SYDNEY – It may be still spring but as far as Breton Books publisher Ron Caplan is concerned, it’s the most wonderful time of the year to look for Cape Breton Christmas stories.
For the past four years, Caplan has published consecutive annual collections of Cape Breton Christmas stories. For the fifth volume, he still wants festive tales from Cape Bretoners but he’s also looking for stories from the Boston area or even further, as long as they have a Cape Breton connection.
“Boston just seems like such a good idea,” says Caplan. “Cape Breton Island will continue to be the prime source of stories, but imagine all the stories we might find from people living away who have what you might call ‘attachments of the heart.'”
Caplan says with many Cape Breton going away looking for work and having to survive the holidays alone or trying to get back home for the holidays, it’s bound to stir a memory or two.
“We have a long history of Cape Bretoners going to Boston – for short periods of work or to make a new life – and most of them never lost touch with the home of their hearts, Cape Breton,” says Caplan.
The stories can be long or short and happen in Cape Breton, Boston or anywhere else in the world, perhaps on the way home, caught in snow-stalled train or car or an over-booked holiday but somehow making a warm Christmas out of what could have been an unpleasant event. It might even be a memory of the year a mom and dad made a Christmas out of nothing.
If your story is included in the book, you will receive a gift copy of “Cape Breton’s Christmas, Book 5.”
As in past years, all the royalties from the sales of “Cape Breton’s Christmas” will be donated to Feed Nova Scotia as part of the annual “Light Up A Life” project of CBC Radio in Sydney. Breton Books has donated thousands of dollars this way to Feed Nova Scotia from sale of the first four books, all of which continue to be sold through www.capebretonbooks.com.
Stories and memories should be sent to Ronald Caplan at [email protected]. The deadline for submissions is September 1. He will answer every query.
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