Authors Interviewing Characters: Colette Dartford
Authors Interviewing Characters: Colette Dartford
Colette was inspired to interview Grace, the main character in her new novel, The Mortification of Grace Wheeler. Colette has cast herself in the fictional role of Feature’s Editor at Liberty magazine. Colette is writing a series called The Reluctant Protagonist, which profiles women whose choices have plunged them into emotional crisis. Grace has only agreed to the interview with assurances that some topics will not be broached.
About The Mortification of Grace Wheeler
Faced with an empty nest when her only child, Josh, goes to university, the flaws in Grace’s twenty-year marriage to Cal are sharply exposed. He is much older than her and she wonders what they have in common, other than their son. She takes up fly-fishing (Josh’s favourite pastime) to escape the taut atmosphere at home, and develops an unlikely friendship with David Gill, her charming millennial instructor.
But as she glimpses a future with Cal, devoid of intimacy or excitement, she is drawn into an affair with David. Her mid-life sexual awakening confirms her decision to leave Cal, but while she is finding the courage to tell him, Josh discovers her secret. The fallout has fatal consequences, and Grace realises that in order to rebuild her life and relationships, she has to make peace with the hurt she has caused those she loves most.
The Reluctant Protagonist
Colette Dartford is Feature’s Editor of Liberty Magazine.
COLETTE: So, Mrs Wheeler – may I call you Grace?
GRACE: Of course
COLETTE: First of all, thank you for agreeing to this interview. I imagine it can’t be easy talking about something as personal as an affair, especially with the events that followed.
GRACE: (Shifting uneasily in her seat) I told the person from your office that I can’t say anything about that. It’s not fair on my family.
COLETTE: I understand. Why don’t we start from the beginning (checks her notes) and if there’s something you’re not comfortable with, we can take a break.
GRACE: (Nodding) Okay.
COLETTE: (Enables recording app) You mentioned your family – your son Josh and your mother Ruth. What about your husband’s family from his first marriage?
GRACE: Cal’s first wife, Marilyn, died some years ago. Cancer. They had three girls, Beth, Julia and Lydia.
COLETTE: And am I right in saying that you and Beth are the same age?
GRACE: Yes. Forty-five.
COLETTE: Are you close to your step-daughters?
GRACE: I don’t really think of them as step-daughters, apart from Lydia. The other two were already grown up when I met Cal, but Lydia was still a child. She would stay with us when Marilyn was too ill to care for her, which was quite a lot of the time.
COLETTE: And you have a good relationship with her, but not with Beth and Julia?
GRACE: I’m not sure I should talk about them. They wouldn’t like it.
COLETTE: But it’s your story too, Grace. You’re the one at the centre of everything – the protagonist, if you will.
GRACE: (Sighs) A reluctant protagonist, just like your article suggests.
COLETTE: Let’s approach this another way. When did you first meet David Gill?
GRACE: Um, October 2019. Josh had left for university and I decided to take up fly-fishing. David was my instructor.
COLETTE: What made you decide to take up fly-fishing?
GRACE: It’s Josh’s favourite thing in the world. I started taking him when he was about ten, and I’d sit on the grass and watch. It was always so peaceful, you know, the sound of the water, the stillness you find when you escape the city. That was one of the things I missed when Josh left. I was struggling, to be honest. Empty nest syndrome. It’s a thing, apparently. My mother bought me a book about it – a survival guide, it was called.
COLETTE: Did it help?
GRACE: I didn’t read it.
COLETTE: (Smiles) Let’s go back to David Gill. Was the attraction between you immediate?
GRACE: I’m not sure ‘attraction’ is quite the right word. Or at least, I didn’t think about it like that in the beginning.
COLETTE: But there was something?
GRACE: He was young and refreshingly easy going. I enjoyed his company, talking to him. Things with Cal were stale and predictable, I suppose. Well, we had been married for two decades. Like a lot of men his age, he was set in his ways.
COLETTE: Your husband was much older than you.
GRACE: Twenty-three years.
COLETTE: And David was how old?
GRACE: Mid-thirties. His whole outlook on life was so different to Cal’s. It was wonderful being at the lake with David – a breath of fresh air in all senses.
COLETTE: And when did things move beyond friendship?
GRACE: (Blushing slightly) Things at home were very strained and I was looking for reasons not to be there. I worked four days a week but that left three days rattling around at home, just me and Cal. So when David suggested a bit of extra-curricular fishing, or lunch or something, I happily agreed.
COLETTE: And your husband didn’t mind?
GRACE: He didn’t know – I mean yes, he knew about my Friday fishing lessons, but not about the other times David and I met. He had started playing a lot of golf – Cal that is – which meant he was out more often too.
COLETTE: When did the affair start?
GRACE: My friend Christina said it started long before David and I slept together, you know, because we both understood we were on that trajectory, but made the decision to carry on anyway.
COLETTE: Do you agree with her?
GRACE: I didn’t at the time, but of course she was right.
COLETTE: And this was the first time you had been unfaithful to your husband.
GRACE: Absolutely. I’d had a very ordinary, conventional life. I’m not cut out for drama, certainly not for illicit affairs.
COLETTE: So why then, why David Gill?
GRACE: (Looks towards the window) We had always been this tight little unit – me, Cal and Josh. Cal and I never argued, not because there wasn’t anything to argue about, but because we didn’t want to upset Josh. I’d got used to swallowing my grievances, smiling when I wanted to shout. And then suddenly Josh was gone. I knew I’d miss him, but I wasn’t prepared for the aching loneliness, the void his absence created.
COLETTE: Did you try to talk about it with anyone?
GRACE: No-one took me seriously. My mother said it was a phase, that it would pass. Christina said the same thing and told me to take up a new hobby. (Smiles sardonically) We all know how that turned out.
COLETTE: What about your husband?
GRACE: He thought I was moping when in truth, my heart was breaking. It wasn’t the same for him, you see. He had already raised three children so when Josh went to university to study medicine, for Cal it was a case of ‘job done’ – last one off his hands. But Josh was my only child – my life revolved around him. I didn’t know what to do with myself. (Gets a tissue from her bag) And then we started to argue.
COLETTE: You and Cal.
GRACE: Yes. I found out he had done something – and before you ask, no, I’m not prepared to say what – but it was completely unforgiveable. It gnawed away at me – I couldn’t bear to be around him. Escaping to the serenity of the lake, talking to David, who is much nearer my own age than Cal, by the way – that was the only time I felt anything approaching happiness. David could see I was troubled and encouraged me to talk. He didn’t do what Cal always did and try to dismiss my feelings as wrong or inconvenient. He listened. It was easy after that, to see him as the solution to my problems rather than a whole new problem waiting to detonate a grenade in our lives.
COLETTE: Was there any point at which you could have ended the affair with David and repaired your marriage?
GRACE: (Shakes her head) No. The first time I slept with David I knew there was no future for me and Cal. I had already spent twenty years with him without ever enjoying the physical side of our relationship.
COLETTE: And it was different with David?
GRACE: It was perfect with David.
Colette waits for Grace to elaborate.
GRACE: Let’s just say David made me realise what I’d been missing all those years.
COLETTE: Good sex?
GRACE: (Blushing again) It wasn’t just the sex. It was the realisation that my life was already half over and the idea of spending the rest of it with someone I didn’t love felt like a sort of death. The death of hope. No passion, no intimacy, no excitement. For once I thought about putting myself first. My plan was to have one last family Christmas and then explain things to Cal as kindly as I could. Not about David of course – I never intended him to find out I’d had an affair.
COLETTE: But he did find out – your whole family did.
GRACE: Yes.
COLETTE: And the consequences were devastating.
GRACE: (Clears her throat) Yes.
COLETTE: Can we talk about what happened at the party?
GRACE: (Closes her eyes and takes a slow breath) I need to take that break now please.
—
BUY THE MORTIFICATION OF GRACE WHEELER HERE
About Colette Dartford
Colette studied Sociology & Politics at the University of Bath, graduating with First-Class honours. Her Master’s degree in Research Methods was awarded with Distinction, and she received a scholarship to undertake a Doctorate in Political Science. Her thesis, ‘New Labour, New Language: Ideas, Discourse and Policy’ was published in 2001. For several years Colette worked as a Research Consultant, predominantly in the public sector.
Writing is Colette’s second career. It began in around 2006 when she moved to the Napa Valley in northern California and wrote her debut novel, LEARNING TO SPEAK AMERICAN. It was shortlisted for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award and published by Bonnier in 2015. Her second novel, AN UNSUITABLE MARRIAGE, was published the following year and was a Kindle bestseller for over eighteen months.
In addition to full-length novels, she has had short stories, prize-winning flash fiction and poetry published in popular magazines and anthologies.
Website: https://www.colettedartford.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/colettedartfordauthor/
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Category: On Writing
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