In an act of shameless self-promotion I’ll let you know that if you want to read my best nature writing (so far) my publisher has it on sale until November 30th. Half price and free shipping with the code CONFSHIP (they set that up for some recent academic conferences because we academics buy a lot of books and cannot resist a sale.)

Obviously this makes a great holiday gift for your friends and family. It also encourages the author to keep writing!

Here it is, my book on brook trout, fly-fishing, and conservation: It’s called Downstream, because we all live downstream.

Here, as a freebie, is a photo of a little brook trout I snapped underwater in Vermont two summers ago.

For all my life I have loved rivers and streams. I tromped in them as a boy, flipping over rocks, diving into deep pools, and searching for the delights that clean water carries downstream. For the last twenty years I’ve made research trips and taught classes alongside rivers and lakes and in the ocean, from my native Appalachians to North Africa, Arctic Alaska, and Central and South America. Everywhere I go I ask questions about the fish that live in the water, and all the multitude of lives that are intimately connected to them.

I’ve published several books but this one is probably my favorite. I’ve got another in the works right now that will appear in print next spring, on philosophy and camping. I’ve got some sketches and drafts of a half dozen other books as well. It’s fun to write them and even more fun to see them in print.

I hope you enjoy this book while I work on the next ones!

A small brook trout is swimming close to the rocky bottom of a freestone stream.