Few novelists have such a wealth of diverse personal experience, broad education, extent of world travel, and rich cultural heritage as H. Melvin James. Mr. James draws from this uniquely vast well-spring, to develop dynamic characters, design intriguing story-lines, and create vivid exciting settings.  

Melvin was the seventh of eight siblings, the grandson of pioneers and immigrants of German, Irish, Czech, and English descent. Raised on an Oklahoma farm, he learned such skills as automotive mechanics, welding, cattle ranching, farming, and machinery operation. By age 14, Mel had worked on farms across the Great Plains, from Oklahoma to North Dakota.

Graduating from High School at seventeen, he set out on his own, as had his six older siblings in turn. Leveraging skills gained as a teenager, Mr. James earned his way through college, often working full time while attending a full schedule of classes. While gaining the knowledge of two college degrees, he also gained skills in various commercial and construction jobs, including commercial truck driving, across many states, commercial and residential electrical wiring, plumbing, land surveying, and heavy construction equipment operation.  

During Mr. James four-year military service in the US Army Security Agency, he attended two years of intensive training in electronics, including courses in complex data demultiplex and decoding systems and techniques at the National Cryptologic School of the NSA. During his service, Melvin instructed classified courses in advanced technology systems and was assigned to a critical function at a clandestine signals-intelligence field station.  

Mel’s civilian career as an electrical engineer and business manager, included computers manufacturing, petrol-chemical heavy equipment manufacturing, and, primarily, major aerospace-defense programs. His industrial career broadened and enriched his education and experience. He earned many certifications of skill and knowledge, including jet engines, high pressure vessels, FAA certifications, environmental science, leadership development, and financial accounting of major projects, quoting, contracting, budgeting, and managing.

In aerospace-defense, Mr. James was directly engaged in many high profile and critical projects, including outfitting, modifying, and maintaining Air Force One and other Presidential fleet aircraft, the DoD Airborne Command Post fleet, strategic military aircraft, and numerous other aerospace and defense projects, including highly secretive mission aircraft and systems.

Between traveling to be with family, touring the World, observing a performing arts show, or attending a regional festival, Mr. James and his wife, Diane, reside in a house of his personal energy-efficient engineering, constructed between forest and meadow on the ranch they work, where he was raised.