Bruce W. Bishop Interview Published on: 08, Jun 2021

My family was fortunate to own a cottage on a lake in Nova Scotia where I spent many hours as a child, and for longer periods as a teenager. The summer weather was idyllic and the natural, clean surroundings were perfect.

I had always wanted to be a movie director. After studying film and TV production at university, I had to let the dream go after producing a sample 35 mm film based on my screenplay. The feature film did not receive the anticipated financing, and I had to return to ‘regular’ work.

I remember writing stories as early as ten years of age, and my teachers would encourage me to continue. Every child should be prompted to pursue a passion that shows up early in his or her life.

I had taken a solo vacation to the Caribbean in my late 30s and wrote my family a letter about the trip. One family member suggested the letter sounded like a travel article from a newspaper. There was encouragement I needed, and a freelance career in travel writing for the next 20 years was born!

Reading novels from a young age gave me a sense of curiosity and wonder about other parts of the world. Reading historical fiction – for example, the books of James A. Michener – opened my eyes to the power of novel writing and research. Writing fiction gives me the freedom to explore other cultures that I may have only sampled in the past.

I don’t know if they’d be profound, but some of the best plot ideas for my books come from those ‘shower thoughts’!

Intense pride. Before that novel was published, I had only written non-fiction journalistic work. The bestseller status on Amazon was a delight for my first published work of fiction. It was definitely gratifying and made me very grateful for those readers.

This short book is a compilation of some of my travel articles that had been published in various outlets over the years. Each article required its own amount of research at the time before print publication.

It’s probably the one written about my visit to Martinique in the French West Indies. It was the winning entry in the first Cayman Islands Award for Excellence in Caribbean Travel Writing in 2000.

My sister and brother are equally supportive of my writing.

Don’t quit!

I’m fairly active on social media, especially Facebook and Instagram, but my monthly newsletter is the best way to keep in touch, and I often have draws and/or giveaways. Anyone can sign up for the newsletter on my website.

There might be, but I certainly don’t know when!

I’m about to launch my second novel, Uncommon Sons, which is interlinked to Unconventional Daughters. Two of the characters from the first book are important players in the second book. Uncommon Sons, which takes place in Canada in 1935, deals with themes that continue to be intriguing today, such as antisemitism, racial intolerance and sexual identity. I feel it’s very entertaining, as well! As in the first book, I did my best to write the historical aspects of the novel as accurate as possible.

It has been very good for the most part. I plan on continuing my membership. Thank you for asking me to be interviewed!