The lesson Danielle Teller, Artsci鈥90, recalls most vividly from her time at Queen鈥檚 is one she learned from failure. After she did poorly on her first chemistry midterm, she called her parents in tears.
Her father responded with a letter listing disasters in the world that year, from mudslides to earthquakes, with casualty figures. The final entry? 鈥淒anielle fails her chemistry midterm: zero.鈥
鈥淚 just realized: I can do this. I have to learn how to learn,鈥 Dr. Teller recalls. 鈥淭hat has really stuck with me. There鈥檚 been a lot of failure since then, but I think having that first failure and then overcoming it and learning to do well in my classes was one of the most important lessons I鈥檝e ever had.鈥
That wisdom has served her through life and career changes. After she graduated from Queen鈥檚, Dr. Teller studied medicine and held faculty positions at the University of Pittsburgh and at Harvard University. Then a new partner and the blending of their families drew her to California and a chance for a fresh start.
鈥淚t was actually my husband who said, 鈥榊ou鈥檝e always wanted to be a writer. You know, you don鈥檛 have to fall for this sunk-cost fallacy, where you鈥檝e put so many years into this that you can鈥檛 stop doing it.鈥 It was a little scary, because being a doctor was part of my identity, and giving that up was hard 鈥 But in retrospect, I鈥檓 so glad I got this other chapter in my life.鈥
Writing came with its share of rejection and uncertainty, but Dr. Teller went on to publish a non-fiction book with her husband, plus two solo novels.
That ability to cope with change is a trait she shares with the protagonist of her second novel, Forged. It鈥檚 the edge-of-your-seat story of a girl who escapes poverty and abuse, leaves Canada for the United States, and survives by transforming herself into a thief, con artist, and forger named Kitty Warren.
The character was inspired by a real Canadian con woman named Cassie Chadwick, who died in 1907. Readers might also recognize the influences of Susanna Moodie, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Edith Wharton.
As compelling as Kitty鈥檚 adventure is, Dr. Teller doesn鈥檛 regard her antiheroine as a good person 鈥 and she has no interest in romanticizing the Gilded Age. She says it鈥檚 important to look at history with clear eyes, with all its moral ambiguity, and draw the lessons from humanity鈥檚 failures.
鈥淚t does feel very much like we鈥檙e back in that era, with the cronyism and political corruption, the loss of workers鈥 rights, the diminished life expectancy, the pollution of the environment 鈥 And it鈥檚 just breaking my heart to be seeing this happening again.鈥
is available from Pegasus Books.
