Writer's dream knows no obstacles
Sylvie Filiatreault’s route to realizing her life dream had a rough start. After graduating from Concordia’s Faculty of Fine Arts in 1998, she soon learned how difficult it is make it in the art world. To make ends meet, she landed a dead-end job, not doing what she loves, painting and writing.
A few years later, Filiatreault sold everything she owned and set off to discover herself, first in Ireland for six months and then to England and Scotland. “I felt myself breathe for the first time,” she reveals. “I was able to meet myself.”
On her sojourn, Filiatreault found herself inspired by living in a rich environment of legends and folklore. She also came across eighth- and ninth-generation witches — and that’s when a story began to unfold in her mind.
Back in Canada, she was determined to put her creativity to use. While bored at work, she began piecing together the story that would become Four: Four sisters. Four witches. Four executions. Four different deaths. (FL Press, 2012). After 27 rewrites in 10 years, by 2010 she thought she had finally completed her hard work.
Yet that was only the beginning.
Four takes the perspective of four sisters who are witches in Medieval England. The village’s new priest breaks their old agreement with local clergymen and declares a witch hunt. The sisters are captured and sentenced to death. The plot, however, takes some unexpected turns.
While the story is fiction, Filiatreault says it touches upon very real prejudices women have faced for centuries. She explains that in the past women who were different in any way were often accused of being witches.
“Nowadays, when a woman wants to become a plumber, electrician or work on a construction site, just as an example, she’s not well received. What I described back then is still happening today.”
Confident with the strength of her book, Filiatreault headed to New York City to meet prospective publishers. Having four protagonists, however, posed a dilemma. “The publishers said to me, ‘You have a great idea, it’s a great concept, but we’re too scared to do it,’ ” she recalls.
Some publishers even told Filiatreault she would need to change her name because Americans would have trouble with her French moniker.
Frustrated but undaunted, she decided to start her own publishing company and issue Four herself. Overcoming financial and other hurdles and helped by her husband, they created FL Press in 2010. The company has already received several requests from other authors to publish their books.
“One of the reasons we wanted to do self-publishing is to be able to keep control over the design,” says Filiatreault. “We’re also very socially and environmentally conscious, so the book is made on recycled paper.”
Filiatreault is also donating part of her royalties to charity. “I’ve decided to pay it forward. That’s always been the goal from the beginning.”
Released this year, Four is available at the Concordia University bookstore and soon online.
Aside from writing and publishing, Filiatreault juggles being a wife and mother and, for six months a year, working as an assistant to the general manager for the Centraide campaign for the employees for the City of Montreal.
Her journey has only just begun. Filiatreault reveals that Four is the first part of a trilogy, and she’s now writing the second and third books simultaneously.
In one of the new books, the sisters are back, and the hunted have become the hunters. The goal-driven Filiatreault is also looking to turn the book into a movie.
The future J.K. Rowling of Canada? Perhaps.
Filiatreault says she’s happy to share her knowledge and experience with aspiring writers.
“If you believe in your work, don’t let anybody tell you it’s not good. Don’t ever let anyone tell you no,” she says.
“Writing was my salvation. Some people escape into drugs or alcohol or food, but writing for me was the escape. And it still is today.”
Related links:
• Sylvie Filiatreault‘s website
• Faculty of Fine Arts
• Concordia Bookstore