Getting a Life and Finding Your Place with Amy Mattes
Love, trauma, mental health, grief, and the necessity of friendship — Parksville’s Sea & Summit Bookshop brings together two debut authors to discuss their new work and these contemporary themes.
AUGUST 27, 2024: Nanaimo, BC — Debut authors Amy Mattes (Late September) and Alli Vail (Brooklyn Thomas Isn’t Here) are appearing in Getting A Life and Finding Your Way, a conversation with the two novelists at the Sea to Summit Bookshop Sept. 14 at 7 p.m.
“Both these books delve into what it takes to deal with grief, confront your past, and how hard it can be for young women to shake off expectations from society, culture, and their families, and to find their way forward,” says Kristie Lauer, the owner of Sea & Summit, a Parksville bookstore. “These novels are deeply connected to the characters’ inner voices and are about building a life and starting over. We’re lucky to have these two debut novelists come and share their work with us, and I’m excited to have our community pop by for our author reading event.”
Mattes is a Nanaimo author, whose book came out in April of this year, and Vail is a Vancouver author whose book came out in May. Both authors will read from their work during the event, answer audience questions, and be available to sign copies of their books. This event is free and open to the public. RSVP online at seaandsummitbooks.com/events.
In Late September, Ines, a grief-stricken skateboarder beginning to explore her sexuality, leaves behind her sheltered hometown on a Greyhound bus bound for Montreal. Ines sets out to find a new way, befriending April, a latex-loving goth who gets her a job as a cam-girl. During a bar fight Ines meets Max, a magnetic skateboarder, whom she quickly falls for. As summer fades to fall Ines tries to uphold the bliss of their intoxicating summer, realizing that while she has escaped the confines of her small-town life, she cannot escape her past.
In Brooklyn Thomas Isn’t Here, Brooklyn wakes up one morning without a heartbeat. No one notices as her symptoms progress, and she is confronted with her challenging childhood, the disappearance of her best friend, and her failed career. As her past collides with her present in painful and unexpected ways, Brooklyn must decide if she’s strong enough to confront what haunts her and get a second chance at a real life — before mostly dead turns into actually dead.
“Reading with Amy is going to be fun because our books have some shared themes, like grief and finding yourself, but our writing, genre, setting and characters are so different,” said Vail. “I also love the fact that both these books take place over the course of a life-changing summer.”
Mattes holds a degree in anti-oppressive social work from the University of Victoria and is currently enrolled in a bachelor of arts in creative writing at Vancouver Island University. She is working on a second novel, writing poetry and raising a child. She won second place in the Islands Short Fiction Review Contest in 2023 and has been previously published in The Globe and Mail and Portal Magazine. Mattes lives in Nanaimo, BC, and Late September is her first novel.
Vail is a former journalist for national and provincial award-winning community newspapers. She is a content writer and marketer for literary festivals and nonprofits, and has worked in tech, video games, and politics. She studied creative writing at Simon Fraser University and lives in Vancouver. Her debut novel, Brooklyn Thomas Isn’t Here, which got a starred Publishers Weekly review, came out in spring 2024.