The following is excerpted from an interview by Marisol Ramos of The Piers Anthony Thread (PATH) and is used with permission. Other details are blatantly swiped from James' official website at www.jamesrichey.com.

James Richey Goolsby was born in Austin Texas in 1964. Ever since James read "The Star Beast" by Robert A. Heinlein when he was about 11 years old, he has wanted to do nothing else but create stories. James started his writing career at the early age of 15, and hasn't stopped writing yet. Most of his early work has yet to be published and according to James, much of it has not actually been finished.

After spending six years working on a new novel, and with the help of Piers Anthony and Piers' research assistant, Alan Riggs, James finally got his epic adventure Quest for the Fallen Star published. Just reading the authors' notes from the three tell the struggle to get what is obviously a great story into print.

James' hobbies include collecting movie soundtracks and he has almost 250 to date. He likes listening to film score music while he writes. He selects appropriate music to put him in the proper frame of mind for writing. Such as the theme from "Raiders of the Lost Ark" tends to make him write faster and add more action scenes.

Over the years James has held a variety of jobs, as most creative people have. He has driven a school bus (something he admits was his favorite job besides writing), a restaurant manager, a clerk, thrown newspapers, delivered pizza and delivered phone books. Currently he is writing technical manuals for computer systems for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which he admits, pays more than his creative writing by far.

James' creative writing tends to be in the science fiction and fantasy line. Why? Because as James put it, "Fantasy gives me free reign to go wild, to tell a story and bring to heart some of the more deeper writing that I would like to put to the page."

James has just had his second novel, "Journey of Rem" (see below) published by Xlibris.com. It is available from Xlibris.com, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble (bn.com) and Borders.com.

Currently, James is working on his "Ultimate Disaster Novel." James has also developed the history behind the story of Quest, and eventually created a 90,000 word draft of the "Wizards' War," which he has sent to Alan Riggs to see about collaborating on a pre-quel to Quest for the Fallen Star. Other projects include a novella entitled "Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder," and "Hope of Infinitera," a sequel to Quest for the Fallen Star.

James has also recently published a short fiction piece on new-author.com.

James' advice to other hopeful writers: "Write first and foremost for the fun of it. If someone is serious about writing something from start to finish, I would say do your best to encourage yourself, develop a little discipline, and don't be afraid of a little (or a lot!) of rejection. Don't be afraid to succeed in writing."