John Beaton’s Leaving Camustianavaig celebrates nature and coexistence and harmony with it, be it in his childhood Scotland, or his adopted homeland of Vancouver Island, with musings distilling the very essence of headwaters, wilderness, forest, mountains, the sea. Beaton’s masterfully crafted metrical poetry is deployed with linguistic prowess in a showcase of given and nonce forms—sonnet, sestina, triolet, villanelle, and others. The accounts of home and community, of the outdoors, or of eking a living from land and river are heartwarming and memorable. Along with its lyrical elegies of belonging, uprootedness, and reminiscences, this is a rapturous debut collection not to be missed. PRAISE FOR LEAVING CAMUSTIANAVAIG: John Beaton has a gift for writing formal poetry so well composed that the meter and rhyme are subsumed in the poems. This collection spans a life, starting with a childhood set in the Scottish Highlands where he was raised, and imbues the setting with irresistible vitality. Beginning with family, mortality, legacy, and loss, the poems then journey throughout a land passionately loved and gloriously brought to life. Poems about his adopted homeland in Vancouver Island maintain this unity and involvement in the natural world. The viewpoint may be human, but the land is a sentient thing. Its creatures act out their deepest impulses and are woven into the human experience until it becomes impossible to separate our existence from the cycles of nature. If you share a passion for, or even just a fascination with, the outdoors, the call of the wild, and the natural world as an extension of living and loving, you will treasure this book. — Vera Ignatowitsch, editor-in-chief of Better Than Starbucks From the Isle of Raasay with its “spray-sodden Hebrideans” to Vancouver Island half a world west, where salmon silver the rivers and wolves “tear savage furrows down the nightscape,” Beaton brings readers into an unforgettable world where past and present weave together like tapestry. — James R. Babb, former editor of Gray’s Sporting Journal I want to hold this book high and broadcast its power. It is to be reread and savoured. John Beaton’s words loup out of the mythic river, combining and recombining in the rainbowed spray of it; questioning, celebrating, lamenting and informing in myriad ways as they twist and birl, howl and skirl, laugh and greet, shedding light and love on the human condition through the prism of Scotland's ancient past and its present—to which I resonate as a Scottish fiddler who is fortunate enough to stumble into certain universal truths through the lens of the Scottish condition. Maybe I could undertake to compose an equivalent piece of music—a symphony, a suite, a thousand fiddle tunes—but any such attempt would come short because a master poet is at work here, on a large canvas. Herein lies an efficacious, loving, joyous use of language that transcends depth. This collection of poetry is the soaring song cycle of a bard in top form and it will accompany me on my journey from this point on. — Alasdair Fraser, Scottish fiddler and composer ABOUT THE AUTHOR: John Beaton’s poetry is metrical and has been widely published in media as diverse as Able Muse and Gray’s Sporting Journal. He wrote a monthly poetry page for several years for the magazine Eyes on BC and served for four years as moderator of one of the internet’s most reputable poetry workshops, Eratosphere. He recites his poems from memory as a spoken word performer and a poet member of the band Celtic Chaos. His poetry has won several awards, including the 2015 String Poet Prize and the 2012 Able Muse Write Prize for Poetry. He is a retired actuary who was raised in the Scottish Highlands and lives in Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island, Canada.
This book traces the Clann Meic-bethad or Clan MacBeth whose members practised medicine in the classic Gaelic tradition in various parts of Scotland from the early fourteenth to the early eighteenth century. From many medieval Gaelic manuscripts known to have been in their possession, individual members of the clan and their activities are identified. Sometime in the second half of the sixteenth century the kindred began to adopt Beaton as a surname for use in non-Gaelic contexts. The medical Beatons fell naturally into two divisions: one confined mainly to the Western Isles and the other to the mainland of Scotland. This detailed study of the Beatons and their medicine describes how the position of medical doctor was inherited by the eldest son, and potential Beaton physicians were sent out to be trained by other members of the family for several years before undertaking their own practice. The book provides information on medieval medicine at the highest levels of Highland society.
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After voluntarily turning himself in to the Ada County Jail in Boise, Idaho, with a felony arrest warrant on his head, Garrett Walker was labeled a fugitive from justice. With a plea bargain of time served and a few years’ probation, he was looking at six weeks in jail. But when the judge sentenced him to seven years in prison, his life was dramatically changed. This is the story of one man’s journey through the Idaho Department of Corrections rider program for first-time felons and how it changed his life forever. 1
No time to read novels? Short stories too long? Flash fiction only takes a minute and can be read on your desktop, laptop, netbook, pda, iPod and iPad. There are about seventy stories in this collection plus some light verse.
Its 1970. Gilley has just emigrated from England with his Canadian bride. He has to adapt to the Canadian lifestyle as well as get along with his in-laws and find a job that fits his English credentials. The reader shares in Gilleys exploits as he has his first Aboriginal encounter in Whistler, BC to his first drink of Coors Beer in San Francisco, California. He loves his new life style as there so many opportunities to be had. At the same time, his wife longs to return to England where she loved the English way of life. Where will they end up? All the while the Magpie spirit in his soul is calling him to greater things. After all, not all that glitters is gold.
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