Joan Barfoot

I've now written nine novels — from Abra, which won the Books in Canada first novels award, to Critical Injuries, published in the fall of 2001. Not until my fifth novel, Charlotte and Claudia Keeping in Touch, did I build a story around women friends, in that case an aging pair — connected, however differently and distantly they conducted their lives, since childhood. After that, the subject pretty much lapsed again, until Dropped Threads came along.

I wrote about women's friendships in Dropped Threads partly because in my fiction (as in daily newspaper journalism, which also occupied much of my adult life) I've been most interested in the extremes and sharp edges of events and behaviours. And it seems to me that, often enough, people are moderated by their friends, or have outlets, resources, and supports that make extremes either unlikely or unnecessary.

In Abra, the protagonist deliberately transforms herself into a virtual hermit. In Dancing in the Dark (which became a movie starring the astonishing Martha Henry), a fanatic homemaker hides inside domesticity and pins all of her fantastic hopes upon her husband. In my third novel, Duet for Three, a protagonist finally has a dear, close friend for a time, although he's a man.

In my own life, friendships with women, as well as in slightly different ways with men, have been vital to keeping me away from some extremes and sharp edges I'd just as soon avoid. I've tried to acknowledge and repay that debt somewhat in Dropped Threads.

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