Late September is a courageous, vivid, gritty, and surprisingly redemptive portrayal of a young woman in emotional and physical flux. I adored this novel’s main character Ines, who is a skateboarder, a sister, a friend, and a lover, but also a kind of lightning rod for the wounded souls that surround her. With surprises packed into every page, this story addresses trauma and its aftermath with a striking power. ~ Michael Christie (author/skateboarder)
In the summer of 2000, Ines, a grief-stricken skateboarder beginning to explore her sexuality, leaves behind her sheltered hometown on a Greyhound bus bound for Montreal. In awe of the city’s vibrancy, and armed with a journal and a Discman, Ines sets out to find a new way, befriending April, a latex-loving goth who gets her a job as a cam-girl. In the midst of a bar fight Ines meets Max, a magnetic skateboarder, whom she quickly falls for.
A mirage of bent light made the roadway glisten. We were pushing hard and carving through the streets, in and out of traffic and on and off curbs, rolling over the lines that separated the sidewalks into squares, under the cat’scradle of connective wires and the patchwork poster phone poles, held together by a million staples from year after year of parties and events and festivals. page 28
As summer fades to fall Ines tries to uphold the bliss of their intoxicating summer, realizing that while she has escaped the confines of her small-town life, she cannot escape her past. The city changes and their romance darkens as Ines learns that Max is experiencing mental health challenges, all while a regular at the cam studio gets threateningly close. Ines learns that loving herself first requires trial and error—and that love is not always an innocent word.
I unhooked my skateboard from my bag and spun the wheels and watched them whizz around until the bearings slowed. A wooden toy, like a compass, was the nexus of my heart. page 236
Amy Mattes: A skateboard, A vessel
At the age of 20, I hopped a one-way Greyhound bus across the country with nothing but a backpack, a journal, a skateboard and a discman. I felt an urgency to take in an unfamiliar world. My past yearned to be anonymous and my present carefree, the future wasn’t yet a consideration. I was weighed down by grief and confused by love. I’d never been a stranger to anyone but myself. I had a dream to write a novel and write about skateboarding for as long as I can remember.
I wrote a list of goals I wanted to accomplish by leaving, one of which had always been to write a novel, the other to meet girls who skated. What I didn’t know then was that the list would come true. In due time, it would all come true. After all, you can’t write a novel without a story and my story was just beginning. It was as though in that moment I cast a spell, and the magic began unfurling itself to me. The age-old allure of a journey, abandonment, or freedom, shifting my entire being and taking me physically, and spiritually somewhere else: the unbridled rite of passage to be leaving "home." A skateboard became the vessel.
I ended up co-founding the Montreal Girls skate crew Skirtboarders and making one of the first all-girl skate videos in North America, Boy Video (VHS video has not been digitalized to the best of my knowledge). I began writing product and video reviews for Expose Magazine and went on to be published in Color and Snow Skate Surf Girl. In 2014, I started Girls Day Out and started holding skateboard events for kids, currently teaching my son to skate. My debut novel came out this Spring 2024, featuring a strong female lead skateboarder coming-of-age and being emboldened by the power of youth and the freedom of skating. At that time I was trying to find my way, skateboarding and writing were my world, little did I know that 26 years later that was my way all along.
Amy Mattes lives on Vancouver Island, BC Canada. Her writing has been featured in Expose Magazine, Color Magazine, Snow Skate Surf Girl and more recently in a Feminist Parenthood magazine called MUTHA. Late September is her first novel and a dream come true. Amy is currently working on writing a second novel.
Additional Information
All photos courtesy of Amy Mattes
The Skirtboarders, Le Film : 2nd video: by Mathilde Pigeon, Super 8 by Érika Dubé.
Interview: 12 or 20 (second series) questions with Amy Mattes by Rob Mclennan
Instagram: @amyjmattes
Publisher: Harbour Publishing
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