Authors had their first date at Word on the Street — now they’re returning as panellists

Not only are Andrew F. Sullivan and Amy Jones novelists; they are the authors of their own love story.

Married since 2018, that story will come full circle this weekend, with both speaking at the event where they had their first date in 2016: the Word on the Street Festival.

Held annually since 1990, the free community celebration shines a light on more than 100 Canadian and Indigenous authors, and features Canada’s largest book and magazine marketplace. Appropriately enough, this year’s festival will include a Love & Letters stage, showcasing Harlequin romance authors.

Sullivan, 35, and Jones, 46, will take the stage as panellists this weekend, promoting their respective novels with very different writing styles.

Sullivan is the brain behind “The Marigold,” a dystopian tale that dives into the eco-horror of the city of Toronto eating itself, after a slowly spreading toxic sludge under a condo building leads to crumbling infrastructure.

Jones is to release her novel “Pebble & Dove” on Monday, the story of a complicated relationship between a mother and daughter transformed in part by an unlikely character: a manatee.

“My favourite genre is the type of book that is fun and makes you laugh but also then can turn around and sort of punch you in the gut with some kind of emotional revelation,” said Jones.

The couple had been fans of each other’s previous works and run into each other in the same friend circles before they started dating. After hanging out post-Word on the Street, they realized how exciting it was to be with another writer.

Today, Sullivan and Jones live in Hamilton with their beloved teenage dog, Iggy. They balance their day jobs as a project manager and a teacher/copy editor with their writing lives. The Star spoke to the couple about their relationship.

What’s it like being married to a writer?

Jones: It’s fun, but it also can be challenging because sometimes we’re both in the same stage of writing and all of a sudden we’re both really immersed in what we’re working on, and then the dog doesn’t get walked or dinner doesn’t get cooked. For the most part, there’s been a really good balance of that not happening all at the same time.

Sullivan: A great part of being in a relationship with a writer is having someone who understands and can make room for you to make the choices you have to make. Sometimes that means staying in on a long weekend. Sometimes that means staying up till midnight writing. Sometimes that means when one person is editing, the other person is doing their best to cook. It also means Amy does handle a lot of stuff in our lives like even just getting the snow tires put on. It really helps to have a partner who understands and who speaks the same language.

What does a day in your life look like?

Sullivan: I’m probably either working from home or in one of my company offices from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., or later if there’s deadlines. Amy is usually up a bit later, handling the dog, doing her editing and kind of working that freelancer pace where you catch the time when you can. We’re working in our own worlds until probably 7 or 8 p.m. when we have dinner and then after that we slowly relax. So it’s very much us in our own worlds for the majority of the day, but able to reach out if we need to get the other person.

Do you read and critique each other’s works?

Sullivan: I don’t read every draft because Amy’s process is doing an insane number of drafts. But I probably read the book three or four times before it comes out and that’s why we’re able to talk through it.

Jones: Instead of reading each other’s work a bunch of times, we’ll run paragraphs or chapters by each other. We’ll even talk out ideas or problems that are in the manuscript, and it’s so great to be around someone else you know is familiar with what you’re working on and has read it already. I think what it boils down to is that we are really big fans of each other’s writing. I read Andrew’s writing before I even met him. I just love what he does and I’m really in awe of it. It’s not something that I could ever do and I think what he writes is really beautiful and really amazing, so I think at the heart of that, when you know that about one another, it’s easier to take a little bit of feedback every now and then.

Have you ever considered writing a novel together? What would that look like?

Jones: I don’t know. I feel like I’m a little bit of a control freak so I’m not sure that I would be able to let go of that, but I think it would be some sort of Frankenstein monster of a book.

Sullivan: I don’t know how well it would work, but it does help that we both were raised on the same kind of books and have the same cultural touch points, so I think we can never truly rule it out.

How do you make time for each other with such busy lives?

Sullivan: We try to walk the dog everyday so that we can have a walk together, that’s really important to us. We also have the same social circle and we’re pretty extroverted. We like being social and we like to go to dinner with our friends.

Jones: We’re able to make time usually in the evenings and that’s the time that we do set aside for each other. As he said, we’re very social and we know, especially after pandemic times, you have to spend as much time together and with friends, so we are very excited that there’s a lot of people we share common friend groups with who are very welcoming, and we’re able to both exist in them on our own but also together.

You’re both panellists at Word on the Street, the event that started your story. How does that feel?

Jones: I’m super excited! I love Word on the Street, it’s one of my favourite literary events. It’s also my first event for my book, so I’m just really excited to get out there and talk about my book and to be able to have my first event with Andrew there is really special for me.

Sullivan: I think it’s great to have a book festival in the city like Word on the Street that is accessible to a lot of people and has this free-flowing atmosphere. As long as the weather is nice, it’s a fun time to be in the city, explore it and buy some books.

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