Book Talk

If you’re a regular reader of the Coastal Breeze News, then you’ve probably run across columnist Jon Edward Edwards “Adventures of the Saltwater Cowboy” column. These stories of Edwards fishing and living hijinks are thought and laugh-provoking, often at the same time. And now, Edwards has combined these columns, plus a couple spectacular short stories into a book called, appropriately enough, “Adventures of the Saltwater Cowboy.” 

It's not hard seeing what makes Edwards writing so unique. He’s got a way with words, whether talking about his own experiences or writing about them in his fictional stories. “Adventures of the Saltwater Cowboy” starts with a collection of his best columns. Here Edwards love of the outdoors shines. There are fishing fiascos and boating bungles but interspersed throughout these tales are meditative musings and brilliant descriptions – Edwards knows how to set a scene. In “Spring Tide Rock Pile,” Goliath Groupers are called “the big kid that smacks you in the back of the head and takes your lunch money.”In “10,000 Island Christmas,” we’re treated to an approaching sunset  where “the sky resembled the tin roof of an ancient barn, rusted red.” And even dedicated landlubbers can’t help but feel they’re riding in a boat or catching a fish when treated to vibrant onomatopoeia like thezzzz of a fishing line gone taut or the pppfffof a can of beer freshly popped (remind me to call Edwards when I need someone to explain those sounds coming from my car). 

Through Edwards’ journeys, you’ll meet others in his circle, like Larue and the Pholmans, George Smith and the Queen-like Daphne…all characters in their own right. And Edwards doesn’t relegate them to second-class citizen status in his stories. These friends and family take center stage, and after reading about them, you feel like you know them well enough to have a beer with.There’s even an intriguing story called “Biggest Fan,” which details Edwards fated meeting with an unnamed famous real-life author at a local bookstore.  

But it’s Edwards love of the environment he lives in that are the loveliest, descriptions so vivid you can feel the breeze in your hair and taste saltwater on your lips. There is never any question that this Louisiana native/Marco-living writer loves the Gulf, fishing and the outdoors. Now, having said that, Mother Nature never takes it easy on Edwards, and thank goodness for that. Otherwise, we may not be treated to these exceptional stories about life in Florida.  

The chapters are easy to read in one sitting, but if you like to savor the stories, you can easily pick the book up after a few days – one or two sentences in, and you are back in the Saltwater Cowboy’s world. 

“Adventures of the Saltwater Cowboy” ends with two fictional stories that lean heavily into Edwards knowledge base… fishing, boating and mayhem. These are not your kid's bedtime stories. In Beautiful Day, an escaped inmate is determined to enact revenge on the people who put him in jail. Looking forward to the next chapters in this one. In Dead River, Edwards takes the familiar environmental algae problem and turns it into something sinister. Another story anxiously looking for its conclusion. If Edwards goal was to whet the appetite of his readers to ask for more, well it worked. More chapters, please! 

Whether it’s regaling the reader with Saltwater Cowboy adventures or piquing curiosity in fictional tales, “Adventures of the Saltwater Cowboy” gives us poetic, funny, and philosophical stories that area true testament to Florida living. As Edwards says himself, “The mishaps, brush-ins, fails, falls and miscellaneous debauchery that follows me like a shroud of story fodder makes for exciting reading, so I’m told.” Indeed, it does.  

You can get “Adventures of the Saltwater Cowboy at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.com.