James was born in Tacoma, Washing and grew up there as an only child. From a very young age he was fascinated by other languages and French was the first language he learned other than English. He graduated with honors from high school and went on to major in Comparative Literature at U. C. Berkeley where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1973. He traveled extensively and spoke five languages fluently. James chose to make his home in the Bay Area and after Berkeley he went to work at the San Francisco Art Institute. He wrote grants and proposals for students.
Known for his keen intelligence and wonderful sense of humor, he was a journalist from the mid-eighties to the mid-nineties with The Center for Investigative Reporting. He worked as a free-lance investigator where he scoped-out and exposed the real story behind the basic media investigations and sold them to news channels and magazines.