Jim McLain is a retired newspaper sports writer living in Shreveport LA. During a 37-year career with The Shreveport Times he won numerous writing awards, was a two-term president of the Louisiana Sports Writers Association and set up the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Foundation. An earlier, unpublished novel, The Snake Catcher, won first place out of more than 50 entries in a 2003 Writers Guild of Acadiana contest.