(Non-)Motherhood in Fiction: Fledging & The Mother Act

Watch the conversation between authors Rose Diell & Heidi Reimer and filmmaker Therese Schecter from October 14, 2025

Watch the Author Talk Now

🇨🇦 Buy Fledging by Rose Diell

🇺🇸 Buy Fledging by Rose Diell

🇨🇦 Buy The Mother Act by Heidi Reimer

🇺🇸 Buy The Mother Act by Heidi Reimer

🎥 Watch My So Called Selfish Life

🎥 Watch more films by Therse Shechter

Authors in Conversation

Idyll Books was pleased to host an online event celebrating the Canadian release of Rose Diell’s Fledging alongside Heidi Reimer’s The Mother Act, in conversation with filmmaker Therese Shechter.

Both novels examine the question of whether or not to become a parent, and the experience of being one, through the guise of a thought experiment: in Fledging, a woman so overcome with indecision that she lays an egg; and in The Mother Act, a woman so overwhelmed with motherhood that she abandons her child.

Featured Guests

Therese Shechter drew on her long experience investigating thorny questions around women’s roles and identities to explore what motivated Diell and Reimer to write their novels, and what they say about motherhood and womanhood.

Enjoy this enriching conversation and connection, and be part of a timely exploration of creativity, choice, and the stories women tell about their lives.

Watch the Author Talk Now

ROSE DIELL

Author of Fledging, a striking new novel now available in Canada.

🇨🇦 Buy Fledging by Rose Diell

🇺🇸 Buy Fledging by Rose Diell

Rose Diell is the author of Fledging, a novel about a woman so overcome by the baby decision that she lays an egg. Fledging asks what it is to lead a meaningful life, and sounds a resounding call for women to make their own choices, whether that means embracing motherhood or living child-free. Fledging was released in the UK, ROI & Commonwealth in 2024 (Renard Press) and is due for release in US & Canada October 6 2025. Rose has appeared on numerous podcasts, including ‘Kids or Childfree,’ and ‘Other Than Motherhood.’ She lives in London with her civil partner and Tolstoy, a very fluffy ginger tabby. Find her on instagram at @rosediellauthor or her website rosediell.com

HEIDI REIMER

Author of The Mother Act, a powerful story about art, family, and identity.

🇨🇦 Buy The Mother Act

🇺🇸 Buy The Mother Act

Heidi Reimer is a novelist, a writing coach with Sarah Selecky Writing School, and the author of The Mother Act (Penguin Random House 2024). The novel follows the complicated relationship between an actress who refuses to abandon her career and the daughter she chooses to abandon instead. Heidi’s front row seat to this theatrical world began two decades ago when she met and married an actor, and her immersion in motherhood began when she adopted a toddler and discovered she was pregnant on the same day. Heidi has published in The New Quarterly, LitHub, Literary Mama, and the anthologies The M Word: Conversations About Motherhood and Body & Soul: Stories for Skeptics and Seekers. She lives on the St. Lawrence River in Eastern Ontario. More at heidireimer.com and in her biweekly Substack, The Visibility Letters.

THERESE SHECHTER

Director of My So-Called Selfish Life, a groundbreaking documentary about women who choose not to have children.

🎥 Stream or Purchase the Film Now

Therese Shechter is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose most recent film is My So-Called Selfish Life. Using humor as a sharp political tool, the film tackles the surprisingly-charged question of whether or not to have children. Over the past 20 years, Therese has created a body of work that fuses humour, activism, and personal storytelling to explore a host of thorny questions around women’s roles and identities. Her films have screened worldwide and have been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Elle, The Globe and Mail, Q, and Dua Lipa’s Service 95, among others. Find her on Instagram at @trixiefilms or at her website.