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.

I have posted ten or so photos of my recent trip to Québec on my Facebook page, at the link given below. Here are two of them.

J’ai affiché une dizaine de photos prises pendant mon bref voyage à Québec sur mon Facebook au lien en dessous. En voici deux.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-J-B-Johnston-Writer/521601164625413?

Last week I was in Calgary and one of the reasons for the trip was to deposit my father’s many photo albums, films, stills and documents relating to his service in the RCAF with the Aero Space Museum. It seemed like the best fit. I had offered the material to the Beaton Institute of the Cape Breton University a few years ago, but archivists Catherine Arseneau and Jane Arnold wisely suggested the collection of hundreds of images and other material should go somewhere more “national”. The Calgary museum’s focus includes the history of the RCAF. Calgary was also where my father was born, and one of their buildings is an old hangar I suspect he was in during the Second World War when he was out west.

I was delighted to find within the museum, among their collection of planes, what would seem to be the very plane my father and other crew were flying in the photo I have posted below. It’s an Avro 652 Anson Mk. II.

The opening of the new Black Loyalist Heritage Centre in Birchtown, NS, is a great moment in the history of Canada. The pursuit and achievement of freedom by the Black Loyalists, a story long overlooked, is one that should touch and inspire everyone. Congratulations to Elizabeth Cromwell, Beverly Cox and everyone else in the Black Loyalist community who persevered to make it happen.

I am proud to have played a role at the concept design stage as part of the Camus Productions team. Please follow the link below to a story by Elissa Bernard published in the Halifax Chronicle Herald on May 18, 2015.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/thenovascotian/1287408-black-loyalist-heritage-centre-shining-light-into-a-long-dark-corner

I am delighted to share some good news: my nephew, acclaimed journalist Stephen Maher of Postmedia, has added a new honour to his already long list. Please follow the link below. It is reassuring to see someone very, very deserving get this opportunity. Yes, he’s family, but no less deserving for that accident of birth. Steve is more than ready to take on a year at Harvard University and to broaden his focus to the entire English-speaking world.

http://canadiannieman.blogspot.ca/2015/05/winner-named-for-twenty-third-martin.html?m=1

Co-author Jesse Francis informs me that in today’s Guardian PEI Premier Wade MacLauchlan singles out our book on the Mi’kmaq for praise. How cool is that?