Jim Syring grew up in a working class neighborhood in New York City. As a kid, he loved movies especially John Ford's Monument Valley westerns with John Wayne and he dreamed of living in the West. He spent his teen years hanging out in the coffee houses of Greenwich Village where he was introduced to beat literature and modern art. In a Hemingwayesque gesture, he enlisted in The Marine Corps at 18 and served in the Far East where he studied Haiku and Zen. He spent most of his working years in television and the cable TV industry. Today, he lives in The Rocky Mountain West and writes scripts, books and poetry and is an editorial consultant to writers.