Bill Dagsaan never started out to be a children’s author. But through sharing stories about a family of extraordinary creatures living in the Olympic Mountains with his grandchildren, that’s what he’s become.

Dagsaan, a Bremerton resident for his entire life, has just published his first book titled, “Secrets in the Emerald Forest.”

“From the time my grandkids were little, I had these stories in my head,” he said. “I would share them with my grandchildren and they really seemed to enjoy them.

“So, one day, I thought, ‘Why not share them with other kids and families, too?’”

His book takes place in the Pacific Northwest, he said, because the area is known for Bigfoot sightings.

“I wanted to place my stories where it would be possible, even though the stories are fiction,” he said. “That way it leaves it up to the kid’s imaginations to decide if Bigfoots really exist.”

Throughout his story, he mentions places that actually are real, such as Cushman Lake, Upper and Lower Lena, Lillywamp and Potlatch. Even the river named Hamma Hamma.

In his younger years, Dagsaan was a mountain hiker and loved to camp, and many of these places are where he camped and hiked.

The book follows a family, two Bigfoot babies who are called Youngers, named WiiLo and LiLee.

“They are not only Youngers, but they are twins which makes them even more special,” he said.

Along with their older brother, Rocc, they have adventures in the valleys and near the rivers that teach them lessons like taking care of each other, how to respect their elders and how to share.

“It’s about sharing and making friends and just getting long,” he said. “Lessons any child can use.”

As a concerned environmentalist, Dagsaan uses the stories to teach about respecting the environment and keeping it clean.

Dagsaan never thought he’d be a writer. He spent 31 years working for the City of Bremerton. He retired in 2007 as superintendent of the Bremerton Housing Authority. He attended Olympic College and studied art and graphic arts.

Once he retired, he had time on his hands and his creative side came out, he said.

“It’s a way for me to relax — writing and drawing,” he said. “I just let my creative juices flow.”

He drew the illustrations for his book and said he paid close attention to making a Bigfoot creature that wouldn’t scare children.

“They had to be like kids — cute and cuddly,” he said. “Someone the kids would identify with.”

He has about 100 sketches of his creatures that he hopes to soon put in a coloring books for kids. His second book about the Bigfoot family is written and he’s just waiting to see how the first one does before releasing it.

In the second book, Rocc, WiiLo and LiLee venture outside of their valley to learn how to make trails that will allow them to find their way home again. They also find fossils in a river bed and see critters in the forest, he added.

So far, no one in the Bigfoot family, except the mom, has even encountered a human, he said.

“And that was only when she was very young,” he said. “Bigfoots have very keen eyesight and sense of smell. They know how to keep from being seen.”

In the book, Bigfoot creatures also can make themselves invisible, a talent they learn from their elders.

As for how his family of Bigfoots got their names, that’s simple.

“I named them for things that are in their environment,” he said. Rocc is really rock, Wiilo is after a willow tree, and Lilee is named for the flower, lily. And of course, the Emerald Forest is named for Seattle, which is the Emerald City.

Dagsaan’s book is available online at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. He is hoping to have it in local bookstores as well.

And, it was just recently that he share the book with his grandchildren Grayson, 10, Ira, 9, and Madrana, 6.

“They knew the story because I’d told it to them,” he said. “But they were really excited to see it as a book and know we were going to share it with other children.”