In addition to editing three volumes of Quickies and co-editing two volumes of Queer View Mirror with Karen X. Tulchinsky, James C. Johnstone's writing has been published in the Lambda Literary Award-winning anthology Sister & Brother: Lesbians & Gay Men Write About Their Lives Together, Flashpoints: Gay Male Sexual Writing, Prairie Fire, Icon Magazine, The Buzz, and Homefronts: Controversies in the Queer Parenting Community. He is co-editor of Queer View Mirror: Lesbian and Gay Short Short Fiction, and Queer View Mirror 2. He is also editor of Quickies1, 2, &3 : Short Short Fiction on Gay Male Desire.

James has worked as a Japanese language interpreter, translator, and tour escort, and is now the proprietor of Home History Research Services, which provides historical information on houses and buildings to Vancouver clients.