James Therrian was born in Michigan and spent most of his early years in the rainy Northwest before following the sun to California, Maui and Santa Fe, New Mexico. An avid writer, he attended workshops with Lew Hunter of the famed Screenwriting 434 class at UCLA. Dance of the Heart was first written as a script before it began its incarnation as his first novel. James currently lives in San Diego, California, where he works with the University of California San Diego.