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Where Cool Waters Flow
Four Seasons with a Master Maine Guide
by Randy Spencer

$15.95
Softcover, Maine Nonfiction
ISBN: 978-1-934031-28-5


 

Get the e-book of Where Cool Waters Flow on Amazon's Kindle.


Read the complete prologue to Where Cool Waters Flow.

CDs by Randy Spencer:
Old Maine Guide
Footprints in the Sand

Check out Randy's blog:
The Maine Guide


Listen to an interview with Randy on Maine Public Radio


ABOUT THE BOOK
Master Maine Guide Randy Spencer knows the lakes, streams, and woodlands around Grand Lake Stream, Maine like few others. He has learned the ways of the old Maine Guides – from the proper way to prepare shore lunches, to where to find the best salmon and bass, to how to survive in the wilderness – from some of the area's local legends. Now, in his first book, Where Cool Waters Flow, Randy puts you in the casting seat of his Grand Laker, introduces his many "sports" who come from miles away to decompress, brings you out on the trail during fall hunts, and takes you on many other adventures as only an insider can.

REVIEWS
"Spencer's book, quite simply, is the rare local volume that I can honestly recommend with the highest praise a fellow writer can muster: I wish I'd written it. But I couldn't have. Spencer's prose is clean, quick and witty. He successfully transports readers from their living room easy chairs to the wilds of Grand Lake Stream, and does so without bombarding them with strings of adjectives designed to paint the picture he sees in his mind. Instead, like the songwriter he is, he picks his words judiciously, commits to them and makes them do his bidding. And the result is a stunning portrait of a truly special place, illuminated by the people who live for their yearly visits to those remote Maine woods. You may find a better Maine book than Where Cool Waters Flow. You may find a better outdoor book. You may. I haven't."
– John Holyoke, Bangor Daily News

To say that Randy Spencer has written a nice book about Maine is not to damn him with faint praise. Nice is not a backhanded term for blandness, but an umbrella that covers such vastly underrated virtues as good manners, good humor, and good company. Spencer provides all three in Where Cool Waters Flow as well as a portrait of one of Maine's most beautiful and beguiling villages: Grand Lake Stream.
– Roberta Scruggs, Down East Magazine

Where Cool Waters Flow will take anyone with the love of hunting and the outdoors away from it all for a little while, onto Grand Lake Stream with someone who knows its every ripple and rock – who knows full well what people mean when they want to 'get away from it all.' He knows where and why and when to share, when to spin a yarn or a paddle or a fly ... and when not to. He's been there – he may have done that, but he'll take you along – if not for real, then on the page.
– Marilis Hornidge, Lincoln County News (Damariscotta, ME)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Randy Spencer is a Master Maine Guide, which means he is qualified and certified by the State of Maine to guide clients on fishing, hunting, or recreational adventures, although Randy's specialty is fishing. Randy's guiding business is based in the remote eastern Maine town of Grand Lake Stream, home to some of most beautiful scenery and some of the best fishing in the nation. Randy also maintains a home in Holden, Maine. In addition to guiding, Randy is a talented singer/songwriter who has released five CDs, including his latest, Footprints in the Sand. In fact, he regularly writes a column for the Northwoods Sporting Journal that is titled "The Singing Maine Guide." He is also a freelance writer for other outdoor publications. In 2008, Yankee Magazine named Randy one of the "25 People You Need to Meet Most This Summer" and Portland Magazine named him one of the "10 Most Intriguing People in Maine."

"You'd be hard pressed to find a stronger, or more vocal, advocate for the glories of life in the Maine North Woods than Randy," wrote Maine humorist, Tim Sample.

Where Cool Waters Flow, which essentially covers a year in the life of a Maine Guide, is Randy's first book.
EXCERPT
“ I don't know how long I sat on my guitar case on the Grand Lake Stream town dock that June afternoon thirty-six years ago. I wondered how I was going to make the final twelve miles of a journey that began eighteen hours earlier in Maryland, but it didn't seem like an emergency. The view stretched forever and I was lulled.

There wasn't a soul in sight until an orange Duratech emerged from a cove across the way and moved toward me. As the boat approached the dock it turned broadside to reveal a bedraggled, sixty-ish man with an even more bedraggled Pug pooch in his lap.

"Can you play that thing?" he hollered over the outboard.

I nodded and gave him a thumbs up.

"Where ya goin'?"

"I'm supposed to be at Darrow Camp today, but I don't know how I'm going to get there."

The man – Warren Arthur Whiting – got up and weighed the boat's fuel tank in his hand.

"Tell ya what. You play, the dog and me'll listen, and if you're any good, we'll get you to Darrow's."

This looked like the only game in town, so I threw my lot into the hands of a complete stranger, never bothering to ask what might happen if I didn't pass the audition.

Stepping into that orange boat was one of the most fateful decisions of my life. ”

Want more? Read the complete prologue to Where Cool Waters Flow.