Rodney Curtis

Before we unleashed the Spiritual Wanderer on an unsuspecting population, we road tested his dozens of personal stories on an international array of readers. No, we are not kidding about that. We still can hear the warm peals of laughter echoing though the cloisters of historic Iona Abbey, always followed by a loud, “Hey, you’ve got to read this fellow …”

THANKS FOR SPREADING THE WORD …

Thanks to TIME Magazine’s Detroit-themed blog for calling attention to Rodney’s Web site. Writer Karen Dybis added kind words about Rodney’s wit and wisdom concerning his second newspaper layoff in a row. She wrote: “Old pal Rodney Curtis has a great blog/site about his adventures in unemployment and at the Detroit Daily Press, which shut down last week for retooling.”

THANK YOU to HarperOne’s innovative new Web site: “Good Books in Bad Times” for including “Spiritual Wanderer” in your showcase of books that will lift your spirits. This fairly new Web site is designed to link online sites with a similar uplifting mission — and to share occasional short recommendations on books. Thanks to the “Good Books” crew for welcoming the Wanderer!

FROM IMAGES TO WORDS — Rodney Curtis is actually a longtime photographer and photo editor — and he’s a member of the National Press Photographers Association. The NPPA’s Web site published a story about Rodney’s professional “cross over” into this new realm of media. This venerable organization dates back many decades and the logo we’ve included here is actually from a 1946 issue of the group’s professional magazine.

AND Special thanks to our first test reader, Neal Rubin, the longtime columnist for the Detroit News, who allowed us to quote him on the book’s back cover: “Rodney Curtis can find wonder in a 3/8-inch socket and laughter in just about anything. He’s a treasure—and so is his book.”

    We also want to thank other writers who are noting the Wanderer’s debut.

    ALL of us behind “Spiritual Wanderer” think that Rodney Curtis’ prose is pure poetry — but, to be honest, Rodney doesn’t really write “verse.” Nevertheless, his book popped up as a recommended title on The Poetry Connection.

THE GLOBAL ROAD TEST …

    Among the many places the Spiritual Wanderer’s manuscript has traveled are Asia, Italy and the UK. That’s appropriate because the book itself logs a whole lot of miles. The Wanderer takes us all the way back in time to childhood. He takes us into outer space as well as inner space. And his memoir includes stories from pilgrimages he has made to a number of different countries.
    So, we thought it was entirely appropriate to road test his chapters on readers in some widely divergent settings.
    In Taiwan, a tour guide and translator read several chapters while relaxing in a brightly lit Dunkin Donuts near an ancient Buddhist temple. Nodding as she read, she finally placed a finger in the manuscript and asked: “And, this is a real man writing this?”
    When assured that the Wanderer is a real person and his stories are mostly sincere reflections of his real life, the translator said, “Hmmm, because he has most unusual ways of thinking about life for an American. Are you certain that he is a real person? I would like to meet this man, if he does exist.”

    Well, now that is possible through this web site and through actually buying and reading his book.

    In the UK, the book became part of a pilgimage to centuries-old Iona Abbey on a remote island in the Atlantic Ocean off Scotland. One night in a shadowy old parlor lit mainly by a roaring fire, pilgrims from several lands began passing around the chapter known as “Dog Duty.”
    The laughter may still be echoing among the granite and limestone cloisters.

    Good stories truly can be global.