About

I was reading before I began school – kiddies’ stories, folktales, comics, histories, ancient myths, anything with a tale to tell – and despite being a complete academic failure I spent most of my teens in the library, reading all the classics I’m ever going to read between the ages of thirteen and seventeen.

I have a compulsion to tell stories fuelled by the lifelong habit of observing people, listening to them, picking things up from random conversations, and then asking myself… “what happens next?”

I enjoy rewriting myths and running with characters from other novels too, playing around with archetypes, reframing them, and sitting back to see what occurs. Some stories are based on people I know. Others, such as Down By The River or Plot are autobiographical – they’re episodes from my own life – while others again, such as Zippo or When You Cry You Say Goodbye, come from dreams. Mostly though, they’re pure fiction. I just make stuff up.

Work-wise, I’ve done all the things that would-be writers tend to do: barman, postman, labourer, t-shirt printer, musician, ironmonger, phone-monkey, and now, after returning to education in my 20s, with an MA in English, I teach English. Apart from writing, which I do every morning between 5-7 am, and teaching (which I only do a couple of days a week), I still spend a lot of time reading. Fridays, I busk with my sax in Newcastle or Durham, and most mornings I walk my border terrier Angus along the beach.

I plan to spend the next few years completing the six or so novels that I’ve already planned. Then I’m going to stop writing, and just read.

James

 

Contact me personally at jamesross101@hotmail.co.uk