| from Deanna Travis September 7, 2009 |
I don’t know what happened to Charlie. You might have known him as Northwest
Fly some twelve years ago. Since then he divorced his attorney wife, (that
had to be interesting) remarried and moved from the neighborhood. At least
his car is gone. That could mean he is just gone since I haven’t seen him
in years, or he moved on. Charlie was a mover and shaker. At least that was
his cover story. In reality he wrote ‘code’, computer speak for the language
used to produce whatever it is we see on a computer screen.
Actually he produced on-line training and instruction books for a major manufacturer
of air powered equipment. He was well paid for what he did, and frankly was
bored stiff.
Through some kind of Internet Networking group he met Don, who was doing somewhat
the same thing. Working from home, producing web sites for a company who made
stuff for the home hobbyist. Again, well paid and bored to death.
The two guys tried to come up with a web site of their own where they could
make a million dollars in a year. I’m not kidding, that was the goal. Nice
trick if you can do it.
Enter the outdoor writer. Outdoor writer was writing a weekly column for a
newspaper giant, name withheld to protect the writer, and had just written
the first column for the giants’ new venture, a web site called Go West. (I
can tell you that because the web site is long gone.)
The giant poured a half million dollars into the web site in less than a year.
Darn, don’t you wish FAOL had that kind of money to burn?
For about six months Charlie tried to convince the writer to quit the ‘day
job’ and start a web site on, of all things, fly-fishing. A natural since
the writer was a fly fisherman.
The writer owned a computer, but the computer was used as a word processor
and not even connected to any Internet anything. Nothing. Zip. However, since
the writer was now writing for a web site, writer’s significant other decided
to get connected. And since neither were Internet savvy, AOL seemed to be
the best idea. As much as I dislike AOL, they really are a good place for
beginners and get people started pretty much on the right track.
Charlie starts showing up more often. He even helps the new computer nerds
find the right programs and even helps significant other to learn how to turn
slides into computer images. Did I mention there were some purchases of other
computer stuff too; scanner, slide scanner, digital camera. Sort of goes with
the whole concept, but you see a pattern here.
Okay, I’ve played with you a bit; the outdoor writer was yours truly. The
significant other was my late husband, JC. I should mention that JC was recovering
from a heart attack and was at the time working at a local fly shop. We had
sold our day job, the people who bought it defaulted and we had a real mess.
However, we were making it, paying our bills and such and had a potential
buyer for JC’s Patent. Life was not ideal, but it was working out all right.
About three months passed with Charlie at our door almost every evening. Sort
of like being told to stand in the corner and not think about a white polar
bear. I did think about the possibility of a fly-fishing web site. I knew
there were some very poor (in my opinion) sites around, some, which (in my
opinion) showed fly-fishing as an elitist and snobby sport, some which were
all about the numbers of fish caught. There was nothing about quality of the
experience for sure, and nothing about bringing people into fly-fishing.
At about the same time I began writing for the Angler’s Journal,
published out of Livingston, Montana. The Journal was I believe, what a fly
fishing magazine should be. It had little of everything; it had the how-to,
where-to and with what, along with good stuff on the why of fly-fishing. I
was honored to write for it. Bob Auger was the Publisher, Neil Travis, (yes
the same one) was the Editor. In the beginning they didn’t pay their writers,
and I don’t think anyone who wrote for them, good writers, complained. But
eventually there was enough either subscription or advertising dollars to
pay writers, and I was nearly in shock when the first check showed up, noting
I was paid 15 cents per word. The Journal had the content, the look and feel,
and the attitude of encouraging the readers to go and do.
I stole the concept and it became Fly Anglers On Line. The only thing I added
was the warm water section. I felt then, and now, the anglers who can’t fish
for trout or salmon are just as important as fly fishers as anyone else. It
was just that no one had given them time or space. We did.
Of course the Bulletin Board and Chat Room are things any magazine would love
to do - and trust me, the Letters to the Editor are a mixed blessing for any
magazine publisher. There are some you just aren’t going to print…even if
the author writes again and asks why you didn’t print it. And you just can’t
print the same “attaboy” letters every week. The Angler’s Journal died
after it was sold to Rod Walinchus who tried to turn it into a “yuppie
chronicle” with fine cigars, wine and restaurant reviews. He just couldn’t
leave a good thing alone.
Charlie and Don who pushed and nearly coerced Fly Anglers On Line into being,
left by April of 1998, barely six months after the first issue went ‘live’
Sept 1, 1997. They decided that anyone who wanted to publish such a magazine
weekly was certifiably nuts. There are other problems, but the bottom line
then, and now is, I own Fly Anglers On Line. Period. You can yell and wave
your arms, but I get to do it my way. Don’t you love it when a plan comes
together?
I’m writing this on Sept. 1 - not by accident. No, it doesn’t seem like twelve
years has passed, but I know I’m older, the hair is grayer, and there are
wrinkles I wish weren’t there. JC has passed, I married Neil Travis, and life
goes on. For me, life is very good. I am grateful and blessed.
Thank God.
Originally published September 7, 2009 on Fly Anglers Online by Deanna Travis.