| Gary Spina is the author of The Mountain Man’s Field Guide to Grammar – a serious grammar guide with humorous, riotous mountain man examples and vignettes. The book has made the Amazon.com Bestseller List for Grammar Reference books. Over the years, Gary has written stories and articles for various publications across the country.
The following bio is from the back pages of his book:
Gary Spina has ventured half way around the world. Along the way, he has wandered with and encountered many of the interesting characters who now people his writing. He has lived among Indians in Montana and amid adventurers in Alaska. In a sometimes vain attempt to keep himself indoors and fed, he’s been a police officer, private detective, journalist, newspaper columnist, sports writer, on-the-road salesman, and truck driver among other pursuits. He is a hunter, trapper, and woodsman, a sea kayaker, and canoeist. He was going to try his hand at rodeo bull riding, but for an accident. That day, in a saloon just across from the rodeo, he accidentally drank up his twenty-five dollar entry fee and without it they wouldn’t let him ride.
As a tramp and a merchant marine deckhand, he has walked the rough streets of seaport towns and the peaceful sands of South Pacific paradises. Some of the strangest people he’s met have become lifelong friends.
Finally, it was a tough old nun in Washington, D.C. who straightened him out long enough for him to teach English in a Catholic school. But eight years there was long enough to earn a modest pension. He headed west to teach Honors English at an Indian High School in Montana. But he never forgot that old nun in Washington with her pretty smile, her wary eye, and her intriguingly dangerous disposition. He had asked her six times to run away with him and marry him, but she turned him down every time. Still sometimes, even now, on a cold night, over a bottle of whiskey, he wonders whether seven would have been his lucky number.
|
 |
| Writer, Outdoorsman, Adventurer |
|
|
 |
| Parsippany Monthly (May 2007) |
|
|
 |
| Out in the Field |
|
|
This book is lusty, raw, and sensual! Gary Spina captures the essence of the mountain man – free spirit, lonely heart, all the wild passion – and still manages to engage the reader in some very serious, very technical grammar. And actually, the book is as sensitive as it is irreverent. You’ll laugh and cry at the same time – in spite of yourself. This book will endure.
-- Logan Phillips
|
 |
| At Bookstores & Online Booksellers |
|
|
There's a race of men that don't fit in...
-- Robert W. Service
The Mountain Man’s Field Guide to Grammar is pure Americana. It lauds the old traditions and straight talk of a vibrant young nation of rugged men and women, its new horizons, and wild frontiers. It eschews the modern political correctness that waters down our language and our thinking, our Constitution, our wedding vows, and our values.
The Mountain Man’s Field Guide to Grammar is a serious, comprehensive grammar guide, seasoned throughout with humorous Mountain Man examples, off-beat words of wisdom, Western lore, and history. The outrageously funny anecdotes and the bitter-sweet longings of a lonely trapper offer a unique approach to American grammar.
Overall, the book is a fun read.
The Mountain Man’s Field Guide to Grammar:
-
Amazon.com Bestseller List (Grammar Reference)
-
Oregon Health & Science University -- Required Reading List (2007 - 2008 academic year)
- New York Times article (“A Teacher’s Adventurous Life” -- 14 March 2007)
- National Public Radio interview (“Here and Now” with Robin Young)
-
Parsippany Monthly (front cover of May edition)
-
Free Lance - Star (Town & County -- 3 November 2007)
- Judith West Weekly Television Program (2 interviews)
(and others...)
|
Now, Crittur -- I don't know nuttin' 'bout buildin' no websites. But I'm workin' to make this a place to rendezvous and pow wow.
So, gimme lots-a room here, Child. And consider, no diggin's in this life is permanent. Fer now, we'll keep settin' our traps side by side and scoutin' together as the fur seasons come and the fur seasons end. Our sticks float together, Crittur.
And a promise made is a debt unpaid. A man gives his word and gives his hand, he'd best be shootin' center.
|
(Buy Patriots and Scoundrels - Autographed by Author)
$9.95 $7.95
(plus shipping & handling)
(We will ship classroom sets and other large orders at discount prices.)
|
|
To order, email: GarySpina@aol.com.
|
|
