Nick Clewley is an after-hours writer and a graduate of The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University, living in Victoria, BC, on Lekwungen territory. Here’s a bit about his first novel, for which he’s seeking representation.

THE PLACES WE WILL BE FROM

A teenage fugitive and a child soldier, a refugee and an ex-militia. Four lives are plagued by memories they can’t explain as they try to escape their fates—an ambush at the U.S.-Canada border, where only two of them will survive.

17-year old Cas de Haan becomes a target of the HERITAGE Act, which sends immigrants to labour camps for “patriotic reorientation.” Faced with a choice between living out life in a camp or running, she flees with her parents, brother and sister. Aided by an underground network that smuggles people into Canada, their only hope is north, but they’ll have to cross dangerous ground to get there, including militias that murder anyone who tries to cross the border.

Bogo Carter, a 14-year old orphan, can trace his heritage back to enslaved generations of his ancestors, but when the leader of the Zero Avenue Militia tells him that his deceased parents faked their citizenship and that he’ll soon be sent to a HERITAGE camp, he kidnaps Bogo and indoctrinates him as a child soldier. Unable to escape, and hooked on the drugs he’s given to keep compliant, it’s just a matter of time until Bogo is made to kill.

21-year old Delia Stewart, a refugee living on Indigenous Stó:lō land north of the border, crossed alone when she was a teenager, under suspicious circumstances. She now works for Sláxet, a Stó:lō network that helps refugees cross. Haunted by what happened when she crossed, and at odds with Slaxet’s leader over how to stem the tide of refugees murdered by militias, she hatches a dangerous plan to cross back into the U.S. and take matters into her own hands.

Adwin Baley, an 18-year old former member of the Zero Avenue Militia, crossed into Canada years ago when he escaped. He wants to live a quiet life and forget his past, but when a border guard begins to question his identity and a member of Sláxet asks him to share intel on the militia, he has to confront his past and an atrocity he committed.

Guided by their strands, life forces that somehow connect the four of them, Cas, Bogo, Delia and Adwin are on a collision course that brings their pasts and futures together.