Jim Satterfield has retired as the Region One supervisor for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks to concentrate on a career in fiction writing and possibly teaching in the future.

Satterfield, whose last day on the job was Friday, has been writing for about eight years, with two fiction novels that have been published, but it has been a relatively low-profile pursuit.

The 57-year-old explains that he shied away from promoting his books out of concern that there might be a perception that his high-profile state job was not his priority. And he insists that it certainly was.

“It’s been great. I love the department, but I worry about the department” because it has had to operate in an increasingly political surrounding environment, he said. “I really enjoyed working with the crew, the managers and all of our staff. It’s a very colorful place to be. There’s a very diverse public out there.”

When he came to Kalispell in 2005 from a position in Glasgow, he was presented with a list of issues that his predecessor expected Satterfield would face. Satterfield prepared a list of entirely different issues that have evolved over the last decade. Among them: Flathead Lake management, walleye suppression at Noxon Reservoir, an upcoming effort toward grizzly bear de-listing and the perennial petitions to establish new boating regulations in a region that has roughly 50 percent of the state’s total flatwater surface area.

“We just replaced those issues with these issues,” he said, holding up the two lists as he reflected on the nature of the business of managing fish, wildlife and parks.

Looking toward the future, Satterfield and his wife, Gloria, are moving to Pueblo, Colo., where they will be close to their son, Daniel, who is attending Colorado State University starting this year. Their daughter, Elsie, is on the verge of graduating with an engineering degree from North Dakota State University.

Satterfield is hopeful about teaching opportunities in Pueblo. “And I’ll be working quite a bit on my writing,” he said.

His first book, “The River’s Song,” is a western adventure set in Montana that came out in 2012.

In 2013, he came out with “Saving Laura,” a modern-day thriller that starts out in Satterfield’s hometown of Aspen, Colo.

He and his California-based literary agent are currently shopping around an award-winning manuscript for a historical novel titled “Soon You Will Cry.”

His two books were published by top publishing houses, but Satterfield said he’s hoping to get the attention of one of the few top-flight publishers.

“I didn’t want to be a self-publisher,” he said, noting how he was surprised at how difficult the publishing world can be.

“Writing the story is the easy part. Getting someone to read it is the tough part,” he said.

Satterfield likens self publishing to having a sea of garage rock bands, many of which are really good, and getting a top publisher to breaking through as a rock star.

“It’s kind of like that,” he said.

Satterfield said the next chapter in life comes with some risks, but not unlike when he and his wife took pay cuts when they moved from Colorado to Helena for him start with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. He was 39 at the time, and “I just wanted to go to Montana,” he said. “That was about the riskiest thing I ever did.”

More about Satterfield’s books can be found on his website at http://jimsatterfield.com.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.