Bio
I'm a writer, editor, producer, and transmedia artist — which mostly means I've spent nearly three decades making things across print, audio, visual, and interactive media without ever learning to specialize. Each project has its own needs. Most of the work sits where storytelling runs into the less glamorous business of producing it, and I’ve often had a hand on both sides.
Around 2000, I co-founded the Evolving Media Network, working out of a 15,000-square-foot A/V production facility in upstate New York. By day, we handled commercial media work. By night, the same space turned into a lab for music, writing, video, and collaborative experiments. It was a hard balance to strike, but that mix of client work and independent production became less aspirational over subsequent years.
I moved to Los Angeles in 2003. In 2004, I published my first novel, Join My Cult!. After that, and after the band that was at the center of my life at the time dissolved, the next decade was a blur of startups and collectives, early podcasting and blogging which was actually a fairly decent living while it lasted, summers spent traveling festival and con circuits, couch-surfed book tours, and the collaborations that happened in the incubation periods between one push and the next.
A lot of that decade ran through ARGs, transmedia, and interactive media — back when those words described a frontier and not a stale pitch deck. I worked on installations, live events, projection, video, sound, and online storytelling, and fell into orbit with a long list of co-conspirators include people like Joseph Matheny, P. Emerson Williams, and Dave Szulborski, avant-theater outfits like The Foolish People, and a string of gallery- and event-based projects.
Most of that work is hard to trace now. Some of the 2000s and early 2010s survives in fragments. Most of it doesn't.
By the time I landed in Boston in 2014, adapting to chronic illness had changed the pace of my lifestyle in many ways. I moved into research-heavy projects, freelance journalism, and daily editorial — including a stint as editor in chief of Rebel News, a small independent outlet covering hacking, activism, and civil liberties. It was later sold to owners whose intentions ran about as opposite to the original as you could get. The times they were a’changing.
Most of my long-form fiction has been written inside a single mythpunk universe: The Fallen Cycle. It runs from grimdark fantasy to sci-fi, unified by a shared mythos and a matching RPG system. Current output spans illustrated fiction, webcomics, audio, and music, alongside the tabletop RPG still in development. The Fallen Cycle Mythos podcast serializes some of those stories as audio fiction, scored with an original soundtrack.
That same pull toward participatory narrative runs through Modern Mythology, where I get into RPGs and collaborative storytelling with my co-hosts both in discussions and actual plays, and I currently write on myth, memetics, and systems at Narrative Machines, a substack following from the 2017 book.
After years of living and traveling across the United States, I returned to Philadelphia in 2019, where I grew up. Full circle. From grade-school RPGs onward, in the end it all stems from a fascination with creating worlds can read, hear, play, and inhabit.
A few interviews from the archives:
Testimonials
“There are few people that understand the complex and ever-shifting fabric of technology's material as well as James. He's a visionary in everything he does and synthesizes Concept and Concrete effortlessly. I'm seldom intellectually stimulated by people that I work with, but James continues to be one of the great exceptions.”
— Jared Louche (writer and musician, probably best known for Chemlab)
“James is one of these people with fire in his belly. He's highly professional yet not one of these people obsessed with protocol or formulas. I've worked with many editors, designers and art directors during my 25 year career, and in my experience, what I can say, is that what you have here is top notch talent and human being.”
— Rudy Rauben (Reality Hackers, TSR, Wizards of the Coast)
“James is great to work with - he has a sharp and focused mind - he is very 'on the case' and demonstrates a brilliant attention to detail. I know him through his publishing work but I do know that his network stretches far and wide giving him additional skills he can call upon when needed making him a very capable individual. “
— Krishna Stott, (Interactive Storyteller, managing director at bellyfeel.co.uk)
Select Publications
2001: Babalon “Descent” – Album; bass, percussion, production. CD pressing. No label.
2003: Babalon “Dreams & Reflections” – Live EP; bass, production. CD pressing. No label.
2004: “Join My Cult!” – Novel; author, cover artist. New Falcon Press.
2005: “Magick on the Edge” – Anthology; contributor, cover designer. Immanion Press.
2005: “subQtaneous: Some Still Despair In A Prozac Nation” – Album; bass, percussion, production, cover designer. Mythos Media.
2005: “Generation Hex” – Anthology; contributor. Disinformation Co.
2006: “Chasing The Wish” – 64 pg color Graphic novel/ARG tie-in; creative director, colorist. New Fiction.
2006: “Fas Ferox: World Walkthrough” – Color 24-page illustrated booklet introducing the world; creative director, contributing artist. Discontinued project.
2006: “Electroworx” – Album; bass, co-producer.
2007: “Fallen Nation” (later retitled “Party At The World’s End”) – Novel; author, cover artist. Mythos Media.
2007: Veil of Thorns, “Cognitive Dissonance” – Album; drums, bass. Panic Machine.
2008: “Citizen Y” – Screenplay released as “ritual blueprint”; co-author, cover artist. Weaponized Press UK.
2010: “The Immanence of Myth” – Anthology; editor, contributor, cover designer. Weaponized Press UK.
2010: “Hoodooengine: EgoWhore” – Album; co-producer, rhythm guitar, cover designer. Mythos Media.
2011: “Hoodooengine: Murder The World” – Album; co-producer, bass, 2nd guitar, cover designer. Mythos Media.
2011: “Apocalyptic Imaginary: The Best of Modern Mythology.com” – Anthology of blog articles and interviews (2010–2011); editor, contributor, cover designer. Mythos Media.
2012: “404 Documents” – Novella; co-author, cover artist. Discontinued/incorporated into "Party At The World’s End." Mythos Media.
2013: “The Words of Traitors” – Limited edition short story collection, full color illustrated; author, co-illustrator. Produced by successful small Indiegogo campaign. Discontinued/some material incorporated into 2014’s "Party At The World’s End." Mythos Media.
2014: “Party At The World’s End” – Novel; integrates previous works (“404 Documents,” “Words of Traitors,” “Fallen Nation”); author, cover designer. Launches Fallen Cycle transmedia project. Mythos Media.
2017: “Narrative Machines: Myth, Propaganda & Revolution” – Non-fiction book; author, artist. Mythos Media.
2020: “MASKS: Bowie & Artists of Artifice” – Academic anthology; editor, contributor, cover designer. Intellect Books/University of Chicago Press.
2024: “Tales From When I Had A Face” – Illustrated novel; b&w paperback first edition based on 2021 full color hardcover Kickstarter edition. ~250% funded, selected by Kickstarter editors as a “project we love.” Mythos Media.
2025: Tomorrow’s Forgotten Relics: “Lost in Myth” – EP; art-rock album, production, bass, rhythm guitar, cover design. Limited Pressing TBD. Released on Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, iTunes, Bandcamp. Mythos Media.
2025: “The Girl Who Lost Her Tears” – full color illustrated novella; art and layout, written by Tash Cox. Amazon direct release, limited run published by the Al1ce “As Above So Below” Kickstarter.
2026: “Cut the Sky’s Throat” – concept album tie-in for season 5-6 of the Fallen Cycle Mythos podcast; production. Released on Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, iTunes. Mythos Media.
Still At It.
If you’re interested in contracting James for consulting or contract work