When I first wrote the poem "Fishing Trip", it was done while I was working away from home in Abu Dhabi just for something to read to my then 2 year-old daughter. By the time she had arrived to stay, so many other things happened, I forgot about it and only found it again while writing the second novel "Protective Craft- The Lost Diaries of Richard Buchanan".
By that point, Holly was 4 and I was in Mongolia and had published 3 books on Kindle. I decided to polish up the poem and add images of trout to make it more interesting for her now she was able to read simple books and was showing an interest in my fishing "exploits", especially the catches of trout.
I needed an illustrator so my mum was again roped in for artist duties. This had the benefit of "free artwork", but the problem of the paintings only becoming available when she had had the time to complete them.
Effectively, the main text of the book was completed by September 2012, but the illustrations weren't. While waiting I decided to add the simple casting and fishing instructions too which I could draw on my own.
Eventually, almost a year after since accepting the "commission", the final picture was delivered and the book could be uploaded on to Kindle as "Fishing Trip - An Introduction to Fly Fishing and Trout".
This was not the original hope. I had hoped that I would be able to find a publisher capable of turning it into a colour plate hardback for children to read, or for others to read to them to get them interested in fishing in general and fly fishing of trout in particular. The nice thing about Kindle format is that the machine will read the book to the child and Holly has already done this, fascinated by being "in a book" where her father helps her catch a fish. The really surprising thing about the whole affair is that, after writing it with a target audience of one, copies are being whisked of the electronic shelves at a rapid rate.
Not long now Holly. I'll be home soon and we'll really catch one together.
