TJ Wallis - Author's Page
TJ Wallis
Stories from the places where nature, humanity and a little humour meet.
I'm TJ Wallis - writer, traveller, former magazine publisher, occasional goat farmer, and the person behind North of Fifty.
I've spent much of my life surrounded by stories. Some came from the people I've met, some from the places I've travelled, and some from simply paying attention to the world around me.
I grew up on Vancouver Island, where the forest was quite literally our backyard. Later, I lived rurally for many years, where deer, coyotes and other wildlife were simply part of the neighbourhood. Perhaps that's why I've always been fascinated by the lives happening around us that we rarely stop to consider.
I'm also Red River Métis, and questions of belonging, identity, family and the complicated relationship between people and the land inevitably find their way into my writing.
I currently live in British Columbia with my imported British husband, drink entirely too much coffee, and remain convinced that life is considerably more interesting when you have a project on the go.
Which brings me to my latest one...
Silent as the Wild
Five animals. Five stories. Very human questions.
What can animals tell us about ourselves?
Quite a lot, as it turns out.
Silent as the Wild is a collection of five short stories in which animals take centre stage, but the questions they confront are unmistakably human.
Belonging. Prejudice. Family. Loss. Pride. Ageing. Survival. And our complicated relationship with the natural world.
These aren't children's fables, and the animals aren't simply humans wearing fur.
Each story begins with something real about the animal itself; its behaviour, its habitat, its relationship with other species or its place in the natural world, and from there, the story becomes something more.
Sometimes tender.
Sometimes uncomfortable.
Sometimes a little dark.
And occasionally rather funny.
Welcome to Silent as the Wild.
Meet the Stories
The Lesser Blood
Wolf & Coyote
A wolf's son chooses a coyote as his mate.
His mother is not impressed.
What begins as her certainty about who belongs — and who doesn't — becomes a story about blood, prejudice, family and the unexpected ways new communities are born.
The story was inspired in part by my own Métis heritage and the history of a people who were, for generations, not entirely accepted by either of the worlds from which they came.
And yes, wolves and coyotes really can mate.
That discovery is where the story began.
Grandmother
Bison
A young bison walks beside her grandmother, not yet understanding that their time together is growing short.
Grandmother is a quieter story about ageing, memory, love between generations and what remains after someone we love is gone.
I chose bison because their story is deeply entwined with Métis history. But somewhere along the way, this became less a story about history and more a story about grandmothers.
Or, as many of us know them, our kokums.
The Architect
Beaver
He built the dam.
He changed the river.
He created the pond.
Clearly, the valley belongs to him.
At least that's how Beaver sees it.
The Architect is a darker, satirical story about pride, ownership, jealousy and our remarkable ability to convince ourselves that because we changed something, it must therefore belong to us.
Then the humans arrive.
Beaver discovers he may not be the only architect in the valley after all.
The Vanishing
Mountain Lion
I lived in cougar country for much of my life.
I saw one exactly once.
Just a glimpse of that unmistakable feline gait along a country road before it slipped into the bush and disappeared.
Years later, I began wondering about all the cougars I hadn't seen.
How many had been nearby while I walked through the forest? How many watched from somewhere we never thought to look?
And that led to a much bigger question:
If we rarely see an animal in the first place, how do we know when it has vanished?
That question became The Vanishing.
Silent As Love
Great Horned Owl & Barn Owl
He watches her from the forest.
He learns her routines. Listens to her conversations. Collects things she has touched. Leaves her gifts.
He calls it love.
She calls it frightening.
Silent as Love is the darkest story in the collection; it's a story about obsession, possession and the stories we tell ourselves to make predatory behaviour look like devotion.
And there was a reason I chose these particular owls.
A Great Horned Owl isn't merely larger and more powerful than a Barn Owl.
It can also be its predator.
Not Sure Yet? Read One Story.
You shouldn't have to take my word for it.
I'd rather let you decide for yourself.
So I'm sharing one complete story from Silent as the Wild, The Lesser Blood, for you to read free.
No purchase required. No email address required.
Just make yourself a cup of coffee, find somewhere comfortable and meet Wolf, her son...and the coyote she most definitely did not want joining the family.
If you enjoy it, four more stories are waiting for you in Silent as the Wild.
The Story Behind the Stories
Sometimes the story behind a story is almost as interesting as the story itself.
Why would I choose wolves and coyotes to explore belonging?
Why a bison for a story about a grandmother?
Why a beaver for The Architect?
And why did one fleeting encounter with a mountain lion stay with me for years?
In The Story Behind..., I share where each story came from — the research, memories, experiences and occasional strange rabbit holes that eventually became Silent as the Wild.
Silent as the Wild
Whispers from the Animal World
Five stories.
Five wild lives.
And perhaps a few things to say about our own.
If you love stories about the wild that have something to say about being human, I wrote this book for you.
I hope you'll join me in the wild.
About TJ
When I'm not writing, I'm usually working on North of Fifty, planning something I probably don't have time for, travelling whenever I can, or drinking coffee while contemplating the next project.
I've been fortunate enough to travel to around 50 countries, have published magazines, owned a fashion store, raised goats, built businesses and accumulated enough stories along the way that apparently I've now started putting them into books.
There will undoubtedly be more.
TJ Wallis
Writer • Storyteller • Red River Métis • Perpetual Project Starter