The Irresponsible Reader

When I received Smith’s initial round of answers, I replied: “Oo De Lally! You really picked the right nom de plume, didn’t you?” And I still feel that way. Beyond the name, this feels like the most Idaho-y of all of the Q&As I’ve done for this series in the last 2.5 years.

I had the pleasure of meeting Smith and his wife, Kristin, at the Nampa Library Book Faire this Spring and really wish we’d had longer to chat, I got the feeling that they had a bunch of stories (mostly true) to tell, and I’d love to hear them. But for now, I’ll make due with this.

Before we get into things, why don’t you give the reader a brief introduction to you and your work.
My name is Samuel Smith, and I write under the pen name Joe IDAHO. Before I became an author, I was a traveling archaeologist, a shovelbum. I traveled around the West from job to job for about ten years. Living in motels and tents and chasing the next dig or the next survey got old, so I became a high school English teacher with plans to continue archaeology during summer breaks. After teaching for five years, my daughter was born, and I became a stay-at-home dad.

I’ve always enjoyed writing stories. During the Pandemic and lockdown, I finished some stories I’d been working on. My wife read them and encouraged me to publish. I got into self publishing and have been working on improving my books ever since.

My Joe IDAHO books are a series of standalone stories with the state of Idaho, its history, politics, and culture as the underlying setting and theme. You can find my Joe IDAHO stories at joeidaho.com.

To help my readers get an idea get a little idea about the books you produce, could you share the title of your Teddy Roosevelt book? If you want to give a pitch, too—go ahead. But that title alone probably serves as a pitch.
Teddy Roosevelt’s Goblin: A Bigfoot Story is based on several stories, either by Teddy Roosevelt or about him. When I was in high school, my English teacher was trying to get me to read. They knew I was into Teddy Roosevelt and hunting, so they got me a copy of Roosevelt’s book, The Wilderness Hunter. In that book, Roosevelt recounts a story told to him out on the frontier by an old mountain man. The old mountain told Roosevelt a chilling account of being attacked by a creature, a goblin he called it, on what is now the Montana-Idaho border that could only be described as Bigfoot. I combined this story with accounts of Roosevelt on the frontier and a trip Roosevelt took to hunt reindeer in North Idaho. My story imagines what would happen if Roosevelt encountered the goblin he’d heard about while hunting in the Idaho wilderness.

Also, I love the term “shovelbum,” and am going to spend the next few weeks looking for opportunities to use it. (given the dearth of opportunities for me to talk about archaeology, it’ll probably only be because I talk about you or “I learned this fun new term…”)

What brought you to Idaho in the first place? What is it about Idaho that keeps you here?
Those are great questions, H.C. I’ve lived in Idaho since I was eight years old. When the family pig farm in Wyoming failed, we moved here. It was the late 1980s. My parents were trying to do an all organic, free range model of pig farming that was probably a little too ahead of its time. We couldn’t compete with mega corp industrial pig farms. So we sold the pigs when my dad found work as a bricklayer on the Mountain Home Air Force Base. He kept finding steady work on the base, so we stayed.

What keeps me in Idaho is its archaeology, history, and stories. As a kid, I fell in love with Idaho’s outdoors. Searching for artifacts, learning about Idaho’s past and how it shapes the stories Idaho tells became very important to me. I was lucky enough to spend much of my career as an archaeologist in Idaho.

Are you tied into some sort of local author/bookish group/culture? If so, tell us about it and how it helps you as an author. If you’re not, is there a reason for it?
Yes, I am involved in the local author community, and being part of that culture has been incredibly helpful to me as an author. I’m part of a local writers’ group called MMMWriters. The three M’s stand for Murder, Mystery, and Mayhem, but they’re open to authors of other genres. This group meets in person on the second Tuesday of every month and on the third Thursday via zoom. MMMWriters has really helped me with marketing, how to find an editor, proofreader, agent, and book fairs. They are a very active and supportive group of writers from across the state.

What kind of events in the area do you attend—either to sell/promote your books or to network with authors? Are there any outside of this area that you hit regularly and wish we had something like it here?
I’m just getting started with book promotion. So far, I’ve just been attending local book fairs and engaging with people on social media. I sell my books on Amazon and plan to get them on the other online retailers soon. I also plan on creating audiobook versions and a bookstore on my website. Book signings at local bookstores are also something I’d like to try.

What’s the breakdown of your audience—do you have a strong local base, or are your readers from other parts of the world?
A lot of the people who’ve bought my books have told me they were Idaho locals or interested in Idaho history. Online I’ve sold books to people from Canada and the UK, a few in Australia. Again, the theme seems to be people with an interest in learning more about the state.

What was it like getting that first UK or Australia sale? Was it exciting, ho-hum, or something else?
It was interesting and exciting to know that people outside the US picked up the book. I wondered how they came across it. It seemed, at least from what I could gather from their Amazon reviews that they had some connection to Idaho and Bigfoot, Bigfoot being the strongest of the two. I learned that both countries, the UK and Australia, have their own versions of Bigfoot, the Woodwose and Yowie respectively.

Do you think there are particular challenges or advantages to being a writer in the Treasure Valley? (possibly both)
I believe being a writer in the Treasure Valley comes with many advantages. The area boasts a vibrant and supportive writing community that actively brings authors together. At every book fair I’ve attended, fellow writers have reached out to welcome me and invite me to join their groups. The atmosphere has been overwhelmingly positive, with a strong spirit of encouragement and collaboration. As someone new to publishing and promotion, this support has been an invaluable advantage.

Do you bring Idaho (or some sort of Idaho-sensibility, assuming one exists) to your work? Whether or not anyone else sees it, can you look at some aspect of your writing and think “That’s Idaho” or “I would do ____ differently if I was a Kentuckian or from Illinois?”
Those are also important questions. To me, there is definitely an Idaho-sensibility in my work. It’s based on the idea that perceptions of Idaho change depending on who you ask. Growing up here, going to college, and working in Idaho, I noticed some locals falling into two categories. Some see Idaho as the greatest place on Earth, others couldn’t get out of the state fast enough. And of course, there are plenty of folks in the middle.

When I was a traveling archaeologist, I met many out-of-staters who had a lot of assumptions, misconceptions, and ideas about Idaho. To out-of-staters, Idaho was a place to escape to, or it was a place to run from. It really seems to depend on the individual. To give you some examples, a fellow archaeologist, a person not from Idaho, once asked me, “You’re from Idaho, right Sam? Do people in your state have running water, indoor toilets, electricity?” I laughed, but they were completely serious. [It’s funny because it’s true…] Another time, a biologist I was working with in Texas, a native of Texas and avid hunter, asked me, “I’ve waited my whole life to hunt elk in Idaho. I’m going to move there someday. Are your mountains really as rugged as they say? Are the lakes as crystal clear as the pictures?” He was all in on Idaho.

As Joe IDAHO, I try to portray and deconstruct the concept of Idaho using the different perspectives people have. I like to examine where the extreme ends of those perceptions meet. I see Idaho as many things all at once and more complex than the stereotypes, as I’m sure every state is. One experience that got me onto the idea of a series of Idaho themed books was a collection of stories a student handed me all about their home state of Florida. Every story was by a different Florida author and was loosely based on a crime or crazy incident that could only happen in that state. Each story imparted a Florida-sensibility unique to the author. It was so interesting it helped inspire me to write my Joe IDAHO stories.

One final question, is there a book (or two…or 18, if you get really carried away), that embodies Idaho/the Idaho spirit to you to recommend to my readers?
One book I would recommend to readers that embodies the Idaho spirit ‌would be Mountain Man by Vardis Fisher. Many people know the book and author from Sydney Pollack’s 1972 film Jeremiah Johnson, starring Robert Redford. Fisher, an Idaho native, drew upon his deep familiarity with the region to craft the novel’s setting. His intimate knowledge of Idaho’s terrain and history enriches the narrative, offering readers an authentic glimpse into the life of mountain men in the American West. I loved reading this book in high school. One of my first projects as an undergrad at BSU was surveying and recording the historic house Fisher built in Hagerman, Idaho.

I’m ashamed to say that Fisher never got on my radar as an Idaho novelist. I should get acquainted with Mountain Men.

Thanks for your time and participation! Hope you enjoyed it!