ABOUT MADDIE JAMES
I write to silence the people in my head.
In 2022, Maddie James celebrated her 25th year of publishing romance fiction under multiple pen names. Her collective body of fiction work includes over 80 published titles.
As Maddie James, she writes small town contemporary romance novels and cowboy romance. In 2026, she will launch a cozy mystery series.
As M.L. Jameson, she pens edgy paranormal and romantic suspense.
As Madeleine Jaimes, she writes upmarket women's fiction.
Maddie's first book, THE WILD WEST, a Kensington Precious Gems romance, received a Calico Trails Cameo Award. RED: A SEDUCTION TALE, claimed first place as the Romance Book Scene's favorite novella of the year. THE COWBOY'S SECRET BABY was a 2021 finalist in the Imaginareum Imadjinn Awards, and her book BEACH THERAPY was an Imadjinn finalist in 2025. BEACH THERAPY also received the NN Light's Book Heaven Book Award for Best Beach Read in 2024, and was a Holt Medallion Award and George Romance Writers Maggie Award finalist in 2025.
Her writing book, DISCOVER YOUR WRITE PATH TO PUBLISHING SUCCESS finaled in the 2024 NN Light Book Award's nonfiction category.
Maddie has enjoyed numerous Top Pick, 5 Star, and Best Read reviews from various reviewers. Her books have landed on Amazon Top 100 Paid Bestseller lists, including BROKEN, a #1 bestseller in western romance. She was listed as a Top 100 Contemporary Romance author at Amazon and a Rising Star in western romance at Apple Books.
Affair de Coeur said Maddie, “shows a special talent for traditional romance,” and RT Book Reviews claimed, “James deftly combines romance and suspense, so ho on for an exhilarating ride.”
Originally traditionally published, Maddie James wrote for over ten years honing her fiction craft (that's the way we did it back then, and with typewriters!) before selling her first novel in 1996, while also publishing short fiction and non-fiction articles and news pieces. In 2010, she published her first independently published novel, launching her own publishing house, Turquoise Morning, LLC, now DBA as Jacobs Ink, LLC, where she published eighty authors, and over 500 books through 2015. When the publishing industry shifted, she closed the house to authors, but continues to publish her own works under the imprint.
"Working with authors was a highlight of my career," Maddie said. "Together, we created published, distributeed, and promoted so many beautiful books and fascinating stories."
While publishing fiction full time was always a goal, her day-to-day reality was teaching. While spending forty years working in education systems—twenty years in public school and twenty years non-profit work—she continued to write. In academia (penned under her legal name) she has published dozens of non-fiction works, from white papers to journal articles, from book chapters to books, and curricula. Happily retired now from her work in education, Maddie writes full time.
Maddie's forty years of writing and publishing experiences, in the traditional, academic, and independent publishing industries, have positioned her well to work with and support new authors by sharing content, conducting workshops and courses, and designing cover art.
While writing has long been her passion, Maddie considers raising her two awesome, beautiful, and wonderfully independent children as her greatest accomplishments.
Fiction Bibliography
Non-fiction Bibliography
Bold Journey Magazine Interview
New In Books Interview