Gwen Tuinman

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Growing Empathy Through Historical Fiction

In the summer of 1975, I was a shy, awkward girl obsessed with the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I couldn’t get enough of her stories about 19-th century settler life.

Her books were my gateway into historical fiction.

Wilder’s writing opened my eyes to the hardships that people experienced on the frontier. She introduced me to homesteading women who faced life-and-death struggles and who diligently, with resourcefulness and hope, safeguarded their families.

She also showed me examples of quiet strength, resilience, self-advocacy, inquisitiveness and how individuality and community can co-exist. She immersed me in her characters’ world and made me care about them.

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UNREST: Book Cover Artist, Keight MacLean

The cover of  UNREST, my recently released 19th century historical adventure, is art. Quite literally.

This is a tale of coincidences. When book designer Talia Abramson incorporated the art of Toronto-based painter, Keight MacLean, I was over-the-moon excited. Of all the artists in the world whose work Talia might have selected, she’d been drawn to an artist I’d interviewed a few years earlier and adored. Keight works with paint and I work with words, but we both explore the suppression of women’s voices in history.

Today, I’m resharing our conversation from the fall of 2022.

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Today is UNREST Publication Day!


” Brash, duplicitous women, murder and mayhem, and illicit love abound in this wild adventure for fans of Outlander and The Home for Unwanted Girls, announcing a major new talent in historical fiction.” —Random House Canada

UNREST, my 19-century historical novel has been released today! I can’t wait for you to read it!

Read more: Today is UNREST Publication Day!

Purchase links at Penguin Random House Canada. Available in hardcover, e-book, or audiobook.

Here’s the story of UNREST, and praise by renowned Canadian authors: Beith Powning, Genevieve Graham, Suzanne Desrochers, Alissa York and Alix Hawley.

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Creative Inspiration From a Vibrant (Almost) Centurian

“I’m 98 years old.”

A darling woman I met on the weekend proudly shared her age. My husband is part of a gardening club that volunteers to water flower gardens at a seniors home. I was waiting for him to finish dousing geraniums when I spotted this stylish woman crowned with snow-white curls. After she saw friends to their car, she spritely doubled back with her walker to say hello. I raised the routine topic of weather, but she had something more exciting in mind.

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Pioneer Life: Making Candles

Two hundred years ago, coal oil lamps were a rarity in the backwoods home. Hearth fires and candles were main sources of light. In heavily settled areas, a chandler might pass through once a year to sell their candles made with moulds.

Most pioneer women preferred to make their own candles. They saved tallow (animal fat) from butchered cows, sheep, and wild game like deer and bear. The tallow was boiled in water several times to rid it of impurities. Once tallow took on a waxlike consistency, it was strained to further ensure pureness. These processes help to prevent the animal fat in the candles from turning rancid. To camouflage the unpleasant odour of burning tallow, wild ginger or pleasant-smelling herbs were mixed in. Sweet smelling beeswax was sometimes added for a honey scent. Pure beeswax candles were reserved for special occasions as the wax was difficult to obtain.

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Pleasures of Reading

I’m so darned happy! Today, I came across a 2021 article I wrote about our Little Free Library experience and the pleasures of reading. The piece was picked up by The Globe and Mail and an expanded version was later published by Reader’s Digest Canada.

Here is an excerpt of that article.

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Steamship Travel in Early Canada

Since childhood, I’ve been interested in the “olden days” and how people lived. As a historical fiction author, I take delight in curating facts and impressions about people’s daily lives and how the times in which they lived impacted them. You can imagine the extensive research required to construct a believable world within a novel. For history lovers, this aspect of writing is pleasurable work.

This being said, I’ve been learning about steamship travel in Canada in the 1800s and early 1900s. What might my characters encounter aboard such ships? I’d imagined grunge and simplicity at every turn.

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A Reflection: If We Saw Souls Instead of Bodies

IF WE SAW SOULS INSTEAD OF BODIES is the title of an essay by author Brianna Wiest and appears in her book 101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think. I quickly noted that the entire piece consisted of questions. Before reading further, I stared into the pine trees outside my window. Would my questions look much different from hers? Don’t we humans yearn for the same emotional comforts? I pulled a chair snug to my desk, closed my eyes and started typing. The following is my reflection.

If we saw souls instead of bodies, wouldn’t we see flares of colour—yellow for loneliness, orange for traumatized, blue for discouragement—as signs that we’re among people who understand our own isolation, wounds and hopelessness and mightn’t we reach out a hand to help and be helped? Are we so different from one another? If our souls were on our outsides shining the full spectrum of colour, couldn’t we lose sight of differences and love each other better?

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Book Memories

I recently had a conversation with a friend’s young grandsons, while visiting an independent bookstore to celebrate the launch of a fellow writer’s novel. One of the boys commented that, except for Chapters-Indigo, he’d never been in a bookshop. The children were impressed by the variety of available books and the general ambience of the space.

Their wonderment took me back to remembrances of my childhood book encounters. I recall my family owning a small selection of Dr. Zeus books, Green Eggs and Ham being my favourite, and a few Golden Story Books. As was common then, my parents, on their modest income, didn’t own adult fiction books.

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