The Story Behind the Story with Bruce Bishop of Nova Scotia, Canada.

 

The Scribbler is pleased to welcome Bruce back to share the Story Behind the Story with his latest publication.

If you missed his first visit, check it out here.

 

I had an opportunity to read an early version of the story and was highly entertained. Well done, Bruce.

Let’s tell our readers about it.

 

 

 

Bruce W. Bishop is a Nova Scotian author who writes from his home base in the capital city of Halifax. He started writing professionally in the mid-1990s primarily in the travel and lifestyle genres as a freelance journalist and was fortunate to travel to many parts of the world. With stints also working as an online English teacher to Korean business professionals, owning and operating a travel consultancy, and working in the public relations sector, Bishop has finally found his calling in writing novels.

 

 

Title:  Undeniable Relations

Synopsis:  In the post war renaissance of the 1950s, the idealistic daughter of a fishing industry magnate grapples with knowing that her father’s decades-old criminal activities, hidden under the guise of respectability, have impacted everyone she loves.

 

 

The Story Behind the Story: Undeniable Relations is technically part three of a family saga trilogy I’ve called Families’ Storytelling.

The first novel in the interlinked series, Unconventional Daughters, was inspired by a true incident of an unorthodox marriage in Nova Scotia during the Roaring ‘20s.  This debut novel was popular with readers, so I followed it up with Uncommon Sons, featuring some of the characters who appeared in the first book.  ‘Sons’ is not technically a sequel because it contains a wholly different storyline that is set in 1935-36. 

After this book also performed well, I decided to move some of the popular cast of characters twenty years into the future – the 1950s – and Undeniable Relations was born.

I have a background in film and video production, and while my career path had veered away from that discipline, the passion for this line of work has re-emerged. I’m currently adapting the trilogy into what I hope will be an internationally engaging television series. I envision it being filmed as a period piece in its true-to-the-book settings: southern Sweden and Nova Scotia, Canada, from the late 1880s to the mid-Depression years.

 

 

Website: https://www.brucebishopauthor.com

 

 

Enjoy an excerpt:

 

From Undeniable Relations, chapter 1:

January 10, 1958

When he was shoved off the public wharf into the depths of Yarmouth Harbor at high tide, he had no time to speculate whether anyone had witnessed his murder. He didn’t even have a moment to be angry with himself for having agreed to meet his killer at the wharf. The fog was “as thick as pea soup” the locals say, and it was impossible to tell what anybody was doing a couple of feet in front of, or behind you. It was as if that mass of white had been expressly ordered by his enemy to swallow the town, and him with it.

When he hit the surface, he thrashed about in the blackness, and he knew his life would soon be over. He had never learned to swim, and the shock of the frigid harbor that assaulted his body lulled him into complete submission. The claustrophobic saltwater demanded to fill his mouth, nose, and ears. He lapsed into unconsciousness, and as death overtook him, he welcomed it: whatever had gone wrong, or whatever he had done wrong in his life, now meant nothing.

After his demise, his body slowly floated southward. The fluorescent pools of gasoline on the harbor’s surface, cigarette butts, candy wrappers and miscellaneous paper products accompanied him. When his body was found many hours later at low tide, it had not yet reached the mouth of the harbor, but had become entangled in rocks and ubiquitous masses of seaweed. Some would later say that it was a righteous end for a person like himself.

 

 

 

A question before you go, Bruce:

Can you tell us about the perfect setting you have, or desire, for your writing? Music or quiet? Coffee or tequila?  Neat or notes everywhere?

 

I like the quiet when I write – no music, although I’ll listen to classical, or nature sounds sometimes to drown out street traffic.  Ideally, though, give me a pet-and-insect-free location in a warm climate, like a verandah overlooking a body of water, and I’m all set. I’ll take coffee or alcohol-free beer anytime, and while I’d like to keep a tidy desk, that’s only an aspiration.

Thank you for asking me to contribute to the Scribbler once again!

 

 

It’s been a treat having you as our guest this week Bruce. Wishing you lots of success with the new book.

 

And a big thank you to our readers and visitors.

 

Tell us what you liked today.