WHEN THE OCEAN FLIES

Heather G. Marshall

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GENRE: Women's Fiction

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BLURB:

An email from a stranger tells Alison Earley that her natural father, whom she has known for only six years, has died suddenly. What begins as a short trip back to Scotland for a funeral soon becomes a journey that puts adoption, sexuality, and identity on a collision course as Alison finds herself caught between the life and family she has so carefully constructed on one continent and the family from which she was taken on another.

Shunned by her father's family, reunited with her natural mother, and reconnected with a long-lost love, Alison finds herself trying to shepherd her youngest child towards college while questioning everything she thought she knew about herself.

When her natural mother uncovers a series of letters written to Alison from the grandmother she never knew, resurrecting stories of generations of women--stories long buried by patriarchal rule--Alison realizes that she must find the courage to face and reveal the secrets of her own past. At what cost, though? And who and what will be left in the aftermath?

When the Ocean Flies explores the pain of separation and abuse, and the power of love to heal even over huge gaps in time and geographical distance.

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EXCERPT

Blue microfiche, the image yellowed. Alison perched on the edge of the chair. There was her name. Not her name, now. Not Alison. The one she started with Jayne. Jayne Kerr. The handwriting is small and neat. Mother’s name: Mary MacGilavry Kerr.

Jayne.

And Mary.

The tight signature at the bottom: her mother’s signature. She lifted one hand to the screen. Her chest clenched. She pulled her notebook from her bag, and copied the name, as though she was likely to forget. Father’s name ______________.

Heat. Red cheeks in this grey basement. She wished she were a stoat, or beaver, a water creature, able to dive down. Cool, dark water. She held her breath. Held her tears. Who are these people? This Mary? This Jayne? Who am I? Jayne and Alison, are like two separate people, with two separate lines of possibility, one body. No father. She couldn’t look at it a second longer.

She pushed the chair back, suddenly taken by the need to burst up, out, back to light and air.

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For the aspiring writers out there, can you tell us something about how you develop your plot?

I’m an intuitive writer. I know there are writers out there who have everything outlined before they put pen to page. I am the absolute opposite of that. I keep that side of my brain turned off throughout the drafting process. I start with an idea in mind of a character or subject I want to approach and then drop down into it. I’m writing beat by beat and exploring what’s there. I’m not really concerned about the plot in a first draft so much as I am about fully immersing myself in character and setting and seeing what the possibilities are. For me, it’s important to be open to what comes—to not be too attached to developing the story in a particular way. The plot you have in mind when you start may not be the one that you end up with, and that’s good. If you’re clinging to a certain path, you might miss an alternative route that ends up being better.
Once I have a full draft down, I start looking at how to shape it. Usually that involves cutting a lot, since all that exploration, fun though it is, results in scenes I just don’t need.
For my novel, The Thorn Tree, I listed out the themes in the book and then went through every scene and decided whether it supported/developed one of the themes or not. If it didn’t, I cut it. My most recent novel, When the Ocean Flies, was more complex. It’s told from three different points of view—third-person, past tense, omniscient; first-person, present tense; and an epistolary thread. I created a spreadsheet so that I could see how each section was moving along in its own right and then how they all fit together to move the plot along in a way that I felt would be the most resonant for my readers.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Heather G. Marshall is an adoptee, author, speaker, teacher, coach, and traveller. Her short fiction has been published in a variety of journals, including Black Middens: New Writing Scotland, and Quarried, an anthology of the best of three decades of Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel. Her first novel, The Thorn Tree, was released in 2014 (MP Publishing). Her TED talk, “Letting Go of Expectations,” centres around her adoption and reunion. Her second novel, When the Ocean Flies, was released in February 2024 (Vine Leaves Press). In her writing, Heather explores family, adoption, women (especially older ones), the natural environment, and how these intersect. When she isn’t writing, she likes to hike, travel, practice yoga and meditation, do a wee bit of knitting, and, of course, read. Originally from Scotland, Heather is currently based in Massachusetts.

Links to Heather’s socials

Website: https://heathergmarshall.com

Substack: https://heathergmarshall.substack.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heather_g_marshall

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heather.marshall.3956

Buy links for When the Ocean Flies

Bookshop.org:

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