Victoria's Whitney Gardner explores fame, phantoms and free (not haunted) pianos in new graphic novel
When writing got tough, Gardner realized 'I'm in charge. I can write whatever I want'
When Whitney Gardner came across an ad for a free piano, advertised as "not haunted," she knew there was a story there.
"That piano is obviously very haunted," she told CBC's North by Northwest host Margaret Gallagher.
And while she never learned the story of that particular piano, the Victoria-based author and illustrator felt moved to write her own story that includes a haunted instrument.
The book, a young adult graphic novel, is centred around a pre-teen girl searching for fame. It begins in 1980 and then jumps forward to the present day.
"When I sat down to write the book, I first thought that it would be like this big wooden stand up piano haunted by a Victorian ghost," Gardner said. "I kept hitting roadblocks and hitting the wall and not wanting to write this sad dreary piano music book. And then I realized, wait, I'm in charge. I can write whatever I want."
So, she chose a haunted synthesizer, one just like the model John Carpenter used to compose the soundtracks for the Halloween horror films.
In Gardner's book, the synthesizer is haunted by a ghost from the 80s, named Vision. The ghost is based on the American pop star Tiffany, who rose to fame with her cover of I Think We're Alone Now in 1987.
While writing the book Gardner watched the music video for I Think We're Alone Now every day.
"Just to put myself in the mindset of this superstar and also to see all of the backgrounds and the antics of the 80s," Gardner said.
The book's main character, Margot, has a lot in common with her creator, Gardner. For one, they both have fathers who spent much of their lives in search of fame, which left Margot and Gardner feeling that they had to compete for attention with their father's fans. Second, Margot and Gardner both tend to write light-hearted pieces.
"There's a lot of myself in Margot, probably more so than any of the other books I've written."
In the story, Vision and Margot share a commonality: by making music that makes them popular, they're giving up making music for themselves.
Gardner is both the author and illustrator of this book as well as her previous works, Fake Blood and Long Distance. While art and drawing are her first loves, writing stories for younger audiences has become her passion.
"These books, comic books, have more pictures than any kind of book. This is where my heart is now. I sort of fell in love with telling stories through words and pictures together. And now it's like all I want to do."
Free Piano (Not Haunted) is available now.
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With files from North by Northwest