About James

About James

I am an author and owner of Salado Press, LLC, a small publishing company specializing in true stories.  I began this career in 1998 with the writing and publishing of one book—Nine Years in the Saddle, which I have autographed in bookstores all over the United States.  Other books followed.

From 1989 until 1994, I was an instructor in freshman and sophomore English classes for Central Texas College in Killeen, Texas.  However, except for one summer semester, I did not teach on the campus at Killeen.  My “campus” was United States Navy war ships that took me to 36 countries, about half that many islands, above the Arctic Circle, below the equator, around the world, and nearly every ocean of the world.  It was an adventure of a lifetime, and I wrote about that experience in Five Years at Sea.

Prior to my association with the Navy, I taught English and social studies in both public and private high schools.

A Navy veteran of World War II, I graduated from Abilene Christian College (now university) in 1949 and spent a fifth year in journalism school at the University of Missouri.  Subsequently, I received my master’s degree from Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas.

Following graduation from ACC in 1949, I spent more than two decades in the insurance business as an independent agent, a career that culminated in Dallas, Texas, in 1973.