BUSINESS AND PLEASURE ARE A GOOD MIX

Despite warnings to the contrary, Steve Duniphan says he has good luck mixing business with pleasure.

A lifelong outdoorsman, Duniphan has combined his love for the outdoors with his passion for writing. The effort has seen him published in such nationally-recognized sporting magazines as North American Fisherman and In Fisherman, a nationally-distributed and widely-read fishing monthly. He's also a frequent contributor to the Missouri-based publications Ozark Mountaineer and River Hills Traveler.

Although he has hunted, fished and rambled around Missouri's outdoors all his life, it was only in recent years that he began writing about his experiences afield.

"Writing didn't come early or easy for me but it was something that I stayed with and now I'm becoming more and more successful with it," he said.

A native of Chaffee who now lives in the village of Hidden Valley on Lake Girardeau, Duniphan began writing song lyrics, short stories and poems in the mid-1970s and continued to do so throughout the 1970s' and 1980s. In the mid-1980s, he published a compilation of personal essays and poems in a book titled "A Simple Man in a Complex World."

In the late 1980s, however, the emphasis of his writing changed and he began to combine his fondness for the outdoors and writing with the business of publishing freelance articles.

"It seemed like when I reached the mid-80s, that's when I really began trying to capture some of the stories with the written word," he said. "I've been a hunter and fisherman all my life -- since I was a little guy -- and hopefully, by writing, I can pass on that love of the outdoors to my children and the people who read my articles."

Duniphan's first published article appeared in the River Hills Traveler in the late-1980s -- an account of a scavenging trip on the Castor River in Bollinger County.

"My uncle was on the Current River one time and saw two men ditch their canoe and lose everything in it," explained the writer. "By the time they got up on the bank, they were so frustrated that they said, 'Hey, anything you find you can have,' so my uncle gave me a call.

"We set out down the river looking and we found everything -- boat seats, coolers, fishing rods, old-time balsa wood lures -- and the more we found, the more we realized that we had to give these things back to those men," said Duniphan, who called the experience "a kind of good karma thing."

Among the items he and his uncle recovered was a fishing cooler made by the father of one of the men, who rewarded its return by telling Duniphan the story of how it had been handmade many years before.

Since that first article, he's had a number of others published in both local and national publications.

His articles tend not to be the typical "how-to" informational pieces that appear in many magazines, although he has written informational articles on the Current River area. Instead, he prefers to write personal essays either wholly true or based loosely upon experiences.

His favorite is one called "The Lure," which is among several published by In Fisherman.

The essay is a story rife with references to Bollinger County and outdoor spots throughout Southeast Missouri. It is the story of a young boy coming of age.

The Lure appeared on the back page of the publication's 100th anniversary edition in May of 1990. The back cover of an outdoor publication is an honored spot, typically reserved for a respected columnist or humorist.

However, the status of a magazine isn't often as impressive to Duniphan as its spirit.

He says the publication of which he is most proud is the River Hills Traveler, the small Piedmont publication to which he occasionally contributes, because of its pioneering spirit.

Nor does being published in a national publication mean as much to the local writer as a kind word from a reader.

"As you go through life's journey and its struggles, there are things you find that help you out," he said. "A lady once told me that she clipped out one of my articles and saved it in the family Bible. Another time Mitch Jayne, who is a regular contributor to [Missouri Department of Conservation's monthly magazine] Missouri Conservationist tell me that I was making a difference with my writing.

"To have someone of that caliber tell you that really means a lot."

The local writer was recently admitted to the Outdoor Writers Association of America, an experience he likened to that of a law school graduate passing the bar exam.

His sponsor in the organization is well-known Missouri outdoor writer Joel M. Vance, a frequent contributor to such magazines as Field and Stream, Missouri Conservationist and Wing and Shot.

Duniphan is not as prolific as many writers, saying he prefers to strive for quality and work to improve his skills for the time when an experience moves him to write.

"Kenny Rogers said that you've got to be prepared so that when inspiration hits you, you'll know what to do," he explained, "and John Lennon said that when a song or whatever comes to you, you should finish it right then and there because the inspiration will never come back to you.

"So I try to stay mentally active by reading and doing things that will help me when the time comes to write."