Thursday, November 10, 2011

Deer Hunting Season, Vermont and Maine, and an Author to Watch: Paul Doiron, TRESPASSER and THE POACHER'S SON

Paul Doiron
Kingdom Books welcomes award-winning author Paul Doiron on Saturday Nov. 19 at 11 a.m., with a focus on Doiron's second book of crime fiction, TRESPASSER.

As we're getting ready (stacking up books, unfolding chairs, baking autumn treats), we're also firmly embedded in November's biggest calendar call for northern Vermont: deer season, or, more specifically, rifle hunting season for deer. It opens this Saturday, lasts for two weeks, and was preceded last weekend by a great state tradition, Youth Hunting Weekend.

Paul Doiron is a Registered Maine Guide (as well as editor-in-chief of Down East  -- the magazine, the book publisher, the website), and for him, "deer season" began a week and a half ago, as Maine's calendar works differently from Vermont's. But the issues are much the same: How much room is there for traditional live-off-the-land activities as the region becomes more heavily populated with people whose goals revolve more closely around high-speed Internet access or rescue of vulnerable species than around tracking wildlife? (Me, I like best the way some people are able to combine all of these into a range of personal passions. Reminder, no matter what your interest: Wear orange in the woods during deer season. It's only fair, and wise.)

Doiron's blog this week includes commentary on the hunting-related injuries and death in Maine this season, and the effect of news coverage and images related to those. It's worth reading.

And Dave and I hope you'll mark your own calendar to come meet this author on the 19th. Not only do the books -- TRESPASSER and THE POACHER'S SON -- draw on Doiron's life in and around the Maine woods, but they tap deep emotional conflicts between father and son ... and spin a taut, tense narrative of crime and consequences.

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