THUNDER BAY — The Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society is embarking on a new venture.
For the first time in its 116-year history, it's publishing a historical fiction novel.
The book is the work of Scott Allan Saxberg, a prominent oil and gas industry executive in Western Canada who also happens to be the former co-owner of the National Hockey League's Arizona Coyotes.
Saxberg has extensive family connections to the Thunder Bay area, where both his parents grew up, and still vacations regularly at Lake Shebandowan.
The inspiration for Those We Carry is the real-life story of his great-uncle as a member of the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment in the Second World War when he helped to liberate the Netherlands from the Nazis and fell in love with a Dutch woman who was a member of the Resistance.
In a news release announcing its collaboration with the Saxbergs, the Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society described the novel as "a heartbreaking love story about people we carry with us, who change our lives."
Executive director Scott Bradley said the TBHMS is excited about the book because it's a departure from its usual publications about Northwestern Ontario over the past 50 years.
"The society's publication committee felt this was the right project to branch out into the genre that appeals to a wider audience while still related to our mandate to preserve and interpret the history of Northwestern Ontario."
Bradley said in an interview Tuesday the TBHMS had been discussing for some time how it might bring different audiences both to the museum and to its publications.
"We think this will bring in a broader audience that's still interested in what we do, but they want to consume it in a little easier way."
He called Those We Carry a story with universal themes including love, grief and heartbreak.
Michel Beaulieu, who chairs the publication committee, added that expanding the boundaries of TBHMS's publications to include historical fiction is more than just about diversifying genres.
"It is about enriching our understanding of the past and how it shapes our present and future. Those We Carry's vivid narratives deepen our empathy and understanding of history's impact on human experience," he said.
Saxberg's book, written while he continued to run a successful energy company named after Lake Shebandowan's Cache Island, has drawn the attention of the Financial Post.
Joe O'Connor's recent article "The Secret Life of Canadian Oil Tycoon Scott Saxberg" references the extensive research that went into the novel, including several trips to Europe where Saxberg "more or less walked in the footsteps of his great-uncle" and was able to learn about the woman Ardagh Cadieu fell in love with by speaking with her descendants.
Saxberg told TBnewswatch the novel is a story based on their relationship.
"Her side of the story is more fictionalized. A lot of the stories within the book, pretty much all the stories, are based on true stories, but they generally happened to different soldiers throughout the war. I describe that at the back and name those soldiers at the back of the novel to highlight them."
He elaborates in the author's note: "As I dug deeper into the stories of my uncles, and reading the Lake Superior Regiment diaries, nearly every story turned out to be true. These fascinating accounts captured my imagination and motivated me to write this story."
Saxberg's research for the book also saw him spending a lot of time at the Thunder Bay Museum, and at the family camp at Shebandowan where he loves to write.
Saxberg said his turn to writing isn't just a recent development.
In fact, he's currently working on his third novel.
"It's always been a passion of mine," he said.
"It took six or seven years to learn the craft and learn how to write a story. I probably wrote three different versions and novels to get to this one just to learn that...I had the opportunity after leaving the company I built for 20 years (Crescent Point Energy)...So I've been full-on writing over the last six years."
That's despite the fact Saxberg remains active in the business world as the CEO and president of Calgary-based Cache Island Corporation.
He also serves on six private boards while mentoring at New York University's Stern Business School's Endless Frontiers lab and at the Creative Destruction Lab at the University of Calgary, where he helps early-stage companies focusing on technology-based products or services.
The Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society plans to hold book-launch events with Saxberg in the near future.
More information about the book, including how to pre-order it, is available online.
