PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, Canada – Beset by a constant craving to write, author and poet Carol Little clings to big literary aspirations. Luckily, she also possesses hefty doses of the perseverance and talent needed to achieve them.

“I've been writing for as long as I can remember – from childhood,” said Carol when interviewed at one of her favorite workplaces, a tiny table at Timothy's coffee shop in Charlottetown, the capital city of her home province.

Thirty-four-year-old Carol's impressive (although short) first novel, Hide Your Life Away (2008, Meanwhile Studios, Canada, 142 pages), shows a pleasing flair for dialogue and details. On June 14, she does an encore by launching A Study in Love, her first poetry book, at the Collected Works bookstore in Ottawa, Canada's national capital.

In Hide Your Life Away, Carol's protagonist, Jason Mahoney, glides along as a vaguely familiar 32-year-old grocery-store stock-boy beset by problems and stuck in a “generic small town”. This novel competed for the Montaigne Medal, won an Eric Hoffer Award for fiction and was a finalist at the 2009 Indie Book Awards.

“Being a novelist was always my fantasy occupation,” Carol said. “When younger, I thought it wasn't a realistic idea. Maybe it isn't, but I'm trying.

“Writing's very important to me. It's a big part of who I am. I need to write. It's necessary for my well-being. At times, I've been physically ill due to not being creative.

“Since I don't make a great living from writing, I doubt if it's something most people would do for money or glamour – because there isn't much. I do it because I have to – it's a compulsion, an urgent need.”

Not long ago, Carol lived in Kensington and commuted nearly two hours several days per week to write at Timothy's. There, the staff members knew her and brewed her favorite coffee. Now she has moved to Charlottetown.

“I do the bulk of my writing in coffee shops. Every now and then, someone comes in and asks me to sign a book,” Carol said. “And there's nowhere better to drink soy lattes.”

But the need to write follows no schedule. “I carry a pen and notebook everywhere,” Carol said. “I'll stop on a street to write, or when driving, which I shouldn't, but when an idea strikes me, I'm writing it down. Actually, I write everywhere and all the time. I sleep with a pen and notebook by my bed. Regularly, I wake up with an idea and then write in the dark.”

Despite the computer age, Carol prefers to write with a pen and paper. “I love the connection of pen to paper, its tangibility. For some reason, my words flow better that way. And I like being able to write anywhere. I don't need to carry a computer or stay near a power outlet.”

Initially, Carol wrote much of Hide Your Life Away in the International Three-Day Novel Competition on a long weekend in 2007.  “That was a challenge I'd wanted to accept for about five years, but kept delaying and being intimidated by it,” Carol said. “It's astounding to think of writing so quickly, and I almost can't fathom having done it. I started that weekend with just the title and an idea for the beginning. I didn't know where the plot would go or how it would end.”

The setting emerged from years of observations in and near Summerside, Carol's earlier hometown. “You write what you know,” she said. “In my head, the hospital scene is at Prince County Hospital. The farmers’ market scene is at the Charlottetown Farmers Market. The fictional town pulls together different bits of Prince Edward Island.”

Carol spins the mundane intricacies of her characters’ daily lives into a pleasing mix of comedy and tragedy. Realistic dialogue and recognizable details make the readers feel like honest-to-gosh participants.

“Readers comment on the fluidity of the dialogue,” Carol said. “All aspects of writing are a bit difficult, but for me, dialogue is the easiest part. I enjoy writing it, maybe due to studying human nature. For me, it's natural to watch nuances, how people use their words and bodies when talking. It's a constant study.”

Carol even gains mileage by enduring food allergies. “The novel mentions a lot of food,” she said. “Having food allergies, I really notice food-related details.”

As for A Study in Love, Carol's friend, Kristy Gordon, an artist from British Columbia, illustrated the poems. “Kristy's a fantastic contemporary painter,” Carol said.

Many of Carol's public appearances are to read poetry. She's a member of the League of Canadian Poets.

Her second novel, A Life Within Limits, should appear soon. “I also have an idea for a third,” she said.

Along with Carol's creative work, she focuses on another huge task. She's a mother of toddling three-year-old twins. “They're happy, busy girls,” she said. “When I'm at home, they get most of my attention, which is why I don't try to write there.”

Earlier, Carol worked as a screen-writer in the animation industry. More recently, she has done freelance writing and editing.

In the 1990s, she studied “to become a psychiatrist”, first at the University of Prince Edward Island and then at Carleton University in Ottawa. So she's competent to analyze her obsession with placing words on pages.

No matter how much Carol writes, her compulsion remains: “I can't stop. For me, there's no question of retiring. Even if I had the money of J.K. Rowling (who wrote the Harry Potter books), I'd still write. It's necessary.

“I'm already doing what I want, which is to spend my days writing – as a novelist and poet. Of course, I'd like to be really successful and get my work out there too.”

As afflictions go, her “writing ailment” has a lucky consequence for everyone else – the prospect of more good books.

For more information: www.carollittleauthor.blogspot.com


Carol confesses: 'I can't
stop writing. It's necessary.'


When walking or even driving, Carol
may stop to scribble down urgent ideas.

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