'Doc Ford' author drifting aimlessly in financial waters -- Page 2

Bankrate: You were kind of a jock, weren't you?

Randy Wayne White: Yeah, I played baseball and football and was an all-state springboard diver. I was always slightly better than mediocre athletically. I had one legitimate tryout with the Cincinnati Reds, but was not signed.

Bankrate: It sounds like college was out of the question.

Randy Wayne White: Yes. My parents moved from Davenport the summer of my junior year, so I just stayed; I got an apartment of my own and essentially left home. I had two jobs in high school and would keep my money in a jar underneath the sink. I didn't have a checking account until I was 26 or 27. But, you know, when you do that, if you don't have the money to buy something, you don't buy it. I worked for Davenport Brass and Foundry and washed dishes at night at a bar. When you're on your own, when the safety net's not there, you try not to fall.

Bankrate: How did a farm boy become a Florida charter boat captain?

Randy Wayne White: I had worked on a farm and the couple who owned it used to just rave about Sanibel. After high school, I traveled for a couple years and came to Sanibel in 1972 and stayed. I worked at the Fort Myers News-Press for three years and just loved it; it was wonderful and very positive and really my education. I got my captain's license in 1974 and started guiding full time in 1977. I was never passionate about fishing, but it was a way to make a living. I guided for almost 13 years.

Bankrate: Were you equipped to handle the financial end of a charter fishing business?

Randy Wayne White: It was oftentimes a cash business. At that time, I still didn't have a checking account, and I was very conscious that if I got into debt and mishandled my money, I was (in trouble). I had gotten married at 22 to a very wonderful lady, although we're divorced now, and she was very much the same way; we had no formal education in terms of handling money, which I regret. I don't know if high schools require that today, but it should be one of the main things -- handling money, handling a checkbook, where to invest. Although I suspect if the teachers knew what they were talking about, they wouldn't teach it. I have not been savvy in terms of money matters, but people don't go into writing to make money.

Bankrate: How did you manage to buy a charter boat?

Randy Wayne White: I would always buy second-hand boats and second-hand cars and fix them up. You grow up that way. I can see how the cycle of poverty works because you grow up doing what you know. Mine was always a second-hand existence, and unfortunately I'm not handy; I had to work very hard at it. More often than not, I would go to fix something and end up screwing up the entire boat.

Bankrate: You made a good living in the charter business.

Randy Wayne White: Oh yeah. Guiding, I was on the water more than 300 days a year. Sometimes I would do three half-day charters a day. So financially I made probably twice what I had made at the newspaper. One guide once told me, 'In the fishing business, sometimes you think you're going to get rich but you never do, and sometimes you think you're going to starve but you never do.'

Bankrate: It doesn't sound like getting rich was one of your goals.

Randy Wayne White: I have never been motivated by money. Never have. Until recently, the last couple years, where I became aware that I have no retirement and you've got to watch out for yourself.

Bankrate: Then the federal government closed Tarpon Bay, effectively ending your charter boat career.

Randy Wayne White: In March of 1987, they closed it to all powerboat traffic, and it was huge. Being absolutely unqualified to do anything else, I wrote a book. I had written thriller novels under pen names as contract work and my agent recently got the copyrights back for me and resold them for a decent chunk. But I remember in August or September having a garage sale and going through my cars looking for coins, that's how tight it was.

Bankrate: Did your book deal change all that?

Randy Wayne White: Well, the book deal was a terrible book deal. I wrote "Sanibel Flats" and I sent the book to an agent who sent it to St. Martin's Press who called back all breathless and offered a three-deal. I was paid $5,000 for the first book, $7,000 for the second and maybe $11,000 for the third. And that was low. My agent said, 'Don't quit your day job.' "Sanibel Flats" now sells in hardback on eBay for as much as my advance on it.

Bankrate: When did you really see some big money in publishing?

Randy Wayne White: When I left St. Martin's. They had an option on a fourth book, but they hadn't promoted the first three, so I signed with Putnam's. They gave me a $70,000 or $80,000 advance and that just seemed gigantic to me.

Bankrate: What did you do with the money?

Randy Wayne White: Oh, squandered it, squandered it. Your readers are not going to like this, but I never invested in anything. I have two sons and that's very expensive.

Bankrate: Doc Ford has managed to avoid the big screen so far.

Randy Wayne White: Sometimes the options sell. Some of them are up now. But no, none of them have been made into movies.

Bankrate: Do you think you've gotten better with money over the years?

Randy Wayne White: No. And I'm not being facetious. I'm just now starting to have an interest in what to do with money. We opened a restaurant on Sanibel last fall, Doc Ford's Bar & Grill, and I'm part of it, but I don't own it. I'm going to buy property or something. I've got a great house here on Pine Island, but I would never consider selling it; I'm going to leave it to my sons.