Outdoors writers featured
Being an outdoor writer is a risky business, as one can clearly see by the books they produce.
Pat Wray, for example, a former Marine helicopter pilot who’s written for newspapers, magazines and the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Department, recently published “A Chukar Hunter’s Companion.”
Blood often spills along the steep, rocky ledges where chukars are hunted, and it’s not always the birds that bleed.
The rugged terrain along the Snake River breaks naturally limits the number of hunters who will pursue the chukar partridge, which brings up the riskiest point of writing a book on the subject.
Is there a market big enough to pay for all the time, travel, effort and medical expenses?
Maybe, maybe not.
But that’s why Auntie’s Bookstore is honoring a group of risk-takers, that is, authors from the from the Outdoor Writers Association of America on Monday evening for delving into subjects for which they have expertise and love even though they might not translate their effort to great fortune.
Patrick F. McManus of Spokane is a notable exception who combined his interest in the outdoors with his writing talent to produce best-selling humor books — possibly the riskiest of all writing genres.
Alan Liere, who writes the weekly hunting-fishing report for The Spokesman-Review, also will be on hand with three published forays into outdoor humor.
Jim Fazio, a University of Idaho professor of Resource Recreation and Tourism and former national president of the Lewis & Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, tapped his local expertise with a U.S. rage to write “Across the Snowy Ranges: The Lewis & Clark Expedition in Idaho and Western Montana.” The book is a day-by-day explanation of where the expedition members were and what they were doing in this segment of their journey.
Other OWAA participants have come from afar to give a glimpse of outdoor topics from every corner of the nation. Among them:
•Arnold Theisen of Irrigon, Ore., delivers local insight of interest to anglers in his first book, “Fishing the Mid-Columbia,” released in February. The book details opportunities and techniques for fishing the 39 miles of river between McNary Dam and Three Mile Canyon, which produces some of the nation’s largest walleyes.
•Susan Campbell Reneau of Missoula, whose newest book is “Thrill of the Chase: Women and Their North American Big Game.” Reneau has written 19 books on hunting and wildlife conservation.
•Walter “Howdy” Howard, author of “Saved by Bed Bugs,” an autobiography about his experiences as a pioneering animal ecologist.
•Charles Frank, author of “Voices from the Bayou,” featuring Louisiana’s Cajun craftsmen and women who are preserving their wetland heritage, including the tradition of Louisiana duck decoys.
•Wade Bourne of Minnesota, who’s written a number of basic guides to hunting and fishing, including “Decoys and Proven Methods for Using Them.
•Jim Casada, a South Carolinan and prolific writer who plans to have a generous sampling of his many books, including “The Complete Venison Cookbook,” and “Africa’s Greatest Hunter: The Lost Writings of Fred Selous.”