I’m glad to see those who put together Eastword, the bi-monthly newsletter of the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, placed my two 2015 books side by side. I think it unlikely that I’ll ever again have a year with two new books. But who knows? All I can do is make sure I’m at my computer a few hours each day — and see what happens.

This image is a screenshot of the latest issue of the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia’ Eastword. The editors asked for thoughts on how to get writing again after finishing a project. I am pleased to see I was not the only one who advised a long walk.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I am currently taking a break from completing the fourth and final Thomas Pichon Novel by writing a period fiction set in a different era. Once again, as with Pichon, I am again using a historical figure as my starting point. This time round that figure is Katharine McLennan (1892-1975).

Katharine and the McLennan family were topics I wrote about thirty years ago as a Parks Canada historian at the Fortress of Louisbourg. This was long before I had any inclination to cast her and her family in any kind of fictional light. Those earlier writings appeared in two collections of Cape Breton historical essays edited by Ken Donovan, a piece on “Lady Artists of Cape Breton” in the Canadian Collector magazine, and in an exhibit catalogue for the 1983 “Three Ladies” art exhibit mounted in the art gallery of what was then called the University College of Cape Breton.

About a decade ago I began to write what I thought was a biography of Katharine, with the intention of starting out with a glimpse of her adventures in France during the First World War. I fooled around with different openings until I came up with one I thought might work. I asked Mary to listen to the first few lines to see what she thought. She said: “It sounds like a novel.” I re-read what I had written. Sure enough, Mary was right.

I cannot explain where exactly novels come from, except maybe from the same part of the brain that conjures dreams. In any case, I had no intention to fictionalize Katharine McLennan’s life, or a portion thereof, but it happened all by itself. And I decided to follow where that instinct led. The first few drafts of the novel — I now see looking back — were not very polished. The process of writing the three Thomas Pichon Novels has taught me a lot. I think what I am currently working on is much better.

A few more weeks of writing should see the completion of “Something True”, and then it’ll be up to a press to judge what merit it has.

Regardless of how that next step plays out, I’d like to thank the many people (some of whom have passed away) and institutions who provided me with background information on Katharine McLennan and her family back when I was exclusively an historian back in the 1980s. I apologize to anyone I am inadvertently leaving out.

Individuals: Don Arseneau, Margaret Cameron, Mrs. E.R.E. Chaffey, Nina Cohen, Herb and Sally Cryar, Louise Farley, Art Fennell, Mary Fraser, Barry Gabriel, Madame George Garneau, Heather Gillis, Dolly Hood (née Bannister), Helen Kendall, John Kendall, Eric Krause, Harvey Lewis, Kathleen MacKenzie, John McLennan Jr., Ian MacIntosh, Eldie Mickel, Robert J. Morgan, Allister Ross, Catherine Smith, Karen Smith, Margaret Smith, Jack Stephens, Alex Storm and Fred Thorpe.

Institutions: Beaton Institute (Cape Breton University), Cambridge University, Dalhousie University, McConnell Library (Cape Breton Regional Library), McCord Museum of Canadian History, McGill University, National Archives of Canada, New Brunswick Museum, Parks Canada National Office, Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the St. Francis Xavier University Archives.

All the material I collected and the research notes I generated about the McLennans I placed in the Archives of the Fortress of Louisbourg when I left there in 2000. I suspect, but do not know for sure, that all that material was later passed on to the Beaton Institute.

2015 was pretty good to the writing side of me. There were two new books and an exciting new exhibit polished off during the year. In June the history book co-written with Ronnie-Gilles LeBlanc about the Landscape of Grand Pré UNESCO World Heritage Site came out from Nimbus Publishing; in late August my third novel, Crossings, A Thomas Pichon Novel was published by Cape Breton University Press. Then in the fall, the major new installation at Truro’s Colchester Historeum opened. Well, actually, the official opening when speeches get made will happen in February 2016. But the words and images and artifacts and all the rest are already in place.

I also wrote a travel piece about my recent travels in Alsace and submitted another travel piece to the Nashwaak Journal about an earlier walking adventure in England’s Cotswalds.

Looking ahead, my current priority is to finish the writing of what I hope will be my next book. It’s a story about a young woman who grows up in a wealthy Cape Breton family in the late 19th and early 20 century and then goes to nurse in France during the First World War. It is very much based on and inspired by the historical figure of Katharine McLennan (1892-1975) about whom I once did a great deal of historical research and some writing. This time round, I’m placing her in a novel and making her coming-of-age come alive.

The image shown is taken from my computer screen, with the working title I am using for the novel. So far with my fiction I’m only batting .333 on titles for the final book. The only one the publisher kept was the one for Crossings. So whether or not “Something true” remains the title for the current work-in-progress remains to be seen. If so, it would bring me up to .500.

Late 2015 and into 2016 also has me playing mentor — through a program of the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia — to another writer as she sorts out the novel she is working on. More on that project of hers, and how I fit in, early in the New Year.

Happy 2016 to one and all! Bonne année 2016 à tous et toutes!

There is now a link on every page of this site to all the images I post on Instagram. If you like that kind of thing, check it out.

(As you notice, there are also links to my postings on Facebook and Twitter as well. Of the three forums, I confess I have come to prefer Instagram. There are some amazing images posted on the universe that makes up that particular social media. So many, in fact, one has to make sure it does not take up more time than it should. There are still books, articles and exhibits to write.)

Frosty the Bookman is at Halifax’s Keshen Goodman Library: a reader’s and writer’s dream!