Join Bill Proctor and Yvonne Maximchuk as they celebrate the release of their new book, Tide Rips and Back Eddies: Bill Proctor’s Tales of Blackfish Sound with a presentation and book signing.
The event, put on in collaboration with the Cape Lazo Power and Sail Squadron, will take place at the Native Sons Hall, in the Lower Lodge Room (360 Cliffe Avenue, Courtenay), on Thursday, Nov. 5 from 7-9 p.m. Admission is free and books will be available for purchase.
Proctor, resident legend of Echo Bay, B.C., recounts almost a century’s worth of experience with this collection of stories, memories and local knowledge of the central BC coast region around Blackfish Sound.
Situated in the beautiful Broughton Archipelago between northern Vancouver Island and the mainland coast, this region boasts a history and culture as engaging as its stunning locale—and nobody tells its story quite like Proctor.
A lifelong fisherman, trapper, logger and, in later life, author, Proctor learned from both the indigenous Kwakwaka’wakw people and the settlers who came to live in Blackfish Sound.
Along with his entertaining tales of the surrounding communities, Proctor also discusses the ingenious technology necessary to both fishing and everyday survival.
Covering the natural and domestic history of the area and everything in between—from recollections of old-time fishermen to Billy’s own stories of sasquatches and other strange things—Tide Rips and Back Eddies is a riveting and deeply moving account of a long and uniquely coastal life.
Writing collaborator Maximchuk’s drawings illustrate Proctor’s personal anecdotes as well as carefully detail an eclectic array of interesting items collected by Proctor throughout his lifetime for his personal museum.
Proctor has been a resident of the Central Coast for 80 years.
For the past 35 years, he has run Billy’s Museum, a public collection of historical items he has found and collected, located in Echo Bay.
Proctor is the co-author of Full Moon, Flood Tide, also with Maximchuk.
Maximchuk is a lifelong working artist, illustrator and author. Shelives with her husband Albert in Echo Bay.