A well-known regional Iowa hunter, author and columnist is out with his 22nd book, on the same topic almost all have dealt with; cooking wild game. Rick Black writes a column for the Fort Madison Daily Democrat newspaper, but his passion is hunting and eating wild game. He says the number-one mistake people make is not grilling or barbecuing with charcoal or gas without taking into account the difference between direct and indirect heat.

“A lot of folks really ruin good food because they don’t know what they’re doing on a grill,” he declares. Black was born in southeast Iowa, and has lived in Burlington for the last 21 years. He’s an avid hunter, and includes a lot of wild game recipes and cooking tips in his newspaper column. His books, some of them tongue-in-cheek, include titles like “The Dead Deer Cookbook,” “Trailer Trash Cooking,” and “Funky Duck.” He’s thinking of writing a couple of other how-to books, but most are on cooking.

Black says a lot of the secret to cooking and eating wild game is a matter of taste. Wild game is a very lean meat with little fat. He says cooks face the challenge of adding flavors during cooking, and getting the gamey taste out of the meat — though it’s a flavor he himself prefers. His birthday is (tomorrow/today/this week/Tuesday) and the 45-year-old Black says while he’s working at a bakery and writing a newspaper column today, he has a plan for the future.

Black says his motto’s always been “A goal without a plan is a wish.” If anything in college, “besides learning how to open cans and drink out of a beer bong,” Black says, that motto guided him. He says he has a goal, to retire from his office job when he’s fifty and do nothing but write and hunt, a goal that’s falling into place.