James (Jim) Douglas is a retired school teacher who lives in Enniskillen Township, Petrolia, Ontario. He lives with his wife Karen, also a retired teacher and their youngest daughter Meggan. The couple also has four older children. Jim has always been an avid outdoors-man and to this day, continues to hunt, fish, trap and train hunting dogs.
His first connection to writing creatively came in the 1960’s when his English teacher told him that he had a knack for writing. Although Jim was not a model student, the compliment always stayed with him. When he was eighteen, he started to play the guitar and immediately began to write his own songs because it just seemed the natural thing to do. Over the years, many other poems and writings were created.
In the early 1980’s, his first magazine article called “How I Train a Coon Dog” was published and when letters started coming in from all over North America, it had a very positive impact upon Jim’s life. The next article he wrote was in the late 1990’s and again, it also was published. The $800+ he received for this article was also a positive. Could it be true that his English teacher from long ago had been right? The desire to write was there but the lifestyle he was leading just seemed to keep him in a wilderness of nothingness for a long time. The cause of this writer’s block is well explained in his autobiography.
After retirement, Jim wrote the introduction of a story and read it to his good friend, Wayne. The friend listened and then looked at him and said, “Great beginning. I want to hear the rest of the story. Write a book.”
The challenge was accepted and a few months later, a novel called ‘Vigilante Justice’ was finished and the characters of Davie Meadows, Katrina, Barbara and Griz had been created. This book was followed up soon after with a sequel called ‘Sharpshooter: The Sins of Greed’.
Jim continues to teach part-time as a substitute teacher, train dogs, hunt, fish, trap and participate in the activities that the forests and streams offer up. He loves to teach others, especially his grandchildren, about the natural world he loves. There is a big difference between being ‘in the wilderness’ vs ‘of the wilderness’. The first is an activity. The second is a driven passion to understand nature and how all its little intricacies work.
You can find Jim’s fanpage here on Facebook.