Writer’s Block: Glenna Turnbull

All Lit Up: Tell us about your book The Art of Getting Lost and Found. What can readers expect? 

Glenna Turnbull: The Art of Getting Lost and Found is a dual-timeline novel, telling the stories of two different women over a one-week period in August, set 130 years apart. The present-day story is about Maggie, a stained-glass artist in B.C. who has lost custody of her children. As the book opens, she is about to set off for Newfoundland to return her parents’ ashes to their homeland. Maggie suffers from borderline personality disorder—a not uncommon but lesser-known mental health affliction. Tired of being numbed by meds, she makes the decision to leave them behind. As she sets off across Newfoundland, the effects of ditching her meds begins to affect her thinking and family secrets start seeping into light.  

The historical portion of the novel is based on a Newfoundland legend: the tale of Sally Short, who was married to an extremely abusive man and needed to find a way to escape and hide. Known as Shorty to the locals of Woody Point, things run much more smoothly for her and her children when her husband Lorne is away hunting or hauling lobster pots from the sea. But he can’t stay out there forever, and when he returns home with his latest catch and finds they’ve been breaking his rules, it sets a series of events into motion that leaves Shorty scrambling for her children’s safety. 

As per the title of the book, I guess you can figure out which one of them is trying to find themselves and which one is trying to get lost. 

ALU: What inspired the idea for The Art of Getting Lost and Found? 

Glenna: I had signed up for a 3-Day Novel writing contest, due to start a few days after returning from my first trip to Newfoundland—my mother’s family have roots there going back into the 1700s and I’d never been before. Because I work as both a photographer and a stained glass artist, I wanted to explore the crossover between the two. Also, I knew the only way I could authentically write about such a unique place as Newfoundland and Labrador would be to do so from a traveller’s point of view. So, I took notes throughout my trip and thought the story I’d write would revolve around those two characters. But on my last day staying in Gros Morne, I asked my Airbnb host how Sally’s Cove got its name. His answer changed everything. 

ALU: What books have you read lately that you can’t stop thinking about? 

Glenna: Susie Taylor’s collection of connected stories, Vigil, is probably the book that has stayed with me the most over the past two years. I was so struck by the opening story; I could not put it down. Other recent books that have completely vacuumed me into their world are The Tiger and the Cosmonaut by Eddy Boudel Tan, and We Should Not Be Afraid of the Sky by Emma Hooper—actually, all three of Emma Hooper’s novels, the other two being Etta and Otto and Russell and James, and Our Homesick Songs.  I’m also a huge fan of the author Christine Higdon who wrote Gin, Turpentine, Penny Royal, Rue. The one novel that has remained in my heart the longest is Donna Tartt’s The Little Friend. I still think of Harriet five plus years after turning the last page.  

ALU: If you had to describe your writing style in a word or two, what would it be? 

Glenna: I am a total fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants “pantser.” If I try to plot things out first, it ends up feeling too forced. 

ALU: Are there any real-life experiences or people that have influenced your storytelling? 

Glenna: As with most fiction writers, I draw on a mixture of personal experiences (write what you know), as well as things I need to research, such as lobster canning in the 19^th century! I have a history of mental health issues so I am able to write about them with knowledge as well as firsthand experience of living in a violently abusive relationship where my children and I feared for our safety. When I first heard the legend of Sally Short, every hair on my arms stood on end and I knew that it was a story I had to write. I know how bad things had to get for me to leave my husband in modern-day times where I had support from the local Women’s Shelter along with counselling services and Welfare to supplement my income until I could land on my feet. For a woman trying to leave that kind of situation in the 19^th century, with no safety net or support system, it made me wonder how bad things must have been for Shorty to risk everything, knowing she’d need to brave the elements of the Northern Peninsula. 

I’ve also included some details from my own life such as the name of my dear best friend, one of my dogs, my teddy bear, and the enormous purple suitcase I nicknamed Barney. 

ALU: How do you approach developing your characters or world-building? 

Glenna: I recently watched the movie, “The Man Who Saved Christmas.” It’s supposed to be the backstory of how Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol. What I loved about the movie and why it relates to this question is, like Dickens in the film, I often start with a name. And once I’ve got that name, the character pops into my head. Then I listen for their voice. Once I’ve got the name and the voice, the physical description follows and before I know it, they are off and running, playing out scenes in my brain as if they were right there in the room with me, like they did for Dickens in the movie. Sometimes I find myself typing as fast as I can to try and keep up. These characters, however, have a mind of their own. Often, I’ll want them to do something or say something but they’ll turn around and flip me the bird and say, “sorry, not happening,” and then I’ll have to wait and watch what they do. I have a far too vivid imagination that causes me a lot of grief in life, but it works to my advantage as a writer!  

In this novel, I had originally written a different ending but my editor came up with the idea of switching it to an outside character who I’d only briefly named. I liked her idea but fought against it at first until finally, one morning when I was out hiking with my dog, I heard his voice. His face then became clear. I raced home and listened and the final scene of the novel unfolded as if by magic. I am eternally grateful to my editor Kate Kennedy for the nudge to change it as it completes the book without wrapping everything up too neatly at the end (something I hate in a novel!) 

Glenna Turnbull’s short fiction has appeared in several of Canada’s finest literary journals, including The New Quarterly, prism International, Riddle Fence, and Room. She was awarded the 2023 Jacob Zilber Prize for Short Fiction, was an honourable mention for the Peter Hinchcliffe Short Fiction Award, and is featured in the Best Canadian Stories 2025 anthology. She is a UBD Okanagan graduate, having put herself through school as a self-employed single parent. She works as a freelance writer, photographer, and stained glass artist, living in Kelowna, British Columbia with her two dogs, close to her grown sons. This is Glenna’s debut novel.