I think I have always been curious about people, places, and the stories that connect them. Though if you had known me as a child, you might not have guessed where that curiosity would eventually take me. I was skinny and had terrible eyesight and, unfortunately for a kid growing up in Alaska when I did, having to wear thick black-rimmed glasses didn't help. I got beat up more than a few times and was probably a little more socially awkward than most.

I'm not sure when that began to change, or even how. I just know that somewhere along the way curiosity took hold. I wanted to see things, understand things, and experience places beyond the world I knew. Over the years, work and that curiosity have taken me across the United States and throughout Europe, the Middle East, and beyond. I rarely shied away from an opportunity to go somewhere new and, in some cases, went looking for one.

I know I was influenced by my brothers: William's love of history and art, and Orlyn's strength and sense of adventure. And, of course, there was my mother's love of cooking and food. The love of wine was all me. It just felt right.

Along the way, I developed a habit of paying attention—not just to where I was, but to the people I met, the conversations around a table, the history beneath a place, and the small moments that somehow stay with you.

Writing and photography are two ways I hold on to those moments.

My first published book, The Soul of Beaujolais: Wine Is a Conversation in Every Bottle, grew from a love of Beaujolais and from something I had come to understand through years of experiencing wine: there is almost always a conversation surrounding the bottle. Sometimes it is about the wine itself, but more often it is about the people, the food, the place, and the moment being shared. Beaujolais simply became the wine through which I wanted to tell that story.

I am also writing fiction under the name Leroy James, where some of those same interests—people, history, places, and the unexpected turns of life—find their way into entirely different stories.

Photography has traveled alongside me since I was probably nine or ten. Sometimes a photograph tells the story better than words can. Sometimes the words come later.

This website is simply a place to bring those things together.

Stories of people, places, and experiences—some lived, some imagined.

— Jim