Jim has always wanted to be a writer. He wrote his first story when he was in the 4th grade but thought it was boring so he threw it away. Flash forward fifty plus years to 2011. By then he'd been married and had children and grand children. He'd had a long career in sales and technical training for a large manufacturing company. He'd even owned a small business. But, while helping to care for the last days of a loved one, he realized that life was passing him by and he'd better get going if he wanted to fulfill his dream. The next day he started writing and hasn't stopped since. He began by writing a poem a day for a year. Then a haiku a day for a year. Then a four line stanza a day for a year. Then a six line rhymed verse a day for a year. In 2015 he started writing short stories. He took an online writing class and met a successful author who became his mentor. She suggested he write the best possible stories he could and post them on a blog. He followed her advice and continued working and honing his craft. He began submitting stories in early 2018 and in March his first short story was featured on CafeLit. He was off and running. Since then nearly three-hundred stories and poems have appeared in on-line publications such as CafeLit and Spillwords, where he was voted Author of the Month for December, 2019, and in print anthologies, such as the Best of CafeLit 8 and Nativity through Bridge House Publishing, and the Gleam, Portal and Glamour anthology's through Clarendon House Publishing. He also reads his stories for broadcast on Talking Stories Radio. In February, 2021, "Resilience" his first collection of short stories, was published through Bridge House Publishing. In March, 2021, his second collection of short stories, "Periodic Stories" was published by Impspired. Since then, eight other books (four collections, two novels, a novella, and a collection of haiku) have been published, all available through traditional outlets. All of his stories appear on his blog at: www.theviewfromlonglake.wordpress.com. He continues to write every day from his home in the small town of Long Lake, Minnesota and prefers to be published as Jim Bates. He is happy. He has achieved his dream.