More great stories of Mayo Mills

I can only hope that Madeira Starling never runs out of stories of Mayo Mills. I thoroughly enjoyed her stories in her third book, Legends Of Mayo Mills, subtitled The Adventures of Benny and Me, just as I did the stories in her first two books.

Mayo Mills might very well be my town of Mount Vernon, because all of the stories are about people in a small rural Maine town. Some of the characters even closely resemble people in my town.

I especially enjoy her stories that feature wildlife. Chapter 2 in the new book is titled The Skunk Rebellion. And yes, it is a stinky story! They ended up trapping the skunk by attracting it with a bunch of sardines. They drove a few miles away and let it out but they didn’t go far enough. A few days later the skunk was back. They caught it again and drove four hours before letting it go. Smart!

Some of her stories are other-worldly including one in which a couple encounters a man during a walk in the woods and accompany him back to his rustic  camp where he shares his life story with them. When they returned to the village and told someone about the man, they were informed that he had actually died two days before.

Benny and friend suffer a number of setbacks and injuries but their sense of humor keeps them going. From pure fiction to fantasy, these stories are very engaging. I read them all one evening, unable to put the book down. And a week later, I read them all again!

The book was published by Piccalilli Press, and you can order it, as well as Madeira’s first two books, at www.piccalillipress.com.

 

 

 

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.