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Donna Morrissey fonds English
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What They Wanted

Subseries contains drafts in both electronic and hardcopy form of the novel What They Wanted by Donna Morrissey. Early drafts are titled Darkling Sea, Christ Child, and Leaving. What They Wanted explores both new and familiar terrain: a divided house on the shores of Newfoundland and the equally challenging environment of an Alberta oil rig. After Sylvanus has a heart attack, family tensions rise to the fore. Sylvie must deal with her feelings of estrangement from her mother, Addie. Meanwhile, Chris, a natural artist, frustrates his dreams by going to work on the rig. What They Wanted is a novel about guilt, responsibility, tragedy, and the enduring ties of family.

This novel is the second in the Sylvanus Now trilogy and was shortlisted for the 2009 Atlantic Independent Booksellers' Choice Award.

Typescript draft of chapter one

File contains one partial copy of hand paginated typescript manuscript for the novel The Deception of Livvy Higgs. Draft is labelled chapter one, with potential book titles listed at top of page, these include Painted Lies ; A Spoonful of Lies ; The Hidden Heart of Livvy Higgs ; The Seduction of Livvy Higgs

Two letters regarding the completed draft of Downhill Chance

File contains a letter from Beverly Slopen to Susan Canavan at Houghton Mifflin regrading the submission of Donna Morrissey's completed draft of Downhill Chance, and a letter from Cynthia Good, president and publisher of Penguin Canada, to Donna Morrissey about her pleasure at receiving her manuscript.

The Deception of Livvy Higgs

Subseries contains sixteen files of drafts at various levels of completeness for the novel The Deception of Livvy Higgs. The majority of the drafts are labelled as chapter one, but may contain pieces of other chapters. Some draft have been numbered, either in the typescript or with handwritten annotations, but not all drafts appear to be in order and some have duplicated pages. Drafts contain various titles, title suggestions, and editorial comments.

The Deception of Livvy Higgs is a book by Donna Morrissey.

For two days, Livvy Higgs is besieged by a series of small heart attacks while the ghost of her younger self leads her back through a past devastated by lies and secrets.

The story opens in Halifax in 2009, travels back to the French Shore of Newfoundland during the mid-1930s and the heyday of the Maritime shipping industry, makes its way to wartorn Halifax during the battle of the Atlantic in the Second World War, then leaps ahead to the bedside of the elderly Livvy.

Caught between a troubled past, and her present worsening living conditions, Livvy is forced to pick apart the lies and secrets told by her greedy, prideful father, Durwin Higgs, who judges her a failure, and her formidable Grandmother Creed, who has mysteriously aligned herself with Livvy's father despite their mutual hatred.

Tending to Livvy during her illness is her young next-door neighbour, Gen, a single mother, social-work student, and part-time drug dealer. Overnight, a violent scene embroils the two in each other's lives in a manner that will entwine them forever.

The Clothesline Patch

Subseries contains manuscripts of the script, short story versions, character sketches, a synopsis, and an outline of The Clothesline Patch.

Television interviews with Donna Morrissey

Item is a videocassette containing: a 5-minute panel interview with Donna Morrissey, Gregor Ash and Glenn Mettin regarding the best films of the past 100 years; a ca. 60-minute interview with Donna Morrissey in "Ziggy Introduces the Person Behind the Book"; and a 5-minute segment from CBC Midday regarding Kit's Law.

Sylvanus Now

Subseries contains typescripts, drafts, manuscripts, and a sample cover of Sylvanus Now. Early drafts are titled Rocking her Babies.

Roan RTN

Item is a typed manuscript page with a handwritten title.

Rage the Night

Subseries contains manuscripts, notes, correspondence and secondary research materials related to Rage the Night, a novel written by Donna Morrissey and published by Penguin Canada in 2023.
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