James is a native of Southern California, where he lives a happy life with his wife, Sarah. He is a musician at heart and currently performs on flugelhorn with Dragonas, on trumpet with The Claremont Winds and the Fullerton College Community Band, and on digital trumpet with the Cal Poly Pomona MIDI Ensemble. He has studied conducting under Dr. Iris Levine and Dr. Tony Mazzaferro, and is currently studying trumpet under David Evans. James began his online career as a support forum volunteer many years ago. He was eventually discovered by Rick Yaeger, the senior editor of MacMerc.com, who recognized a potential that not even James himself was aware of. After a short email-based conversation, Rick offered him a position as a contributing editor for MacMerc.com. After a few successful years as a contributing editor and forum moderator for MacMerc.com, James set out to create MacManX.com. As well as being a musician, James is a Mac user, freeware enthusiast, open source advocate, and graphic novel collector. He conceived MacManX.com out of a desire to share those as well as other personal interests with the world. Recently, James accepted a position as a staff writer for Splash Panel, where he will be reviewing some of the best works of literary fiction, and launched Program Notes, a free and volunteer-powered database for program notes. (Photo by Sarah Wallin)