Inspired by an article from June 18, 1987 in The Ottawa Citizen, Beverly Baker recently published her first novel, Secrets and Sorrows.
At 92 years old, Baker admits she is thrilled by the excitement of launching it.
“I can hardly believe it, because I had really put it all aside,” she said.
The support she received from family was a driving factor in publishing the book. Her granddaughter, Becky Kong, was particularly important throughout the process, she explained.
Kong has long known her grandmother has loved to write and has numerous works published. With self publishing options now available through Amazon, she said she was pleased to take an intermediary role and help with design, formatting and technical processes.
“She’s such an inspiration,” Kong said of her grandmother. “It’s amazing for her to keep trying new things and pursuing her goals, instead of just letting things go, at her age.”
The article that started the journey almost 35 years ago was titled 'War Amp chief admits blame in thalidomide scandal.' It describes how a War Amps official felt partially responsible for not properly warning people of the dangerous prescription drug during the 1950s and 1960s.
“Years later he is trying to get the government to acknowledge the problem and support children who are now in their 30s, with aging parents who never had the support,” said Baker in describing the article.
She began writing soon after reading about it.
“I was writing it by hand, on foolscap ... do people know what that is anymore?” she asked with a laugh.
Although the tale is entirely fictional, Baker belongs to the generation of mothers who were given thalidomide to treat nausea during pregnancy. The drug is known to cause birth defects. It’s a topic that resonated with her.
Secrets and Sorrows follows a couple who were impacted by the use of the controversial drug. It portrays the hardships of war over generations, the discovery of past secrets, and overlaps family struggles with social changes.
“The setting is just before the Second Word War, terrible things happened in every generation ... she’s at the end of her tether, wondering about her baby,” said Baker describing a specific chapter.
With its title and topic, there are some heart-wrenching themes carried throughout the novel.
“It has a satisfactory ending,” Baker assures her readers, though she distinguished the difference between that and a happy ending.
Since it was published, Baker explained how people have reached out to her, expressing their knowledge of thalidomide and their personal stories which she is keen to hear.
Baker insists the book it is not a memoir or her family’s story in any regard, though some settings do take place in areas of Canada and Europe where she has lived.
“We write what we know,” she said.
Baker says she has always loved writing. She is a poet and short story writer who now has her first published novel.
When she submitted the first chapter of Secrets and Sorrows as a short story to the Mariposa Writer’s Group in a competition and won, it encouraged her to continue with it.
“When I get an idea, I just want to sit and write. Sometimes you have to discipline yourself to do the other things,” she said.
Completing the novel did not come without its challenges. Life brought distractions and circumstances that caused interruptions. Though she said that being involved in writers groups and competitions has always helped.
Spending winters in Florida, Baker was a chartered member of the Romance Writers of America group for roughly a decade.
“We got lots of instruction, lots of advice, lots of creative writing training ... and lots of ... almost discouragement, because you felt you weren’t ever going to be good enough,” she explained.
“You can get carried away, off on sidetracks, and it all seems so overwhelming,” she noted about writing a novel.
That didn’t stop her. “Write when you feel like it. Write when you don’t feel like it,” she said and “get it done.”
Baker’s recent achievement made for a good year, she said. She and her granddaughter have updated and polished her website as well, beverlybaker.com. There, you’ll find her poetry, short stories, even a link to a play she wrote.
On a small table in her apartment, Baker displays Secrets and Sorrows and a copy of the 2024 Legion’s Senior Literary Competition in which her poem was published.
“I love painting pictures with words,” said Baker.
