The Return of the ‘6 Questions’ Interviews! Author Bruce W. Bishop
By Mark McNease
Welcome back to the 6 Questions interviews! I’ll be asking 6 questions of a wide variety of interviewees, from authors and artists, to cheesemakers and podcasters. This week, we bring them back with a bang, interviewing author Bruce W. Bishop. I just finished the second book in his series, Uncommon Sons, and loved it. But I’ll let Bruce tell you all about the book and himself in his own words. – Mark
A little about you: Who, what, where? What was it like being a travel and guidebook author, then switching to novelist? Are you planning to do both?
I’m a Canadian writer from the east coast of the country who lives in the province of Nova Scotia. I was born and raised in a small town here, and after university, moved to the country’s biggest city, Toronto. I stayed there for 25 years and then returned to Nova Scotia.
Life presents us with opportunities and setbacks, and I fell into travel writing after working in college fundraising and development work. My first big sale as a freelance writer was to Delta Airlines’ SKY magazine in the late 1990s. It was a story called ‘Broadway North’ and was about the live, professional theater scene in Toronto. I foolishly quit my fulltime job after that, not knowing that freelance travel writers typically don’t make a steady or dependable income, at least at the outset.
I switched to authoring novels at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. I had lost three regular writing gigs, thanks to the struggles that magazines and newspapers faced. Luckily, during the first year or so of Covid19, the Canadian government provided financial assistance for artists and writers who were freelance. I, like so many, have weathered an uncertain financial storm for the past three years.
What got the wheels turning for this series? Why did you want to write it?
I hadn’t intended to write a series initially, but all the information I read about independent authors strongly suggested that I do so.
The first novel, Unconventional Daughters, was prompted by an actual incident in my hometown in 1927 when a local woman married her stepfather. Many years ago, I had been given a few of the actual letters she had mailed to her mother during her honeymoon in Europe. It just seemed like such a bizarre family dynamic and love triangle, I remember thinking what a great novel – or movie – this premise could become. The real Roaring ‘20s!
The actual bride and her family were Danish Canadian, and I chose to change the names of all involved and make the family Swedish Canadian. I remind readers that the novel was inspired by a single incident; I don’t know what truly transpired amongst the family members. But I had a blast writing it!
How are the three books connected? Each takes place in a different time period (1920s, 1930s, and 1950s). The third book has four characters who return. Can you talk about that a bit?
At the end of Unconventional Daughters, a major event happens to the protagonist, Eva MacMaster, in 1935, and she makes a big move in her life.
At the beginning of Uncommon Sons, it’s still 1935, but the protagonist is a young, first generation Lebanese Canadian man, who the reader has met in ‘Daughters’ as Eva’s best friend. Marc Youssef is gay, but due to the time period, he has to remain closeted, as the vast majority of LGBT people were at the time. The book could be considered a ‘cozy’ mystery, but also a haphazard love story that is seriously flawed.
In Undeniable Relations, it’s 1956, and Eva’s son who was introduced in the first book, returns as a young history teacher. He and his bride, a local Nova Scotian, are the dual protagonists in the story. Eva and her aunt, a lesbian who was also introduced in book one, make appearances, as does Marc from book two. This novel is a murder mystery with political and social issues of the era included.
Technically, a reader does not need to read the novels in sequence: each book has its own unique storyline.
What inspired you to write Uncommon Sons? Why these characters, in this setting, in this time period?
Uncommon Sons was inspired by an unpleasant experience in my past. The protagonist, Marc, is of Lebanese descent, and I created his background because I grew up with Lebanese neighbors and I’ve always admired their resilience and their adaptability as immigrants to eastern Canada.
The time period – 1935 and 1936 – is a fascinating time because it’s the middle of the Great Depression, and there are rumblings of another war happening in Europe. Hitler is gaining popularity in Germany, and fascist ideology is running rampant in many countries, including Canada. Sadly, in some ways, the mid-1930s should be a glaring warning and wake-up call to everyone in democratic countries ninety-plus years later. History can easily repeat itself.
When I read Uncommon Sons, it felt very realistic in terms of the hotel, the jobs the characters had, and the time period. What kind of research did you do to make this book (and the others) as detailed and authentic as they are?
Since I was a teenager and worked as a busboy in a tourist hotel, I’ve always relied on the hospitality industry to help me pay the bills. I’ve been a short order cook, a waiter, a bartender, and later ‘graduated’ to being a public relations manager for a major hotel company in Toronto in the early 2000s. Of course, my travel writing experience allowed me to visit many hotels around the world, and my favorite ones were built in the 1920s, often owned by national railway companies and located near or next to train stations.
I joke about being best friends with “Mr. Google” because a writer doesn’t even need to visit a library anymore to do his or her research. And, with the growing popularity of artificial intelligence, I’ve dipped my toes into using it for additional research. I’m not afraid that AI will ever replace human writers, and so I choose to use it sparingly as an additional tool.
What’s next for you?
I just returned from being invited to read a passage from Undeniable Relations at an annual Nova Scotian literary festival called ‘Read by the Sea’ ( https://www.readbythesea.ca/main-stage/ ). Canadian authors who have presented there over the past 23 years are an impressive lot, including Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid’s Tale) and Lawrence Hill (Book of Negroes). That two-day experience gave me a boost of confidence and energy.
I’ve learned so much from writing and then self-publishing my three novels, I’m masochistic enough to want to write another. I’m working on the outline and research right now for book number four.
I haven’t decided if all the characters will be new, but I do know it will be a coming-of-age story set in Toronto in 1979. That was 44 years ago. In many publishing circles, historical fiction is considered to be stories from 50 years or more in the past.
Therefore, when I finish the next novel, I’ll be able to say I also write contemporary fiction!
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Universal purchase link: https://books2read.com/ap/xbjOKB/Bruce-W-Bishop
Website: https://brucebishopauthor.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bbishop.writer
6 Questions Interviews copyright MadeMark Publishing
If you or someone you know would make a good ‘6 Questions’ interview, drop me a note at: editor @ lgbtsr.com. – Mark