With my sabbatical-slash-recovery from the writing of the 2015 Faulkner-Wisdom Finalist and hot-topic literary epic DIXIANA scheduled for this past summer, conveniently and grimly enough, alongside what became the omega point of my mother’s terminal illness, the plan for September had been to dive back into a quote-unquote normal writing cycle. For all sorts of reasons, […]
Andria Kennington McCallister June 4, 1946 — September 7, 2015 James D. McCallister In the last couple of years I’ve found myself tasked on occasion with giving eulogies. Gracious, it must be that time of life for me—middle age. This summer I had a 25th wedding anniversary, and only two weeks ago turned 50. Wow, […]
Almost two years to the day since finishing the first draft of the most challenging project of my writing career, it gives me no small amount of pleasure to announce that DIXIANA has emerged as a Finalist in the 2015 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Literary Competition! May I add that this news came the day before my fiftieth birthday? And […]
Regular readers of the blog know of my status not only as a novelist, but that I present myself specifically as a South Carolina novelist, one writing about his time and place. Hell, my original author headshot includes a glimpse of the State House building, a shot taken only steps away from the Confederate monument now […]
Almost ten years to the day that I finished the all-important first draft of my first novel, I’ve completed what I anticipate as the last major rewrite of MoHG. In the wake of its close call with a publishing contract, this was an intense project I forced myself to undertake (and had scheduled anyway for […]
Here’s the first part of my review of this terrific new film, as published on the Jasper magazine blog. An effectively stylized glimpse into Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson’s troubled life composing what remains as the arguable pinnacle of the modern American popular music canon, in the brilliant Love and Mercy we find depicted his mid-1960s creative eruption as well as the sad, bizarre interlude twenty […]
In which we fully introduce Chelsea Colette ‘Creedence’ Rucker, one of my favorite characters in all of my fiction, and a major player in DIXIANA as well. One of the Story River peer reviewers couldn’t understand why she takes up so much of MoHG’s narrative. Mercy. To quote an old Grateful Dead shirt I used […]
Continuing this peek at the opening 50 pages of MoHG, here we bring Devin’s sister Creedence, the third major character, into the picture.
For those catching up with MoHG here’s Chapter 1, as well as the impressive peer review on the full manuscript from a submission that went pretty far with a publisher, but not quite far enough. Here we meet Devin Rucker‘s co-protagonist Billy Steeple, another damaged character, but with his own peculiar set of difficulties. Like Devin, Billy seems buried […]
Here’s the first chapter of the increasingly fabled MoHG. I dunno, this seems like good stuff. Eventually, inevitably, this book will find its way to publication. MANSION OF HIGH GHOSTS Part One: A MAN IN THE GRIP OF A THEORY “It’s easy to get buried in the past.” —Neil Young
