People will say that Canada, unlike America, was not birthed from violence. But I want to say, "What are you talking about?" It's just not true.

We aren't the masters of the earth. We're the servants.

From a craft standpoint, telling a story in the first-person present tense over the course of 500 pages is a daunting challenge.

Sometimes, it's not getting what we want that offers us the most important Lessons

The world is a different place in this new century, [...]. And we are a different people. My visions still come but no one listens any longer to what they tell us, what they warn us. I knew even as a young woman that destruction bred on the horizon. [...] War touches everyone, and windigos spring from the earth.

There's a few scholars that object to how the italicized sections suggest that Native people are to take some part in the blame for how colonization occurred. But I say, "Yes they are." Not nearly as much blame as the colonizers, of course. But we are not just victims. I hate this idea that we are all just victimized and oppressed and etcetera etcetera. It's dehumanizing in its own way.

I never want to play down to the reader. I think readers are willing to go along if they're intrigued.