Fielding’s African Safaris, by Jane and Leah Taylor published in 1987 by William Morrow & Company, New York (600 pages) includes a 30-page chapter entitled, Fishing Safaris written and illustrated by John McMillan. So, you might say he is a published contributing author.
The travel guide, one of a series of Fielding Guides, covers 65 safaris throughout Africa. John’s chapter covers all the main sport fishing activities in Kenya, namely, deep-sea fishing off the coast, lake fishing on Lake Turkana and Lake Naivasha, and trout fishing in the Kenya highlands.
John’s knowledge of Swahili, having learned it as young man, was very useful in his research of local fishing sites, names of the fish, methods used by local fishermen, etc.
This project started when John met writer, Jane Taylor, at Trade Winds Hotel on Diani Beach, south of Mombasa, Kenya during one of his many winter trips to East and Central Africa between summer work in Alaska between 1976 and 1980. Jane had seen John spending a lot of time spear fishing with a local fisherman on the reef in front of the hotel and asked him to write something on sport fishing for a new travel guide she and her daughter were working on.
The project included a complimentary round-trip, first-class ticket from Seattle to Nairobi via British Airways, and complimentary stays in many of Kenya’s high-end hotels and luxury safaris hosted by Ker & Downey Safaris Ltd. of Kenya.
After all the data was collected in 1984-85, John returned to his design studio in Kenai, Alaska where he digitized the chapter on his first computer, the Apple Professional 2E in 1985.
While the book failed as a popular travel guide, John’s gained valuable experience in increasing his writing skills, his understanding of the hydrology of Africa’s Rift Valley and surrounding river systems, and Africa’s interesting ichthyology.