About Jim Hartsell

Like most of us, there are many descriptors that apply to me: husband, father, grandfather, voracious reader, and average hammer dulcimer player are a few of them. I also write, concentrating on Southern fiction, children’s books, and, most recently, middle grade fantasy.

I have deep roots in East Tennessee. Although I’ve done some traveling in the lower 48, I’ve never lived more than 50 miles from where I’m sitting as I write this, and the farm my sister and I currently own has been in our family for five generations. My immediate family consists of my wife of 40+ years, my two children, their spouses, and six grandchildren. My wife and I share our home on House Mountain with a cat and two shelter dogs, the latest in a long line of family pets.

After our two children moved into adulthood and began their lives outside our home, we made the decision to host foreign exchange students. Over a two year period we welcomed a girl from Germany, a girl from Brazil, and two guys from northern Italy. Each one stayed either half or a full school year and it was a delightful experience, and educational in both directions. Stephanie, our guest from Germany, returned several years later with her new husband to begin their honeymoon in America by staying with us for a few days. That exposure to a different culture and, more importantly, trying to explain some of the parts of our culture here that we had never really examined before was good for everyone concerned.

My professional career was in education, working with teens in a variety of settings. The three decades I spent with teens who have been characterized by society as losers at best and dangerous at worst taught me much about resilience, strength, and bravery, and helped form the concept of the main character in the Boone series.

As an educator I was privileged to be part of the creation of several programs designed for teenagers: Peninsula Village, Parkway Academy, Reflections Treatment Agency, and the Behavioral Liaison Program in Knox County Schools. Working with children out on the fringes of society – the oppositional/defiant, the emotionally disturbed, the drug addicts and alcoholics, the sexual predators, the criminals, the socially maladjusted – has taught me much, as has partnering with Suzanne to raise two children of our own and watching them learn how to become parents themselves. Our common humanity lies not all that far beneath the surface, no matter what the label or category, and the importance of respect for and communication with children cannot be overstated. I explore these ideas in both my Boone series of novels and my collection of children’s books.

The creative process, whether it involves writing books, playing music, or any of the other myriad choices available to us, is a fine and necessary way to spend time, and the present moment is a precious resource that is in a continual state of renewal. We would do well to pay attention.

I have a beautiful family, all the necessities of life plus a few luxuries, a fine circle of friends, and time to write books, play music, and enjoy the moments as they present themselves one by one. By any measure that matters to me, I am a very wealthy man.