Nova Scotia: Visions of the Future

Edited by Lesley Choyce

Nonfiction: Nova Scotia, Energy, Politics, the Future

192 pages, $19.95, 6" x 9" Paperback

ISBN-13: 978-1-897426-07-4

Available in May 2009

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In the spring of 2009, Pottersfield will launch this most insightful book that may set in motion some serious action that can help Nova Scotia live up to its full future potential. The writing is personal, reflective, proactive and thoroughly captivating by more than 30 contributors from many diverse fields of expertise.

In the summer of 2008, Pottersfield publisher Lesley Choyce sent a letter to a select and varied list of Nova Scotians asking them to contribute to a book about this province's future. He invited some of the best minds (and hearts) around the province to present their vision of this possible province of the future. Absolutely anything goes.

Two things prompted this grandiose plan. First, Choyce became a grandfather in May. His daughter Pamela had a boy - Aidan, whose arrival made Choyce think about the world he will inherit and what he will see and experience in his lifetime. Second, while Choyce was away in Yellowknife in June, a forest fire nearly took his house. The flames were not exactly licking the door, but it was headed its way with a strong north wind and a lot of fuel in the form of forests ravaged by Hurricane Juan and clear-cutting. When he got home, he went hiking up into the charred land several times. Once the sadness wore off, he started thinking about renewal... and about the future.

That's when he decided to pull this book together. He invited many Nova Scotians to write anything they wanted to, hoping contriutors would cover environment, technology, immigration, social aspects, urban life, rural life, energy, politics, government, family, economics, forests, the ocean and much more. The bolder the vision, the better. Stories and personal aspects were okay. Controversial ideas were fine. Which future? Anything beyond ten years and up to a thousand.

Some of the contributing writers include Marq deVilliers, Peggy Hope-Simpson, Richard Zurawski, Premier Rodney MacDonald, Budge Wilson, Alan Wilson, Dr. Richard Goldbloom, Carol Bruneau, Tom Gallant, Geoff Regan, Sunyata Choyce, Neal Livingston, Barb Stegemann, Bill Carr, Bob Howse, Ralph Martin, and Stephen Clare among others.

When You Look For Me

By Kevin Bonang

Nonfiction: Biography, The Maritimes

160 pages, $17.95, 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" Paperback
(Includes photographs)

ISBN 978-1-897426-06-7

Available in April 2009

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Here is the true story of a parent's worst nightmare come true. Kevin Bonang's family learns that their oldest daughter, Tiffany Tanner, has suddenly gone missing while kayaking on an inner city canal in the northern industrial city of Hamm, Germany. Kevin and his wife Lisa immediately make the journey from Nova Scotia to Germany to help in the search. Once at the site, the true reality of their daughter's fate becomes obvious. No matter how optimistic local search officials try to be, Kevin and his wife fear the worst.

When You Look For Me takes the reader through 17 days of the massive search, including encounters with police, search dogs, an unkind media but much kinder everyday Germans who share their compassion for Tiffany's parents. After many grim conversations with search officials, the Bonangs begin to realize that they are not able to bring their daughter back home to Nova Scotia alive even though there had been some small glimmer of hope.

The book then chronicles the many different stages of having to eventually bring their deceased daughter home and, in their own way, learn how to say goodbye to her. The author writes in an open and honest way, of learning to cope with seeing his dead daughter and the anguish of visitations, funeral and burial -- and even what they truly believe have been Tiffany's visits home afterward. Kevin speaks eloquently of dealing with the emotions that stem from the grief of losing a child, from the numbness and disbelief to the pain of loss, to the healing that takes place to allow his family to move on. Kevin also describes a visit to his home by the spirit of his departed daughter and how that has helped to give this family comfort and hope.


Kevin Bonang lives in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, where he was born and raised near the many lakes and trails within the city's boundaries. He lives with his wife, Lisa, and two remaining children. A carpenter by trade, Kevin felt compelled to write this, his first book, in memory of his daughter and to remind other grieving parents that they are not alone. This book is a true story of a tragedy but one that ultimately offers a message of hope.

Gold Rush Ghost Towns of Nova Scotia

By Mike Parker

Nonfiction: The Maritimes, History, Mining

176 pages, $21.95, 6 3/4" x 9 3/4" Paperback
(Includes 164 photographs)

ISBN: 978-1-897426-04-3

Available in April 2009

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Gold Rush Ghost Towns of Nova Scotia tells the fascinating stories of abandoned communities, not haunted buildings and paranormal encounters, although the occasional resident spirit does make an appearance.

The story of gold mining in Nova Scotia is one of Canada's oldest, yet it is the province's best kept heritage secret. More gold was mined worldwide in the 1800s than during the previous 5,000 years. Since Canada was one of the world's largest gold producers, auriferous tales and legends abound from that era of motherlodes found and fortunes lost. Nova Scotia heralded the first of its three gold rushes 37 years before men braved the Yukon's Chilkoot Pass heading to the Klondike. Adventurers from the world over were drawn to Nova Scotia's burgeoning nineteenth-century gold districts, as was a motley crew of day labourers, farmers, fishermen, ruined mechanics, drunkards and gamblers.

An air of mysticism shrouding ghost towns holds a fascination for historians, social scientists, treasure and relic hunters, geocachers and nostalgia buffs. Mike Parker tells the stories of characters and con men, industry and labour, prosperity and recession. Although abandoned gold mining settlements are the book's central theme, ghost towns built upon coal, iron ore and copper are featured as well. Scores of exhaustively researched images, supported by informative, entertaining text, tell the story of a great heritage that has been nearly erased from our history books.

Born and raised in Bear River, Nova Scotia, Mike Parker has been called Nova Scotia's Storyteller, a reference to the diversity of themes covered in his many books of popular history. The best-selling author has been researching and writing about his native province for more than 20 years. This is his twelfth book. Mike is affiliated with the Gorsebrook Research Institute for Atlantic Canada Studies at Saint Mary's University as a research associate. He is a graduate of Acadia University and a long-time resident of Dartmouth.

Black Snow: A Story of Love and Destruction

By Jon Tattrie

Fiction

192 pages, $19.95, 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" Paperback

ISBN-13: 978-1-897426-05-0

ISBN-10: 1-897426-05-4

Available in April 2009

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The ship burns in the morning sun, floating lazily in the harbour. Hundreds crowd the dockside to watch. Flaming barrels shoot into the sky and burst like fireworks to cheers. Then the big ship thumps into the pier.

Tommy Joyce looks away. Just back in Halifax from the horrors of the war in Europe, he's lost his appetite for disaster. All he wants is his wife, Evie, and peace. He's worn out from lying, from poisonous jealousy. He knows his wife was unfaithful. He knows the bruises he left on her won't heal. He knows he has to forgive. He hopes he can be forgiven.

The ship blows. Two thousand people are dead and the city is burning. Tommy staggers to his feet, his broken mind scattered between the trenches and this new terror amid the screams of the dying. Thousands dig through the ruins for signs of life as a fierce blizzard smothers the devastated city. Tommy joins the rescue effort, searching hospitals and morgues for his wife, and redemption.

Black Snow is a love story set during the Halifax Explosion. The 1917 disaster was the largest man-made blast the world had ever known, and it cut Halifax off from the rest of the world for the darkest 36 hours in its history. Rich in fact and shocking images, the story sets a blistering pace following one man's search through a ruined city for the love of his life as he confronts the wreckage of his past.

Jon Tattrie is a journalist and writer based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He freelances for the Chronicle-Herald and Metro. Over several itinerant years, he worked in a shelter for homeless men in Ireland, as a shrine-cleaner in Buddhist monasteries in England and as a vegetarian cook on the Isle of Iona. His first journalistic job was on the Edinburgh Evening News, followed by a stint on Scotland's national newspaper, The Scotsman. His first published work of fiction was an adventure mystery called Midsummer Murder, which appeared in the Halifax Daily News.

The Life and Times of Joe Casey: From Fish to Politics

Nonfiction: Biography, The Maritimes, Politics, World War II

192 pages, $19.95, 6"x9" Paperback (Includes photographs)

ISBN-13: 978-1-897426-02-9

ISBN-10: 1-897426-02-X

Available in September 2008

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Joe Casey's life story mirrors the history of Nova Scotia in the twentieth century. It shows how that history shaped the man and how the man shaped that history - as harbour pilot, fisherman, fish plant owner, lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Navy, hotel owner, and Member and Deputy Speaker of the Nova Scotia Legislature.

His quick wit and indomitable spirit let him take risks in every job he ever undertook. Born in Annapolis County, Nova Scotia, in 1918 and still going strong, he will make you laugh your way through the many dramatic events of his active life. As a boy, he delivered his mother's loaves
of bread up and down the Victoria Beach Road and later in life he would break bread with the rich and famous. As a third generation harbour pilot, he faced many dangers piloting munitions-laden ships through Digby Gap during World War II and piloting ships of all kinds in the most severe weather.

Joe has pitted his storytelling skills against some of the best, including the American actor James Cagney. On a sailing trip down the East Coast, Joe's spirit of competition led him to
trade tales with Robert Ripley of Believe It or Not fame. In this volume, his rich stories bring the past alive.

The author, elected six times as a Liberal candidate, explains how his verbal skills, humour and dogged determination helped get things done in the stodgy Provincial Legislature. Premiers
Gerald Regan and John Buchanan both praised Joe for his ability to make friends on both sides of the aisle and they have written forewords for this book. Your excursion through Joe's life will make you laugh out loud at times and, at others, will make you reflect on some of the fundamental issues of our times.

Peggy's Cove: The Amazing History of a Coastal Village

Nonfiction: Nova Scotia History, The Maritimes

146 pages, $15.95, 6"x9" Paperback (Includes photographs)

ISBN-13: 978-1-897426-00-5

ISBN-10: 1-897426-00-3

Available in July 2008

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Here is the complete history of the famous cove and the unique village that hosts thousands of visitors each year. The story begins with the formation of the rocks along these shores and the impact of the glaciers. The Mi'kmaq were the first to live here in the summers, harvesting the
riches of the sea. A land grant in 1811 brought the first hardy settlers, who built homes and wharves and discovered that the sea could provide bounty but was also a source of great danger.

The story includes the origin of the name, Peggy's Cove, and details about the everyday life of nineteenth-century families living here. A history of the famous lighthouse is included and there are excerpts from many of the famous and not-so-famous visitors who have written
about the Cove through two centuries.

The author explores the most damaging storms, the shipwrecks, the reports of sea monsters and other strange phenomena. Fishing was always a source of income, but it changed over the years. At times the fish prices were so low it was not worth the effort and, in recent years, dramatic changes to the ocean have seen the collapse of several important species of fish.

In the twentieth century, Peggy's Cove attracted artists, writers and ultimately thousands of tourists. Sculptor William de Garthe made his home here and created his monument to the coastal fishermen out of the sheer granite outcropping in his backyard. In 1998, Swissair Flight
111 crashed off the shores of Peggy's Cove and the community opened its doors to the world in an effort to provide support for the rescue workers and the families of the victims. From the earliest days to the present, the story of Peggy's Cove has been a tale of natural wonder and
human endurance.

Lesley Choyce lives at Lawrencetown Beach and is the author of 65 books including
Nova Scotia: Shaped By The Sea and The Coasts of Canada, a history of the country's shorelines. He has also edited Nova Scotia: A Traveller's Companion.

Giants of Nova Scotia: The Lives of Anna Swan and Angus McAskill

Nonfiction: Biography, The Maritimes

146 pages, $16.95, 6"x9" Paperback (Includes photographs)

ISBN-13: 978-1-897426-01-2

ISBN-10: 1-897426-01-1

Available in September 2008

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This double biography depicts the lives of the famed Nova Scotia giantess Anna Swan (1846-1888) and the celebrated Cape Breton giant Angus McAskill (1825-1863). These two splendid and singular celebrities toured the world entertaining royalty and impressing audiences from town halls to palaces. Angus and Anna's Scottish influences were deeply embedded from childhood and although it was unlikely the two ever met, the similarities in their lives are uncanny. During their adventures, both worked with and met many unusual characters. Both met Queen Victoria. Anna married an American giant and the two toured as "The Tallest Married Couple in the World."

The book explores the causes of gigantism and how this rare condition shaped the lives and personalities of these two Nova Scotians. Anna and Angus were born to normal-sized, hard-working parents and grew up in rural surroundings but rose to great stardom on the world stage. Both were regarded for their kind hearts and compassion for others. They have left a meaningful message for readers that resonates more than a century after their deaths. Both are honoured at museums in Nova Scotia that house their artifacts. Thousands of people flock to these sites to learn about these great giants.

Shirley Vacon was born in Truro, Nova Scotia. Her career was with the Department of Youth Corrections in the capacity of a youth care worker with young offenders. While working in
St. John's, Newfoundland, Shirley attended Memorial University. She is the mother of three children and proud grandmother of seven. She got her start as a freelance writer in newspapers
and magazines. This is her first book. She now lives in British Columbia.