She kept reminding herself she still believed in the project.

Eventually, the book was enthusiastically adopted by Winnipeg-based Peasantry Press.

“They were just super excited about it…They believed in it, and they loved it.”

Falk said it felt “amazing” to pick up a box full of copies on Monday.

“To actually be able to see it today, exactly as it will be on the shelf, is pretty amazing. I’m excited, and it’s hard to believe that I’m at this point.”

She encouraged other first-time writers to “just keep going.”

“That’s probably really cliche, but it’s true. It’s a very solitary process, and you can get really in your head. But you’ve just got to keep typing and keeping reworking.”

As she prepares to greet readers this weekend, Falk said she looks forward to the book taking on a life of its own, adding she isn’t opposed to embarking on another writing project in the future.