In The Heiress and the Woodsman, heroine Charlotte must head into the Canadian backwoods in search of her brother. To help her navigate the woods, Charlotte hires backwoodsman Joshua, who is looking to save his own brother. While they navigate the treacherous terrain, hidden truths threaten the admiration that grows between Charlotte and Joshua.
The author of The Heiress and the Woodsman, Christine Hill Suntz, also has personal experience with the Canadian backwoods. In this guest post, Christine tells us about her family’s experiences backcountry camping and how that helped her write about Charlotte’s experiences and also about the historical inspiration for the novel.
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Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it?
I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
Isaiah 43:19, KJV
Our family has always loved camping. When our children were toddlers, we bought a used pop-up camper and enjoyed beaches, hikes, playgrounds, and campfires. Perfect for a family with little ones.
In 2020, our plans to travel to the East Coast and Europe were put on hold. We looked for a new adventure close to home and we discovered backcountry camping. If the term is new to you, allow me to explain. You pack up everything you’ll need for a week away, put it in a canoe and paddle to a site with no neighbors and no cell service. If you’re lucky, you won’t have to portage (i.e. carry all your stuff a few kilometers through the bush and then come back and carry your canoe). You keep ALL your food in a bear barrel and tie it in a tree overnight. You filter lake water to drink. The toilet is called a thunderbox. Need I say more?
Much to my surprise, I loved backcountry camping. No travel experience compares with the view when you first unzip the tent in the morning and see a loon on the misty lake. When you sip your coffee and feel completely alone in the wilderness. (Yes, coffee was deemed a necessity and made it into the bear barrel). Of course, it wasn’t all perfect views.
Once we were stranded on an island for two days when windy storms prevented us from leaving. We ran out of food and had a harrowing canoe trip back to the car. Several times we’ve woken up in the night to the sound of something sniffing around outside the tent. We did not open the tent flap to find out what it was. These experiences weren’t funny at the time, but now they are among our most treasured family memories.
In my newest release, The Heiress and the Woodsman, the heroine, Charlotte, leaves her home in Toronto, a rough but growing city in 1837, and journeys north into the wilderness in search of her prodigal brother. At first, she finds this new world ugly and hostile. She enlists the help of gruff backwoodsman Joshua to help her navigate the journey with one goal: Get back to civilization as quickly as possible.
Like my own experiences in the backcountry, Charlotte learns to find joy and beauty in this new world. She begins to question the old certainties that tie her to habits and goals that no longer bring her joy.
I’ve often talked about my chief historical inspiration, the work of Susanna Moodie. Born into an upper-middle-class family, she grew up in comfortable surroundings in the English countryside and began a literary career. In 1832, her life drastically changed course when she married and emigrated to Canada. What followed were many difficult years as a homesteader in the bush, described in her 1852 memoir, Roughing it in the Bush.
Initially, she found Canada disheartening. “The ancient forest stretched around us on every side,” she writes of her first journey into the backwoods, “and a foreboding sadness sunk upon my heart.”
But time in the backwoods changed her. It was Susanna Moodie who finally put into words the joy and satisfaction I found in our backcountry camping trips. Here’s how she described her first summer exploring the lakes of her new wilderness home:
“The pure beauty of the Canadian water, the sombre but august grandeur of the vast forest that hemmed us in on every side and shut us out from the rest of the world, soon cast a magic spell upon our spirits, and we began to feel charmed with the freedom and solitude around us. Every object was new to us.”
Exploring the backwoods isn’t for everyone, of course. But for Susanna Moodie, for Charlotte, and for me as well, the wilderness became a place of renewal and transformation, a gift from above. We found, like the prophet Isaiah, “rivers in the desert,” places of beauty that refresh our spirits and bring us closer to God.
The Heiress and the Woodsman by Christine Hill Suntz
Canada, 1837. Charlotte is determined to hold onto her family’s crumbling estate―the last vestige of their former place in Toronto society before her mother’s death and her father’s financial ruin. But when her missing brother Simon is suspected of aiding a political rebellion, Charlotte heads north to find him before his impulsive decisions ruin what’s left of their family’s standing and break her ailing father’s heart.
Joshua has worked tirelessly to carve a home from the wilderness for the younger brother he was forced to leave behind, only to learn his first harvest is nearly worthless and his brother has been sold into an indenture Joshua can’t afford to redeem. When a stranger offers him work tracking down a settler in the bush, he’s desperate enough to agree.
Nothing has prepared Charlotte for the challenges of surviving the wilderness. When Joshua comes to her aid, she offers to pay him for guidance through the bush. Though he knows a spoiled city girl will slow him down, he can’t refuse the money. As Charlotte and Joshua face the dangers of travel through rough terrain, admiration and friendship grow, even as class divides and hidden truths complicate their bond. But when they are caught in the crossfire of rebellion, they must decide if the futures they’ve fought for are truly their hearts’ desire―or if something unexpected awaits.
Christine Hill Suntz knew she wanted to write as soon as she finished Anne of Green Gables, and she’s been lost in her imagination ever since. Her love of language led her to study French and German and to pursue a graduate degree in comparative literature, before finding a home teaching high school French.
In 2022, she won the ACFW Genesis Contest and the West Coast Christian Writers Goldie Award for best fiction writing, and she was a finalist in the 2023 ACFW Genesis Contest. She lives in Ontario on a hobby farm with her family, a flock of nosy hens, one attack rooster, and a herd of entitled goats. When she’s not writing or teaching, she loves to try out historical recipes on her (mostly) willing family. Follow her adventures in writing and historical farming at christinehillsuntz.com or on Instagram at christinehillsuntz.