Dorothy Ellen Palmer in Peterborough This Week

Dorothy Ellen Palmer recently spoke to Catherine Whitnall of Peterborough This Week about adoption, growing up in the Kawarthas, and her novel When Fenelon Falls.

'"I first came up with the idea from the caged bear in Irondale," said Ms. Palmer. "And I had always wanted to write about the Rosedale area because my family had been going up there for close to 100 years."

Ms. Palmer's grandfather, an Anglican minister, bought land in the Rosedale area in 1920, built a cottage and ministered at the tiny St. John's Church. As property in the area was relatively inexpensive back then - unlike today - many other family members followed suit, constructing tiny rustic cottages, "the kind with little outhouses out back" - once again, unlike today.

Those cottaging experiences, the "old Fenelon of my childhood," were paired with Ms. Palmer's dreams of finding her birth parents - ironically realized the very day the book was sent to press - and the challenges some adoptees face, growing up.'

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