Having your first novel published is a special moment in the life of a writer. It’s the culmination of hours and days and years of hard work, and the first tangible reward typically comes in a box your publisher has couriered to your home. There is no way to describe the wondrous moment you first hold your book in your hands, opening its pages, seeing your words, burying your nose in its fresh pages and taking in a big, wonderful whiff.
“It’s really surreal,” says Almonte’s Elysia Rourke, whose novel Whale Fall was published by Penguin Random House in mid-September. “It has been a whirlwind, to say the least! I’m so proud of Whale Fall and all the work that went into it, both on my part and by the team at Nancy Paulsen Books / Penguin Random House. I started writing the book in 2018, so it really does feel like the culmination of an entire chapter of my life.”
The kindly booksellers at Mill Street Books in Almonte recently hosted the official book launch for Whale Fall, and the shop was overflowing!
“The book launch at Mill Street Books was incredible,” Rourke says. “We had a great mix of adult readers and children, and a line that went all the way from the door to the back of the store! We had an orca mascot outside for pictures, and orca cookies (both thanks to my husband, who made the cookies and was inside the costume). I couldn’t have felt more love and support from my community. The folks at Mill Street Books — Ann and Sarah in particular — have been so supportive of Whale Fall. I keep counting my lucky stars that they’re championing it in Almonte. They’ve got a full window display for the book for the next few weeks!”
Whale Fall is a novel for middle graders (aged 10 and up) about a young orca who dreams of becoming the matriarch of her pod. While it’s a hopeful story about the power of faith and stories, it’s also a sad one, in that it deals with the cruelty of whales in captivity.
The story took shape, Rourke says, only after multiple drafts, and during the editing process when she asked, “What am I trying to tell myself?”
“In the case of Whale Fall,” she explains, “I noticed that Whale was moving through three phases in her life (and her captivity): calf, mother, and grandmother. With those phases, her relationship with her family’s mythology changed as well. Whale begins the story as a receiver of stories, listening to her grandmother’s flukes. In captivity, she becomes the teller of the same stories to other orcas who haven’t heard them yet. Finally, at the end of the book, Whale is confronted with the need for a new story and becomes a creator of stories, making up one entirely of her own.
“I knew from the rough draft that Whale Fall would be a tragedy. Whale doesn’t escape captivity — she can’t — captivity is the curse we humans inflict on large animals like whales, and it is often lifelong. With that said, I wanted it to have a hopeful ending. While Whale doesn’t escape, she does get to return to the ocean in the realistic way that we can aspire to return all current captive orcas to the ocean; through sea sanctuaries like The Whale Sanctuary Project in Nova Scotia.”
Rourke has faith that middle grade readers of the book will absorb the novel’s message.
“I hope that the novel can help the next generation fully phase out marine parks that use mammals for entertainment,” she says. “It isn’t just orcas that suffer in these environments, but dolphins and sea lions too. I hope that it helps kids become better stewards of our planet and the animals we share it with. Though I haven’t seen any feedback from children yet, I hope that it can give them an appreciation for orcas and inspire them to want to see them in the wild!”
Rourke, who was born and raised in Stittsville, moved to Almonte with her husband in 2018.
“Part of the appeal of Almonte, besides how beautiful it is, was the artistic community,” Rourke says. “I wanted to be surrounded by creative people in a town that cherishes the arts.”
Growing up, she says, she always wanted to be a writer. She wrote her first novel, in fact, when she was twelve on an old laptop with a broken S key. By the time Rourke had graduated high school, she had written five complete novels.
“Common advice to writers is that most authors don’t publish their first manuscript — more like their tenth — and I am very true to that mantra,” says Rourke. “Whale Fall is my 9th novel and the first one I sought publication for.”
A significant chunk of the eight years it took Rourke to write Whale Fall, she says, was spent on research.
“I did a lot of research in order to make an orca’s point of view feel as authentic as possible,” she explains. “My starting point was the documentary Blackfish (2013). I watched every interview on Youtube I could find with trainers that had worked in marine parks.”
She read extensively, too: Death at Seaworld by David Kirby, Beneath the Surface by John Hargrove, Of Orcas and Men by David Neiwert. An article in Outside Magazine by Tim Zimmerman called “The Killer in the Pool” was also extremely helpful, she says. Along the way, Rourke discovered some astounding and surprising facts about whales.
“The thing that really astounded me is how intelligent killer whales are — maybe even smarter than us,” she says. “Studies have shown that the parts of their brains that process empathy, long-term memories, self-awareness and social attachment are supercharged, suggesting they live complex emotional lives. They have a whole extra section in their brain that we don’t have that processes emotion, plus an entire extra sense: echolocation!”
Not only is Rourke now a published author, she is also the founder of the Almonte Writers Guild, and co-founder of The LAM (Lanark County’s Literary Arts Magazine).
The Almonte Writers Guild is an entirely free meet-up group that hosts biweekly write-ins at Equator Coffee on Sundays from 1–3pm.
“Every other week, we meet at Equator (who are immensely supportive of our shenanigans!) and write together. I have formed many lifelong friendships through the AWG and could not be more grateful,” Rourke says.
The LAM, meantime, is a project that Rourke co-founded with Marianne Jeffery.
“We’d noticed through the AWG that a lot of local writers were intimidated by the publication process,” she says, “and we wanted to change that. So, we started The LAM, a new literary arts magazine dedicated to publishing prose, poetry, and art by authors and artists in Lanark County.”
The second issue is in production and will be free to read at thelamonline.com on November 1. The third issue of The LAM will be open for submissions in February 2027.
Now that Whale Fall is out in the world, Rourke will be visiting a bunch of local bookstores for signings. On October 3, she will be at Mill Street Books in Almonte from 11am to 1pm. On the 10th, she’ll be at the Indigo in Barrhaven. You can visit her website at elysiarourke.com for a full listing of her autumn book signings.
