James Pomerantz
Novelist • Biographer
James Pomerantz studied Journalism at the University of Missouri before he wrote his first novel in 1999. James cut his writing teeth in Chicago while owning 10 nightclubs and sports bars over many years. Two relevant characteristics have surrounded James since he left school to chart the boundaries that would eventually identify with his life. Risk and authenticity defined the author/entrepreneur in the same way that the song, I Should’ve Been a Cowboy, defined Toby Keith.
As a forerunner to the celebrity restaurant boom, James led the pack. In 1988, he opened a themed restaurant in partnership with the Newman/Haas CART Racing Team of Mario Andretti, owned in part by actor Paul Newman. Andretti’s 1987 Indy car was in the main dining room! James also survived a restaurant partnership with actor Steven Seagal during the height of Seagal’s popularity in 1991, after the movies Above the Law and Hard to Kill made Seagal an A-list movie star. James and Steven were joined at the restaurant’s grand opening by 600 plus guests including Jules Nasso, Steven Seagal’s production partner in Seagal/Nasso Productions. Jules Nasso was indicted in 2002 as an associate of the New York City Gambino crime family.
James Pomerantz novels include his newest book, The Breacher’s Playbook, with co-author Navy SEAL Tom Hruby. Deklan Novak, the book’s protagonist, is based on Tom Hruby’s real-life experiences as an MMA professional fighter, a Navy SEAL and as a linebacker for Northwestern University. James met Tom Hruby at Northwestern in 2014 when Tom played Division 1 football in his 30’s as an active-duty Navy SEAL.
Other James Pomerantz novels include Ghost Bandit, The Spitting Image of My Father, They Call Me Sid Rock: Rodeo’s Extreme Cowboy, and the upcoming Camelot’s Secret Legacy.
Ghost Bandit blends outlaw folklore and a talented present day thief with vigilante retribution. Amid today’s obsession with fame based solely on notoriety, two men are forever linked in the most unlikely manner. One man died 130 years ago and the other is simply fulfilling the obligations of a father to bring great harm to those who harmed his family. Justifiable crime is perhaps the purest form of character examination. When the two men finally meet formally, they discover that their paths had been crossing daily for the previous year. One man robbed the most successful and visible nightclubs in the nation. The other man is Jesse James.
The Spitting Image of My Father is a novel that takes place within the world of professional rodeo. As research for the book, James attended the bull riding school of PRCA World Champion Bull Rider Gary Leffew. At the age of 47, the author rode bulls during a two-week rodeo boot camp in the hills of Central Coast California. Research for his novels is the key to a great story. According to James, “I lived in a bunkhouse for two weeks and got on the backs of 2,000-pound bulls to understand what it feels like to ride a locomotive.”
In 2004, James wrote a biography, They Call Me Sid Rock: Rodeo’s Extreme Cowboy, about 2002 PRCA World Champion Steer Wrestler Sid Steiner. The Steiner family is Texas rodeo royalty. James spent months at the Steiner Ranch while writing the biography. Sid’s father Bobby was a PRCA World Champion Bull Rider in 1973.
James is putting the finishing touches on his next book. Camelot’s Secret Legacy is a historical-suspense family drama that blends political intrigue, Mafia vendettas, and hidden legacies. With echoes of The Da Vinci Code and The House of Kennedy, this novel asks the question: What if Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy had a secret daughter and she lived to tell the tale?
James, father to Jimmy, Kiley, Michael, and Matthew, P-Pop to Mary Brock, Robbie, Cara and a new grandson coming, resides in Scottsdale, Az. with his girlfriend.