Liner Notes – pd bedard’s three border stories

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About three border stories

A Cantic Christmas: a tale about citizenship and immigration was originally written by my father, John. I made it mine by giving it a plot, but the characters are completely his – he and his pal are manning the Immigration Canada post late one Christmas Eve at the town of Cantic, in very upstate New York. It’s the shortest of the three stories, yet I think the most satisfying. 

“In my mind, Nicolas Leblanc was ready to become Canadian.”

a cantic christmas

The Burn is a newer story. It is only available as part of Three Border Stories. It was never published standalone, it takes place in Laos, where the family lived from 1972 to 1975.

The Orange Madonna: A Tale of Terror and Property Development: How Donald J. Trump and his Proxies were not responsible for the failure of the Trump Ocean Resort is too long of a title. The premise for The Orange Madonna was first brought up by my father, but it was a decidedly unfinished work, and I gave it some form. The story takes place on the Mexican border at San Ysidro/Tijuana.

Why write this book?

There’s a common thread – citizenship. What does citizenship really mean, and how do borders define the term of citizen. My father, John, whose whole life revolved around borders, wrote the start of most of these, but I embellished and polished them up. I could have added more stories to the pile, and maybe in the next iteration I will.

Plot

Each of the three stories are unique and stand on their own, each in a different locale, time, and space. Each story developed by an outline, some paragraphs, and a few character sketches. I took each, gave them all three stories, starting with stories and character sketches written by my father.

Much of the work I inherited from my father was unfinished. He was a guttural writer – great ideas but weak on the craft. Education has made me slightly better than he was, but the thread and germ of the ideas come from him and are twisted up something awful by me. 

So for the plot, a little bit of John and a lot of Pierre.

Authors

Jean (John) Bédard.   Jean served in the Canadian Merchant Marine from 1942 to 1950 and the Canadian Armed Forces from 1950 to 1953. Returning from Korea, he joined Canada Immigration (or its incarnation at the time) and worked the Port of Montreal and the American border before snagging green cards and immigrating to the US. Convincing his wife, Thérèse, to move to Southern California, he worked as a janitor in a juice factory, a women’s shoe salesman, and a grocery store security guard before proudly becoming an American citizen and joining the US Customs Service.

Jean Bédard started calling himself John the day he drove the family across the border south to Orange, California in April 1964. John retired as a Senior Inspector after 20 years, including a 2.5 year tour in Laos as an advisor from 1972 to 1975.

Pierre Bedard. As a writer and technologist, Pierre spent his life turning concepts into reality. He translated both Victor Hugo’s Hernani and his grandmother’s memoirs, la rive sud from French to English. He co-wrote Thetford Park with his father, John, and wrote about his own experiences selling to steve jobs.

Moving to the Bay Area from San Diego in the early ’80s, Pierre worked as a sales and business development executive at Sun Microsystems, Adobe Systems, and IBM. He attained an MBA (’89) and JD (’09) from attended Santa Clara University, all while working full time. Pierre currently chairs the Los Altos City Library Commission and aims to get a new library built.

Writing Process

A Cantic Christmas was written first and published standalone on Kindle. It has never been available in print. I wrote it, published it, and moved on. My challenge in this story was the thread of the story and the ending. Jean intended to string these stories together as a book, but I found that the story, punctuated with some added cauterization and finality runs well – you want to keep reading, which is the point.

It was a big show for people coming in from the states. The bigger the burn, the better next year’s funding.

the burn

The Orange Madonna is available both in kindle and book format. I’ve thought about discountinuing the book format because the story is now part of three border stories, but the cover is cool and Amazon prints on demand. I’ve always gravitated to the easiest and sanest technology, and in spite of its quirks, Amazon rules. Printing on demand revolutionizes the accessibility of my work.

I have always been driven by inventory concerns above all else. My attitude on using amazon and kindle is more of expediency. Forget royalties – I have no inventory, which can be even more enriching.

The Burn is the newest story and has a companion Laos story which is also about Laos, but from a different angle, Air America. The Burn refers to the large bonfire of contraband which would be piled up and put to the flame. This took place in a big ceremony, attended by the world press and senior goverment staff. It was a big show for people coming in from the states. The bigger the burn, the better next year’s funding.

Factoids

The Trump Organization tried to build a Trump property in Baja California. It was never built. It was a disaster. The name was licensed to a development corporation. Middle class Southern Californians, thinking that this could be a cheaper ticket to the high life, bought in, bigly. At the time, no one knew about the Orange Madonna, of course. 

Time element. There is a time element in these three stories, from the 50’s, to the 70’s, to the 90’s.

A Cantic Christmas will be a classic. I expect A Cantic Christmas to catch on and become a Christmas Classic well after my death. It’s that good . . .

Paul and Karla. The Orange Madonna had a working title of Paul and Karla drive South, or something or other. All my Canadian friends got it because of the infamous Homolkas, but it went right over everyone else’s heads. They remain Paul and Karla in the story. And Trump is still Trump, though he’s not the reason no one builds on the cliffs.

The dead also need documentation. The dead cross borders often. US Customs officers must inspect everything, including hearses with coffins. The dead need papers, too.

Truth. One of the anecdotes in The Burn, the man overboard drill, really happened, allegedly.