Alex Duncan taps into her experience of grief and loss to highlight the importance of community support during difficult times in her recently self-published children’s book An Army of Hearts.
The plot revolves around two main characters — Ida and her dog, Maddie, who set out on an adventure to gather an army of people and animals to help a sick person at home. Duncan, a Vancouver-based writer, artist and actor, describes the story as a “hero’s journey” to bring support for a loved one suffering from cancer.
The children’s book is based on a booklet Duncan created for her father while he was fighting cancer. He died in 2013. The dog in the book is based on Duncan’s dog in real life, who is also named Maddie.
“It was such a hollowing experience… all I could do was support him and support my whole family,” she said.
The booklet included phrases written by Duncan to go with more than 200 photographs of family, friends and colleagues from around the world who held red hearts to show support for her father. They had replied to Duncan’s emails calling for an “army of love.”
According to Duncan, an “army of love” indicates a collective energy present within a community to support a sick person even when those individuals can’t be physically present.
There’s only one copy of the original booklet. She produced the children’s book to illustrate the importance of “finding connection and supporting each other during hard times.”
Duncan decided to create a children’s book rather than a novel because the words “bounced and rhymed,” but she considers it a book for all ages.
“At different ages you can get different messages,” she said.
In 2014, a year after her father’s death, Duncan launched an Indiegogo campaign to pay for an illustrator and cover publishing costs.
The online campaign attracted 182 backers who contributed a total of $16,837, which surpassed her $15,000 fundraising goal.
Duncan said she didn’t approach a publishing house because she wanted to make the book and illustrations the way she envisioned.
It was a challenge to find the right illustrator, but Duncan selected Paul Morstad, who has previously worked for the National Film Board of Canada where he directed hand-drawn, animated films. She said Morstad expressed the message she wanted to convey through his illustrations.
For Duncan, writing An Army of Hearts was like a “light shining out of a dark space.”
“[The] ability to share and see something beautiful be born out of something tragic… felt very powerful,” she said.
The book is available online and can be purchased at anarmyofhearts.com.
