Author Bio
Author: James L. Bruner
Interests: Outdoors, Writing, Computer Graphics/Design, Community Development
Location: Upper Peninsula of Michigan
Most notably James is recognized for his research and writings regarding the Whitetail Deer as well as personal recounts of previous Black Bear encounters. His writing style consists of both informational materials as well as reflective articles which document personal experiences from his many years in the field.
James has written as a staff author for numerous physical print publications but left the print publication process to pursue his own development as an online author and promoter for a less demanding output schedule which would allow for more research.
Note: "I would much rather research and observe for an entire month and produce two articles than jam two weeks of time in the field for three or four short article print publications. It wasn't so much the deadlines that swayed my opinion. Editors and publicists were consistently removing pertinent information that changed the entire tone of each article. These changes were made with no regard to article relevance by people who had no experience in the field and were more or less clueless or blind to the final product appeal."
James grew up in an outdoor family and recalls some of his first memories outdoors with his father. "I remember being very young and my dad carrying me on his shoulders out to the duck blind. All I could think of was how strong he was and if I fell off this water that was nearly touching my feet would surely be well over my head. Later in the day I was mesmerized by the decoys on the water and the ducks that seemed to fly in oblivious to our presence." In the years that followed, moments like those were played time and again in a number of outdoor activities that included rabbit hunting, fishing, deer hunting, grouse hunting, and of course more waterfowling. "In an area like the Upper Peninsula you have outdoor activities at your doorstep and we took advantage of every season available to hunt and fish."
Through his teens James began to venture out on his own and break away from the traditional methods of hunting learned in his earlier years. Many of his techniques were considered too far out of the box to gain any sort of recognition but, as the laws of average soon expand, some of these same techniques were now showing up in major outdoor publications by well-noted hunters. "I remember using the heel of my boot to make a scrape larger. For the most part I didn't have a plan or theory. I was just inspired to create a change. Two days later that scrape was three times larger the size I had left it. The lights came on when I realized I had pine scent on my boot soles during that event. The combination of a physical and scent change outraged the buck. A year later I read about mock scrapes for the very first time in a commercial magazine."
With moments like these in mind James began expanding and simply observing deer as often as possible logging daily information through journals and video which would be studied in depth. In the next 25 years that research continued and now follows the author through his research and observation from his residence and the outlying areas of state property. As mentioned by the author, "The view from my cabin window would not be considered spectacular until it is filled with a wild black bear, whitetail deer, wolf, bobcat, fox, or any of the other wild critters that abound here."
