Dry Fly Gospel

Just a reminder, I’ll be selling and signing copies of Dry Fly Gospel tonight 6-9pm at the Minnetrista Cultural Center’s Luminaria Walk. If you’re in Muncie, Indiana, tonight, stop by.

I noticed a funny thing on Amazon the other day. Used copies of Dry Fly Gospel are starting to show up as available from other booksellers.

One copy is even being sold for $33 … $20 above the new price! Wow, I thought that kind of price inflation only happened with out of print books or dead authors.
Still, I guess if somebody wants to pay $33 for a used copy of Dry Fly Gospel, they can. Or they can buy a new one from me. If they want to pay $33, that’s fine, but really the cover price will be fine.

Hey, all, I have come up with some Christmas posters. If you feel so inclined, print one and put it up somewhere!

I opened up the mailbox this afternoon and what should I find but the most recent issue of the Yale Anglers’ Journal. This is one of my favorite publications, and the appearance of my short story “Dry Fly Gospel” in an issue from a couple of years back has been the proudest moment of my writing career. Until today.

Today I opened the packet to find a letter to subscribers apologizing for it taking so long for this issue to make it out. I also found two copies of Volume X, Number 2, in which my short story “Attracted to Light” appears.

So the publication in which I most desired publication has become my first repeat publication! And while it is true that the formating was a bit off from what I had suggested (no italics to separate first person narration from journal entries), who am I to disagree with an editor? Perhaps they felt the italics made it seem like I was trying too hard to point out that “HEY THIS PART IS DIFFERENT.” I’m always a fan of more subtlety in writing, and picking and choosing one’s details carefully (I feel the details you leave out are just as important as those you leave in), so I will simply say, ‘Thanks!” and bask in the glow of my own satisfaction for about half an hour.

Finally, a new post!

Dear Friends,

Just an FYI to keep your eyes open for the November issue of Western
Friend, in which Dry Fly Gospel is reviewed.

Here’’s a taster from the review by Eric E. Sabelman:
“… I like a good story, and fish stories – like these twelve short
tales by Indiana Quaker Terry Coffey – are some of the best.
… the biggest fish swim deep. We seek to know the true message the
Teacher taught, and these stories are a gentle and humorous reminder
that what He came to teach is not Christianity as we know it.”
For more on Western Friend, you can visit www.westernfriend.org.
Also, keep a watch for the latest issue of Yale Anglers Journal, in
which one of my stories appears.
Peace!

Imagine my shock today when I checked on the Kindle version of Dry Fly Gospel and found it is the 30th most popular Kindle fishing book on Amazon! Even more surprising is the fact that it is #85 among Kindle philosophy books on Amazon, ahead of works by such authors as Norman Mailer, William James and Reynolds Price.

I find this interesting because I always felt the Kindle version was just an add-on–something to show I was serious about the book. In fact, the Kindle version doesn’t even have the artwork in it, because I frankly sucked at figuring out the HTML code to get it to work.

Unfortunately, my royalty on the Kindle version is about 20% of what I get with a printed copy, but, hey, I’m excited that the book is doing well in its categories, at least!

I’m still waiting to see if I get any reviews of Dry Fly Gospel in “major” publications. Fly Rod & Reel, Fly Fisherman and Quaker Life reviews have been pending for about a month or two, but since they work three or four months ahead I guess I shouldn’t worry so much. Someone at Sojourners also said I could send them a copy for possible review, which is another publication I am really interested in.

Meanwhile, I had a nice “authorly” happening the other day. A friend at work told me his pastor was talking about a new book he’s reading and enjoying. The book was Dry Fly Gospel! My friend was a bit taken aback, but recovered fast enough to offer to have me sign the parson’s book for him. Which I’m glad to do, of course!

In many ways, my short story collection, “Dry Fly Gospel,” is confusing for people. It’s a book that is very hard to pin down—or, to put it into fishing terminology—tough to get into a net.

The stories are serious, but also ridiculous. There is parody, fantasy, mystery and adaptation within its pages. Some of the stories are told from a male perspective; some from a female point of view. Some stories are full from beginning to end of fishing exploits and descriptions; others may give a couple of lines or a paragraph to the actual hands-on subject of fly fishing.

Perhaps the biggest, problem, though, is finding an answer to this question:  Is it a religious book, or a secular book? The answer is yes. While some of the stories are obviously religious in nature, and the structure of the collection is meant to parallel roughly that of the New Testament, with Gospels, Epistles and Revelations, the stories are also meant to stand as fiction of the sort practiced by the likes of Hemingway, MacLean and many others. Something for everybody. Layers of meaning. All that rot.

It would have been much easier for me to go completely one way or the other in describing and marketing. However, I felt the religious topics in several stories were too blatant to make the book a totally secular affair, and I didn’t feel the religion and fly fishing connection were strong enough to warrant calling it a “Christian,” or even a “religious,” book. After all, even though the title story, Dry Fly Gospel, was inspired by a quote from Norman MacLean’s “A River Ran Through It” (“He told us about Christ’s disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, that all first-class fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly-fishermen and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman.”), trying to promote too heavily the connections between fly fishing and religion might turn off the secular market. Then I came across the work of Sam Snyder.

Dr. Samuel Snyder has a Library has a doctoral degree from the Religion and Nature program at the University of Florida. His dissertation was titled, “Casting for Conservation: Religion, Popular Culture, and the Politics of River Restoration.” Besides that, Snyder is a fellow this summer at the National Sporting Library, where he is studying the history of religion and environmental concerns in American angling.

In an article for the Summer 2008 issue of The American Fly Fisher, he begins an article based on his dissertation by saying: “It is no secret that fly fishers have historically taken their sport so seriously as to frequently elevate it to religious status. Fly fishers around the world frequently use terms such as religious, spiritual, sacred, divine, ritual, meditation, and conversion to describe their personal angling experiences. In doing so, fly fishers have no shortage of resources and traditions from which to build support for the religious designation of their sport.”

Snyder goes on to point out the various ways fly fishing takes on the status and importance of religious observance for many practitioners, and how that status informs and invigorates many fly fishers to take a proactive stance in the conservation and environmental movements. The premise is interesting, and his articles on the subject are well-written and painstakingly researched.

After reading some of Snyder’s work, I feel more confident about what I had thought was such an odd idea and collection. I feel like my stories could really resonate with a larger audience out there. I guess it’s up to me to figure out how to get “Dry Fly Gospel” to a larger audience. One key factor is word of mouth. If you’ve read my book and found it not horrible, perhaps you will tell your friends about it. Even if you haven’t read it, if you have friends who fly fish and/or read tell them about the book.

If you have the chance, look up some Snyder’s work online. You can find him, and copies of his articles, here:  http://sites.google.com/site/samueldsnyder/

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. Life has been particularly full lately. I will post more updates soon, including a look at some interesting writing on the subject of fly fishing and religion.

Here is a Listmania! List I posted on Amazon of my favorite fishing books.

I enjoy really good writing of all kinds, but especially fly fishing fiction (and non-fiction too, although I’m not a big “how-to” fan).

1.  A River Runs Through It and Other Stories, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition by Norman Maclean.  “Simply the best.”

2.  A River Never Sleeps by Roderick L. Haig-Brown. “Not so well known today, but this is a wonderful, lovely book of essays following the fishing year season by season.”

3.  The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigia Edition by Ernest Hemingway. “I chose this one because not only are all of Hemingway’s stories great, but this has maybe the best fishing short story ever, ‘Big Two-Hearted River.’”

4.  Pavlov’s Trout: The Incompleat Psychology of Everyday Fishing by Paul G. Quinnett. “This guy is a great but I think under-appreciated writer.”

5.  Darwin’s Bass: The Evolutionary Psychology of Fishing Man by Quinnett. “This shows how much I like Quinnett’s writing!”

6.  Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. “OK, not a fly fishing story, but one of the best fishing stories EVER!”

7.  Dry Fly Gospel by Terry Coffey. “OK, I wasn’t going to let this list go without putting my own book on it!”

8.  The Compleat McClane : A Treasury of A. J. McClane’s Classic Angling Adventures by A. J. McClane. “Classic columns and writings from a classic writer.”

9.  A Fly Fisherman’s Blue Ridge by Christopher Camuto. “A little-known book that is a beautiful read!”