S6, Ep 105: Painting, Patents and Pages: Brian Hester's Latest Endeavors

Marvin Cash: Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of The Articulate Fly. On this episode, artist, inventor, and now author Brian Hester returns to the podcast. Brian updates us on his work at the easel, his collaborations with JamUp and Moth Bear, and his latest project, She Talks to Fish. I think you're really gonna really enjoy this one. 

But before we get to the interview, just a couple of housekeeping items. If you like the podcast, please tell a friend and please subscribe and leave us a rating review in the podcatcher of your choice. It really helps us out. 

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Well, Brian, welcome back to The Articulate Fly.

Brian Hester: Thank you, Marvin, for having me. I appreciate it.

Marvin Cash: Yeah, man, I'm looking forward to the conversation. You know, it's kind of funny. I looked at the archives, and I was surprised to see that you were on season one, episode 19, which has been about five and a half years ago. And, you know, not like we haven't seen each other a bunch kind of in that intervening time, but, you know, for our listeners, you know, you're in perpetual motion. I was kind of curious, you know, I think back then,you know, you were putting artwork in Boone and Banner Elk and places like that, but I was kind of curious, you know, what’s your artist journey been like, you know, over the last few years in terms of, you know, any new themes, materials, influences, any good stuff like that? 

Brian Hester: Well, it's really cool. I've still been behind the easel. And that part of my background and that part of my charge is never gonna leave me. But I did actually set the paintbrushes down for a little bit while I was tinkering with a few other really, really cool things. And, as you know, maybe some of the listeners know, that I do have a visual arts background. I am a painter. You know, the background, actually started drawing, illustrating, painting, and I even dabbled a little bit in industrial design stuff coming out of college. It's just been in the back of my mind. So some really, really cool things were materializing. I was doing a lot of stuff with tactile, tactile stuff, building, doing stuff with magnets, trying to help myself out. All of this stuff has a common thread of fly fishing that I play with, from the stuff that I invent, and my paintings, which are still constant, and a book that I just wrote, so, and also some apparel that I've just been able to put out. So it's been a lot of fun.

Marvin Cash: Yeah, we're gonna get to all that. I know that one outgrowth of all that is you've got a partnership with JamUp Apparel. And I was kind of curious, you know, if you could tell us a little bit about those guys, kind of, you know, how you found each other, you know, why you thought it was a good fit for what you're trying to create.

Brian Hester: Because I'm behind the canvas so much. I'm always doing some really, like, what I think are really innovative, kind of new looks to my passion, which is fly fishing. I do a lot of stuff with inversion and substitution, and it's, it's kind of, it kind of materialized to the point where  I was like, man, this would be just really, really cool on some hoodies. I thought it would be really, really cool. On some shorts, I thought it'd be really, really cool. I mean, on a golf bag, I thought it would be cool on a bunch of stuff. And I was looking for a company that was out there that actually did stuff with fishing. And, I think it was September of last year, I stumbled across JamUp Apparel, and they're out of Spokane, Washington. And they basically brought me in with open arms. It was a lot of fun. I reached out with them. I did, showed them a bunch of my designs and my thoughts about its application, what it could be used for. And then all of a sudden started tinkering a little bit more with some of the fish skin designs that I was doing. And then bingo bango, we started, some really, really cool looking hoodies. I've got a couple of brown trout or a brown trout design. I've got a brookie design. I've got a couple of rainbow designs on the website. So, and again, it's JamUp Apparel. So if people wanted to go take a look.

Marvin Cash: Yeah, no, and I'll, I'll get all that stuff and drop that stuff in the show notes for you. But, you know, it's interesting because I've seen some of the hoodies, and I guess a couple things that I was kind of struck by was one, you know, not only do you have the design, but you also have the texture that's in the fabric.

Brian Hester: Yes. And their fabric is actually a patented fabric that they have, SPF 50. These hoodies that they build are fantastic. And with the designs of the, like, for example, the rainbow trout skin, it's not loud. I don't wanna say, “loud.” It's attention getting. And it sends a message to anybody, you know, looking that they're like, What what is that? And then, then a conversation comes out of it. Oh, I fly fish. I love, you know, fishing for rainbow trout, brown trout, rookies, anything. And I've got a bass design that's on there as well. The sleeves are emulative of those, those fish. It's fantastic. New, good looking stuff.

Marvin Cash: Yeah. I think it's neat, too, that, you know, I like the fact that they're two-ply, right? So, you know, that there's a little bit more substance to them than, you know, a lot of hoodies. I mean, sometimes maybe if it's really, really hot, that doesn't work, but, you know, if we're just kind of kicking around. I thought that was really good cause, you know, some of those hoodies kind of look like you were, they were kind of spray painted on, you know what I mean?

Brian Hester: Oh, absolutely. They’re sweat-wicking, breathable. They're light enough that you don't feel like you're, you're completely gonna have heat stroke. They are fantastic. And I fished in them  already, you know, ten times. Just..they're awesome. Love them.

Marvin Cash: Yeah. And it's interesting, too, right? Cause you touched on this, kind of as we were getting started, that, you know, you're also, you know, people know you as kind of, you know, Hester, the art teacher at Myers Park High School. But you're this kind of tinkering inventor, right? And you seem to kind of be in perpetual motion. And you know, I was kind of curious, you know, have you always been like that, kind of trying to figure out better ways to do things or is that something you kind of found kind of later on?

Brian Hester: Well, it's my brain is firing all the time. My brain is 1,000 miles an hour, and I'm always looking for that next thing. What is it that's gonna be special about, you know, the industry, the fly fishing industry? And when I was tinkering, this probably started back in right around 2014, 2015 when I was trying to figure out a magnetic system to carry my fly rods on my truck and also any other SUV or any other regular car. I kind of stumbled onto some really, really cool ways to interchange and utilize the magnetic system so that you could, everything kind of fed on itself. and then all of a sudden that tinkering with the rod carrier kind of materialized into new ways to carry my flies on my person. Like I can carry it on my cap. I can carry it on my chest. I can carry it on my ship, I can carry it anywhere. And that system also works with everything that you would end up doing with the truck, too. 

So. And I found, it was about three years ago. I was looking for a company just to hear me out, just to see what I've done. If I had to sign NDAs, I would, and I really wanted them to see this design or, and I, I spoke to a lot of people, I mean, a lot of people. And then all of a sudden I found this company that was brand new and I found them in July. And then we started talking again, oddly enough, about August, September timeframe. The guy’s name Tylor Witulski and he owns MothBear. And he wants to innovate in the industry. He wants to actually be at the front, i.e. he wants to be chased instead of trying to chase. He creates boat bags. He creates, he created a fantastic chest pack system, all utilizing aspects of the magnetic stuff that I had done. And then we started working together. He's got  an engineering background which made things even more perfect based upon working together and it was like a perfect storm. It was like it couldn't have been any better by means of having my jacked-up brain that's always conceptually always way out there, and he would always reel it back in and talk about the engineering component. And then I was really pretty good about the industrial design aspect, where I would end up trying to remove human error. So that when you bring a product to market or when you're putting a product out there, that it's going to be flawless, that it's going to work fantastic. And it was just, it's been, it's been awesome being able to work with them. I've been blessed in terms of, or I've been lucky, as well, in terms of finding really, really good people, honest people that wanna do some moving and shaking in the fly fishing industry.

Marvin Cash: Got it. And, you know, kind of curious. I mean, there are plenty of, you know, pack and, you know, doodad manufacturers in fly fishing. You know, what is it that sets MothBear apart? I mean, what's their different approach from, like, Umpqua, Fishpond, Simms, you know, all those guys?

Brian Hester: It's soup to nuts. We actually, we build out. We physically build the product and then we analyze the product after we've done the design work to make sure that things are appropriated. Things are actually where they're supposed to be. And so that they're easy access to anglers, left-handed, right-handed. And one thing, in particular, like that I was talking about with the, we invented a magnetic fly box that will go on anything, anywhere. It's spectacular.  And it's like an anytime box, you can load it, and it's deep enough to hold, you know, high hackle on drys. And it's shallow enough to hold, like a ton of nips. So you can, you can be with one little fly box. Put that or three or four of those little fly boxes. Put them all over your person without carrying a chest pack, carrying all sorts of other stuff around where you can. I do a lot of rock hopping when I'm on the river. I do a lot of, you know, maneuvering up the river. And I don't like stuff thinking stuff would fall off. This system is fantastic. It works magnificent. So I hope everybody gets a chance to just go look at the magnetic fly box that MothBear has, so.

Marvin Cash: Yeah. And so just to, I would want to kind of back up a little bit, though, cause I wanna kind of, you know, understand like, I know you're kind of like, you're like a creative tasmanian devil, right?

Brian Hester: Yeah. Yeah. Brain's always working, man.

Marvin Cash: Yeah, I would, maybe, you know, maybe a Quaalude or two every now and again might not be a bad thing.

Brian Hester: Calm it down.

Marvin Cash: But, I was just kind of curious about, like, I wanna kind of think about like the tinkering and the inventing, kind of, in kind of the context of your broader kind of creativity, right? Is it just another kind of spoke on the Hester wheel or kind of how does it integrate with kind of how you think as a visual artist?

Brian Hester: It is. It's all about like, if I'm building a composition on canvas, that's, that's my process within my design, my point of view. Whether, and point of view has the physical and the metaphysical. For example, I can physically see something in its depth of field or its point of view, i.e. that I'm thinking about something a certain way. It's perspective. So, I'm always composing. When you're composing, you're still designing. The same thing with the tinkering. How does the design look? Is the design, you know, is it sexy? Does it look great for the, for the consumer out on the shelf. You know, how is it presented, and how does it look in its final state? So I'm always working in that phase, that realm, inside the, I guess, that space, so to speak. I want things to look good. So that's what's up.

Marvin Cash: There you go. Well, you know, and if it wasn't enough, you kind of touched on this, almost stole a little bit of my thunder. You know, you are, I don't know, within, you know, what, a week, a week or two weeks of dropping your first novel, She Talks to Fish, and you know, that's kind of pretty crazy from kind of, you know, you got a full time gig, plus you got all this other stuff going on. But, you know, I was really kind of curious, you know, what's the, what was the genesis of the project?

Brian Hester: That's a great question. The genesis of the project actually started 10 years ago when I initiated and built a club at the high school where I teach, Myers Park High School. And I wanted to introduce young people to fly fishing. And I initially, when I started the program, there were a lot of young people involved, and I thought that this is great. This is just fantastic. I'm gonna be able to kind of, you know, pay this forward, show all these young people this, this beautiful thing, fly fishing, and introduce this to them so that they can enjoy, they can find maybe something in this that I found growing up, which was just amazing for me. Then the membership kept growing, and it was just young white kids and I was like, well, this, this fly fishing thing is for everyone. It's literally for everyone. 

And it's the, I look at fly fishing to be, for me personally, the world's greatest equalizer, because fly fishing doesn't care about anything. Doesn't care about your political views, doesn't care about your culture, doesn't care about how tall you are, how skinny. It doesn't gender, gender associations, anything. It doesn't care. But what it demands is your attitude and your effort if you want to succeed at it, if you want to involve yourself with it. And those lessons that I've learned from fly fishing, if I could actually give that to the kids, that was the biggest plug. 

Well, fast forward. I started to get a lot of young women involved with fly fishing, and then my charge became to get more young women of color fly fishing. And then all of a sudden, more young women started holding seats on the, in the organization that I had, as far as president, vice president, secretary treasurer, and they became more involved. And when you start talking about beautiful stuff like this, when young, young people are involved and other young people are like, what are you doing? Well, I'm in the fly fishing club. You ought to come try it. And then they let their guard down a little bit, and then they come out and try it, and then all of a sudden, it just starts to, there's a swelling, so to speak. And beautiful things happen from that. And that's the inspiration for, you know, my journey in getting things started with this, with the novel.

Marvin Cash: Yeah, I mean, so when did you have the kind of “the light bulb” moment? Hey, I wanna write a novel about this?

Brian Hester: It started as a story, and in my brain, I'm thinking, this is a cool story. And because, again, I'm always creating. I was like, this is a really, really awesome story. I even ran it by my wife, and she's like, this is really an incredibly cool story. So I thought, hmm. I don't know. I just took a shot in the dark. I called my cousin and she's a screenwriter, and she's a three-time author, and she has, and she's an English teacher, and she took the story and helped me put it in a script form. And then I started sending out, sending to different production companies and then also some studios to see if I could get some bites. You know, unsolicited scripts, and didn't get anything. Didn't. Nothing happened. Nothing happened. So I just kind of tabled everything for, you know, two and a half years, almost three years. 
And then I had this epiphany. I was like, well, this story is so good. Let's, it's a really solid story. It's like, it's like a tree. I'm gonna go ahead and put the leaves on the tree and then put the ornaments on the tree. So I just started writing. So I called my cousin again. She said, absolutely not. Not doing it. And then, reluctantly, I wore her down enough. And then she finally bought in. And here we are. Legitimately, I think it's like four years later. It was all the way through Covid, or at least in the initial phases of Covid all the way to right now in terms of finishing this beautiful story.

Marvin Cash: Yeah, that's pretty neat. And so give us a brief overview of the novel.

Brian Hester: It's about, my main character, her name is Maya Jones. She's a young African American female that grows up in Boone, set in the mid to late eighties. So, if you were a woman fly fishing in the eighties,you were, I mean, that was a bit of a rarity. But if you were black and fly fishing in the eighties, kind of like a unicorn almost. So, I wanted to authenticate it that way where I was able to be at the front. I wanted this to be something that was new and innovative and incredibly creative, where people could actually go, wow, this is absolutely brand new. I've never heard of anything like this. This story is fantastic. 

And Maya Jones actually encounters and defies everything from stereotypes, bigotry. Defies nature and weather. Defies death with immeasurable perseverance. And I just felt as though that the story with all the young women that I had in my club, it was, it was time to actually say, Okay, you know, melanin shouldn't be something to inhibit an opportunity. And I want the world to be able to see the beauty of what this young woman, my main character, Maya Jones, encounters, perseveres through. And then ultimately, how they, how they ended the book. Kind of how things culminate. It's just spectacular. I don't want to give any more away. I just want people to put their hands on the book and give it a read. 

And it's a true book, Marvin. It's a true book about fly fishing. Yes, it's a fiction novel, but it's a true book about fly fishing. And if you're an angler and you read it, it'll resonate with you. And even if you're not an angler, you don't care anything about fly fishing, it'll resonate. It's, it's inspiring, empowering, and you'll leave knowing and feeling like you belong in any scenario. It's fantastic.

Marvin Cash: Yeah. And it's interesting. I mean, you know, so, you know, you are not female and African American, so I'm kind of curious, you know, how did you feel comfortable that you could tell Maya's story authentically and respectfully?

Brian Hester: I knew being a white author with a young black narrative that grows up, I knew that that probably would end up being a bit of a hurdle. But I also felt as though that the story has never been told. It's never been, let me go back. I knew again, like I said, that I was gonna end up running into some obstacles as far as that aspect might be concerned. And I wanted to remove that because the amount of research that I did for this book, i.e. the eight years spent making everything perfect, making everything right, making all the puzzle pieces fit.I had 16 women as beta readers. My research was just immeasurable. Again, I constantly was referring to friends and also people that had nothing to do with fly fishing or understanding anything about fly fishing to help make sure that the voice and the southern voice was right. And I feel good about it, I feel positive about it. And I got a little bit of pushback. I reached out to some individuals that said there's no way that I could do that. And, you know, I'm not a quitter. So, I think that, don't judge a book by its cover. That's gonna be my mantra.

Marvin Cash: Well, there you go. And, you know, it's kind of interesting, right? So you're, you know, your day gig is you’re a visual arts teacher at Myers Park High School. And, you know, that is, you know, my mom's a retired public school teacher. And so I know kind of what a grind that can be, right? Cause, like, you know, the day doesn't end at 2 or 3:00 you're grading papers and doing stuff. And so, you know, I was kind of curious, you know, how did you find the time to craft your first draft?

Brian Hester: I, my block of time was specific, and my block of time, basically, my day would start at 4:50 in the morning. I would get up, get my coffee, get in the car, get to school, and then I would start hammering through some writing because it was quiet. I didn't have anybody bothering me. So technically, for about, almost, almost 3 hours, I could write. And then as the evening kind of wound down, after the 7:30 time frame, 8:00 time frame, I would actually move back into, get behind the computer again and start grinding. And that, that pause in the middle of the day where I actually changed modes was enough for me to actually kind of work through some stuff in my head, because like I said before, my brain is so jacked up, it's firing all the time. And I was thinking, how am I gonna fix this thing? How am I gonna, how am I gonna make this work? How am I gonna get this puzzle piece to fit in here this way so that I can make this happen? And that was that, that space time in the day, even amidst of, you know, preaching the gospel of the visual arts,  you know, and so basically, to answer your question, the long version, early, early mornings and then late evenings It was a, it was a grind. And the last four years have been even tougher, so. Being an author is no joke, man. No joke.

Marvin Cash: So were you doing that, Brian, pretty much every day, or were you kind of doing that in spurts?

Brian Hester: That was, without question, an everyday thing. It was weekends. It was, yeah, there wasn't a break in time. Every day I was, I was doing some form of writing to further myself. There was a lot of back and forth with my co-author, my cousin. So, it was a grind.

Marvin Cash: Yeah. And you mentioned her, and, I mean, so, you know, people may not have known she, you know, your cousin was your co-author, and I'm kind of curious, you know, how, how that worked to kind of go from the first draft to the finished manuscript. I mean, did you kind of bang out the first draft yourself and then you guys kind of iterated it between the two of you, or how did that process work?

Brian Hester: From the movie script, there was a foundation, and once I, once we had that foundation, and Barb said, yes, I will do this with you, I'm gonna go down this rabbit hole with you. She basically started to take the movie script in terms of its foundation, and she started putting the tetris together. She started putting the puzzle pieces together. And basically she planted the seed, the tree grew up, and then, and then there were some branches. I came in with, like I said before, the leaves and the ornaments, and actually talked a lot about the areas that had to do with the fly fishing. And then it evolved to even more. It evolved to certain scenes where I would go do research and then I would start writing. So, over that span of like basically the last five years, I have kind of been self-taught in terms of the English language. And it's, the English language is a bitch, man. It's hard. It's tough. It's tough to be a writer. And I learned, it was kind of like on-the-job-training. I would send stuff to her, she would actually butcher it, and then she would send it back to me with her version. I would send it back to her. So, I mean, it was like a tennis match, constantly. But I got better and better and better and better. And then it finally got to a point where she was not having to edit hardly anything that I was doing because I was just so passionate about pushing through and finding the voice and being in that, finding that muse and then going with it.

Marvin Cash: Got it. So it really sounds like she took the script and kind of built the chassis and then you just kind of ate the elephant one bite at a time, right?

Brian Hester: You are correct. Absolutely. That is a beautiful analogy.

Marvin Cash: Interesting. And so it's always funny when I talk to authors, you know, I wanna, you know, I’m always kind of curious cause you get guys that are like, I’ll never do that ever again. And then there are other people that are eager for it. But, you know, there’s always, and this is probably true kind of in painting and designing, you know, fly fishing accessories, you know? What were the biggest challenges or surprises you encountered while you were working on the book?

Brian Hester: Oh, thinking that I had done something monumental. Some of the writing that I had done. There was, the amount of stuff that she cut, I thought was just superb. It was fantastic. But that's selfish of me to say that because she would read it and go, it’s, it’s not fantastic. So there was a lot of push and pull. A lot of push and pull. And it was a lot of, you know, me getting, getting my feelings hurt, and feeling like I'd been punched in the teeth. And I was like, well, what's wrong with it? Tell me what's wrong with, you know, and she would actually go through this whole diagnostic of what was wrong with it. And I had to actually learn, I learned a lot about myself in terms of shutting the hell up and stepping back and letting things then materialize and letting them evolve. 

And then the system that we had created started to evolve, as well. As I got better, things would flow. I knew what she would want, and I would work through those things. And then it got to a point and a place where it became so interchangeable, I couldn't see what she had done versus what I had done. And if you talk to her right now, she'd say the exact same thing, because she told me about two years into, I guess, the 15th draft of the book, she was like, I can't tell what's yours and mine anymore. And I was like, now I've got, I've harnessed this. I have found a voice, and I'm getting better at it. 
I'm even getting better, you know, the longest, I'm reading The Longest Silence right now by Thomas McGuane and some of the words that he uses, like, I have to go get a dictionary. So I figured out something. I was like, if I can just figure out vocabulary, I can start manipulating sentences within the English language to speak within my voice. And that was a big jumping off point for me right there, too.

Marvin Cash: It's interesting, you know, it makes me think when you're talking about that, it's kind of like, you know, people that go fish with a guide but wanna tell the guide how they should fish, right?

Brian Hester: Exactly.

Marvin Cash: And you got to figure out that, like, you know, what's the point of, you know, you know, associating yourself with people that are better at certain things than you are if you won't listen to them.

Brian Hester: Again, incredibly well said. That's it. Oh, yeah. I remember being in, you know, I like to joke around, and, I would joke around with one of my guide buddies, and I remember saying something to him about one of the, like, a cast he made. And he looked at me and he was like, I will push you out of this boat right now. So, yeah, I get it.

Marvin Cash: Yeah, it's interesting, too. I would also say the power of, you know, reading a lot and writing a lot, and, you know, for, for whatever reason, you know, you and I both are Gen Xers. You know, kids don't grow up doing that, right? And so, you know, it's kind of one of those things, like, if you don't do it a lot, you're not gonna get better at it. And..

Brian Hester: Right

Marvin Cash: And you know, and in terms of the reading thing, I think it's super powerful, right?  To see how other people put language together. I remember working with my oldest son during Covid on all of his college essays. And, you know, so that was a really fun father-son experience, but what I would say out of that is, you know, we worked a lot on writing, right? And, you know, for Christmas, that following year, I gave him a copy of Strunk and White’s and Old Man and the Sea, right?

Brian Hester: Oh, yeah. Right on.

Marvin Cash: And, you know, cause there's just so much more to, it's just different, you know, like when I was in high school, we were turning in papers every single week and….

Brian Hester: Absolutely.

Marvin Cash: And, you know, now, and now it's like, you know, holy cow, they wrote one paper in like four years and people are like, super excited. So…

Brian Hester: Right

Marvin Cash: …but yeah, it's an interesting thing. And so, you know, it's kind of funny cause I had forgotten that the book started as a script before it was a book, but it's actually potentially moving back to becoming a script. And I know you've been, you know, working on pre production work, with Angie Harmon, and I was really kind of curious, you know, how did you meet Angie? And, you know, what about the story attracted her and said, you know, I wanna make a movie out of this.

Brian Hester: I was, this was last year, about the same time I reached out to JamUp Apparel where, I would, I was bouncing around, but I had, what I thought, was an incredibly solid form of the script. And  I had Angie Harmon's daughter in my class, and I just on a whim, it was a really bold move. I said, would you please take this to your mother and have her give it a read. Fast forward. Probably about two and a half months later, this young lady walks up to me with her phone and shows me a text and it says, “Please tell your teacher I'm gonna make this movie.” And that was gratifying. It was exciting. At that moment, I was like, wow, I have someone's attention. And  I mean, if you know any of Angie Harmon's work, she's fantastic. She's just a brilliant actress. And I was like, what's next? So we kind of got on board with Angie and through her, we were able to get the script shopped through her agents. And I don't know in terms of whether or not we got a lot of nibbles or we got anything, but we signed a six-month agreement and then when the six months ran out, we took the script back.  Now the script is back in our possession now and, but Angie feels so strong right now about this. She is endorsing the book so that we can move this thing forward and get the movie made.

And we've, we've got some coals in the fire. We really have. We have plan B, plan C, plan D. And I believe in my heart that this movie needs to be made, and I want it made. I wanna be a part of the process. I wanna be a part of, you know, the industry in, the fly fishing industry alone right now is doing great things in terms of leveling out the playing field and by means of getting everybody involved, he she, they. Getting everybody involved with fly fishing. And that's the way that it should be. And I want to be a part of that reform. So I'm pushing to get this message out to a really large audience.

Marvin Cash: Yeah. And it's interesting too, right? I mean, you know, in terms of, you know, taking the shot and, you know, reaching out through your student. But I mean, I think that's a, you know, from a life journey perspective, you know, particularly if you're like us and you have a few more miles on your tires than the average bear. You know, to coach younger people, or really anybody at any stage of life, to be more willing to put themselves out there, because it's so incredibly rare for anything good to happen if you play it safe.

Brian Hester: Right. Absolutely. Completely agree with that 100%.

Marvin Cash: Yeah. And I would, I imagine that was your art as well.

Brian Hester: Huge risk taker. I didn't wanna  hold back. And I've been able to finally get myself to a point given the fact that I'm 55 now, that, first of all, if I don't know the answer to something, I'm gonna ask a question. Number two, I want to finish what I start, and I'm gonna look for every single avenue to try to be successful. It's ingrained in teachers. I am an educator. I'm gonna look for every means possible to reach my kids. And I'm just, I don't quit. I'm seeing this through, and I really, really, really hope that people get a hold of this book. They put a comment in Amazon, they leave a video that says, let's get this movie made because it’s, it is a game changer, and I feel it. I know it.

Marvin Cash: Yeah. And so, you know, to, you know, put a little meat on the bone there, you know, when will readers be able to get their hands on a copy, and where can they get one?

Brian Hester: We self-published through Amazon, and it will be ready for consumption on September the 22nd. So very, very soon. It's coming.The ebook will be available in about 10 days. I don't even know what that would be then, by at least what, the 7th or 8th of September.

Marvin Cash: Yeah. And so can people pre order, or do they need to remember those dates and then go to Amazon?

Brian Hester: They can pre order, but we really, really, really want everybody to, they can pre order. We want everybody to be able to hit the ground running, though, on September the 22nd by grabbing a book. And a beautiful thing has happened with this. Angie, because she is endorsing the book, is actually gonna be at our book signing on October the 5th at Legion Brewery, South Park location, from 9 a.m. until 12 noon. So,  Angie will be with us signing books. And again, I'm hopeful that it's, I'm fortunate, I'm in a very, very fortunate situation that someone who is in the industry, the movie industry, who is an actress, cares enough about this project, feels enough about this project, and understands the magnitude behind it, that they're willing to actually do this with me and my cousin. So I'm grateful. I’m humbled. So. It's awesome.

Marvin Cash: And are there any other promotional events on the calendar other than the event at Legion?

Brian Hester: Yes, the day before Friday, October 4th, I'm at Appalachian Mountain Brewery in Boone from 4 until 6 p.m. The front part of the book originates in Boone, my hometown. I just, I was so excited about painting such an amazing picture of Boone, the mountains, the community of Boone. It was a perfect fit for me to be able to do that. And I'm grateful that I get a chance to go up there and do a book signing. I hope there, you know, 1,000 people up there ready to pick up the book. Then again, like I said, the very next day we'll be back home at Legion Brewery in Charlotte, Saturday, October the 5th. Did I say South Park location before? I might have. Anyway, 9 a.m. to 12 noon. And then later that afternoon, we will be at Angry Ales selling the book for the Appalachian State versus Marshall viewing party.

Marvin Cash: Got it. And is there a website or social media feeds for the book?

Brian Hester: Yes, it's www.shetalkstofish, all one word. shetalkstofish.com. and you can subscribe to get updates. You can also see the events calendar of all the signings that we have coming up, and then you can get updates on, you know, how we proceed in terms of trying to get people's attention to hopefully make this movie.

Marvin Cash: Yeah, and I will drop a link to that in the show notes. And before I let you hop, is there anything else you'd like to share with our listeners.

Brian Hester: Well, first of all, I wanna thank you for giving me time of day. I'm grateful to all the listeners out there. Give it a chance. Give it a read, and then share the book. Tell somebody that they need to go grab it from Amazon. I'm hopeful that this will resonate with you. And I'm hopeful that this platform actually kind of, in a way, changes the landscape. So. I appreciate it, Marvin.

Marvin Cash: Oh, you bet. Anytime. My pleasure. And, you know, just kind of curious. As busy as you've been, kind of burning the creative candle at both ends, have you been able to get out and whack a few fish?

Brian Hester: I have. I had to have some boots on the ground for the back half of the book deals with Montana State University, as well as Bozeman and my wife and I, for her 50th birthday, go to go to Bozeman for 10 days. And we went out there and we caught fish. And, like I said, with having boots on the ground, taking in some of the beauty around Bozeman, and just Montana in general, and it was, it was spectacular. But, yes. And I'm constantly, you know, if I can find a farm pond, I keep my fly fishing stuff  in the truck at all times. So if I have an hour, I'll go to a buddy's place and go catch bass.

Marvin Cash: Yeah. And you got to hang out with our good friend AD Maddox, as well.

Brian Hester: Oh, yes, what I was, that's awesome. That's right. When I was in Montana, I got to go see AD, finally meet her face to face. It was fantastic. I picked up a few of her prints, my wife and I did, and it was really, really cool to be able to see her in her space, in her environment. She's so kind and so gracious with her time. I got, it was right before her show in, at the very, very end of June. I think it was like June 28th or something like that. She had a show, and I got to see everything firsthand. And it was spectacular, the work that she does. And she's another great friend who has kind of played mentor to me on, especially being behind the canvas. So it was a lot of fun.

Marvin Cash: Yeah. If you find yourself in Livingston, you should definitely stop by her gallery. There's some just beautiful artwork in there. She's fun to hang out with and, you know, Hester, before I let you go, you know, what's the best way for folks to kind of follow your adventures at the easel, you know, at the word processor/typewriter, or on the water?

Brian Hester: Let's see, you can go to www.hookedflyco.com. that's h-o-o-k-e-d-f-l-y-c-o.com. You can also catch, like I said, what's up with the happenings as far as the book is shetalkstofish.com. And then,  after that, you know, I will continue to keep posting. And if you're looking to see what's happening, Angie Harmon’s gonna be dropping a post here very, very soon. Little plug for the book. And if you wanna follow her TikTok or her Instagram, maybe catch up with, what she's doing, too.

Marvin Cash: Yeah, and I'll drop all that stuff in the show notes, and I'll also drop links to JamUp and MothBear for folks. And, you know, hopefully I'll be able to let you buy me a couple beers, at Legion here in about, I don't know, six weeks or so. And, Brian, I appreciate you carving a little bit of time out to chat with me.

Brian Hester: Thank you so much, Marvin. This was, this was fantastic. Love talking shop, man. It's awesome. Thank you.

Marvin Cash: Yeah, you bet. My pleasure. We should do it more often than once every five and a half years.

Brian Hester: Yeah. Make the time to call it now. I'll talk to you anytime, man. It's awesome.

Marvin Cash: There you go. Take care.

Brian Hester: I appreciate you. Thank you.

Marvin Cash: Well, folks, we hope you enjoyed the interview as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. Don't forget to check out TroutRoutes Pro at maps.troutroutes.com. Use artfly20, a-r-t-f-l-y-2-0, all one word to get 20% off your membership. Tight lines, everybody.