It’s impossible to tell what the fraction is — 2/3, 3/4, 5/8 — but I know that at last the end is coming into sight. Still lots of pages and re-writes ahead, over who knows how many weeks and months, yet the third Thomas Pichon novel is entering the home stretch. Day by day it transfers from my head to the page. Well, computer screen.

My working title is “Crossings”, not that that means much. Neither of the two novels so far ended up with what my working title was. Third time lucky? Maybe. Once I have a complete story in a form I feel I can share, it will go off to the publisher to begin the next step of the process. Though not as collaborative an art form as film, publishing definitely involves more than a single author. Mary T. is my first reader and gives sage advice; publisher Mike Hunter at Cape Breton University Press provides perspectives I greatly respect; and editor Kate Kennedy is terrific. I feel very fortunate to have Kate in my corner. Those who read Thomas and The Maze may not realize it, but they too have Kate Kennedy to thank. The stories have benefited enormously from her suggestions on how to tighten and focus the words.

My understanding is that my next novel, book three of the Thomas Pichon Quartet, will be out in the fall of 2015.