Marianne Scott is a writer from Cambridge, Ontario. She is the author of four mystery thrillers. Serious about writing, she has taken writing courses at Humber, Conestoga College, and University of Guelph, but learned much of the craft through One Lit Place, a full service writer’s hub, under the direction of Jenna Kalinsky who became her mentor and editor. Writing is often described as a lonely occupation, yet a writer is wise to align themselves with the right people, at the right time. Enter another strong ally and friend. Sherrill Wark, herself an amazing writer, the owner of the design company, Crowe Creations. Such alliances make it so much easier to get one's novels out into the world.
When asked what motivates Marianne Scott to write about villains who terrorize seemingly nice people, she replies simply, “The world is a nasty place and bad things happen to nice people. There’s a story in that.” She admires Stephen King who says you must write what is true. By truth, King means that he allows his characters to manifest the flaws of a world bent on fear, revenge and abuse of power. She believes that often there is more truth in fiction than in non-fiction. Characters are built on people who interact with us on a daily basis. While many are dear, sweet, helpful souls, others wound us in ways that leave scars on our psyche. The juxtaposition between the two is what builds a suspense-filled thriller because we see the resemblance of those character truths in ourselves—and it scares the pants off even the strongest of readers. We see horrors on the news every day; wars, climate disaster, pandemic, and the global struggle for supremacy, at times to the brink of nuclear annihilation. While it doesn’t make us run to hide in caves, screaming out in terror, it imprints on our subconscious, reminding us just how vulnerable we are. Marianne cringes at the Polly Positive disciples who posit that positive thought brings good things our way: “It will be all right. Look on the bright side. Pray that they find kindness and end the madness.” Regrettably, there is no tangible power in positive thinking. Wishful thinking is just that: passive and ineffective. Alas, Marianne has a negative streak that thwarts her thinking toward the what if. It doesn’t impact her daily activities, but it does inspire themes of new and scary stories.
Scott’s writing represents what is important to most of us: family values, safety, and at times of threat, survival. It’s hard to know what a person will do when faced with difficult choices. A writer who is able to step into the shoes of their characters, experiencing the toughest of situations as they do so, is the writer who connects with their reader. Marianne Scott believes that a writer has to experience the kind of suffering that life expectantly, or unexpectedly, throws at us. She has experienced many of life’s challenges. Painful as they are, hard knocks translate well into story.
People are surprised when they learn that Marianne Scott spent a large portion of her working career as a business person. Who could imagine, that underneath the daily challenges of deadlines, cost savings, and ever-demanding delivery expectations, that a storyteller was emerging? She describes the transformation as a sort of metamorphosis that many go through yet often don’t give in to. Creativity doesn’t announce itself to anyone with a bullhorn. Yet, as the years passed, feeling this artistic energy at her core, she listened to that yearning and started writing a memoir of the difficult personalities in the manufacturing world. She abandoned that project, fearing prosecution for defamation of character. In truth, she worked with a lot of horrible people who would have deserved bastardly acclaim. As Ann Lamott said, “Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.” So instead of penning non-fiction tales, she gave herself over to her imagined worlds. Marianne Scott’s truest pleasure comes from turning the ordinary into the extraordinary.
Marianne Scott writes about fictional worlds in which she allows her characters to face a myriad of dangers where she herself, as the story’s creator, has omniscient control, where she can orchestrate her characters’ way to safety, perhaps to a stay-tuned-for-more happy ending. And with four novels in her name, a reader can be assured Marianne Scott will fulfil that promise.
For Marianne Scott, writing a novel is about knowing oneself, accepting change, embracing danger, and taking risks. You never know what life is going to throw at you. Do you?
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