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Kewanee, Illinois 1938-1949
James R. Olson began his literary
career
on August 24, 1938 in Kewanee,
Illinois.
The story is that he was born
in his parent's
bedroom, and his arrival was
timed for the
lunch hour so his father wouldn't
have to
miss any work.
Kewanee is a fairly small town
(population
around 16,000 at that time),
and for the
first 10 years he had a Tom Sawyer
like childhood,
without the negative influence
of a Huck
Finn. It was the end of the depression
and
the beginning of the World War
II period,
when life was much different
than it is today.
Prices were low (a hamburger
cost ten cents)
and mostly friendly, understanding
neighbors
allowed a boy to pretty much
run free and
have a lot of innocent fun.
His father, Robert, had been
born in nearby
Bishop Hill, which had begun
as a Swedish
commune during the years up to
and including
the Civil War. The community
disbanded after
the Civil War and today is an
historical
site. Robert Frost's sister taught
in the
one room school house where Robert
learned
his ABCs.
The 1940s were a patriotic time,
particularly
during World War II. Shortly
after Pearl
Harbor, Robert enlisted in the
Army, serving
with the 36th Infantry Division,
seeing combat
in North Africa, Sicily, Italy,
France, and
Germany. Consequently Jim and
his older brother
Dan and his younger brother Rick,
essentially
lived in a single parent household
during
the war years. His mother, Josephine,
joined
many other women of the era by
going to work
while the men were overseas.
Jim attended the Visitation grade
school
for the first and second grades,
and then
transferred to Irving Public
school. From
the moment he learned to read,
he loved the
feel and smell of books. He haunted
the public
library and devoured books. He
was a fairly
early riser, even as a child,
and while his
friends were still sleeping,
he would lie
in bed reading until the other
kids were
ready to play ball in the streets
or spend
hours biking all over town.
When he was seven years old he
began writing
his first novel. "As I remember,
it
was a western, which was a popular
genre
at that time," Jim recalls.
"That
manuscript was only one of two
that I never
completed."
Jim's father was discharged from
the Army
in 1945 and tried civilian life
for a year
or so before he re-enlisted,
deciding his
calling was to be a career soldier.
This
was a decision that would have
a major impact
on Jim's life and his education
in the ways
of the world.
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Osaka, Japan 1949-1951
Robert was transferred overseas,
and in August,
1949 arranged for his family
to join him
in Japan.
It would be impossible to overstate
what
an awesome adventure this was
for a young
boy, beginning with the long
train ride from
Kewanee to the port of embarkation
in Seattle,
WA. The ten day ocean voyage
through heavy
weather was the most exiting
thing that had
ever happened to Jim. He even
celebrated
his eleventh birthday aboard
ship in the
middle of the Pacific Ocean.
But the journey
was just the beginning of a world
of new
adventures.
It was only four years after
the war, when
the family arrived in Japan,
and although
it would have been natural for
the Japanese
people to harbor animosity against
the Americans,
that was not the case. For the
most part
the people were gentle and friendly.
The
culture had not yet been influenced
by western
ideas, so Japan was still a foreign
and exotic
place.
The family was quartered in an
American housing
area near the village of Hamadera,
which
was a suburb of Osaka. The housing
was located
on the Bay of Osaka across from
the port
of Kobe. With a huge beach and
the opportunity
to watch Japanese fishermen and
women laying
and bringing in their nets, there
was the
opportunity to meet and interact
with the
Japanese people. Jim had the
unique opportunity
as a youngster to observe the
world through
the eyes of another culture,
which without
a doubt broadened his horizons
and was a
tremendous help in his future
writing career.
At the Hamadera American School,
he convinced
the sixth grade teacher that
there should
be a school newspaper. She agreed,
and he
became editor. The first of his
writing ever
published was an editorial for
that paper,
which can be read here.
For the seventh grade he attended
the Osaka
American School, which required
a daily train
ride into the city. The school
included grades
7-12, but only boasted only about
seventy-five
students total.
Then in June, 1950, the Korean
War began
when the North Koreans invaded
South Korea.
America was committed to protecting
South
Korea, so nearly all the troops
stationed
in Japan were thrown into the
breach. If
you look at a map, you'll see
that Korea
is only a short distance from
Japan across
the Sea of Japan. In fact, Marine
Corsairs
flew daily mission to Korea,
flying over
the Hamadera housing area to
and from the
combat zone.
"At first no one knew whether
the conflict
was the beginning of another
world war,"
Jim says of those days. "There
was a
definite fear that the war might
expand into
an attack on Japan, so we even
dug foxholes
in our backyard and had elaborate
evacuation
plans - which of course were
never needed."
Again Jim and his brothers essentially
lived
in a single family household
while Robert
was once more fighting a war.
Josephine took
a job at the Osaka Hospital,
admitting wounded
from the Korean combat area.
Once the fear
of an expanding war had passed,
there was
the excitement of all the celebrities
who
came to Japan and Korea to visit
the troops.
Of course, there was Bob Hope
and Vaughn
Monroe and a host of others visiting
the
Osaka Hospital and giving performances.
Robert served eighteen months
in Korea, and
then was transferred to the States,
taking
his family with him. Again the
long ocean
voyage ended at Seattle. Then
the family
drove to their next duty station,
stopping
along the way in Kewanee.
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Morganfield, Kentucky 1951-1952
Jim's father was stationed at
Camp Breckenridge,
Kentucky and the family lived
in a house
trailer in the town of Morganfield.
They
only stayed there for a bit more
than a year.
Jim and his bothers attended
Morganfield
High School, which was only a
few blocks
from the trailer court. Morganfield
was a
small community, the population
inflated
somewhat because of the influx
of residents
from Camp Breckenridge. In the
Morganfield
school, Jim played in the marching
band and
was a member of the debate team.
It was his
first experience in a southern
town, and
he thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Although
he was looking forward to another
foreign
adventure, it was a bit of a
disappointment
when the family left Morganfield
mid-way
through Jim's freshman year and
went to Fort
Meade Maryland, preparing to
ship out to
Germany.
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Mainz, Germany 1952-1955
The family located in Mainz,
Germany, which
was located in the French zone
of a divided
Germany. Understandably the French
were not
anxious to rebuild German cities,
and although
it was seven years after the
war, large areas
of downtown Mainz were still
nothing but
rubble. The American housing
was located
on a hill toward the outskirts
of the city.
The American school was in Wiesbaden,
which
required a daily bus ride across
the Rhine
River. General H.H. Arnold High
School was
located in Wiesbaden because
it was a major
U.S. airbase, so most of the
students were
Air Force Brats rather than Army
Brats.
"I have to admit that the
quality of
education in the American schools
was excellent,"
Jim said. "I don't know
how they selected
the teachers, but they obviously
picked the
cream of the crop."
Jim lettered in baseball for
three years,
was Junior class president, and
was elected
to the National Honor Society.
But life was
not all school. Living in Germany
during
that time was a great experience
for a teenager.
There are some disadvantages
to being an
Army Brat, but in Germany he
enjoyed wonderful
food, the freedom to sample good
German beer,
and the opportunity to make friends
he still
maintains contact with.
When the family left Germany
in the fall
of 1955, rather than sailing,
they flew from
Germany to the Canary Islands,
to Bermuda,
and finally to New York.
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Manitowoc, Wisconsin 1955-1956
Upon the family's return to the
U.S., Jim's
mother and father separated and
Jim was not
destined to see his father again
for fifteen
years. Josephine took her three
sons, Dan,
Jim, and Rick to live in Manitowoc,
Wisconsin,
which had been her home town.
Living in Manitowoc was a big
change in life
for Jim. First, Japan, Germany,
and Kentucky
had been relatively mild climates,
and the
severe winter in Wisconsin was
a shock. Also,
in military schools, because
the students
were constantly moving, making
friends was
easy. In Manitowoc, where the
majority of
kids had lived in the community
their entire
lives, relationships were largely
established
and most of the kids weren't
eager to make
new friends. And of course, the
school was
much larger than any Jim had
attended in
the past. The senior class alone
was nearly
400 students. However, Jim managed
to make
a few friends and graduated from
Lincoln
High School (the same high school
his mother
had graduated from) in 1956.
Although there were no wars in
1956, the
country still had a military
draft in place.
Without a scholarship, and the
possibility
of being drafted, Jim decided
to get his
military obligation out of the
way. Two weeks
after graduation, he enlisted
in the Marine
Corps, along with four other
young men from
Manitowoc.
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United States Marine Corps 1956-1958
Jim shipped out to San Diego
for boot camp
at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot,
arriving
June 25, 1956. There followed
fourteen weeks
of "hell" as he learned
to be a
Marine. A Marine, no matter his
assignment,
is considered to be a rifleman,
so the high
point of boot camp was scoring
expert (with
the highest score on the range)
with the
old M-1 Garand rifle. "Boot
camp was
a great experience and I'm still
proud of
making the grade since only about
40 of the
original 72 in my platoon graduated,"
Jim says, "but I sure wouldn't
want
to go through that again."
After boot camp Jim was sent
to Camp Pendelton,
California, where he was assigned
as a tank
driver with Delta Company, 1st
Tank Battalion,
1st Marine Division. After approximately
a year driving the M-48 tank,
he transferred
to the 1st Antitank Battalion,
which was
introducing a new weapon, "The
Ontos".
This was a tracked vehicle with
six 106mm
recoilless rifles, intended primarily
for
antitank warfare. He was first
a driver,
and then for the last six months
of his active
duty, he worked as Battalion
S-3 clerk. He
was discharged from active duty
on Easter
Sunday, 1958, and returned to
Manitowoc,
Wisconsin.
"I'm still proud of my time
in the Corps,
and enjoyed every minute of every
experience.
I didn't receive any training
that was particularly
useful for civilian life, but
I'll bet I
can throw a hand grenade further
than anyone
in the neighborhood," Jim
boasts.
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The University Years 1958-1963
After being discharged from the
Marine Corps
Jim worked with Drs. Belson and
Radl as their
dispensing optician. He wanted
to attend
college, but needed to save some
money. He
worked for a year with Drs. Belson
and Radl
before enrolling at the University
of Wisconsin
extension center in Manitowoc.
Following
his freshman year he transferred
to Marquette
University in Milwaukee where
he majored
in Electrical Engineering.
During semester break in 1960
he made his
initial trip to Arizona with
a couple of
school friends who's families
lived in Phoenix
and Yuma. He fell in love with
the area and
first became interested in Arizona's
history.
Back in Milwaukee events were
not progressing
as planned. Although his grades
were good,
he dropped out of Marquette after
his junior
year. Not only was he running
out of money,
but the strain of working a full
time job
and carrying 18 credit hours
per semester
was simply wearing him out.
Because of his background as
an optician,
Jim elected to go into the optical
field
full time. Employed by Herslof
Opticians
in Milwaukee, he specialized
in working with
ophthalmologists in fitting contact
lenses,
focusing on experimenting with
contact lenses
for treatment of cataracts, keratoconus,
and other eye problems.
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His Writing Career 1963-1979
In 1963 he took a leave of absence
from Herslof
Opticians and traveled to Tucson.
He had
decided to write a book about
the Apaches,
based on the life of a little
known Chiricahua
warrior he had learned about
during research
at the Arizona Pioneer's Historical
Society
in Tucson. He purchased a horse
and rode
alone into the Dragoon and Chiricahua
mountains
to research the locales of his
proposed novel.
"This adventure sort of
made me feel
like a frontiersman," Jim
acknowledged,
"but I'm not much of a horseman
and
I was afraid all the time that
my horse would
run away and leave me in the
middle of nowhere
with only foot power."
While he was working as an optician
and writing
his first novel, he married and
purchased
an old farm house on an acre
of land outside
Milwaukee. In 1973, after nearly
ten years
of research and unsuccessful
submissions,
the Houghton Mifflin Company
published that
first novel, Ulzana. According to the publishers, the book did
about twice as well as the average first
novel, got mostly excellent reviews, and
won three major awards. (The awards are listed
on the award page.) It appeared that finally Jim would be
able to concentrate on his first love, which
was writing. It was not to be.
Also in 1973 he and his wife,
Carol, adopted
six-week-old twin boys. Shortly
after adopting
the boys, he changed jobs, accepting
management
of the Uhlemann Optical Company
office in
Appleton, Wisconsin where he
would live for
the next 20 years.
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The Writing Career Interrupted 1979-1995
In 1979, Jim was hard at work
on his next
novel, taking advantage of all
the research
he had done in Arizona. However
it would
be nearly 20 years before he
would finish
the manuscript.
His marriage was not working,
and in 1979
he and Carol divorced. Jim obtained
custody
of the boys, Eric and Andy. Unfortunately
he had to put his writing on
hold while he
learned to be a housewife and
mother.
"I quickly learned that
heaven was eating
a meal I didn't prepare, off
of a plate I
didn't have to wash."
He also had to change careers.
The optical
business was taking too many
hours and not
leaving him the necessary time
to look after
his sons. After trying a couple
of different
avenues, he finally settled into
sales, first
working for Photocopy International,
and
then for Covice, Inc., selling
photocopiers.
When Covice folded, he worked
a variety of
jobs to keep the family fed and
clothed.
"I have no regrets for all
the years
I devoted to my family, but I'll
always wonder
what would have happened if I
had been able
to continue my writing efforts
at that time."
After reading an article in the
Reader's
Digest about Mensa, the organization
for
people with high IQs, Jim took
the necessary
tests and was accepted for membership
on
April 17, 1986.
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Resuming A Writing Career 1995-2003
Jim was able to resume his writing
when his
sons, Eric and Andy were old
enough to fend
for themselves. He resumed work
on the manuscript
he had set aside twenty years
earlier. Brother was to be the next book in a proposed trilogy
on the Apache Indians, dealing with the Spanish
missionary period and the life of a Franciscan
monk.
However, after nearly twenty
years of not
writing, he found the publishing
industry
had changed. Most of the publishing
houses
had merged into conglomerates
and no longer
accepted unsolicited manuscripts.
They had
to be submitted by an agent,
and as one editor
told him, "we no longer
publish literature,
because the bottom line rules
the business".
He was unable to find an agent
and consequently
was not able to publish the novel.
However,
story ideas continued to pop
into his head
and he continued to produce manuscripts.
"I knew that my writing
was good and
that I had stories worth telling.
I had confidence
that someday they would see print."
In 1995 he relocated to Texas.
It was time
to escape all the long winters
and the snow
shoveling. For five years he
lived in Arlington,
Texas, part of the Dallas/Fort
Worth metroplex,
working at a variety of jobs
and continuing
to write.
Of course, the primary purpose
in writing
is to be published so that other
people can
enjoy the novels. Retirement
age was fast
approaching and Jim realized
he had to do
something soon. Going the route
of finding
an agent and then having the
agent find a
publisher, was too time consuming.
Even if
he lucked out with finding an
agent and the
agent found a publisher immediately,
it would
be at least another year before
the book
would be available to the public.
The alternative
would be to circumvent the commercial
publishers.
In December 1999 he again moved,
this time
to an acre of land in the piney
woods of
East Texas, where he built his
own home.
"With little experience
it still amazes
me that the roof didn't leak,
the plumbing
worked perfectly and even the
electricity
performed without burning down
the house."
In 2002, Jim contracted with
iUniverse to
publish, Brother, historical fiction about the Spanish missionary
period in Arizona. This was quickly followed
by his two police action thrillers in the
Matthew Goeser series, The Paymaster and The Pentagram.
In 2003, after meeting the love
of his life,
Frances Thompson, he moved again,
this time
to the small East Texas town
of Pittsburg,
where he currently lives and
writes.
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A Senior Citizen Writer 2004-Present
At an age when most people are
looking to
spend the rest of their lives
in leisure
activities, Jim is embarked on
a new career.
He's still writing and producing
exceptional
fiction, but now he is also actively
involved
in the marketing process, which
requires
developing an entirely new mindset
and series
of skills, such as learning HTML
and designing
his own website.
There are more than 100,000 books
published
each year, and no individual
publisher is
going to be able to devote the
time, effort,
and money to promoting each title.
Except
for the well established, big
name authors
who will get an inordinate share
of the promotional
efforts from the publishers,
much of the
burden of whether an individual
title has
good or poor sales falls to the
responsibility
of the author.
"I believe that because
of our reservoir
of experience, Senior Citizens
can contribute
to the successful marketing of
their books,"
Jim affirms. "I hope that
with my efforts
I will be able to show other
seniors that
we don't have to be put out to
pasture just
because we've passed a certain
arbitrary
age. Colonel Sanders began Kentucky
Fried
Chicken when he was already past
the nominal
retirement age. If my marketing
efforts are
successful, it will prove something
important.
Senior Citizens can still achieve
much that
is worthwhile when they either
resume an
interrupted career or begin a
new venture."
In 2005, Jim collaborated with
Dr. Thomas
Watson in writing The Great American Debt Opportunity, which was Jim's first published non-fiction
title, and an entirely new field. Those who
say you can't teach an old dog new tricks
might take notice of the success of that
book.
In November 2006, Publish America
agreed
to publish The Vagabond Healer, which is Jim's most recent novel. Not only
will he implement some unusual
marketing
strategies, he will continue
to work on new
manuscripts. In fact he currently
has four
other manuscripts in various
stages of development.
He expects to see one or more
of them in
print within the next couple
of years.
In October 2007 Jim learned that The Vagabond Healer has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
We will keep our fingers crossed since the
winners will be announced in April 2008.
Completely dissatisfied with the publishing
choices available to a writer, Jim decided
to publish his own books and started Erian
Press in 2008. The first novel off the presses
is An Eagle Unchained. We hope it will have similar success to
The Vagabond Healer.
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Accredited reviewers and members of the media
may request a review copy of
any James R.
Olson book, or arrange an interview,
by contacting Jim directly at
903-855-0944
or via email at jim@booksbyolson.com
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