James Patrick Rooney

James Patrick Rooney was born in Bronx, New York, raised in Westchester County, and has been living and working in Northern Palm Beach County, Florida, for his entire adult life. Young Jimmy’s first loves included sports, particularly ice hockey, a variety of music and culture, and his adopted homeland of Ireland.

When a hockey-related injury at age nineteen left him paraplegic, he turned his focus away from the physical toward developing his mind. Soon after finishing college at (then infamous) “Suntan U” in Coral Gables, he began a successful thirty-year career in financial advisory with a major Wall Street firm. About that same time, he met his enduring love—his family. Married to Cindy ever since, together they’ve raised two superb children, Patrick and Megan, who are now thriving young adults.

While managing an ambitious reading group (2005-14), Jim was inspired to write more competently (i.e., several college-level creative writing courses and other modes of self-learning). To hone his skills he wrote short stories, imaginary book reviews for his reading group, and later edited and authored articles for a now-defunct lifestyle website (2018-20). After stepping away from financial advisory in 2014, he began working on his first novel. As is often said, starting with a few core ideas the story then wrote itself.