10cocktails

I'm a freelance journalist in Maine. I'll write on just about anything, as long as it holds my interest for a week or two or more. Recent subjects of interest have included the history of modernist architecture, efforts to curb rampant mailbox vandalism, the science of the moose-automobile collision, and more general subjects, like "Newfoundland: How Did it Get That Way, and Why?"

I've written for many newspapers and magazines, including Yankee, Canadian Geographic, Atlantic Monthly, American Scholar, Islands, Travel+Leisure, American Heritage, American Heritage and both the travel and business sections of the New York Times. I'm currently a contributing editor at both Down East magazine and Preservation, which is published by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, D.C. I've also written three travel guides: Maine: Off the Beaten Path (Globe Pequot), the Frommer's guide to northern New England, and the Frommer's guide to eastern Canada.

My most recent project was researching and writing a cultural, economic, and political history of rum, 1640 to the present. I spent three years on this project, which took me to Cuba, Trinidad, Barbados, New Orleans, and Medford, Massachusetts. But mostly I spent it in libraries. "And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in 10 Cocktails" will be published in July 2006 by Crown Publishing.