WRITERS TO WATCH FOR
We have found enough local writers to fill a shelf so we are dedicating a separate section for this talented group. Novelists, poets, essayists, and historians, alive and well or passed on. We'll showcase them all.
PATHFINDER
His priority of getting to WW2 became bringing everyone home
BY LIONEL BENNETT
A new author has been added to our list of Marmora writers - Lionel Bennett with his new book "Pathfinder", tells the story of his father, Gordon Wellington Bennett, who joins the R.C.A.F. as a flying instructor but ends up a bomber pilot who received a Distinguished Flying Cross . Based on true events, Mr. Bennett writes of his father's anguish searching for answers to all the horrific questions of war.
“Based on true events, Pathfinder tells the heartbreaking coming-of-age of one young Canadian man, a man whose gallantry earns him a Distinguished Flying Cross, a man with a dream and a unique story, just like every other man who served his country during the deadliest conflict in human history.
Lionel Bennett is the son of Officer Gordon Bennett. Using logbooks, squadron debriefing notes, written accounts of WWII experiences, and personal interview material gleaned over drams of Sheep Dip in Gordon’s eighty-eighth year, Lionel began to formulate a story based on the true events of his father’s life. Pathfinder is the striking result.”
Available in February at https://books.friesenpress.com/store
In the spring of 1940, on a path barely lit by a thin, crescent moon, a schoolteacher with a hard-held dream sets out on a sixteen-mile trek through Ontario bush. Arriving in time to catch the midnight train, he settles in for the ride to Winnipeg, where he intends to enlist in the Royal Canadian Air Force. His journey is just beginning. The schoolteacher is Gordon Wellington Bennett, a young man whose passion for flight and determination to serve lead him to pilot training, then overseas to England, where he becomes a flying instructor—and meets the love of his life, Stella, and starts a family. But all of this fades to a blurry background as the war intensifies. When Gordon is tasked as a bomber pilot, his family expands to include his crew—six young men, all seeking honour and glory, all grappling with the horrific realities of war. From here, Gordon’s journey becomes one of dogged survival. At the centre of it all is the impossible question of morality. Confounded by his role in the devastation, Gordon, a secular humanist, seeks answers with the guidance of Father Charles Brimley, a retired Anglican priest who becomes an important mentor. Based on true events, Pathfinder tells the heartbreaking coming-of-age of one young Canadian man, a man whose gallantry earns him a Distinguished Flying Cross, a man with a dream and a unique story, just like every other man who served his country during the deadliest conflict in human history.
CHRISTINE L. DOMINICO
Christine is not only one of Marmora’s writers, but is also featured in our “Artists to Watch For” section Click here
As a former elementary and high school teacher, she enjoys a good creative challenge and has always encouraged others to do the same.
In Pushback, Christine creates a character who herself is a writer and who finds a way to handle her hardships and “claim her voice” through her character, Titshia.
Available in Ebook at books2read.com/u/3RYkBB
As a consummate trader, Lormier's successive trading posts became the center of growing colonial settlements spreading westward, poking dangerously into Native lands. The site Bob located acted as the only local supplier for the necessities of pioneer life, as the place for selling furs, and, in times of strife in the wilderness, a place of retreat and at least relative safety. It was also a target for those, whether Native or Colonial, who resented the intrusion. The American Revolution was building and there was no way to avoid taking a side. As the tide of war flowed and ebbed Lorimier's survival would depend on an extraordinary blend of tenacity and humanity and an ability to adapt.
It all began years ago, with a metal detector. Bob Kuck was searching for the location of an old trading post, destroyed over two centuries ago, near his American home, on the Ohio River.
Bob has close ties to Marmora where his family has vacationed on Crowe Lake for two plus generations. He is married to Marmora-born Linda Meiklejohn Kuck.
The forgotten star of his new book is Pierre-Louis de Lorimier. It is an enormous understatement to say Lorimier was living in a turbulent time. With Native and French blood, and his loyalty to the British, he struggled all his life between cultures.
It is a great subject. It is about time that his biography was written, and now it has been done and done well.
Bob has taken the time to get the history right. He recreates the atmosphere of the times, the stresses, the conflicts, and often the good relationships between cultures. By making his book an historical novel, he has made learning a pleasure.
REV. JANICE CHRYSLER
Assisting others in awakening spirituality in all aspects of their life practices with light, love, and healing.
As a Spiritual Growth Facilitator, Janice has brought together her experience and training as a Certified Hypnotherapist, Reiki Master, Metaphysical Minister, Psychic Intuitive Reader and Author in order to provide seminars and workshops that are motivational, reflective and enlightening. Whether you are looking to improve your work environment, home life or personal spiritual journey, Janice offers you the tools to make it happen.
Janice writes:
“I am a published author with my two books on Amazon. I have been a speaker at several events and locations with these books at the centre of the talks, workshops and private sessions with people. As a lifetime citizen of the community it is an honour to be included with the other authors. My book’s info can be found on my website.”
https://mindfuljourney.ca/books-by-rev-janice-chrysler/
CONTACT REV. JANICE: Email: janicechrysler@mindfuljourney.ca
Phone or Text: 613 334 1889
Written by Stewart Richardson and Dave Barry of Hastings, Ontario, Ice and Thunder follows the history of the Trent Valley Hockey League, of which Marmora played a major part.
With a forward by Bobby Hull, the book covers the evolution of the league from the early years (1900-1916) through to the transformation into the Ontario Hockey Association in 1955-56.
Read of the events, the Pearce and Bata trophies, the fierce competition, and the hockey heroes in the Marmora Millionaires line-up - Gus Leonard, Tink Kerr, Bill Jones, Ken Trumble Bert Gray, Earl Leonard. Bob Maynes and so many more.
It’s all in the book! Available at the Havelock library or just contact Stewart Richardson at 905 373 3627 Stewart@rmhi.ca
JAMES DALTON WRITES ABOUT LIFE IN DELORO
The Leaky Raft: a village raises a child is a true story about a village, Deloro, a time and place where the story of being human is unfolded before our very eyes in the lives of two boys, James and David Dalton, in the hands of the whole community. The Leaky Raft is a symbol of what holds us together so we don’t sink.
Click here! It’s Readable here on line Also available in print at the Historical Foundation info@marmorahistory.ca $15.00 All fund donated to MHF by the author
From Beaver Creek JESSIE LOUISE BEST
Fantasy writer of children's books ages 5-12, young adult, and adult. Jessie L. Best creates fantastical adventures with enchanting and vibrant characters. She introduces fairies, sorcerers, witches, wizards, Kings and Queens. You may even discover a dragon or two slipping through the pages of her books. With themes of love, loyalty, friendship, and the triumph of good over evil, she strives to become the author whose stories will be long remembered.
Visit her website. JUST CLICK HERE
You’ll find her biography, her books, excerpts from both published and unpublished works, her blog, and where to find her on social media.
Historian and Author RODERICK (RORY) MACKAY
Local Crowe Lake cottager Roderick (Rory) MacKay has released his newest book, "Algonquin Park – A Place Like No Other", a most extensive book on the history of Algonquin Provincial Park. Archival records and oral history interviews provide details of past events and ways of life, but only if those stories are told. The reader will learn of the original Algonquin and their present-day descendants, as well as explorers and loggers, rangers and poachers, squatters and leaseholders, scientists and civil servants, all within the story of Algonquin Park’s formation and development. To order call Friends of Algonquin Park 613 637 2828 or visit http://store.algonquinpark.on.ca/cgi/algonquinpark
A seasonal naturalist in Algonquin Park for seven summers prior to his 30-year career as a secondary school teacher of biology, general science, Canadian history, Canadian geography, and special education in the Limestone District Board of Education, MacKay (now retired) has also written a number of other books (see below)
CLICK ON THE PHOTOS BELOW TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT OUR AUTHORS!
For more about local authors or books about our local area, click here.
Andre Philpot, Lawyer, Lecturer, Historian, author, former Reeve
CLICK HERE TO READ the story of Bonarlaw and the Death of Bellview
Born a mile from Bellview, Hastings County around 1920, William Prest wrote a poetic description of the birth and death of the community he loved. "The Death of Bellview and the Diamond" is a sentimental historical account of the coming of the railway to "Big Springs", later referred to as Bellview, and eventually renamed Bonarlaw, after Andrew Bonar Law , the first Canadian to become a British Prime Minister. A wonderful read of community life that came and went, and another example of disappearing Ontario.
.....AND HERE'S AN INTERESTING STORY INVOLVING THE RICHARDSON FARM.......
Barbara Kingscote, who rode through Marmora on horseback in 1949.
