Why do I write? Because I believe in the power of stories. Because I do not want my library to burn down when I die. Because words are things.
--Jim Ainsworth

Jim Ainsworth left the financial services profession over eight years ago to pursue other dreams. A descendant of cowboys, he satisfied a longing left from his teen years by competing as a team roper for five years. With a cousin and friends, he recreated his ancestors’ trip across Texas by horse and covered wagon, later documenting that journey in his memoir Biscuits Across the Brazos.

With publication of his first novel, In the Rivers’ Flow, Jim discovered a passion for writing fiction based on real experiences. Rivers Crossing continues the story of the Rivers family.

My first books had to do with the world of finance. I found myself almost accidentally in a niche market of teaching CPA’s to become financial planners. My first book was a training manual that was sent to a fellow in Montana who was helping my brokerdealer to train our reps to pass the securities exam. He liked the training manual so much that he suggested I send it to John Wiley and Sons. He even provided a name. That name was critical. The editor called me two weeks later and said they wanted to publish the training manual as two books. Two years later, another editor called and asked me to write a book called How to be a Successful Financial Consultant. I wrote it in six weeks, because I already had the research.

I have either been blessed or cursed with a low boredom threshold and believe that life is too short to do the same thing your entire life. I retraced my ancestors’ trip across Texas in a covered wagon from Ranger to Cooper in 1998. I published a memoir about it in 2001. I learned the power of books and the power of stories from this first nonfinancial book. In 2001, after my mother’s death, I started writing memories in story form. That resulted in In the Rivers’ Flow, published in 2003. This book changed my life.

In 2005, I published Rivers Crossing, the second in a series of at least three, possibly five novels. Why do I write? Because I believe in the power of stories. Because I do not want my library to burn down when I die. Because words are things. As Lord Byron, said, “Words, when combined with small drops of ink, falling like dew on paper, cause hundreds, thousands, even millions to think.” 

Book this Texas novelist, a favorite speaker at book clubs and other gatherings of people who love fiction.

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