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Author explores depths of Mennonite persecution

Local author Janice Dick was at the Reid-Thompson Public Library in Humboldt to talk about her latest book, Other Side of the River .
Janice Dick
Local author Janice Dick reads from her new historical novel, Other Side of the River, at the Reid-Thompson Public Library on Jan. 13.

Local author Janice Dick was at the Reid-Thompson Public Library in Humboldt to talk about her latest book, Other Side of the River.

The book is based on real historical events in which persecuted Mennonites in Russia made a plan to cross the Amur River into China. In it, protagonist Luise and Daniel, two Mennonites living in Russia, get married.  After, Daniel keeps speaking out against the Russian regime and is sent to a work camp. Meanwhile, Luise’s family wants to relocate to eastern Russia in the hopes that they will be ignored there and able to live in peace. Luise has to figure out if she wants to go with them or stay in case Daniel comes back to look for her.

The book is Dick’s fourth published novel and, like her first trilogy, is a piece of historical fiction that focuses on Mennonite people living in Russia.

Mennonites are close to Dick’s heart: that’s her family background and she grew up very interested in the stories.

“My father and mother were both born there in Russia,” she said. “I read Russian fiction when I was in high school. I was just fascinated by that stuff. It was a story I wanted to tell and I didn’t want my kids to not know it. That was one of the things I started because I wanted my kids to know what their background was.”

She said that most of the events are real, but the characters are fictionalized. The story of crossing the river into China is her favourite true story about Mennonites.

Dick, a former stay-at-home mom who lives near Guernsey, started writing when she attended an author reading at the library in Lanigan and, shortly after that, formed a writers’ group.

“Just getting together with these writers every month got me going. I didn’t realize I could do it and I found I could try,” she said.

In 2001, she began work on her first novel, The Calm Before the Storm, which was published in 2002. The publishing process wasn’t a difficult one for her.

“I had several publishers I was interested in and so I sent a synopsis out,” she said. “The first two didn’t work out and the third said, ‘Sure, if you have the whole thing, send it.’ It was a lot easier than I had thought. It worked out quite well.”

Dick said one of her problems with publishers was that they weren’t interested in Mennonite history and it would have been easier to sell a work of Victorian or Civil War historical fiction. The press she eventually sold the book to is a Mennonite press, so it worked out for her that way.

“(When the book came out) I jumped up and down and I kind of screamed and ran around the house and called my mother. It was absolutely exciting. It was amazing,” she said.

She wrote two more sequels to Calm Before the Storm and then began work on Other Side of the River. She has also been dabbling in contemporary fiction and wrote an e-book at Christmas set in the present.

“It’s fun writing historical fiction, but every once in awhile you want to use slang and you want to say things the way they are. It’s fun to have that outlet,” she said.

In addition to a sequel to her latest book, she’s been working on a piece of contemporary fiction. If she could pick any other time period to write about, it would be the ‘50s, since she was alive then and can remember bits and pieces.

Generally, her favourite part of the creating process is the editing, though that may not be the case for long.

“I actually don’t mind the editing because there’s something to work with. Sometimes when you’re sitting there and staring at a blank page, it’s really scary,” she said. “I used to say editing was my favourite part, but I’m having trouble with my current book, with the editing. It’s not easy.”

Nevertheless, despite the occasional blip, there is still a lot that she enjoys about writing.

“Being my own boss, which is sometimes good and sometimes not,” she said. “Being at home. I’m not terribly social so I can do my own thing. Learning things, like now I’m facing the whole thing of learning about indie publishing and self-publishing and how that works. There’s a whole lot of learning and it’s a challenge, but you can do it.”