The Rubber Fence

This novel was originally a screenplay called Shrinkproof. It got the attention of Jody Foster's agent in Hollywood but the actress eventually passed on it. In my book, there's a young mother who becomes mute after giving birth to her baby and ends up on the psychiatric ward. At the time, Jody was becoming a new mother herself. I can only guess at the reasons she passed on the script. It was also sent to Meg Ryan at the time and it was also a no go.

Making a film is a difficult business. I was an actress for a while and I know that any producer who embarks on a film has to love it so much that they're willing to invest big bucks and stay with the project for up to three years with pre-production and post-production work. When my agent lost interest, I decided to convert the story into a novel because it was a story I couldn't let go of.

The Rubber Fence was inspired by my first job as a clinical social worker on a psychiatric ward in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I'd been trained as a family therapist by my professor who'd worked for ten years as a family therapist in the Wisconisn Mental Health Centre. So when I arrived on the ward in the early 1970s and discovered that shock treatment still existed and was often the treatment of choice for serious depression, I was stunned. I was of the opinion that people needed a chance to tell their stories, that there were more than biological reasons for their depression. Anyway, some of those emotions and experiences made their way into my novel.