A while back I posted a few words of appreciation for Whitney Moran of Nimbus Publishing, the editor of two recent books of history, Louisbourg: Past, Present, Future and Grand Pré, Landscape for the World.

With the upcoming release of my third novel, Crossings (coming from Cape Breton University Press in Fall 2015), it is high time I said something about the woman who has been my fiction editor for the entire Thomas Pichon series. That is Kate Kennedy, whose screen shot is above. Kate is a poet of renown, and also works as an editor for various authors and presses. Her list of clients is impressive. Please check it out at her web site: http://katekennedyeditor.com. It includes Giller winner Joanna Skibsrud, for The Sentimentalists.

I count myself very lucky to have had Kate in my corner for the entirety of Thomas Pichon’s fictional journey. Her observations and suggestions have been invaluable. Along the way I have learned that just because I might initially see and hear scenes play out a certain way, those imaginings may not be the best or most effective ways to bring the story alive. Kate has been so very important to the process of raising the scaffolding for the stories and for making the best use of words in the paragraphs on each floor. When she wonders if there should be more of this and less of that, I take it very seriously. Thanks Kate.

And thanks to Mike Hunter of Cape Breton University Press for engaging Kate Kennedy to work on this series.

Et voilà, c’est la couverture de mon nouveau roman, le troisième dans la série Thomas Pichon. (Or T3 as Mike Hunter of CBU Press and I sometimes call it. T1 and T2 being the first two books in the series.)

Crossings will not be printed and released for another bit, not until September, but the cover — once again wonderful art by Cape Breton’s Cathy MacLean — is set.

I’m delighted that there is a scene of La Rochelle on the cover this time. I love that charming, historical and picturesque seaport.Late in the book there is a scene in La Rochelle, because it’s the embarkation port for Thomas and the comte de Raymond as they set off for Louisbourg.

Here below is an advance peek — available nowhere else in the world at this point — of the copy that will be going into catalogs and web sites to describe my third novel, Crossings. That book is to come into the world in September 2015.

“Thomas Pichon seems forever at a crossroads, often choosing the path of least resistance, or the one most tempting. In this, the third Thomas Pichon novel, his life remains more complicated than he wishes. He encounters highwaymen on a country road, succumbs to a tempting tryst in the spa town of Bath, squanders a new love back in London and begins to long for the higher social station he once enjoyed.

Returning to Paris, Thomas’s work life initially stalls, but a new lover offers help. He is given the best position he has ever had, one that requires him to go overseas. The crossing is a voyage neither he nor anyone aboard will soon forget.”

That copy came from the Cape Breton University Press, but I have to say it sums up the 80,000 words of action pretty well.

If you have not seen today’s Globe and Mail, here’s an editorial I recommend. It states clearly why the Colossus of Green Cove would be such a gigantic mistake.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/editorials/mother-canada-statue-is-hubristic-ugly-and-just-plain-wrong/article25083043/

I was fortunate to have worked for Parks Canada back when it had thoughtful policies for the public good that it actually followed. That day seems to have passed, at least with regard to Green Cove within Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

I find it hard to process how a federal agency that has the mandate to protect and manage its national parks puts up money (100K) to support building something like the colossus that has been proposed. Does the person behind this project have ties with PM Harper we should know about?

Canada already has hundreds, likely thousands of war memorials. There are statues and other monuments in towns and cities across the land, and then there are the schools, highways, streets and buildings named after those who have served. Do they not count?

Each time our Canadian vets go to Holland, I am so very touched by the way that country shows its respect and affection for those from our country who liberated theirs seventy years ago. I take the example of the Dutch as proof of what “Never Forgotten” truly means. It comes from people’s hearts, not giant statues. What Canada needs is not a colossus but its history taught in its schools, and for families to do their part bringing up their kids.

I do sympathize with the people of northern Cape Breton who think this project will bring them some work in construction and a few ongoing jobs. But there have to be better ways to employ people than a mistake like this statue.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/mother-canada-project-given-100k-parks-canada-grant-1.3122741

It’s too early to share, but the cover for the third novel in the Thomas Pichon series is taking shape. Mike Hunter of Cape Breton University Press sent me two different possibilities. I assume that the artwork I was sent is by Cathy MacLean, who did the first two covers. I have not met her, but she is a definite talent.

I have no idea which cover will get the nod, but I think people will like either one, once it’s further developed and finalized. The style will be the same as in the first two, with a twin-image cover. The title of the forthcoming third novel is Crossings. Yes, in the plural, because there are quite a few. It will be out in the fall of 2015.