James Ballou

Jim Ballou has been writing as a hobby for over twenty years, both fiction in different genres and non-fiction about numerous subjects. As of 2017 he had a dozen book titles in print. Additionally, since 2000 he has written more than sixty magazine articles that have appeared in five different periodicals, including The Backwoodsman, Backwoods Home Magazine, Wilderness Way Magazine, Primitive Archer, Modern Survival Magazine, and the on-line blog The Survivalist Blog.

Paladin Press first published Ballou's survival related non-fiction books beginning in 2007, and by the time Paladin went out of business at the end of 2017 (after 47 years in business) they had published five of his books, several of which were Paladin best sellers. Now all five titles are published by Prepper Press, at prepperpress.com

Ballou’s career has been in insurance sales since 1998, but his hobbies have included hunting, fishing, camping, practicing outdoor skills, exploring nature, firearms and the shooting sports, archery, blacksmithing, leathercraft, treasure hunting, playing guitar, writing, spending time with his wife and kids, and learning about history, etc. He first became interested in wilderness survival as a kid when he read the book, “My Side of the Mountain” by Jean Craighead George, after first watching the movie version in the theater more than forty-five years ago.

Ballou served four years in the United States Army during the mid-late 1980’s, became a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division and left military service after his enlistment ended with the rank of Sergeant E5. Although his four-year enlistment was entirely during peacetime, he considers the training he received, which included parachuting, foreign language training, armorers’ school, numerous field exercises, and jungle operations training in Panama to have been valuable on many levels.

Originally from California, Jim Ballou has called North Idaho his home since 1977.