Now revised, updated, and with new recipes, And a Bottle of Rum tells the raucously entertaining story of this most American of liquorsFrom the grog sailors drank on the high seas in the 1700s to the mojitos of Havana bar hoppers, spirits and cocktail columnist Wayne Curtis offers a history of rum and the Americas alike, revealing that the homely spirit once distilled from the industrial waste of the booming sugar trade has managed to infiltrate every stra...

The Miracle of Me and My Life of Miracles by Curtis Wayne McCalister is a testament to the extraordinary experiences witnessed throughout a lifetime. From nostalgic recollections of growing up in the 1960s to profound encounters with the divine, Curtis shares the awe-inspiring moments that have shaped his perspective. His encounters include witnessing a majestic temple in the sky and encountering departed loved ones, all of which have reinforced his belief in the continuity of life...

Winter Road is the latest collection of short stories by one of Canada's most gifted and accomplished storytellers. An award-winning master craftsman of short fiction, Wayne Curtis takes us on a journey from early schooldays to old age, all in a singular rural New Brunswick setting of times gone by.Here are illuminating stories of love, heartbreak, daydreams, and expectations – fulfilled and unfulfilled. Curtis charts the lives of small-town boys and girls, men and women who strugg...

In these 13 carefully crafted short stories, Wayne Curtis explores the theme of homecoming, literally, spiritually, and metaphorically, and the many interpretations of the word “home.” The varied characters discover that home can be found in sometimes unlikely places. In “Night Riders” two teenagers find it on the highway in a stolen car, escaping an abusive institution, bonded together through their complicated love for each other. In “The Poet,” a man grasps for familiar old home feeling...

In Our December Guest, Wayne Curtis once again draws on his own experiences to craft nineteen stories of autumn and winter life in rural New Brunswick in an age gone by. Authentic and true in every detail, his characters combine the strength and resilience required to eke out a living from the woods and the rivers as well as a sensitivity to the beauty of nature and an appreciation of the arts. Lacking town culture, Curtis’s men and women make their own entertainment after a long day’s wor...

River People is Wayne Curtis’s collection of short stories set in the Miramichi River Valley of New Brunswick. As always, he brings his keen observation and insights to his writing, describing the landscape and the inhabitants with candour but also a heartfelt empathy, for this is territory of both land and soul with which he is so familiar.Curtis chronicles the disappointment of a refined British war bride when she marries a New Brunswick woodsman, the terrible hold a youthful lov...

“One could do worse than to grow up on a river.” In his new collection of essays, Wayne Curtis voyages back through the tributaries of his past, throwing a pastoral net over the backwaters of his childhood to ensnare the sepia-tinged moments of love, loss, and life lessons he gleaned through his rise to maturity on the waterways of New Brunswick. As Proust recalled his past through the delicate taste of a madeleine, so, too, Curtis ruminates on growing up on the Miramichi, albeit through t...

There is a dreamlike quality to many of the stories in this new collection from Wayne Curtis. In Wild Apples, he returns to familiar themes of love and longing, and the push-pull emotions which inevitably accompany any attempt to break free of the ties that bind. Simple pleasures abound in these evocative stories, be it fishing on the river, gathering beans for an evening supper (are they beans or has-beens?), or listening to the jukebox at the local diner.Curtis mines the...

Our global economy is going through a major transformation, from an industrial economy, to a knowledge economy, rendering knowledge a primary factor in production. In this practical, real-world focused book, expert authors Bill LaFayette, Wayne Curtis, Denise Bedford and Seema Iyer come together to define and discuss knowledge work.A common misconception claims that knowledge work is limited to high-skill and technology occupations. The truth is that this growing field applies acro...

The timeless story of an always-moving river.From the first sentence, "I come from a long line of river people," to the last, "Bad luck to kill a moose bird," Wayne Curtis signals that this book occupies the territory of a classic, a lyrical memoir of a river and those who submit to its call.New Brunswick's Miramichi River is one of the most entrancing salmon rivers in the world. In Fishing the High Country, Curtis has created what can only be desc...

The Miracle of Me and My Life of Miracles by Curtis Wayne McCalister is a testament to the extraordinary experiences witnessed throughout a lifetime. From nostalgic recollections of growing up in the 1960s to profound encounters with the divine, Curtis shares the awe-inspiring moments that have shaped his perspective. His encounters include witnessing a majestic temple in the sky and encountering departed loved ones, all of which have reinforced his belief in the continuity of life...

A witty, irreverent tour of history's worst plagues—from the Antonine Plague, to leprosy, to polio—and a celebration of the heroes who fought themIn 1518, in a small town in Alsace, Frau Troffea began dancing and didn’t stop. She danced until she was carried away six days later, and soon thirty-four more villagers joined her. Then more. In a month more than 400 people had been stricken by the mysterious dancing plague. In late-seventeenth-century England an eccentr...