Q: The Sleeping Car Porter introduces your readers to Baxter, a gay Black sleeper car porter. Can you tell us a little more about The
Sleeping Porter and some of its original and engaging characters?
A: Baxter is a closeted gay man who lives in 1929, who works on a passenger train as a porter, and who dreams of a bigger, richer life as a dentist. He hopes to one day invent a dental prosthetic device that will make him a millionaire. He’s also a book nerd who likes to escape into “scientific fiction” and horror fiction like Dracula, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and magazines like Weird Tales and Amazing Stories. On this particular train trip, he encounters an array of passengers whom he gets to know extremely well – too well, in fact – when the train is delayed by a mudslide in the Rocky Mountains for an extra 45 hours.
Among the most notable passengers are a mother-daughter duo named Mrs. and Miss Tupper; a spiritualist who sees ghosts whom Baxter nicknames “the Spider”; and an annoying married couple Baxter nicknames “Punch and Judy.” There’s a 3-year-old girl named Esme whose mother has just died, and who is so drawn to Baxter she physically clings to him for most of the trip, and there’s Dr. Hubble – an enigmatic, Buster Keaton-type character who’s a little quirky. Baxter also interacts with fellow sleeping car porters – Eugene, Templeton, and Ferdinand – and the conductor, Mad Mary Magruder, all of whom have troubles of their own.
Q: What inspired you to write The Sleeping Car Porter set in the 1920’s Canada?
A: A former creative writing professor of mine said to me one day out of the blue, “Suzette! You have to write about the sleeping car porters!” I had no idea what he was talking about, but the more I researched the topic, the more hooked I got. The story also started getting closer and closer to me as I learned that some railway companies directly recruited black men from the Caribbean – the Bahamas in particular, where my mother is from – and I realized that perhaps I had sleeping car porters in my family tree. It became a search for family: both biological family, but also queer family.
Q: Your book The Sleeping Car Porter was 2022 Scotia Bank winner. Did you think you were going to win, especially 1st place? How did you
react when you got the news from the live finale in Toronto this past November?
A: When I learned my book was one of the five short-listed books, I was absolutely shocked; it felt like I’d been launched from a catapult, and I had no idea where or how I would land. And even though I knew I had a one-in-five chance of winning the award, I figured the award would likely go to one of the other writers because I’ve never won a major award before. It didn’t seem like something that would be in the cards for me. All the other shortlisted writers were better known than me, so once I made the shortlist I decided to just sit back and enjoy the incredible ride of being one of the shortlisted authors.
When my name was announced at the gala, I literally couldn’t understand what was happening – in part because no one ever pronounces my last name correctly so when my name was announced, I didn’t recognize it was me for a second or two. Understanding that I was being called up to the stage was like a giant thunder-clap, and realizing that I’d been struck by lightning. Or that I’d suddenly been pushed off a cliff. There’s no other way to describe it.
Q: What have all the rave reviews for The Sleeping Car Porter meant to you?
A: I try not to put too much stock into reviews because I have a tendency to internalize what they say a little too thoroughly, and that can be bad for me psychologically when reviews are negative or when there are few or no reviews (which can also be devastating in its own way) – I start being hard on myself because someone’s decided they don’t like my book. And there’s always someone who doesn’t like your book or thinks it’s boring or whatever, and that’s fine because people are entitled to their opinions and individual tastes, and it’s part of the game.
All of that said, the reviews for The Sleeping Car Porter that have been passed on to me by my publisher have been really positive, and I can’t help being thrilled by them. I’m trying to stay even-keeled about it though, and I’m trying to focus on the next book.
Q: What story has influenced your life?
A: As a kid, I was heavily influenced by novels that had a plucky, curious protagonist who was a little odd but who embraced their oddness. Examples that I can think of off the top of my head are books like Harriet the Spy, Anne of Green Gables, The Ghost Belonged to Me, and A Wrinkle in Time. I was always viewed as a kid by people outside my family as “different” in almost every sense of the word, and those novels helped me accept my difference as a super-power rather than as a disadvantage.
Q: Do you have any advice to aspiring writers?
A: Write what sincerely interests you and what brings you joy, even if it seems like no one else might be interested. What other people think doesn’t matter when it’s just you and the page. The page is your sacred space. Only let editors in when you’re ready, and not too early. You’ll know when you’re ready.
Q: What are the ingredients for a blockbuster story to you?
A: One: really solid characterization matters a lot to me – I want to feel like the main character at least is someone close to me even if they’re pure evil. Two: pacing – pacing and momentum matter so much. Three: language that’s clean and not too freighted with clichés.
Q: What story do you enjoy reading over and over again?
A: I guess it’s more of a genre that I like reading over again: I love reading about people who have a successful public face but have a contrasting, really messy private life, eg: stories about people who look really wealthy but who are in deep financial trouble; beautiful and/or super-smart people who are crumbling. Stories where I get to be the voyeur of people’s complexities, deeply private lives, and vulnerabilities. The Narrows by Ann Petry features numerous characters who are invested in how they appear even when it’s clearly destroying them, and Petry’s language is just lovely. Joyce Carol Oates wrote a novel a few years ago called Mudwoman about an ivy league university president who has a nervous breakdown, and I just loved it.
Q: How would you increase literacy?
A: Good question. I am probably being naïve, but I don’t think it would hurt to bring mobile libraries back a little more. I haven’t seen these around lately, but when I was a kid there were a lot of bookmobiles that were little libraries in buses that drove around to different neighbourhoods and would park in the neighbourhood for an afternoon once a week. They were awesome. I know that there are a few of “green” bookmobiles in the US that have a smaller carbon footprint. I don’t know about Canada. Even though so much is online, books are beautiful objects, and there’s nothing like the smell of the paper wafting up when you first open a book. Maybe it would work to have a small army of bookmobiles sent to all kinds of different neighbourhoods once a week. Libraries can be intimidating and hard to access, depending on the neighbourhood.
Q: What is your favorite drink while writing and/or reading?
A: A big, hot cup of Earl Grey rooibos tea.
Q: What is your favorite genre of music, artist?
A: I love 1970s disco by bands like Earth Wind and Fire. I also like Enya. And older jazz that Rawi Hage calls “shrimp cocktail music.” I love shrimp cocktail music. And Lizzo. Also BTS – they’re so damn cute.
Q: What is your favorite tech brand? App? You can’t live without?
A: I have an Oxford English Dictionary and thesaurus on my phone that I use almost every day. I like that the dictionary shows the etymology of different words.
Q: What is your favorite movie, tv show, superhero?
A: I love the movie What We Do In the Shadows, which has been made into a brilliant tv series. The tv series features a Greek-Romani vampire character named Nadja of Antipaxos who’s not in the movie. Nadja is lewd, cruel, funny, and beautiful. She is my superhero.
Q: What is your must have snack?
A: Chocolate of any kind. Except for white chocolate – I don’t understand white chocolate.
Q: If heaven exists, what is the first thing you would like to hear from God when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
A: I’m a queer atheist! I just can’t do this question. If I have to arrive at gates, then I hope whatever gates I might arrive at Nadja of Antipaxos is the one welcoming me in. Probably she would say to me, “What took you so f*cking long?”
Q: What ice cream flavor would you invent?
A: It’s already been invented, but I’ve never seen it at any ice cream shop I’ve ever visited: pistachio-dark-chocolate swirl
Q: What’s on the horizon for Suzette Mayr?
A: I hope to have a manuscript going in a year or two, and that way tamp down the current panic I feel because I have no ideas for the next novel. None. In interviews lately interviewers have been asking me what my next book will be about, and I’ve been lying and saying that I want to write a haunted house book because hopefully if I talk about it enough I can will this haunted house novel into being. Right now, I am atheist-praying that I will have the beginning of some kind of manuscript a year from now.
Get your copy of The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr HERE! >>
Vincent Salera
Founder @ World's Best Story™ amplifier of creativity & fun!
