Jim is a veteran of the Navy and the author the short story collection Big Lonesome and co-author with Scott Campbell, Jr. of Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch of Giving the Finger. His novel, Forest of Fortune, which draws from his experience working at a SoCal Indian casino, will be published in August by Tyrus Books. Ruland is a freelance book reviewer for San Diego CityBeat and the Los Angeles Times. His fiction and nonfiction has appeared in numerous publications, including The Believer, Esquire, Granta, Hobart, Oxford American and Razorcake. His work has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Reader’s Digest Life Stories Contest. He runs the Southern California-based reading series Vermin on the Mount, now in its tenth year.