Page 18 - CCCA63_2009

CCCA_V3No3_Profiles-FIN.qxd:CCCA_V1No1_Profile-FIN.qxd 9/16/09 9:46 PM Page 18 Profile time,” Giardini points out. She also would only be happy if I could write. But Giardini says she was not intimidated by acknowledges the influence of her hus- I also realized early on that I could not be the prospect of writing, because she knew band, Tony: “When you’re in a marriage, happy only writing; the interest I had in how to do it from watching her mother, you set a pace for each other.And I mar- the law and economics needed to be paid who did not live to see her daughter’s first ried a hard worker.If I had married some- attention to as well. And so I decided to novel published. “It seemed challenging, one more indolent, maybe I would be put my life together in a way that com- but it didn’t seem impossible,” she says. more indolent myself.” bined each…” Learning to accept the frustration of But then, she observes, sometimes the Giardini’s early career laid the ground- writing in bits and pieces was another greatest barriers to achievement exist in work. Before joining Weyerhaeuser in matter. But it’s something the aspiring our own minds. 1994, she worked in corporate law for part-time creative artist must strive to do, “I realized many years ago — it’s true Mawhinney & Kellough (now Fraser Giardini cautions. for me and may not be true for everybody Milner Casgrain LLP) and Blake Cassels & “Frustration is, you want to get that — that boundaries are not really where Graydon LLP. Her engineer father sparked next page written. It’s shining in your you think they are. Sometimes they are her fascination with industry.“I was inter- mind like a mirage … and because of a imaginary and you can walk right through ested from birth in how things are made parent-teacher interview or hockey games them.And sometimes,by force of will,you and how things are put together.” or an illness or some other detour,you just can move them.” The love of writing percolated from an don’t get to it.And when you do get to it, For example, she confesses to being early age. Like many aspiring writers, that page is gone.And that happens a lot. “gobsmacked” by people who say they Giardini wrote for high school and uni- “[But] you have to accept it.If you were don’t have time to read. People might say versity newspapers, and had the occasion- driven crazy by that kind of thing, this they’re too tired at the end of the day to al article accepted for publication as an would not be the right course for you, so pursue other interests, she says, but that’s adult. In 1999, she became a columnist for you have to accept it.” when it becomes important to analyze the the National Post, and realized she wanted Giardini tries to keep frustration in per- underlying issue. to write a novel. spective, whether it’s work-related or trig- “I think it’s a matter of, ‘How do you She started writing her debut novel gered by a thoughtless review of one of tackle that? What are we really talking The Sad Truth About Happiness in 2001. It her books. Hard-won perspective and about here?’then analyzing the underlying was published in 2005 to generally warm experience accumulated throughout a questions rather than a superficial barrier. reviews. Books in Canada called it a “pleas- lifetime are never wasted,she says,either as Some barriers are very real: [for example,] ant and assured debut” and praised her material for a novel, a way to analyze or ‘I can’t see out of my right eye, I’m never polished prose, but added the novel mis- understand a situation better,or as a foun- going to be a champion golfer.’That’s very steps at times and “its plot grows unneces- dation for useful advice. real. Some are not so real.” sary slack.” “Advice is very seldom section 16(c) of Giardini realized early in her career that Her second novel,Advice for Italian Boys, such and such,” she observes.“Well-craft- her personal and professional satisfaction published earlier this year,is on surer foot- ed advice takes into account the full range hinged on finding a way to accommodate ing, according to Quill & Quire, with of human experience.” both law and writing. She eventually “lush”imagery,fully fleshed characters and decided that she did not have to choose. a brisker pace.She has started work on her Beverley Spencer is the managing editor of “I realize I knew always, really, that I third novel; it’s about death. CCCA Magazine. 18 CCCA Canadian Corporate Counsel Association FALL 2009