Biography

James Patton Jones has been writing both fiction and non-fiction most of his life. Topics have included short stories, adventures, travel tales, novellas, academic essays and papers, peer-reviewed technical publications, technical articles, textbook chapters, and a dozen or so computer software manuals.

Background

Born in northern Alabama, Mr. Jones grew up in the Southern USA, but has also lived on both coasts, which provided a broad perspective on life for his writing. Also contributing to this perspective is his love of travel, having visited 29 countries on four continents.

Education and Professional Life

Mr. Jones earned an Advanced Studies diploma from Osbourne Park High School in northern Virgina, then began studying Computer Engineering at NC State University in Raleigh, NC. Tales from family members who had moved to the West Coast beckened him to the San Francisco Bay Area. He applied for and got a summer job at NASA at age 19, and that fall Mr. Jones begain studying Computer Science at De Anza College in Cupertino, California.

While at NASA, he worked full-time while continuing his studies, eventually earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Anthropology, with emphasis in Archaeology, from Santa Clara University. He spent a total of nine years working at NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, in the area of high-performance computing, publishing numerous peer-reviewed papers and technical reports. He left to form a start-up, the first of four successful companies.

After leaving California, Mr. Jones returned to the South, and now resides in the historic 1828 town of Newnan, Georgia, just south of Atlanta.

Mr. Jones has since focused on technical and business consulting. Desiring to further his skillset and credentials, he earned a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Ga Tech). This in turn lead to a newfound interest in FinTech, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI).

Hobbies

When not doing technical consulting and experimenting with Arduino, robotics and AI, Mr. Jones enjoys a number of hobbies including cooking, woodworking, gardening, camping, hiking, kayaking, swimming, mountain biking, photography, astronomy, genealogy, and of course, writing.

Mr. Jones is also an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church, and a Woodbadge-trained Assistant Scoutmaster and Merit Badge Counselor with the Boy Scouts of America.