Hi, I'm James Cullum, the editor of the Lorton Patch. I'm a native of San Antonio, Texas, and graduated from Vermont's Goddard College, where I studied creative writing. Over the past ten years, I've covered the White House, Pentagon, U.S. Capitol, Fairfax County and the City of Alexandria.

I seriously picked up photography after the earthquake in Haiti, and spent some time there reporting immediately following the disaster. Internationally, I've reported from Israel, Haiti, Morocco and Algeria, and who knows where next. So, I'm a writer and a photographer, but no matter what, it's the writing that truly inspires me. 

My favorite authors are Beryl Markham, James Joyce, Kurt Vonnegut, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hunter Thompson, Guy de Maupassant and P.G. Wodehouse.

I'm also a movie buff. Here's a list of my Top 10 Favorite Films:

1. Vertigo
2. Lawrence of Arabia
3. The Godfather (1 & 2)
4. Some Like it Hot
5. The Year of Living Dangerously
6. A Clockwork Orange 
7. Modern Times
8. The Third Man
9. Pulp Fiction
10. Raiders of the Lost Ark 

My parents are Jim and Blanquita Cullum. Jim Cullum is a world-reknowned jazz musician and Blanquita is an internationally-recognized television and radio broadcaster. My sister, Blanquita Sullivan, is a fashion designer and works for Anthropology; sister Bonnie owns a theatre in Austin, Texas; brother Chris owns and operates a food truck in San Antonio and sister Lene works at ClearChannel Radio.

The family is full of artists and entrepreneurs. My goal is to be a good steward of the Cullum name here in Northern Virginia.