hopper creek press

All Great Retrievers Are Temperamental

by John Hewitt
hardcover, 362 pages, 9″ x 6″
published December 2017

From the dustjacket:
This book covers the years from 1970 to 1979, with a whole new cast of characters, most notably John’s wife, Mary Coote, and Ron Rau. Bit parts are played by John Zillich, Russ Wood, Stan Zuray, and Tom Walker.
It is noteworthy that the stories “Sugar Snow” and “The Last Drink In The Bottle” are included herein…they were the first two stories that John submitted to Gray’s Sporting Journal in early 1976 and one of them is referred to in the “Introduction”, penned by Reed Austin in 1995, when John first had a notion to put a book out.
There is liable to be some confusion about Ron and John vs Hiram and Bobby Lee. Ron and John took a class in American Literature (twentieth century) under Dr. June Duncan in which they were exposed to Flannery O’Connor, who wrote a short story named “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”. In that story, the antagonists are three escaped convicts (from Georgia). Two of the prisoners are Hiram and Bobby Lee, of who the third convict says, “Why don’t you step into the woods with Hiram and Bobby Lee…they’d like to ask you some questions.” Hiram and Bobby Lee would shoot whoever they took into the woods. So, Ron and John became Hiram and Bobby Lee forever after.
John’s lifestyle was settling in place most nicely; work in Alaska in the winter and take the fall off to go pheasant hunting in Kansas. With ducks on the side. Finally, Mary would marry him in 1979, opening the door to children and Chessies, which John will get to in his next book.

The Model 12 Winchester As A Way of Life

by John Hewitt
hardcover, 336 pages, 9″ x 6″
published June 2013

From the dustjacket:
One of the differences between Nash Buckingham and John Hewitt (other than the obvious: John can’t shoot as well…) is, John Hewitt waited until he got his whole work together before putting out a book. He has written the majority of his work for Gray’s Sporting Journal, where it came out from memory, much the same as Nash’s appeared in magazine articles, with no attempt to put it in chronological order.
But now he has attempted to put them into his life’s story, starting with The Model 12 Winchester As A Way Of Life, which chronicles life to the age of twenty-five, from 1945 to 1970.

The first few stories here are relatively serious, dealing with some relatively serious things: telling the truth, for instance. Then the twins met Terry in the seventh grade. Terry, with his Garcia Ambassedeur, where Tom had a Langley, and John, a South Bend (casting reels) could be seen as elite. But only in the area of casting reels. After all, he had only been to Lake Shawnee, and the twins had been to Ontario, and fished for walleye and northern pike.

But he was the only person in the seventh grade at Theodore Roosevelt Junior High to hunt or fish. And he tied flies and jigs, and, more importantly, was known to buy the twins a cheeseburger, over the years. So, he became, in the words of the twins’ mother, “…my triplet.”

The author has been known to see the humor in things, and the advent of Terry in his life opened the season on humor. He is quick to say, “I am just a poor writer, attempting to put down a collection of hunting and fishing stories; Terry FORCES me to write humorously, whether I want to or not…”

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