This is how an idea becomes a book.

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One of the lovely features of Lisbon Falls, Maine, where I live, is the River Walk along both the Sabattus and the Androscoggin. It’s possible to stroll/hike/jog ten miles round-trip along the two scenic rivers.

The walk has stone markers every half mile. They are about four-feet tall and about four-inches-by-four-inches wide. When I go walking, it is easy to assess how far I have walked as the stone markers appear every half mile. These, of course, I would call milestones. In this case, I am not referring to a metaphor when I say milestones as is the case most of the time we say milestone. Here, they are the actual thing.

This year in my writing life, I came to a metaphorical milestone in the process of creating my latest book, Here to Stay /Life in Seventeenth-Century Canada. I have been immersed in the book for a very long time. In fact, I began the book in 1996—which is 29 years ago. By anyone’s account, 29 years would qualify as a long time.

The book idea begins.

Perhaps the book idea started when I began going to the Maine Franco-American Genealogy Society in nearby Lewthe idea of ‘Here to Stay’ became a bookiston, Maine.

What began one Wednesday evening as a cursory interest in genealogy turned into a years-long passion. The one evening which I had committed to turned into three years of mid-week researches for my family genealogy.

Going beyond Dates and Names

Over time, I began to detect much that was beyond dates and facts and names. I discovered relationships between people. When evidence pointed to two men being best friends, I was quite set up.

I also discovered many lacunae that I had to fill and wanted to fill. Thus began several years of reading histories of the period of colonization of New France. The readings I did uncovered much information that helped me to understand the period that my ancestors had lived in. I was principally interested in the seventeenth century, which is sometimes called the heroic period of colonization of New France. I was able to research what people grew for crops, and therefore what my ancestors most likely grew and ate. I also studied, among many areas of interest, birthing practices and was able to understand why so many women and babies died within a very short time after the birthing.

Most of this mortality surrounding mothers and babies, I discovered, was so preventable had there been knowledge of hygiene. Little was known about microbes and so little was done to prevent toxic infection.

Fleshing out undocumented lives

Some of my ancestors had been conscripted for military expeditions. It was interesting to realize that in this or that battle, one of my forefathers had been present. While I did not have information specifically about that ancestor’s role, some of these expeditions were well documented. I learned where the troops were and when they were there and what were the outcomes of the engagements. In one instance when the French lost before they had even begun, I discovered a long, eloquent speech by a Native chief. He castigated Governor LaBarre for a useless, ill-conceived offensive, and telling LaBarre he ought to have negotiated.

On the distaff side

I also discovered that one of my ancestors, Marthe Quittel had come over as a Protestant. Since Protestants could not land in Canada, she had converted, as a text I found said, by abjuring Calvinism and adopting the “One, True Faith.”

The book writing begins.

Being the writer that I am, all of this information had to be written down. So, I began to jot notes. I might have begun as early as the first evenings of going to the genealogy center. I began to write text. Eventually, I had several hundred pages of text.

Then some serious life events intervened, and I had to put the manuscript aside. This was followed by several years of neglect, but I had not forgotten the book.

The book resumes.

About three or four years ago, I decided to resume work on this manuscript and see what I could do with it. I already had a book-length account of my seventeenth-century ancestors. I was interested, not only in the story, but how the story of my ancestors fit into the 17 century and how it was, in some way, an Everyman and Everywoman story of the period.

This was the beginning of the transformation of my manuscript, from a series of vignettes about my ancestors to the story of a generation that had come from Europe to settle in Canada.

This is how how an idea becomes a book.

Native Peoples

Of course, in any story about European settlement in North America, there has to be some mention of Native peoples. The situation in the St. Lawrence Valley was that the Huron/Wyandotte nation was being attacked, mercilessly, by the Iroquois. In fact, the Iroquois could be said to be intent on the genocide of the Hurons. Tragically, they both belong to the same linguistic community and apparently could understand each other. For all of their cultural ties which ought to have brought them together, they were extremely inimical to each other.

When the French came to the St. Lawrence Valley, the Hurons welcomed them as allies against the Iroquois. The Hurons then frequently set up their villages near French communities, so as to continue to benefit from the protection of the superior military capabilities of the French.

The Iroquois, on their part, were a trading people, and a competition between the French and the Iroquois quickly established itself. Both were vying for primacy in the fur trade. In the struggle, the French had many advantages, and the eventual outcome was predictable.

Beginning the end process

So, this is some of the background of the story that I wrote over the last years. About a year ago, I decided to polish the story and get it ready for publication. I read through the book several times once again, taking notes, and completing where I thought completion was necessary. Then I began to proofread my manuscript.

I set about to review two chapters a day at least three times a week. I figured this rate would permit me to focus seriously on proofreading without the process entirely monopolizing my week. I could have decided I would do as much as possible, as quickly as possible. But I did not want the effort squeeze out everything else that I did in my day, and this turned out to be a very good decision.

This proofing took several months. Here To Stay/Life in 17-Century Canada was not an easy task as it had many French words and names which the spell-checks had trouble with. I used Grammarly, Microsoft Word spellcheck and Quark spellcheck. The experience left me less confident with Grammarly than I had previously been. I decided after spell-checking with Grammarly to take the new text and to spell-check it with Microsoft Word. What I discovered was a whole set of problems. These were errors that Grammarly had somehow not picked up. Because of this, I was very pleased to have used Microsoft, which never failed to pick up some spelling problems. I figured, if a second check was so useful, perhaps I could do a third check. I went to the Quark check, and I was not disappointed. In almost every sweep through with Quark, I picked up a few mistakes.

Following my don’t-rush schedule for how an idea becomes a book, I was able to finish the proofreading in good time without exhausting myself.

I delivered a copy of the manuscript to a number of PhDs who had agreed to read the book and provide me with a blurb. I am grateful for their kindness.

Then on October 15, 2025, I launched Here to Stay with a book talk at the Franco-American Collection in Lewiston, Maine.

This launch was the metaphorical milestone that I have found so satisfying

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My next book in progress

I am a writer who always has a number of manuscripts in the waiting. The next manuscript – the next long manuscript – that I have been postponing is my high school memoir. It is called My Nineteenth-Century Life and it is the story of my high school seminary experience. Very few people have attended this sort of secondary school, and so I believe that I have a unique story to share. This, too, is a story that I began in the mid-1990s. I am so pleased that I did so because now, almost 30 years later, many of the memories have faded considerably. When I read my text now, I am pleased to realize that I once remembered so many of the details. The rewrite of the story will not be so much to add details as to flesh out the culture of the experience and how it fit into my ethnic community, how it explains some things of my community. I have some 200 pages already written.

And so, this book can reach market in the fall of 2026. And just to belabor the slow-writing point, I also have a novel that is about 200 pages long. I will also bring it to market perhaps in ‘26 or ‘27.

In conclusion

I write about this to encourage people to think of the long haul in their writing and not to be discouraged. Writing is a process, and like all processes, it ought to be enjoyed and mastered step-by-step. You will arrive at your publication milestones. Know that these can be reached.

Let that thought hold your impatience in check.

To obtain your own copy of Here to Stay, click here. If you would like a special inscription, I would be pleased to oblige you.

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