Victor James Phillips

Why is Victor James Phillips the person to write these historical novels?

In some ways Victor has always been proud of his upbringing on a small farm in very rural southwest Saskatchewan, which in the 1950s meant living pretty close to the ground, with lots of solitude. However, upon finishing high school, he was impatient to get away, see the larger world. After attaining a Bachelor’s Degree in Agricultural Economics at the University of Saskatchewan, the same desire compelled him to apply for the Master of Business Administration program at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario – some thirty-two hundred kilometers away.

His first job was on Bay Street in Toronto and, from the beginning, he felt quite at home there. He never compared a new set of circumstances to a former – simply happy to be exploring something different, enjoying the fact that it was so seamless to make new friends and fit in.

Although Victor returned to the west – Calgary for a few years – the connections he had made soon resulted in an opportunity to move to Chicago. In a serendipitous fashion he had established a lucrative career in commodity futures trading. But no matter how much money he made, or how much of the world he had experienced, he never considered settling for a stable set of circumstances. It seemed there were no limits, and he inevitably grew restless.

After five years in Chicago, Victor accepted an executive position back in Toronto. Two years later, a takeover of the company left him flush with cash, and he bought a small ranch in the foothills of Alberta. He took up raising cattle and packing horses in the Rocky Mountains – his whirlwind foray into the world of finance and international trade left far behind at the age of thirty-nine. But the pastoral life didn’t bring enduring satisfaction either. He sold the ranch and started a consulting enterprise to replenish his diminished finances.

Victor had already been to all the provinces of Canada and most of the states in the US. During his easy money years, he had travelled to Greece, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Cuba, Grand Cayman, Costa Rica, a few Mexican resorts, Egypt, Morrocco, Gibraltar, The United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Spain, as well as skiing in Switzerland and scuba diving in Cyprus. Then a position on a non-profit board of trustees resulted in some thirty trips to New York City and numerous other North American destinations, including Mexico City and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

When he stepped off the board at age sixty-two, Victor had only two objectives: to spend extended periods of time exploring the culture and history of intriguing destinations, and to write. While writing his autobiographical novel, Compelled by Desire (Austin Macauley Publishers, 2018) he spent several more stints in England, including Bristol, and four winters in Saint-Malo France - both encouraging his sense of the value of history, and a desire to write about the Age of Discovery. With investments financing a life well suited to writing, he began to spend his summers in Maritime Canada. Trips to Japan, South Korea, India, and Romania – always surrounded and amazed by historical evidence – added to his wish to bring early Canadian history to life. The wholesomeness of those ancient societies seemed to rest upon historical awareness.

The forgoing demonstrates why Victor is especially qualified to write a series of novels about men who set off to build careers in an undefined world. In a macro sense he brings an intimate acquaintance with international finance and geopolitical maneuvering. Personally, he is well acquainted with living an unanchored life where the ambitious propensity toward new horizons comes at the expense of stability. These core ingredients were integral in imagining the lives of his characters, and what they faced as they persistently headed off into the unknown. Victor’s formal education was an asset, as well: first, because he knew how to organize and manage a complex project; and second, because he willingly went back to school to study the art of writing fiction.

It has been nine years since Victor began this series. Extensive on-site research, from Venice to Bonavista and from Seville to Buenos Aires, was the part he enjoyed most. Retracing their lives is where he discovered that his navigators were not strangers. The writing and rewriting, while enjoyable, required discipline and persistence. The publishing process required patience, and the promotional effort takes him back to building a commodity futures trading clientele – where faith in the meaningfulness of his work sustained his persistence. Victor says the whole project has been very much like setting off across an uncharted ocean: purpose and process vaguely defined, destination unknown.