Patrick d’Entremont, author of Acadian Shores, is visiting Ascroft, eh? today.

Welcome, Patrick.

Tell us about your novel.

Once exposed to the world around him via television and U.S. radio stations, Tommy Breau, a teenager in an Acadian village in the 1960s, finds himself questioning everything about himself and his upbringing. He feels speaking French puts him at a disadvantage as “the world runs in English.” Narrated by the adult looking back and relaying the hilarity and heartbreaks of young Tommy, he ends up wondering if the upbringing he was so eager to escape may have been the best years of his life.

What prompted you to write about this historical event?

I attended a high school reunion for the graduating class of 1971—well into the counterculture and just ahead of the drug scene where I grew up, and I thought about how naïve and happy we all were. As the narrator in my novel figured out, those may in fact have been the best years of my life.
 

How closely did you stick to the historical facts? If you used them loosely, how did you decide whether to deviate from them?

The late 1960s were rife with worldwide historic events and I tried very hard to portray them accurately and work them seamlessly into the story. I also worked hard to portray the setting for my novel accurately according to the time, the place, and the culture of the people. Unlike most historical novels, this one took place in a time where many people living today will remember; I think people who grew up there and then will say, “Yep, he nailed it.” But I decided to use fictitious characters and an “unreliable narrator” who just may have been prone to a foggy memory and a little exaggeration at times.

What research did you do for this book?

In my first draft, in keeping with my “unreliable narrator” convention, I did very little research. I just wrote about things I remembered and built fictious scenes around them. I then showed it to relatives who would question things and remind me of other things I may have neglected to include. Where I had to do hard research was in areas such as the price of goods, and especially if certain things—car models, for example—existed in that time period. Also slang; it is surprising how many sayings I thought I remembered from high school in fact did not exist until later. I did much of this research on the Internet, but also spent a lot of time at the library and at the Nova Scotia Archives. You can learn a lot from old newspapers.
 
Do you use a mixture of historic figures and invented characters in the novel. Which is more difficult to write? Which to you prefer to write and why?

All the characters are invented. I never have them interacting with real people. The challenge was to keep them from all sounding the same, and I worked quite hard in revision to give them their unique dialog and mannerisms.
 
In an historical novel you must vividly re-create a place and people in a bygone era. How did you bring the place and people you are writing about to life?

I think this is the best part of my novel. With the help of these other people I mentioned above, I got into the nitty-gritty details of the place where I grew up, which I unapologetically recreated as realistically as I could, including the way people spoke. Any quirk I could think of got put in. Use of nicknames was another thing. I think people who grew up in an Acadian community will recognize themselves, and people who did not will still recognize themselves in the ordinary things that teenagers concerned themselves with.

There often seems to be more scope in historical novels for male characters rather than female characters. Do you prefer to write one sex or the other. And, if so, why?

An interesting question. Being male, I find it easier to write male characters, and for a while, I contented myself in portraying the main female character in my story through the eyes of the protagonist. After all, if he didn’t fully understand her, why should the narrator and why should the reader? Well, that only worked to a point. My wife read the whole novel in the very late stages of editing and pointed out certain things a teenage girl would and would not do, and how certain aspects of my heroine were not entirely realistic. So—very late in the game—I changed this female character and invented a new female character as a best friend to help make it all work. That doesn’t really answer your question, but it gives some insight into my thinking about the genders. Okay, I prefer male characters. Because it’s easier. There.

Thank you for answering my questions, Patrick, and good luck with Acadian Shores.

Readers can learn more about Patrick d’Entremont by visiting his website.

The novel is available at Amazon from July 11.

About Patrick d’Entremont: Patrick is a former newspaper and magazine columnist who now writes novels set in rural Nova Scotia, based on his childhood growing up in the 1960s. This is his first published novel.

Patrick grew up in West Pubnico, a fishing community in the Acadian region founded in 1653, where descendants of the original families continue to live to this day. His coming-of-age stories reflect how growing up in this milieu shaped who he became as an adult, a reminiscing that he hopes resonates with many people, whether or not of Acadian descent. 

Patrick lives in Halifax with his wife, Cindy.