James A. Tindall

Author Bio - James A Tindall, PhD

As a note all my books are listed on my book site drtindall dot com. I grew up on Big Cypress Reservation in the heart of the Florida Everglades. As a boy and teenager, my brothers and me, and my friends earned money wrestling alligators for tourists and from training horses for Jackman and Mills Ranches. It is a little different than what kids do today with computers, but fun none-the-less. I enlisted into the U.S. Army, serving in military intelligence and later went on to earn four college degrees including a B.S., M.S., PhD and M.A. degrees—the latter in International Security Studies from the United States Naval Postgraduate School. I love writing, which you can see on my author site drtindall dot com.

While pursuing my first master’s degree, my professor in English Writing kept telling me I should become a professional novel writer. He required us to author short stories every day and present them the next day in class to our fellow students. He said he loved my stories because he always felt he was involved in the plot; he could feel the environment I was describing. Rather than take his advice at once, I always felt that I could write whenever I wanted to and so, I pursued my career path. Ironically, I always wanted to write novels and short stories. But, after getting my PhD, I ended up teaching at multiple universities around the globe and have served as major advisor for 62 graduate students at the MS and PhD levels from five different universities, helping them develop their research, theses, and dissertations and I have published over 60 peer-reviewed scientific articles in a variety of journals. It is a paradox that I did become a professional writer and editor. I also have served as technical editor for multiple, peer-reviewed, scientific journals. All this work prepared me more than I could imagine for that which I always wanted to do—write novels. It did so because it gave me an exceptional foundation for writing and editing!

I remember writing my first book; it took me 7 years because it was very technical and 624 pages. First, I mulled it over and over in my mind and how to write it to help my students and then, I put it on paper, outlining it and then populating each chapter. Now out of print, it was published by the largest book publisher in the world, Prentice Hall, and was voted number one as a textbook and number one as a reference book in its field. Continuing on in my writing path, I started writing short stories again, got involved heavily into fitness and training professional athletes, which led to writing five self-help fitness and nutrition books and on to several screen plays. I am now working on my third novel and have two books of a trilogy to finish, along with another book after that. My problem is that I produce idea after idea much faster than I can write them.

I have been fortunate in that I can use both the analytical and creative sides of my brain and now, I write just novels. I love it and I love the creatively it allows compared to just facts in professional articles. My novels all revolve around Native American legends and Tribes, having grown up on a reservation and having worked with over 50 Tribes in my career. In addition to this experience, I have seen foreign service in Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic, Italy, Monaco, China, Spain, France, Romania, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Jordan, Israel, Turkey, Afghanistan, Libya, Ghana, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Niger, South Africa, Namibia, Panama, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Honduras, Australia, and India. I also served as team lead for water, energy, and food-security strategies in the Middle East Peace Process. These experiences all come in handy for developing characters and in making the plot line more plausible.

All of my professional career, I want to have a writing studio overlooking the ocean, but after having experienced doing it from an extremely windy resort balcony in Monaco, I opted to get one at 7,000 feet in the Colorado Rockies where I now reside, surrounded by the peace and tranquility of nature with my closest neighbor a mile away. The lack of stress and peacefulness of being surrounded by only nature really helps me keep my creativity on track. It is my hope that as fellow authors toil away that they may find the same kind of peace and inspiration.