A False Sense of Safety: Iona Whishaw on Trust, Community, and the Lies We Tell Ourselves (Live at the Book Warehouse)

About this episode

James Avramenko discusses trust, community, and personal identity with bestselling author Iona Whishaw in a live setting.

What does it take to truly belong somewhere — and what happens when you didn't know that's what you needed? This week on Friendless, James sits down with Iona Whishaw — bestselling author of the Lane Winslow Mystery series — for a live conversation at the Book Warehouse on Main Street in Vancouver, BC. Her newest novel, A False and Fatal Claim, is the backdrop for a wide-ranging discussion about identity, deception, community, and the surprising things we discover about ourselves when we stop running. They get into: the lies we tell ourselves versus the lies we perform for others; why Iona doesn't plot her novels (and what that means for how story finds her); how Kings Cove functions as both utopia and honest mirror; the way technology has quietly eroded our capacity for friction — and why friction might be exactly what we need; Lane Winslow's journey from deliberate isolation to unexpected belonging; and how writing at 64 gave Iona a whole new life. Iona also shares how her mother — a larger-than-life woman who hitchhiked to Alaska with an evening gown and sneakers — became the unlikely skeleton of Lane Winslow, and what it means to inherit someone's courage second-hand…

People in this episode

Guest: Iona Whishaw

Topics covered

• trust
• community
• identity
• deception
• belonging

Keywords

• Lane Winslow Mystery
• A False and Fatal Claim
• Book Warehouse
• Vancouver
• technology
• friction

Mentioned in this episode

Products: A False and Fatal Claim

Books & works: A False Sense of Safety, Live at the Book Warehouse, Friendless, Lane Winslow Mystery, A False and Fatal Claim, Kings Cove

Places: Vancouver, BC, Alaska

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