10 Fun Facts About The Circus Train

It’s just over a month until The Circus Train comes out in the United States and a little over two months until it’s released in the United Kingdom and worldwide. I thought it might be fun to share some behind-the-scenes facts about this novel.

This book took me six years to write and another two to edit. There are loads of bits and pieces that never made it into the final version. I can be quite ruthless when it comes to editing my work, but I still look back fondly on some of the scenes I’ve written and characters I’ve created that didn’t make the final cut. I’m also the kind of writer that likes to infuse hidden, personal meaning into things I create. While none of the characters or incidents are based on me or my personal experiences, there are tiny odes to things I love scattered throughout.

To that end, I’ve rounded up what I think are some of the most fun facts about The Circus Train below. Enjoy!

1. I didn’t come up with the title:

Confession: I’m TERRIBLE at coming up with titles. Truly, the absolute worst. I begged my agent to come up with one for this book because I’d been trying for months and was stuck. She’s brilliant and of course came up with a bunch I loved in the space of a few days. We settled on The Circus Train almost immediately. Now, I can’t imagine it being called anything else (for anyone interested, the original title was The Illusionist’s Daughter).

2. The character of Nneka is based on a singer and a supermodel:

Nneka is a singer in the circus in my book. Originally from Nigeria, she was picked up by Horace, the circus director, after she’d been disowned by her parents due to her having vitiligo. My character Nneka is named after the German-Nigerian singer, Nneka. I saw her perform at a tiny venue in Toronto years ago. My friend and I were standing in the front row and we could feel the heat and energy radiating off the performers. It was such an electric show, one I’ve never forgotten. She’s still one of my favourite artists.

Nneka (image courtesy of CNN)

Nneka’s character was also inspired by the Canadian supermodel, Winnie Harlow. Harlow was born with vitiligo and teased constantly growing up. I have always admired her ability to turn what some people saw as an obstacle into her greatest strength and a thriving career.

Winnie Harlow (image courtesy of Glamour)


3. The “La Bayadère” scene was inspired by my days doing ballet:

I went to a performing arts high school in Toronto (kind of like the school in the movie ‘Fame’). You could major in one of four things: drama, music, dance or visual arts. I majored in dance and was lucky enough to do ballet and modern dance every day. I never wanted to be a professional, but I enjoyed the athleticism and artistry that dance offered me.

I based some of the costumes and sets in The Circus Train on my experiences as a dance student. We did one piece to “Giselle” and I loved the white, ethereal costumes we wore, so took inspiration from those. And then we performed another ballet to a song from the Jules Massenet opera “Thaïs”, called “Méditation”. It’s probably my favourite piece of music, I still get shivers when I hear it.

I still take ballet classes as an adult because it feels like coming home to something familiar. No matter where I am in the world, I can look up a dance studio and book a class (this is a great remedy for homesickness, by the way!)

Scene from La Bayadère. Photo by MIRA, Courtesy of ABT


4. The train didn’t exist at first:

It feels weird to write that now, but it’s true: the train didn’t exist at all in the first few versions of my debut. In fact, it didn’t become a thing until I was in year four of writing and revising. Most of the early manuscript was set during occupied Greece and took place in a city called Thessaloniki.

After querying agents with that version and getting lots of feedback along the lines of ‘We like it, but we don’t love it,’ I realized I needed to raise the stakes. So, I made a luxury circus, put everyone on a train and sent them around Europe during a war.

5. There’s an alternate ending that takes place in Toronto:

Without wanting to give away any spoilers, there is an entire alternate ending to the book that takes place in my hometown of Toronto. I got to do all this research into what early 1950s Toronto was like - the stores, what the TTC (our subway system) looked like, what restaurants people ate at, the programs offered at universities and what kinds of clothing people wore.

I wrote a really moving scene set at Victoria College at The University of Toronto (where I studied) and another one I loved at the Simpsons department store that doesn’t exist anymore. I have so many fond memories as a kid of taking the subway downtown with my parents during the holidays and looking at the amazing Christmas displays they’d make in the windows of Simpsons. We’d watch the figure skaters at Nathan Phillips Square, drink hot chocolate, press our hands up against the glass windows and then go home. To me, there was nothing better.

This Toronto Gardens blog has a little bit of history about these windows if you’re interested in learning more.

I loved so many parts of the scenes in Toronto for emotional reasons, but I had to let them go when it became clear that the book was better without them.

6. Lena is named after an Alexis Bledel character and a Shakespeare character:

The main character in my book is named Lena Papadopoulos. Her full name is ‘Helena’ but everyone calls her ‘Lena’ for short. She’s named after two fictional people: A character named ‘Lena’ played by Alexis Bledel in one of my fave films, and ‘Helena’ from ‘All’s Well That Ends Well.’

Alexis Bledel is an actress who played Rory Gilmore in ‘Gilmore Girls’ (incidentally, also one of my fave shows). But she also played a Greek girl named Lena Kaligaris in a movie called ‘The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants’ (based on the best-selling book series). I always loved Lena’s character in that movie. So, when it came time to write my book, I wanted my main character to be called Lena.

Alexis Bledel. Image courtesy of Popsugar

As I mentioned above, Lena is also named after ‘Helena’ from a Shakespeare play called ‘All’s Well That Ends Well.’ In this play, the character of Helena is a healer and the daughter of a physician. I thought it jived well with Lena’s interest in science and medicine, so I made her full name ‘Helena’ as a tribute.

7. The circus acts involving synchro swimmers are inspired by Britain’s Got Talent:

Yes, that’s right — good old BGT. In 2018, I was recovering from very intense surgery. I couldn’t really do anything but sleep for a few weeks. But even after I got past that point, it was months before I could work again. I spent my days watching ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ (in hindsight not the best choice after you’ve been through surgery and a lengthy hospital stay) and ‘Britain’s Got Talent’. Why did I choose these shows? Well, they had a lot of episodes I could watch and they didn’t hurt my brain too much. I couldn’t write anything or even edit anything I’d written and it was really frustrating. But my body needed to heal.

At that point in the manuscript, the train and magnificent, upscale circus did not exist. Everything was still taking place in Greece. One day, while watching Britain’s Got Talent, I saw this act called Aquabatique and immediately I thought to myself ‘luxury circus with swimming pool.’ Because I still could not write, I recorded a voice note, describing the way the circus would look and feel, and what kind of acts it would have. Horace didn’t even exist at that point. But I recorded my ideas and remember feeling that spark of creativity.

It would be another few months before I could put any of my ideas to paper, but I like to think it all worked out in the end. Thank you Simon Cowell for the light bulb moment!

8. There are a ton of sports easter eggs in this book:

My brothers and I grew up doing so many sports. My parents put us in everything: hockey, skating, tae kwon do, swimming, soccer, running, skiing, snowboarding - you name it, we did it. We’re a really athletic family and my love for sports only became stronger as an adult. In fact, my dream job would be to be a track athlete or tennis player.

So, I had to stuff a bunch of sports references into the book. The character of Clara is named after a Canadian cyclist and speed skater Clara Hughes. Alexandre is named after Canadian diver Alexandre Despatie. There was a character in a previous version I wrote named Chantal. She was named after Chantal Peticlerc, a famous Canadian Paralympian. And then I made Alexandre grow up mainly in Marseille because that’s where my favourite footballer, Zinedine Zidane, grew up.

Marseille, France. Image courtesy of Lonely Planet

You never know how your interests will serve you later in life!

9. My love for magic started when I was a kid and volunteered as a magician’s assistant:

Ok, so let’s be clear: I was six years old when this happened and I did it once. But it obviously had a big impact on me.

One weekend, my parents took us to an event where a magician was performing. Now, I am a shy person and I was PAINFULLY shy as a kid. When people came over to visit, I would often run upstairs and paint or draw until they left. It’s very, very hard for me to open up to people I don’t know, or to be in any kind of spotlight.

For some reason, all of my shyness disappeared during that performance. The magician called out for a volunteer and, according to my mother, my hand shot up and I walked boldly up to the front. You have to understand: I was the kind of child who turned bright red whenever I had to give a presentation to my class, so this was highly uncharacteristic of me. I don’t know what came over me that day.

I had to lie on a table and then the trick was the magician made it seem like I was hovering with nothing underneath me. I still remember that moment so vividly. I could hear the audience gasping, but to me, it felt like nothing changed.

Anyways, that sparked a bit of a childhood obsession with magic. I never did tricks, but I would watch magicians all the time and I read so many fantasy and magic books. Even now, I love it. I love that feeling of not knowing how something is done.

10. I never thought The Circus Train would sell:

Yup, it’s true. I didn’t give up on myself as a writer, but I’d mentally checked out by the time we went on submission with this book to publishers. I’d spent over six years at that point working on it. I was just over it. I wanted to throw it off a cliff. I wrote an entire thriller during the previous year’s NaNoWriMo (a month long challenge where writers try and finish a draft of a new novel) because I was so convinced no one would want the circus book. I literally thought we wouldn’t get any offers, and if we did, it would be months before they came in. I was actually relieved because I thought I’d have time to edit my thriller, which I really loved.

Well, you know what they say. As soon as you don’t want something, it shows up. Less than a month after going on submission, we got a pre-empt from Canada. Then my agent sold it in Italy and the UK and a bunch of other places.

It’s amazing what can happen when you stop trying and detach yourself from the outcomes of things. I truly think things worked out for me with The Circus Train, and that my success as a writer continues to snowball because I have released any attachment to what happens as a result of the work I do. Once it’s done, I move on. I don’t refresh my email, I don’t constantly ask my agent for updates, I don’t even worry or stress myself out about sales or lists or any of that. I just operate from this place of knowing that things always work out. If I’ve laid everything I have left in me out on the table and had fun in the process, what more can I ask for?

And there you have it, 10 fun facts about the making of The Circus Train. I hope you enjoyed these bits of trivia and that they make for a more fulfilling reading experience!

You can buy or pre-order your copy of my novel from your preferred retailer and country here.

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