STICKS: From Bedford Township’s Mast Road to the British Navy

Barbara and Lloyd Jones, Dr. John Gray,
David Roberts, and Gerald Stinson & Dave Pugh of the Bedford Historical Society


The Mast Road that runs through Bedford Township’s central section dates back to the 1830s when pioneer settlement and the commercial timber harvesting began. From Bedford’s hinterland and its lakes and rivers, the Mast Road carried enormous volumes of “sticks” destined to become masts and lumber for the great ships of the British Navy. From Bedford’s interconnected lakes and rivers to the sawmills at Bedford Mills.  the squared timbers and lumber proceeded via the newly constructed Rideau Canal onwards to the St. Lawrence River and Quebec City.
 
In a series of interconnected chapters compiled and edited by the Bedford Historical Society, Sticks follows the great timbers of the hinterland on their long journey. 
Generously illustrated in both black and white and colour, with maps and many rare archival photographs.
 
Available July 7, 2025, from Novel Idea Books, 156 Princess Street, Kingston, 613-546-9799, or from the Bedford Historical Society at bedfordhistoricalsociety2019@gmail.com.  
 
 

 

Meg Freer  Big Questions Tiny Moments


If dark energy is making the expansion of the universe accelerate, in Big Questions, Tiny Moments Meg Freer accelerates the expansion of our minds and our capacity to learn about dark energy and dark matter and broadens our ideas of what poetry can do.
In this short book of poems, in a variety of poetic styles, Freer uses her own voice to illuminate the environment that theoretical and experimental astrophysicists work in, as well as the big questions they investigate.

As poet-in-residence for the McDonald Institute at Queen’s University, Meg studied aspects of the institute’s scientific work and visited SNOLAB in Sudbury, Ontario, to see dark matter detectors up close. These interactions allowed her to make connections, through poetry, between her field of the humanities and the field of astrophysics.

Meg Freer grew up in Missoula, Montana, and lives in Kingston, Ontario. She has worked as an editor and currently teaches piano and music history. Her award-winning poems and photos have been published in various journals and anthologies. Meg is a host of Kingston's monthly poetry and music event Quirks of Human Nature. 



Available at Novel Idea Books, 156 Princess Street, Kingston, ON 613-546-9799
or from the author at megfreer5@gmail.com
 


Marilyn Bentz Crowley and Joanna Malan
LEFT BRAIN / RIGHT BRAIN COOKERY

 


Available at Novel Idea Books, 156 Princess Street, Kingston, ON 613-546-9799
 

 

    Melanie Dugan       HARD WHITE
 
In this vividly rendered novel, Melanie Dugan reimagines the life of Alice Neel, a ground-breaking American painter who revolutionized the art of the portrait in the twentieth century. Born in 1900 into a straitlaced middle-class family, Neel charted her own unconventional path. Her lifetime spanned World War I, women winning the right to vote, the 1918 flu pandemic, World War II, the McCarthy Era, the Civil Rights Era, and second-wave feminism. For decades, Neel worked in obscurity, wrestling with depression, poverty, and misogyny, loving the wrong men, fighting to live on her own terms, and above all to paint.

Hard White is Melanie's fifth novel. She is also the author of Dead Beautiful ("the writing is gorgeous," A Soul Unsung), Sometime Daughter ("Stunning debut," Kingston Whig-Standard) and Revising Romance ("heartwarming, amusing and ... downright sexy," Midwest Book Review). Her short stories have been short-listed for several awards, including the CBC Literary Award. Melanie has lived in Boston, Toronto, and London, England, and now lives in Kingston, Ontario. https://www.melaniecdugan.com

Available at Novel Idea Books, 156 Princess Street, Kingston 613-546-9799 $23.95 paper




  Anne Archer        EMMALINE/EVANGELINE


Candour meets domesticity in Emmaline/Evangeline, Anne Archer’s lyric biography of her mother-in-law, the (largely unsung) painter Evangeline Murray. Images are redolent with colour, texture, and vibrancy. Like mirrors in paintings, sometimes revealing and sometimes concealing, fragments of Evangeline’s own words appear among the poems that sing this remarkable woman to life on the page.
             
  – Susan Gillis, author of Yellow Crane


 
 Nancy Scovil     THE GREAT BEAUTY 

From a troubled start, then heady days in Toronto of the 1970s and early ’80s as a young adult, life offers the choice of a different life. Nancy Scovil’s elegant and at times lyrical memoir describes a complex journey to align outer lived experience with a deeper sense of self.

The Great Beauty embraces the paradox of being an individual, while at the same time embodying an awareness of Oneness – a paradox that holds a gateway to wisdom that waits to be remembered.



 

 

Laurie Lewis   GOING OVER NINETY


  Laurie Lewis writes with sophistication and simplicity about
  her precarious and abundant life . . . The sadness that
  flows from her innocence and experience is oddly beautiful.
       – Elizabeth Hay, author of Snow Road

 





Suzanne Harding    I KEEP THE PURPLE ONES


 

  Doris loves to play in the snow in her backyard,
  but it’s no fun when your socks slide down to
  your toes!  

  A vibrant colour palette echoes the cold – and
  warmth – of the season, as Doris contends with
  her too-big boots!


  A gorgeous picture book for ages 3 to 9

OTHER RECENT TITLES




Diane Creber's new travel tale; poems for the Sisters of Providence by Meg Freer and Chantel Lavoie; From the Frontenacs: poems by Anne Archer


 

SECOND WIND
Poems by Laurie Lewis

In this insightful, moving, and often very funny collection, Laurie Lewis reflects on all that a long and at times difficult life has offered her, with an honesty that will knock you flat. From the mundane to the sublime, she allows nothing to escape notice … a further reveal – this time in poetic form – of her intelligence, her cheeky wit, and her incomparable vision.
–    Carolyn Smart, author of Hooked and Careen

$17 paper
Available at Novel Idea Books, 156 Princess Street | Kingston
613-546-9799 | novid@kingston.net  |  http://novelideabooks.ca

 
 
 
 

ASK AROUND: THE LARGER-THAN-LIFE STORY OF IMPRESARIO MURRAY FARR
Maureen Farr-Eagan

MURRAY FARR, the subject of this intimate biography by his sister, Maureen, was born in Regina in 1942 and died in LaHave, Nova Scotia, in 1992. Impresario, director of Halifax’s Dalhousie Arts Centre, managing director for the Chimera Foundation for Dance in New York, consultant for the Dance Section of the Canada Council, promoter and advisor for various dance and theatre companies ... There’s much more. He was a social activist and a member of several human-rights groups in the 1960s and 1970s. He was a leader. He was fun, funny, smart, compassionate. He was formidable. He laughed with such volume and intensity you could feel the universe jiggling  --  Miriam Adams, Dance Collection Danse

$25 paper   Available at Novel Idea Books, 156 Princess Street | Kingston | 613-546-9799
 novid@kingston.net  |  http://novelideabooks.ca



MEDICAL MYTHS: A SCEPTIC'S JOURNEY
Dr. Michael Hefferon

Hefferon weaves a lifetime of medical encounters together to illustrate the origins of many myths. His second foray into the world of medical myths is a delight to read, whether one is connected with the world of medicine or not. From Freud's cocaine habit to outbreaks of madness on the night of a full moon, this eclectic mix of medical anecdotes not only entertains but painlessly informs.

$21.95 paper    Available at Novel Idea Books, 156 Princess Street | Kingston | 613-546-9799
 novid@kingston.net  |  http://novelideabooks.ca


  SERVE THE SORROWING WORLD WITH JOY
  Meg Freer and Chantel Lavoie

 
  An evocative collection of poems dedicated to
  the Sisters of Providence, illustrated with photographs by
  the authors and from the Sisters of Providence's archives.

  

  $10 paper    ISBN 978-1-9991829-9-1
  Available at Novel Idea Books, 156 Princess, Kingston
  613-546-9799 novid@kingston.net
  http://novelideabooks.ca




Lost Boy from a Line of Heroes
A powerful memoir by writer and artist Gordon Miller on the long journey back from a childhood tragedy that altered his life forever. Contact Goodminds.com at orders@goodminds.com. 

A Distant Disturbance
An ebook mystery stretched between Canada and New Zealand, by fiction writer Maureen Garvie. Kindle edition available at Amazon.com. 

For All He Gave Me
From sculptor John Boxtel: How one man brought his family of 13 alive and well through World War II in the Netherlands. Available at Novel Idea, Kingston.

For further information, contact woodpeckerlanepress@gmail.com. 

            Unintentional lessons in parenting                      Four friends and a daring sea rescue



Michael Hefferon / Of Plagues and Vampires 


Malcolm Gibson / Myopia: Growing Up White in Apartheid South Africa / sold out
Grier Owen/ The Horse Who Winked / sold out
John Boxtel / Beware of Black Spiders and Widows
Robert Garvie / Dances with Roofs

 


For all purchase inquiries:  woodpeckerlanepress@gmail.com
 
See also individual author pages


Woodpecker Lane Press is a small publishing house on the St. Lawrence River, publishing both fiction and non-fiction titles by area writers or on topics of local interest. First established by Don McCallum, painter and musician, it continues under the direction of Maureen Garvie.






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