Vance, Joel M. 1934–

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Vance, Joel M. 1934–

PERSONAL: Born 1934; married; wife's name, Marty. Hobbies and other interests: Fishing, canoeing, playing guitar.

ADDRESSES: Home—5213 Route D, Russellville, MO 65074-2218.

CAREER: Writer for twenty years with Missouri Department of Conservation; Sterling College, Sterling, KS, faculty member.

WRITINGS:

Grandma and the Buck Deer, and Other Tales of Youthful Disaster, Winchester Press (Tulsa, OK), 1980.

Upland Bird Hunting, illustrations by Tom Beecham, Outdoor Life Books (New York, NY), 1981.

Confessions of an Outdoor Maladroit, illustrations by Anthony Hillman, foreword by Michael McIntosh, Amwell Press (Clinton, NJ), 1983.

Bobs, Brush, and Brittanies: A Long Love Affair with Quail Hunting, Lyons & Burford Publishers (New York, NY), 1997.

Down Home Missouri: When Girls Were Scary and Basketball Was King, University of Missouri Press (Columbia, MO), 2000.

Tails I Lose: Coping with Bird Dogs, Derrydale Press (Lanham, MD), 2000.

Autumn Shadows: Outdoor Tales of the Supernatural … Including "The Invincible Grouse Hunter," illustrated by Cole Johnson, Bonasa Press (Columbia, PA), 2002.

Also author of Billy Barnstorm the Birch Lake Bomber, and Other Tales of Youthful Disaster. Humor editor for FineTravel.com; columnist for Gun Dog and Wing and Shot. Contributor to periodicals of articles on outdoor life.

SIDELIGHTS: Joel M. Vance, an outdoor columnist and humor editor of FineTravel.com, spent twenty years as a conservation writer but is better known for his humorous books, such as Bobs, Brush, and Brittanies: A Long Love Affair with Quail Hunting. His amusing accounts of life in rural Missouri that have delighted many readers, even those who are not enamored by outdoor life. According to a Publishers Weekly reviewer, Bobs, Brush, and Brittanies is a folksy but informative guide to quail hunting, narrated as if its author is "imparting wisdom to family members … or to good friends."

Vance has also published books on bird dogs, supernatural tales from the outdoors, and memories of his youth. Among those in the last category is Down Home Missouri: When Girls Were Scary and Basketball Was King. In this work, wrote Nancy P. Shires in Library Journal, Vance sounds "a little like comedian Jeff Foxworthy" as he writes of moving from Chicago to Missouri, where he grew up on a farm in the 1950s. He discusses serious subjects such as the loss of wildlife habitats, but he reserves his best writing for personal experiences like his first kiss, his embarrassing forays onto the basketball court, and his memories of listening to Walter Winchell and Amos 'n' Andy on the radio. Booklist contributor George Cohen called Down Home Missouri a "humorous and poignant recollection."