What happened on the shore of Fishpole Lake is documented, but the man for whom it was renamed is a preposterous fiction. Josiah Flintabbatey Flonatin was conceived in the overheated brain of J.E. (Joyce Emmerson) Preston Muddock, a writer whose own handle was mouthful enough that he took a penname from his most successful fictional creation, a detective he called Dick Donovan. Muddock was an Englishman, a Victorian more energetic than eminent, who lived long and riotously …
Bio:
Bryan Demchinsky is a Montreal writer and editor. After many years working at newspapers, mainly the Montreal Gazette, where he was the books section editor and later business editor, he left daily journalism. He continues to work from home and is the author of several books, including After Auschwitz: One Man’s Story (McGill-Queen’s University Press). “Fishpole Lake” is an excerpt from an upcoming memoir tentatively titled My Ukrainian Family.