3 hours RT to a bookstore

[Papasequoia]

Hi guys, the nearest bookstore to me is in Palmdale, about a 1.5 hour drive one way. It appears from the website that The Drake magazine published a story in the new spring issue that I sent them. However, I have not had confirmation (a.k.a. "a check"). Would one of you who lives near a Barnes and Noble or a fly shop check it out and see if my article is in the print version? On the website they changed the title to "Hotel California" and they edited it down by about a third (taking out some of my favorite parts, of course), but it looks like it is in there. It's about the steelhead trip that Luc and I took back in January. Thanks much - I don't want to make inquiries about payment before I'm sure that it is in the print version. Jon

[WanderingBlues]

Congrats if you got in! That was a helluva trip.

[Flatsix]

I'll save you 3hrs of driving, gas money and wear and tear on your vehicle and get you some mailbox money.

Your article is in the Spring edition on page 64.

Congratulations!

[Papasequoia]

Awesome, thanks for finding it! Jon

[lucfish]

Hey congrats on the publication. I don't subscribe to the drake, does the version online that I just read the same in the magazine or does the magazine have a more complete version of your story.

[RichardCullip]

Congrats on getting your story in print.

[Papasequoia]

Hey congrats on the publication. I don't subscribe to the drake, does the version online that I just read the same in the magazine or does the magazine have a more complete version of your story.

That's what I don't know yet, Luc. I was supposed to be driving to Pasadena to bring the wife to a doctor's appt. today and I was going to pick up a copy but we ended up not going. I hope you liked it - I didn't want to say anything about it before I was sure it was going to be published and I just discovered that today. I'm not happy with some of the edits, but what can you do. Here is the full version that I submitted:

Fighting the Beast

Huddled in the cramped hotel room I peer blearily at the label on the creamer packet and see that both it and the sugar are produced by a Texas chemical company. Looking around it’s hard to believe that they have fit two queen beds in this tiny room. Every remaining inch of open space is taken up with duffel bags of clothing, rod holders, waders, boots and other assorted fly fishing paraphernalia like empty beer bottles. There are wet garments draped everywhere to dry.

My friend Luc and I finished up a three day steelhead trip the day before and it had poured rain for the last few hours before the takeout. With tired and aching muscles we helped unload the drift boat and piled into the truck for the ride back to our car. I fell asleep in the backseat amid the smell of wet wool and the steady drumming of rain on the roof. This is where we ended up.

Platitudes appear to be unavoidable when it comes to talking about steelhead. From lines like ‘the fish of a thousand casts’ to the tales of addiction they are as unvaried as a mantra and through their sheer and continual repetitiveness one begins to suspect their veracity. Could it really be as great as all that? Nevertheless, there is an implacable urge to give it a try - like the joint that is passed to the neophyte, the uninitiated – the curiosity of having a go at it can become irresistible. And so I found myself driving up through the Central Valley of California in the dark and the fog headed north to at least attempt it, “just this once.”

Luc is an old hand at the hunt for sea-run chrome – the long drive, the hours on the water, the highs and the lows - and he has become quite successful at it. He prepares me with a mixture of casting advice and tales of big fish along with caution about being too optimistic. “There is a very real chance of fishing from dawn until dark for three days without catching a single fish,” he tells me, before launching into another story about halting a fish just a couple of turns before the backing ran out.

It’s hard to pin down any one emotion amidst this barrage of information. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross came up with a model commonly called the five stages of grief, and at times I feel like I’m going through it, but in the form of anxious anticipation. Denial – I fish for trout at least 50 days a year, or course I will be successful! Anger – I better catch a fish in three days or I’m going to be *! Bargaining – it’s three days; all I’m asking for is a single fish. I’ll be happy with just one, really I will. Depression – this sucks, I have three days off midweek. I could be on a local tailwater catching big browns in warm temps. Why am I even doing this? Acceptance – ok, I can do this. It doesn’t matter how it turns out, it’s the experience I’m looking for anyway. That’s why they call it fishing and not catching, blah, blah, blah. The miles roll by.

The biggest thrill for me did not come from catching my first steelhead (oh yes, I caught fish) but rather from watching the monster that Luc hooked as it broke free of the water. I saw it first from the corner of my eye as I stood on shore watching the fight. I can still see it in my mind’s eye as it leaps and turns in midair, water droplets flying and time standing still. It’s almost surreal - a fish that big should not be living in a river. The memory haunts me still.

Back in the hotel room I part the curtain and look out at the 18-wheelers rolling down the highway, rushing to get anywhere but here. The night before we had changed out of our wet waders and jackets in the restroom of a Quiznos sub shop after a white knuckle drive over a snow covered pass. That was followed by hours speeding down the highway in a driving rain until exhaustion finally led us to hole up in this fleabag hotel for the night. So this is what steelhead addiction will look like.

I dump in the chemicals and drink the coffee.

(734 words)

[Pete]

Good read. Felt the addiction right next to you on the water

Pete

[Eric]

Jon congrats. That is pretty cool!!!
Eric

[tenandtwo]

I spend many lunch breaks sitting in my truck reading fishing mags, Sunday I read your story, no, I thought, it must be some other professor up against the Sierras and another Steel vet named Luc.

Congrats on getting published! Great writing! - but I still really like the original TR you guys put up here.

[WanderingBlues]

Oh man..... The Kubler-Ross analogy was so on point, I just found myself nodding my head and going "Yep. Uh-huh. Yep." Wonder what Freud what have said....

Great read and congrats!

[briansII]

Congrats!

I'm not reading the full version above, until I can sit and enjoy it fully.

briansII

[Flatsix]

Congrats!

I'm not reading the full version above, until I can sit and enjoy it fully.

briansII

Which brings up a potential reason as to why the Drake would shorten a well written short story. My copy of the Drake is kept in a sacred place where it can be read story by story, day after day. Maybe the Drake people consider this when editing.

You follow me?

[Jason]

Great read and congratulations. Now I need to go back and look up that trip report.

[silverlaker]

Very cool - congratulations on getting published. I enjoyed the story.