My BOOKS
Crude Genius
In the 1860s oil fields of Ontario, a small-town mayor creates cutting edge technology to capture and utilize petroleum. Invited to take his business to Europe, William McGarvey became known as the “Petroleum King” of the Austro-Hungarian empire. his daughter married into German nobility. Crude Genius tracks McGarvey's rise to the top of his field as a world-renowned oil expert, follows his tragic downfall and pursues the careers and lives of the children who carried forth his technology.
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Mosaic Press
ISBN 9781771616409 (softcover)
Also available in EPub, Kindle and PDF
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Available online:
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Mosaic Press
Indigo
Amazon
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If you’re in the area …
Available in store:
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Oil Museum of Canada, Petrolia, ON
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Available in store and online:
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Sarnia Book Keeper, Sarnia, ON
Biblioasis, Windsor, ON
River Books, Amherstburg, ON
Hard Oiler!
A hard-luck Yankee fortune seeker. A Hamilton, Ontario wagon maker, hoping to sell cars to the new railways. A howling swamp so isolated and foul that pioneer families had steered at a wide miss. It was an unlikely trio of elements that came together at just the right moment in time to create one of the great but under-appreciated stories of Canada’s early years. Hard Oiler! is the story of how oil was discovered near Sarnia, Ontario more than 160 years ago, and how the subsequent exploitation of that oil gave birth to what has been one of the world’s most important industries for more than a century. Hard Oiler! traces such events as the gold rush-like frenzy that saw overnight rise and decline of the frontier town of Oil Springs, and the creation of the much more permanent community of Petrolia, which still flashes its Victorian charmed to this day.
Prickly Dog Press
ISBN 9780986753480
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If you’re in the area …
Available in store:
Oil Museum of Canada, Petrolia, ON
Available in store store and online:
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Sarnia Book Keeper, Sarnia, ON
Biblioasis, Windsor, ON
River Books, Amherstburg, ON
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Groundbreaker
From early childhood on an Iowa farm to the oil fields of the American Southwest, Leo Ranney never encountered a problem without a solution. He invented methods for making old oil fields productive again, unlocking heavy oil deposits and ending water shortages. Groundbreaker recounts the remarkable lifetime journey of this philosopher-scientist, and explores why the world owes him a debt of gratitude.
Your Story Publishing
ISBN 9780986753435
If you’re in the area …
Available in store:
Oil Museum of Canada, Oil Springs, ON
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Available in store and online:
Sarnia Book Keeper, Sarnia, ON
Attic Books, London, ON
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Two Men and Their Monster
When At the height of his success, 1920s Windsor rum-runner Harry Low imagined and built Devonshire Lodge, the mansion that changed the face of historic Walkerville. Nearly a century later, Vern Myslichuk bought the house he affectionally nicknamed the monster and employed the resources of his cabinet business to restore it to its roaring 20s magnificence. Two Men and Their Monster tells the story of Harry Low, and how his home was brought back to life by a modern-day businessman with a love for history.
Your Story Publishing
ISBN 9780986753466
If you’re in the area …
Available in store:
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River Books, Amherstburg, ON
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Available in store and online:
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Biblioasis, Windsor, ON
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Southern Exposure
When Pelee Island Winery was created in 1979, the owners resolved to protect their island home in the western basin of Lake Erie, the place where wine was first produced commercially in Canada in the 1860s. Southern Exposure is the story of what makes Pelee Island unique and how the modern-day winery became the keeper of a sacred trust - a trust founded on not only the environment, but on the human history of Canada‘s most southerly inhabited community.
Your Story Publishing
ISBN 9780986753428
If you’re in the area …
Available in store:
Pelee Island Winery, Kingsville, ON​
River Books, Amherstburg, ON
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