a) did I dream it?
b) was it a genuine rumour but the book just wasn't written?
c) have I got it wrong about it being Waldrop?
d) rather than being a real novel was it a concept e.g. 'hey, wouldn't it be cool if Howard Waldrop wrote a novel where...'?
I am inclined to think that I have conflated a number of bizarre things as I remember the suggestion that the novel was going to be called 'Trout Fishing in America' which, of course, is a Richard Brautigan novel.