Syrie James is an author and screenwriter. Her name is pronounced "Sear-ee" (rhymes with Dearie.) She wishes she had a fascinating story to share about the origin of her name, but the truth is, her mother was simply a very creative woman, and she made it up.

Syrie was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, and moved west at age one because her father didn't like shoveling snow. She has lived most of her life in California, if you don't count the two years as a child when she lived in France.

After a successful career in Hollywood, in which she sold nineteen screenplays and teleplays in a variety of genres to Tri-Star Pictures, Fox Family Films, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX TV and the Lifetime Network, Syrie decided to follow her passion and write a novel. Her first work of historical fiction (about one of her favorite authors), The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, sold at auction after a two-day bidding war between three major publishing houses, received critical acclaim, and became a bestseller.

Syrie grew up in San Jose, California. Her father, Morton Astrahan, was one of the fathers of computer science. Her mother, Joann, told Syrie: "You can be anything you want to be when you grow up. Except maybe a famous model. They need really good cheek bones."

When Syrie was in the sixth grade, her grandparents gave her a battered old typewriter, and she wrote her first book. "Thankfully," Syrie says, "I never showed it to anyone. But I was hooked. Creating stories and characters, and retreating into my imagination, was thrilling to me. I knew at that moment that I wanted to be a writer."

Syrie was Valedictorian of her high school class, and graduated cum laude from U.C. Davis with a B.A. in English and Communications, where she was awarded a Departmental Citation for Outstanding Accomplishment in English.

Syrie has long been a fan of British literature of the 19th century. She also enjoys reading in a variety of other genres, including historical fiction, women's fiction, biography, memoir, historical romance, mystery, and the classics. Two of her favorite authors are Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë. Syrie's husband, who has joined her in watching all the film versions of Miss Austen's novels several times over, and every film version of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights ever made, has come to share her enthusiasm, if not her obsession.

Syrie lived in Paris when she was seven years old, and had visited more than two dozen countries by age eight, which instilled in her a lifelong love of traveling. Her other favorite pursuits include movies, the theater, playing Scrabble, photography, sewing, costuming, rubber stamping, and the out of doors. Syrie designed and maintains her own website. Like Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë, Syrie is very fond of a long walk!

Syrie writes every weekday from 10 - 6. She says, "Many people can't wait for the weekend to arrive. It's the opposite for me. I truly love my jam-packed weekends, but from the time I turn off the computer on Friday evening to the moment I'm back in my chair on Monday morning, I'm anxious to get back to the characters I left in limbo, who are just waiting for me to continue their story."

When she's not reading, researching, writing, or updating her website, Syrie's preferred activity is to spend time with her husband and family. Syrie married her college sweetheart, Bill James, and she considers their sons Ryan and Jeff to be her finest achievements. Syrie and Bill were thrilled to recently welcome two wonderful daughters to their family, Ryan's fiance Yvonne, and Jeff's wife Yakun!