Update:  A new order of Dirty Business has arrived.  To reserve your copy please call or e-mail The Neat L'l Bookshop as below.



Destined for Cheapside Haldimand County



Dirty Business  Taking Orders ~

Coming this week another order of the book about Ontario's "Rush to Wind Power." Available at The Neat L'l Bookshop. 





  $12.99  Call or e-mail lwalker@shaw.ca for your copy or copies. 905-772-5997 or 905-577-5635.

Photos: Taken February 19, 2013 in Dunnville, Haldimand County ~ lbw

Please click on photo for larger image.

Winter in Haldimand Country

It was a beautiful family day...

Photos:  1. Mount Olivet, 2. Lake Erie

"Beowulf spoke again, uttered some boast-words
for the last time:

          "I dared many a fight in my youth;     again as an old
protector of the people,     I'll seek out conflict,
and earn some glory,     if this mankiller
will come out to me       from his earth-hall."

     Then he addressed     every man,
the bold helmet-wearers,   his close comrades,
for the last time:

          'I wouldn't be taking
a sword to the dragon,     if I knew
how else I might     with that monster
get a fighting grip,     as with Grendel before,
but here I'm expecting    hot battle-flames,
bad breath and venom;    therefore I carry
a shield and mail-shirt.     And I won't go back
one foot from the worm,   but at the mound
we two will fare    as Fate decrees,
every man's Master.' "

~ Excerpt from The book of beowulf, Michael Walton, 2007.

Note:  Mike Walton will be in The Neat L'l Bookshop on Thursday, February 21 at 1:00 p.m.  It's informal.  All are welcome.  Circle your calendar. "Coffee pot's always on..."

Grendel

In his effort to understand and work with the Anglo-Saxon poem, Beowulf, Michael Walton spent years reading and familiarizing himself with the ancient language and grammar.  Old English is different than modern.

His The Book of Beowulf reflects those long hours of study.  It is arguably one of the best translations of Beowulf.  We know that this epic poem came from as early as 1000 A.D. ~ passed down orally until finally preserved in a manuscript.

We will have the rare opportunity to learn from Mike Walton the process which brought us this modern version.  The author will be in The Neat Little Bookshop on Thursday, February 21 at 1:00 p.m. 
It's informal.  All are welcome.  "Coffee pot's always on..."

Retired from teaching, Mike lives on an old farm outside of Cayuga, Ontario.

*The Book of Beowulf, Michael Walton, 2007, Printed in Aylmer, Ontario, by Aylmer Express.  Bound at Bookshelf Bindery, Ridgetown, Ontario.
Image of Grendel: McMaster Humanities

On Reading & Writing ~

"I never write metropolis for seven cents because I can get the same price for city.  I never write policeman because I can get the same money for cop."
~ Mark Twain

"People want to know why I do this, why I write such gross stuff.  I like to tell them I have the heart of a small boy ~ and I keep it in a jar on my desk."
~ Stephen King

"I'm a publisher because it's a cover for my indulgence.  I love to read all day.  But I come from nice Puritan stock, and I grew up believing that you have to work all day, so I made reading my work."
~ Ann Getty

"I read books like mad, but I am careful not to let anything I read influence me."
~ Michael Caine

"I would sooner read a timetable or a catalogue than nothing at all."
~ W. Somerset Maugham

"I read a book twice as fast as anybody else.  First I read the beginning, and then I read the ending, and then I start in the middle and read toward whichever end I like best."
~ Gracie Allen

~ True Confessions,  Edited by Jon Winokur, Penguin, 1992

Smile for Today ~

"If I had learned to type, I never would have made brigadier general."
~ Brigadier General, Elizabeth P. Hoisington, U.S. Army

"I always wanted to be a writer, but I became an actor because we were very poor and I had an uncle in show business who was making $200 a week, and I wasn't making anything..."
~ Groucho Marx

"If my books had been any worse I would not have been invited to Hollywood, and if they had been any better I would not have come."
~ Raymond Chandler

"My main reason for adopting literature as a profession was that, as the author is never seen by his clients, he need not dress respectably."
~ George Bernard Shaw

~True Confessions, Edited by Jon Winokur, Penguin Books, 1992

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words ~

"We've dug ourselves out!"

Photos:  Looking at Cayuga Street