Adrian Payne was born in Parson's Pond on the Great Northern Peninsula on November 11, 1940. His parents were Jack (John H.) Payne and Lucy Keough. He lived there until the age of four when his parents moved the family to Hawke's Bay, where his father was employed with the Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Company. In the 1950s they moved to his father's hometown, Cow Head. Except for living in Toronto for just four years, Adrian has resided in Cow Head, where he remains today with his wife, Carol (Darrigan) Payne, of fifty-five years. Adrian Payne entered the workforce as a logger with the Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Company at the tender age of fifteen. Upon his return from Toronto, he engaged in the fishery and spent the next thirty-five years as a commercial fisherman. While he was still a fisherman, he became an outfitter catering to non-resident big game hunters for nearly twenty-five years. In 2009, he and his wife retired. What began as a few stories for the grandchildren, so they could understand what life was like for their pop when he was growing up, has evolved into a collection of short stories of Adrian's life from the time he was just a small boy. In the Shadow of the Long Range Mountains is his second collection of short stories. His first was Life on the Great Northern Peninsula (St. John's: Flanker Press, 2017).