James is a native of Southern California, where he lives a happy life with his wife, Sarah. He is a musician at heart and performs on trumpet in two wind ensembles and on a digital trumpet in a MIDI band.

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, 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.

As well as being a musician, James is a Mac user, freeware enthusiast, open source advocate, and graphic novel collector. After a few successful years as a contributing editor and forum moderator for MacMerc, James set out to create MacManX.com out of a desire to share those as well as other personal interests with the world and discuss topics which could be considered as too controversial or inappropriate for MacMerc.

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)