Author



 James King

James King has been a freelance writer for more than 20 years.

Specializing primarily in corporate communications, Jim has also had nonfiction articles published in The New York Daily News, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Chicago Tribune, Catholic World, and a wide variety of business periodicals.

The Journey to Publication

Writing novels -- and getting one published -- has been a lifelong dream of King's. He has been actively chasing this dream for more than 30 years, ever since he wrote his first novel soon after graduating from the University of Notre Dame in 1977. He was unable to sell that novel. To "get material" for future novels, he spent three years working and backpacking his way across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. When he ran out of money in Bangkok, he took the cheapest flight he could find back to America. He landed in San Francisco where he worked for a time in the hotel business.

In 1983, King moved to the East Coast to take a newsletter writing position with a small publishing firm in Stamford, Connecticut. In 1984, he met his wife, Joanne, while jogging. They married eight months later. King started his own freelance business in 1987, soon after the birth of their first child, Katie. While he filled the role of "Mr. Mom" and worked on building the business, he also wrote his second and third novels. Despite what he call several "nibbles" from publishers, he was unable to sell that novel.

With three unpublished novels sitting in his desk drawer, King was beginning to think that his dream of being a published author was simply not meant to be. But in 2006, nearly 30 years after he graduated from college, King decided to pursue a Master's Degree in Writing at Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York. It was during that two-year program that King wrote the bulk of "Bill Warrington's Last Chance," the novel that will be published in August 2010 by Viking.

A native of Lakewood, Ohio, King lives in Wilton, Connecticut with his wife, Joanne, and their two children, Katie and Daniel.