The Daily Coyote Hits The Big Time

On December 1, I offered you a link to the blog Daily Coyote here.

The Daily Coyote blog came on line in mid-September. I discovered it in November when Dooce recommended it. Just after Christmas, the Chicago Tribune did a story on the blog, which was then logging 30,000 hits a day.

Shreve Stockton, a 30-year-old writer and photographer, lives in a one-room log cabin in Wyoming with her cat Eli. She has previously published a cookbook on Eating Gluten Free.

Two years ago, while riding her Vespa across country from San Francisco to New York, she fell in love with Wyoming. She's been supporting herself as a ranch hand and substitute teacher.

In April, 2007, hunters killed two coyotes, leaving behind a ten-day-old pup. Shreve took the baby in, named him Charlie and started a photo record of his growth. Five months later, she began her blog, posting a photo a day of Charlie, Eli (who was NOT amused by his new bedmate) and her surroundings.

The Chicago Tribune article said:

People are seriously loving this site. Stockton's photos are beautiful, but, more important, they capitalize on a triumvirate of cultural fascinations: blogging, living off the grid (Stockton has electricity and DSL but no running water in the winter) and, perhaps most viscerally and ridiculously, having a wild animal as a pet.

Shreve began by offering to sell photos of Charlie, then she offered to sell calendars of Charlie. Now for $5 a month, you can subscribe to The Daily Coyote.

I am confident she is building a database of names to be used for the inevitable Charlie book. My only question as to whether she would self-publish (she has a niche) or go traditional was answered in the January 14th edition of Publishers Weekly:

Marysue Rucci [of Simon and Schuster] preempted world rights to a memoir by 30-year-old photographer Shreve Stockton titled The Daily Coyote: A Year with Charlie, derived from her popular blog of the same name; Stacey Glick at Dystel & Goderich made the sale . . . pub date is scheduled for fall 2008.

If you visit the site, be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom to see the photos in order. We are still five months behind real time although--if you read the FAQ in her blog's left-hand column--you can link to a picture of Charlie today in the snow.

Everyone is holding their collective breath to see what Charlie does next month when mating season begins. My brother, who is an avid hunter, says Shreve should neuter Charlie because one of two things will happen: (1) He'll be killed by a coyote pack, or (2) Unafraid of humans, he will not run from hunters and be shot. I hope my brother is wrong.