"The Town That Drowned"

The Carleton County Historical Society is pleased to introduce Author Riel Nason originally from Hawkshaw New Brunswick.  

She will introduce and discuss her debut Novel, The Town That Drowned on Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 7:00 pm.  Please join us at the Honourable Charles Connell House, 128 Connell Street in Woodstock.  For more details call (506) 328-9706.

No Admission – Open to the Public – Light Refreshments

First a bit about how I came to write the book ...

I grew up in Hawkshaw, New Brunswick, a tiny spot along the St. John River with a road sign and a population of about twenty-five, including me, my parents and my two brothers.  And Hawkshaw was nestled just outside Nackawic, a town with a population of a solid fifteen hundred.  Needless to say, not a lot went on and it was a quiet existence – I suspect much like growing up in other rural areas or small towns in Canada.

 Except where I lived did have one claim to fame that added a bit of interest and intrigue.  Specifically, there was a drowned town under our stretch of river.  In the late 1960s, before my friends and I were born, the area had been flooded when the Mactaquac Dam was built about 15 miles downstream.  So the after effects were everywhere.  There were pieces of old roads that ran right into the river.  Everyone knew that the best fishing spot was where the remnants of the old brick high school were under the water and the fish liked to gather.  In the Spring, when the river went low, we watched for the old highway bridge to re-emerge from the water.  One of my neighbours had a shed that was actually a miniature cottage from an old tourist spot that had been dismantled.  And at my house we had various pieces of furniture that my parents often reminded me were rescued from this place or that before the building had been burned down. 

As a kid, I thought it was all pretty neat information.  Lots of great trivia.  Back then the whole idea of what had happened was simply a novelty, something to distinguish our place as different, a cool tidbit to brag about to people from away.

            But, now if we press fast forward to just a few years ago when I was possessed with the idea that I Must Write A Novel, I immediately knew that the flooding would be the background event.  And, as an adult, and as a new mother with a two and a half year old and a baby, I knew there was absolutely nothing cool, or fun, or trivial about having your happy family life interrupted by someone from the government saying “Um, excuse me Ma’am, but we need to take your house away so the area can be flooded out forever.”

The thing I had never done as a child was imagine what it must have been like to live through it.  I had to think about how it must have felt to witness the actual transformation of the area from before to after.  I had to wrap my head around it and make up a story.  So my story is of a family, a 14 year old girl and her weird little brother, who had problems of their own even before the water threatened to come.  And that became The Town that Drowned.

And about the book (from the publisher) ...

     Living with a weird little brother in a small town can be tough enough. Having a spectacular fall through the ice at a skating party and nearly drowning are grounds for embarrassment. But having a vision and narrating it to the assembled crowd solidifies your status as an outcast.

     What Ruby Carson saw during that fateful day was her entire town — buildings and people — floating underwater. Then an orange-tipped surveyor stake turns up in a farmer's field. Another is found in the cemetery. A man with surveying equipment is spotted eating lunch near Pokiok Falls. The residents of Haventon soon discover that a massive dam is being constructed and that most of their homes will be swallowed by the rising water. Suspicions mount, tempers flare, and secrets are revealed. As the town prepares for its own demise, 14-year-old Ruby Carson sees it all from a front-row seat.

  Set in the 1960s, The Town That Drowned evokes the awkwardness of childhood, the thrill of first love, and the importance of having a place to call home. Deftly written in a deceptively unassuming style, Nason's keen insights into human nature and the depth of human attachment to place make this novel ripple in an amber tension of light and shadow.

Posted by Riel Nason