About james luger

I'VE LOVED WRITING EVER SINCE I LEARNED HOW. Like many grade-school kids, my summer writing project was about our family’s annual vacation, an adventure that was usually at my grandparents’ log cabin in Canada. I wrote down everything that seemed significant, like buying my first pocket knife and pretending to hunt for bears with a cap gun. One Christmas, my aunt gave me a lockable diary, and my writing turned to the wonder and adventures of life in rural Minnesota.

As I grew older, my writing became more commercial, like real estate training programs and marketing newsletters. I wrote a full page monthly column for the Minnesota Association of Realtors. In 2005, I co-founded an online education company with my daughter, Liz, and I wrote certified continuing education courses and pre-license courses for real estate agents and brokers. That writing earned money and strengthened my writing skills, but lacked the freedom and adventure of my childhood projects. To fix that, I used my non-career time to write novels.

My first novel took three years to complete. It wasn't very good, but it helped me learn story crafting and the discipline of putting words together during long work sessions. I’ve written four other novels since then, each one furthering my knowledge and skills, but not surviving the publishers' slush piles. Looking back, I gave up marketing too soon in order to write a new story that I felt passionate about. Like most novelists, creating a believable world and life-like characters seemed far more compelling and rewarding than cranking out query letters to agents and publishers. 

In 2017, I decided to devote my full attention to writing novels. My first project was LOST IN DALAT, and I returned to Vietnam to do research for it. My next novel, RETURN TO IQUITOS, was looseley based on an expedition to the source of the Amazon River. I've also written an aviation manual, LOOP ROLL AND KEEP CONTROL, about aerobatics, based on my 50+ years as an aerobatic certified flight instructor. My books have sold worldwide, and I'm grateful outstanding reviews by readers and professional reviewers.,

The above photo is James Luger's writing desk in the French colonial villa where he stayed in Dalat, Vietnam.

ALTHOUGH MY STORIES ENTAIL ADVENTURES, they are not genre adventure novels. They might involve romance, but are not genre romance novels. Although they all have strong female characters, they only border on being women’s story novels. For want of a more specific category, I would have to call them “suspense romance.”

The adventureous through-lines of my novels have been inspired largely by my expeditions, explorations, such as an expedition in a small thatched-roof boat to the source of the Amazon River with my friend, Hollis Willeford; a camping safari across the African Serengeti in a Land Rover with my daughter, Nikki; a trek with Sherpas through Himalayas from India to Nepal with my daughter, Erika; and cruising down the Nile River, and a road trip across Israel, with my daughter, Liz. I've made two return trips to Vietnam since I served there as a US Army soldier in 1965-1966, which was early in the war. 

The above photo is Jim Luger and his grandson, Frank, in front of an aerobatic airplane called a Super Decathlon. 

"LOOP, ROLL, AND KEEP CONTROL" is an aviation book for pilots about learning aerobatics and spins, and how to prevent and recover from loss-of-control incidents. 

You may download the free training syllabus here. 

My aviation career started in the early 1970s when I became a young commercial pilot and certificated flight instructor. I have taught many students how to fly airplanes, but most of my instruction experience has been teaching experienced pilots to fly aerobatics and how to maintain and regain control of an airplane that goes out of control. 

MY FORTHCOMING REAL ESTATE BOOKS are packed with  hundreds of tips and techniques to show real estate agents and brokers effective ways to help their clients reach their real estate goals, while making real estate agent's professional life more productive, efficient, and satisfying. 

The series of quick-read books will be based on my  47+ years as a real estate broker,  brokerage owner, and trainer. I have written highly aclaimed real estate training courses, both for live classroom and online delivery, and attended by thousands of agents and brokers. Five-star reviews have pointaed to  powerful, easy-to-learn career enhancers, for both new agents and for advanced professionals. 

Sometime in 2022, I will begin releasing a series of print and digital books based on my most popular topics. 

Sign up below for advance notices and special pricing.