New Novel Reminds Author of Her Childhood in Toronto

By Neil Armstrong

Photo contributed     G. Barton-Sinkia, author of By The Next Pause

G. Barton-Sinkia, a first-generation Canadian of Jamaican and Barbadian descent, says her debut novel, “By The Next Pause,” provides a nostalgia of the Toronto of her childhood.

It took her a year to write the 874-page book and the ensuing three years to fine-tune her creation.

“This book is more character-driven more so than plot-driven and so people when they read it they feel like they’ve known these characters,” she says.

The novel begins in the 80s, exploring a nostalgic journey through the lives of two disparate single parents – one Jamaican, and the other a racist – and their children who are best friends.

At seventeen, Pam Allen escapes Jamaica, leaving her infant daughter, Simone, behind. Years later, Pam is forced to take in the daughter she never wanted. They live in a run-down apartment complex in North York next to Mike O’Shea – a racist, loudmouth high school dropout who finds himself raising his eight-year-old son, Nolan, alone.

The two parents try to coexist in a world where they are drowning as single parents until they reluctantly join forces to raise their young children together. When a life-altering mistake forces their children on diverging, tumultuous paths, the make-shift family struggles to find their way back to each other before their whole world crumbles for good.

Barton-Sinkia, who earned a Bachelor of Arts at Carleton University’s School of Journalism in Ottawa, said she learnt to write very well there but she hated journalism.

She figured she picked the wrong profession to study mainly because while in high school family members told her that she was a good writer and should pursue it.

In 2000, she and her husband, Anthony Farrell, a writer and producer of television shows, moved to Atlanta, Georgia where she worked a few years before moving to California.

After nearly nine years in California working as a vice president at the Northern Trust Bank, she still had a strong desire to be a writer and began writing “By the Next Pause” while on maternity leave.

Barton-Sinkia subsequently left her job to dedicate her time to writing her debut novel.

“Journalism helped me out a lot because I’m still trained on how to get to the point really quickly. You don’t get that as much in creative writing. In creative writing you learn prose and you learn how to evoke emotions through writing.”

In 2017, the author and her family moved back to Toronto – the city they always loved.

Barton-Sinkia’s love of R&B music is demonstrated in the character, Simone.  While writing the novel she took long walks in the mornings with music that reminded her of the story.

One of the themes of the novel is the idea that life resembles a playlist.

“For me, playlists are important because they kind of evoke emotions and if you collect the music that you are inspired by you can easily have an idea of what your story is.”

She said Simone had a story that was reflected in the music she listened to and Barton-Sinkia wanted to convey that in the book with “every chapter, every scene, every moment being like a song on a playlist.”

There are some tragic events in “By the Next Pause” and the author also deals with issues such as racism, immigration, LGBTQ issues, and the 80s school system among other things.

She said the character, Kester, who struggles with his gender identity, represents many LGBTQ people in the Jamaican Canadian community who are made to be silent.

“We have family members and we have friends from our community who don’t feel like they have a voice and they have an opportunity to express how they are without the feeling of being isolated, without the feeling of being disowned.”

Barton-Sinkia thought it was important to focus on that and also introduced Simone’s sexual fluidity to counter the willingness of people to pin labels on folks.

She said it broke her heart to write the end of the book and while her instinct was telling her how it should end, her heart was asking why.

Her husband reminded her that she remembered William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” because it was a difficult ending “and you can’t shy away from it, especially if your gut is telling you this is the way to go.”

She said the book depicts race relations in its entirety with Pam and Mike representative of the period just before the end of the Civil Rights Movement, and Simone and Nolan representing after that into present day.

“By The Next Pause” is one of three books in what the author calls the “Toronto Series” which means “Toronto stories that we don’t hear often.”

 [This story was published in the North American Weekly Gleaner, Sept. 27-Oct. 3, 2018.]