Why I Wrote Shades of Teale
Posted by Susan Crossman on Dec 7, 2011 | 0 comments
An Author’s Note
I began writing this novel out of a sense of dismay over the many stories I’ve read in the newspaper or heard on the news about another woman found lifeless in her own home. With her partner arrested and imprisoned, the woman’s family – parents, siblings, children and friends – are left with the anguish of re-building lives shattered by the violent end of their loved one’s life.
Abuse, death and shattered lives – a disturbing pattern that is more commonplace than we imagine. On researching this topic I came upon recent statistics from the Canadina Women’s Foundation that paint a bleak picture: Every six days on average a woman in Canada is murdered by her intimate partner – nearly 70 deaths a year.
On any given day in Canada, more than 3,000 women (and 2,500 children) are living in emergency shelters due to domestic violence incidents, which annually account for over 40,000 arrests and $4.2 billion in social/health/judicial services and lost productivity costs.
As someone who has never been in an abusive relationship, I was intrigued by the dynamic of abuse. What would make a woman choose to involve herself with a man who appears to despise her?
I began to ask such questions while working for a women’s shelter where I met some amazing women who shared their stories with me. I also read everything I could find on the topic. And I listened. Friends also spoke in strict confidence about difficult circumstances they’d survived. Ladies, I’ll protect you and your identities forever.
This has been a sad but enlightening journey. But out of all of those fascinating and heart-breaking pieces of tragedy, I was able to weave together the purely fictional account of Teale’s escape from abuse to freedom. Her abuser, David, is no man I’ve ever met, although I’ve seen glimpses ofhim in the stories other women have told me.
It is my hope that this fictional story leads to a deepr understanding of a very real problem that causes untold pain to women every day.
Susan Crossman, November 8, 2011
