ROCHESTER — Father, teacher, U.S. combat Marine and now — author. 

Rochester resident James Quaintance never thought he would add that last role to his resume but a year-long journey has led him to publish his first ever book, “Black Diamonds.”

Quaintance grew up in Bowling Green, Ohio, and joined the Marines right out of high school. Serving until 1991, he went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering. Currently, Quaintance teaches information technology at Taunton High School and said he always had ideas in his head to write — but never went through with them. 

“Black Diamonds,” is based on his own experience within the Marines and follows the main character through an operation to Columbia to get Pablo Escobar. The character goes through loss, hardships and triumph in a deeply personal story to Quaintance.

“I found it cathartic to write down my experiences,” he said. “It helped me get through some of the losses I suffered and things I’ve been through.”

Everything written for the book was done in his free time between everyday life with his children, grandchildren and work. Quaintance would slow the memories down in his head and organize the sequence of events into different chapters. From there he would flush the dialogue and descriptions of the environment. 

When Quaintance’s work was completed — his daughter advised him that the perspective of the book should be changed to first person. Although going back through dozens of pages and shifting the perspective was tedious — it wasn’t the most difficult part of the process. 

“It was making sure that I got things right. We’re talking about 30 plus years ago that these events took place. The names aren’t the same names as real life, so there’s nothing tied to actual individuals that were involved — but I wanted to make sure that I treated everybody appropriately that was being depicted,” he said.

Now that it’s been published Quaintance said many publishers have reached out to market his book. He said he’d rather keep it self-published for now while he works out the ideas for the second installment and other novel ideas. 

“I’ve got a total of four book ideas that deal with Marine subject matter so I’ll put those out and get them together and see what happens,” he said. “I’ve also got another idea for a fantasy fiction with angels and demons that are kicking around in my head too.”

“Black Diamonds,” is available to purchase on Amazon with both digital and physical options for reading.