MISE À DAY
For her fourth novel – and her first with Éditions de la Bagnole – journalist, columnist and novelist Anne-Marie Lobbe tackles themes dear to teenagers – love and friendship. But over the course of a sunny romantic comedy, which features an increasingly popular nautical activity, stand-up paddleboarding, it also tackles a more difficult and still taboo subject: generalized anxiety disorder. /p>
Rita is confused about what she wants after finishing a disappointing freshman year of college and facing an upsurge in her generalized anxiety. She plans to relax all summer in a mini-cottage.
The young woman imagines that she will spend the summer laughing and drinking orange wine with her best friend, Mackenzie. But the latter played a little trick on him by enrolling them both in a class.paddle board.
A new activity that will lead to many adventures and interesting discoveries. Anne-Marie Lobbe, in this first novel for young adults (Young Adult), notes that we are talking more and more about anxiety since the pandemic, even if this disorder has always been present.
A soothing activity
“We hear a little more about it. No matter the age groups, this is something that will touch people. I'm not someone who can give advice on this, but myself, I discovered that I had anxiety. Something I had never experienced before.
“I wanted to find a way to approach it, without it being heavy: it's okay, it can happen to anyone, at any age”, she says , in an interview. “We can find ways to work on that and have friends who can help us, who understand us and who want to guide us. »
Paddleboarding, a nautical activity that she practices, allows her to relax, to lower the level of stress, to calm down.
“It's soothing: the sound of water, sun. I've done it with other friends and in a gang and it's really something that disconnects. You may be in the middle of the Mille-Îles River or further north, but you feel like you're somewhere else. It's zen, it feels good, just the sound of water and the feeling of the wind. »
“I still have to stress that, for my anxious side, I must not be somewhere where there are a lot of boats, because it will definitely stress me out. But I'm working on it! »
The writing went really well. “In the beginning, the main character was really Rita.
But the more I wrote Ian's part, the more I grew attached to him. I discovered a character that I really liked and when I stopped writing, I felt like I was bored with him. I had a big crush on this character. »
Relevant topics
In addition, Anne-Marie Lobbe really enjoyed writing for the young adults category.
“The characters are in their mid-twenties, a little older than in my other novels which were for 12-13 year olds. We are going to look for older themes, we approach sexuality. I have a feeling readers in their twenties and thirties are going to have fun reading the novel.
The novelist finds learning novels, which address personal quests and life choices, to be relevant for any age group, not limited to young adults .
“We always need to find ourselves, to identify with universal themes that come to get us,” she says.
♦ Anne- Marie Lobbe is a journalist and editor for the magazine Cool! as well as for several websites.
♦ She is also a children's literature columnist at Journal de Montréal.
♦ Two on my paddle board is her fourth novel.
♦ There will be a sequel.
EXTRACT
“ The idea for this mini-cottage for the whole summer is mine. The last few months have been super trying, both physically and mentally. I feel drained, as if all my energy, worse, all my passion, has drained from my being. It started at the end of my first semester in sexology at university, a few months ago. The slap in the face. Am I in the right place? Did I make the right choice? Will my life be ruined if I change my mind in the middle of first year? I continued and did the second session, but the doubt still lingers. »