Mountain madness

Shaggy author brings wild inside with new book

by JENNIFER LIEBRUM

M. John Fayhee appears on the cover of his latest collection of stories. He’s the editor of the Mountain Gazette, which has been the wind beneath the words and photos for hosts of preeminent outdoor writers and photographers. Courtesy photo

   He looks a bit like Jerry Garcia. Smokes unabashedly. Has run around with folks like Hunter S. Thompson and has amassed such a following with his storytelling capability that he has published a greatest hits volume.
    M. John Fayhee makes his living as editor of the Mountain Gazette, which he helped resurrect and which has long represented the truth in life in the Rocky Mountains. The outdoorsman has only his need to put pen to paper slowing him down, which has led to another collection of stories for readers’ pleasure called “Smoke Signals: Wayward Journeys Through the Old Heart of the New West.”
    Meet the legendary scribe of the mountains Tuesday, Oct. 9, at 6 p.m. at the Community Library in Ketchum, where he will animate his tales and persuade book sales in his indomitable style.

“Life consists of more than just kayaking off a waterfall or skiing off a cornice.”
John Fayhee
writer

    “What lead me to write ‘Smoke Signals’? I am by nature a storyteller/bs’er and sometimes I feel that the art/craft of pure storytelling/bs’ing is dying, a victim at least somewhat of the Facebook/Twitterism that is fundamentally changing the way we communicate with each other,” he explained. “It’s to the point that people are now holding ‘conversations’ that sound like vocalized Twitter exchanges. Consider this book to be my conceptual counterpunch.”
    What he would like readers to take away?
    “I would like for readers to take away an understanding that the process of living an interesting life consists of more than just kayaking off a waterfall or skiing off a cornice,” he said. “It also includes introspection, retrospection and resultant creativity.”

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The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.