About James

James Floyd (he/him) is an author, entertainment and travel writer, puzzle maker, and all-around geek. He’s the author of Star Wars Crossword Puzzles and is a regular features contributor for Star Wars Insider magazine and starwars.com. His word and logic puzzles regularly appear in Sunday Club, a paper-and-pencil games periodical. His travel articles, often on visiting filming locations worldwide have been published online and in print, for fanthatracks.com and Star Wars Insider and he has been a podcast guest on the subject.   

As a science and social science communicator, James is co-creator and co-host of the podcast Star Warsologies, which examines Star Wars through the lens of guest scientists and other subject matter experts, ranging from ecology to astrophysics to dance. Connecting to all his nerdy interests, he organizes and moderates panels on various facets of pop culture at different conventions, including San Diego Comic-Con, Star Wars Celebration, Legacy Expo, and FanX Salt Lake. Some of his favorite panels are the Science of Futurama; Droids, AI, and Sentience; Indiana Jones and the Nexus of History, Archaeology, and Punching Fascists; and spotlight interviews with Star Wars novelists and comics writers. Additionally he has moderated panels and been a panelist at San Diego’s Fleet Science Center.

James loves creating puzzles and word games. His first book, Star Wars Crossword Puzzles and Other Word Games from a Galaxy Far, Far Away, was published in 2024 by Chronicle books, and contains over fifty gorgeous puzzles, each shaped around an image connected to the puzzle’s theme. But much earlier, he and a friend created the annual San Diego Rocket Race, a daylong puzzle race with a sci-fi theme, using games, trivia, and on-location information to give clues to the next destination around the city. They also developed the Star Wars Bounty Hunt for Star Wars Celebration, and races for other conventions and events.

James began his journalist career, writing news, features, and reviews for the Star Wars blog clubjade.net and the general pop culture site bigshinyrobot.com.

James has a bachelor’s degree in Urban Studies and Planning from University of California, San Diego. In the public sector, he has worked as a transportation planner for state and regional agencies, and a corporate trainer / instructional designer for county government. At an engineering start-up, James was a jack-of-all-trades, handling software documentation, customer service and on-site training, SQL product customization, logistics, purchasing, and vacuuming. He serves on the board of directors for the Burke Lectureship on Society and Religion at UC San Diego. 

James grew up and still lives in San Diego, with his family and a pile of books to be read.