EclecticGuy

My book, The Reelsmith’s Primer, is now shipping! I spent the better part of the weekend packaging books for all of the pre-orders and fulfilling the new orders that came in after the availability announcement on Friday. Now I have one more major event to look forward to – “The Reviews”! I did have very positive feedback from the dozens of people who I gave access to the draft version of the book, so I hold out hope that the reviews will be favorable.

In any event, … Continue Reading

Here is the book overview, description and author information for my book.

BOOK OVERVIEW

148 pages • 107 B&W photographs and illustrations • includes full scale reel plans and design templates • 8.5” x 11” hardcover • spiral bound to lie flat on your workbench

BOOK DESCRIPTION

In The Reelsmith’s Primer, author Michael L. J. Hackney has finally made reelsmithing accessible to the inspired angler. With a few basic hand tools, an electric drill, and Michael’s proven techniques, material selections, and clear step-by-step … Continue Reading

Here it is, my new book! It went to press on Friday and it will take about 5 weeks to print. With its completion, I’ve fulfilled one of my personal goals – to write a how-to book. I’m not sure why that has been a goal, perhaps it has something to do with being a fan of the second Bob Newhart show, “Newhart“. In this series, Bob played an innkeeper and a do-it-yourself book author in Vermont. Throw in fly fishing and it would … Continue Reading

The manuscript for my book on reel making, The Reelsmith’s Primer is finally done! I will send a copy of it to my publisher, The Whitefish Press, tomorrow. I feel really good about it and learned a lot in the process. Early on, I created a reelsmithing community and used it to solicit ideas, provide feedback, and sanity check my writing and instructions. It was a huge success!

One of my goals for the book was to make it practical for … Continue Reading

My publisher has a fantastic fishing/history blog – Fishing for History. Every Friday he posts a Video of the Week. This week’s music video is so funny and so good I just have to share it here! It can be found on YouTube too.

Cheers!

One of my favorite tech books – “The Art of Ware” – is available as a free PDF here. I don’t have time to post my thoughts on this book right now but I will soon. I wanted to get this out now for the benefit of my readers.