Wendy McIsaac looks to the past for inspiration for new book idea

This past year has been a busy one for Wendy McIsaac of Cornwall, P.E.I., who competed on CBC's The Great Canadian Baking Show.

After participating in theshow, McIsaac got on a plane in October and travelled to Italy where she took part in a writing retreat, which helped her to find inspiration in the kitchen and on the page.

Lemon Tree House

"I have said my whole life that my mother gave me many gifts but the two greatest gifts she gave me were a love of baking and a love of words."

McIsaac spent three weeks at the Lemon Tree House in Tuscany with 16 other writers and visual artists.

Although she was there to write, McIsaacalso found her way into the kitchen.

She decided to bake a rosemary remembrance cake for the other guestsstaying at the house.

"The idea is that as you're baking the cake you bake memories into it. It's a very mindful kind of baking experience," McIsaac said.

As she served the other guests at the house the remembrance cake, she told the group the story about her friend's mother,a woman called Gladys Reid fromP.E.I., who had a stack of old letters from her time asa nurse during the Second World War.

Rosemary remembrance cake

Gladys passed away in March of 2018 at the age of 96.

After her passing, McIsaac baked her friend a remembrance cake in honour of Gladys similar to the one she would make during her writing retreat later that year and while she baked she thought of Gladys and her letters.

But it was a series of three letters from a particular soldier that had left an impression with McIsaac.

As she began to read the second of the three letters, McIsaac started to realize there was something more to the relationship Gladys had with this particular soldier.

I had 16 artists looking at me saying, 'you need to write this story.'- Wendy McIsaac

The second letter read, "... this war is hell and who knows what will happen to any of us but Gladys whatever happens I take heart in knowing that we'll always have that night we drove our bikes in the rain and danced the night away..."

'Something more'

"I could just sense I think there was something a little more there," McIsaac said.

"Unless you really made a concerted effort you probably wouldn't know how incredible Gladys Reid's life was in the past because she would never talk about those things," McIsaac said.

After telling the story of Gladys and her letters, McIsaac said, "I had 16 artists looking at me saying, 'you need to write this story.'"

McIsaac left Italy with the inspiration she needed to begin writing a book, which she has decided will explore the lives of 10 bakers.

The first story in the book will centre on Gladys."She was known to be a wonderful cook and a wonderful baker," she said.

"The reality is that anything that we put on the table is telling a story about us, telling a story about our life."

McIsaac is determinedto havethe book completed by the end of 2019.

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