About the Book
The first volume of Bill MacDonald´s short stories begins over cafeteria cocoa in Snug Harbour retirement home and slips easily into the St. Lawrence coastal village of Cap-Rosiers for cigarettes and ragoût, then effortlessly to the Mediterranean and Ligurian Sea for espresso and cold toast and after too much wine spins right around the globe. Wherever these stories take us we move just slow enough past and close enough above and below the surfaces of the most interesting people, their foods, drinks, towns, weather, sounds and smells, to effectively embed Bill´s stories in the reader so that you really feel you have met and remember these characters and places. No matter how eccentric the people who enter his lens may first appear, you never lose the sense that everyone everywhere is so very human, alike, funny, real and whether they are visiting, dining, dying, stealing, cooking, installing a bronze fountain, or just playing nude volleyball, it all seems to be for the right reason. Bill maps the planet with these characters with his high resolution sense of place and nails the invisible beam that falls on all of us. He decodes the secrets of the human condition and presents us with a virtual treasure of short stories encapsulating far more than a glimpse of 20th-21st Century geography and human behaviour.
About the Author
Since graduating from the University of Manitoba, and a year in Paris studying at the Sorbonne, Bill has been a forester, arctic weatherman, immigration officer, and school teacher. He lives in Thunder Bay, selling his books and scenic photography at Fireweed Crafts Inc. His short fiction has appeared in "Geist Magazine" and "Prairie Fire." Recent books include: Shadows at Sunset (2007), Ruby´s Last Ride and other stories (2007),Close the Door Softly and other stories (2007), Ruby´s Last Ride and other stories (2007), A House in the Country (2007), Through a Dark Cloud Shining (2006), Catwalk: a feline odyssey (2006), Barnabus Snug Harbour (2006), Soothsayer (2006), The Holly Tree (2005), Stinging Nettles (2005), Christmas Eve at Silver Islet (2004), Vive Zigoto (2004), Daughters of the Sun / Filles du soleil (2003), Hyenas in the Streets (2003), Goodbye Picadilly (2002), Patagonian Odyssey! (2001), Home Before Dark (2001), and The Great Millennium Mount Everest Cat Expedition (2000).
