About the Author

James is a lawyer, inventor, musician and lifelong student of the martial arts. He has been writing for as long as he can remember, and notably, his earliest works came in the form of poetry and song lyrics.  He wrote his first novella, "Disaster at Sea", at Age 11 when his family spent one of their many summers at their cottage on the Big Rideau Lakes in Ontario, Canada.  While he claims that the manuscript has happily been lost to time, this represented his first foray into novel writing. Reflecting on his earliest literary influences, James would have to credit J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Farley Mowat, and so many others who crafted stories which told of epic journeys and great struggles. He has always read books spanning every genre of fiction imaginable, but Science Fiction and Fantasy have always occupied a special place for him.

He attended Ashbury College School in Ottawa (which makes a cameo appearance in Book One) from grades 7 to 12. While the Province of Ontario still had a Grade 13 year, James had had enough of High School and left to pursue higher learning at Carleton University in 1982 to pursue a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and Criminology. He graduated with Distinction in 1985 and found himself at a crossroads. Pursue a career in the Intelligence Field, go to Law School, or become a journalist?  Being pragmatic, he applied to programs in all three areas, hoping that his pathway would be revealed to him based on acceptances alone. To his surprise and dismay, he received acceptances in all areas, and was compelled to make a decision.

He made the absolute correct choice by deciding to attend the Faculty of Law at the University of Windsor from 1985-1988, as this pathway lead to both a great and spiritually rewarding career as a Personal Injury lawyer, and far more importantly, resulted in his meeting his wife and best friend Lisa. The couple married in 1993 and built a family with 4 wonderful and gifted kids.

James and his family travel extensively and share a love for all things ancient. He credits his love for ancient history to many things. Starting with the obvious, he loved every age of historic study taught throughout his school years, but especially tales around the Egyptian, Roman and Greek Civilizations, and later the Celts and the Vikings. He also cites fond memories from his childhood where Irish traditional songs sung by his parents, uncles, aunts and grandfather were commonplace happenings after a shared meal.

The true passion for wanting to tell a story about an ancient landscape arose during his travels across Europe at the Age of 20. Walking through castles and ancient archeological landmarks represented a powerful moment of inspiration. The desire to tell the stories of forgotten people began to take shape.

The first iteration of THE LOURA LURE came about in 1985 when James was 21 and he found himself with too much time on his hands while awaiting the arrival of acceptance letters that would define the next step in his educational journey. Even after the decision to attend Law School was made, he found himself too immersed into the storywriting to quit. As home computers were not to become commonplace for several years, he pressed on at night following a day of legal studies armed only with a handful of pens and writing paper. He completed the initial Manuscript in 1987 at a length of 280 hand-written pages, and immediately proceeded to park the story while he got on with practicing law and other life and career projects, which included his role as the lead singer in a rock band, coaching multiple sports teams for his children, and teaching self defense in several Jujutsu dojos over several decades.

In 2009, a seminal experience occured in his law practice which sparked James' need to begin writing a General Interest/Self Help book which chronicles a selection of his clients' cases. Without revealing spoilers for this as yet un-named work (as the story continues to write itself), the book demonstrates how the western legal system has unwittingly eroded the need for responsibility taking and acts of atonement in our society over the past 100 years in favour of monetary expediency. The commitment to begin writing this academically inspired book had the effect of reigniting James' desire to take another look at the tale of The Loura Lure.  After several starts and stops, he began researching multiple topics in 2016 which he felt could make his story resonate better with readers. Within a week of beginning his re-write, it became clear that the story was taking on a life of itself and could not be confined to one standard length novel. By 2023, the story of Dr. Shamus Bergin had spread itself across the pages of three books. His first book entitled "THE LOURA LURE" (published by Austin Macauley Publishers) was released on February 2nd, 2024, followed by the second iteration in the trilogy entitled "THE LOURA LURE, Book 2, THE AWAKENING" (also published by Austin Macauley Publishers), and released internationally on April 25th, 2025. The final instalment in the trilogy entitled "THE LOURA LURE, Book 3: RISE OF THE ANGEL" is slated for release in early 2026 (also by Austin Macauley Publishers). 

James' journey to becoming a published author was long and circuitous. Like every author he has had the privilege of meeting thus far, James has enjoyed his share of rejection letters before being offered a publishing contract. He considers the rejections as having been educational, however. The literary agents who took the time to respond to his queries were kind enough to either supply tips on how to make better "elevator pitches" about his books, or on how to make the first  pages of his  books more attractive to the average reader. He took all of this excellent advice to heart and pays close attention to these learnings now that he has returned to his other writing projects across multiple genres.

If you have enjoyed THE LOURA LURE trilogy, James hopes that you will stay with him as he crafts further tales for your reading pleasure. Please consider adding your name and email to our mailing list so that we can keep you posted about other works by this author as they approach publication.