Launch Week

My new book of fly fishing essays has kept me busy.

Last week my book of essays grounded in my love of fly fishing, Two-Thirds Water, was officially published at Globe Pequot/Lyons Press. It has been so deeply gratifying to see, finally after so many near misses over the years, a book of my writing come to fruition. I have also deeply appreciated the support and kudos I have gotten from friends and family and readers so far. While I’m not all that comfortable with being the center of attention, I’m starting to get in the swing of hawking my wares (words)—reaching out to bookstores and podcasts, libraries and fly fishing shows and events, (and Substack subscribers)—to do my best to get the book exposure (see link below on where to purchase!).

Here’s a brief background story on how it all happened. After reaching out to many agents and receiving many a polite decline (and from most, no reply at all—which increasingly is the industry’s “no”), I started sending the manuscript directly to publishers. Eventually, I decided to send the book to Skyhorse Publishing, chiefly because Tony Lyons, head of the press, is son of the famed fly fishing author, Nick Lyons. I have twice published essays in the column Nick wrote for many years at Fly Fisherman magazine, “The Seasonable Angler,” (also the title of his first book), and thought any angle is better than none at all—despite the dearth of outdoors or fishing titles in their catalogue.

To my surprise, Nick Lyons himself, now in his 90s, responded to my query within the month (near light speed in the publishing industry). His son passed the manuscript along to him, he read the book and loved it…but…apologized that it wouldn’t be right for his son’s press. He did, however, recommend me to his former colleague and friend, Judith Schnell, publisher of Globe Pequot Books, which now has Nick’s former press, Lyons Press, as an imprint.

Shifting back to the normal glacial-drift-pace of publishing communications/progress, including a one-year delay in the original publication date, and with much thanks to Nick’s continued support, I was eventually offered a standard publishing contract with Lyons Press. It’s fitting that Nick’s blurb graces the front cover of the book given all he did to make this happen. He writes: “A vibrant, smart, and essential new voice. These essays are engaging and magical.” It is also fitting that I took the cover photograph from the dock of my humble, off-grid Adirondack cabin just before dawn shortly after I had quit my full-time teaching job to finally make professional writing a primary focus in my life. Many of the essays were conceived, written and edited there between daily meanderings in the primitive forests, fishing trips there and on nearby lakes and streams, and always accompanied by loon-calls, raven and owl chatter.

Celebrating with family (and friends) at a book launch party last week.

I hope you will have the opportunity to read the book and/or pass it along to anyone you think might be interested, and if you have your own Substack or blog (or Instagram/Facebook/X/Linkedin…) that you will consider endorsing and linking to it on your own social media. Thanks as always for all the support I already have received here. Writing weekly on Substack has been an essential part of my re-entry into the world of writing.

You can purchase the book here (and support small bookstores for a slightly higher price).

You can also find it on Amazon or Barnes and Noble and elsewhere, or ask a local bookseller to order it for you (or stock it, even!).

[Find Nick Lyons’s latest book, his fantastic memoir, Fire in the Straw, here.]

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