James D. McCallister

author of the Edgewater County series

STATE OF THE PROJECTS Autumn 2015

Time again for this writer’s report about my various unpublished manuscripts. In this post I will reveal that at least one of these novels will see publication in the next calendar year, although the mechanism for such remains at the moment in a state of TBD. One way or another, however, I feel secure in announcing that in 2016 the […]

A Thousand-Year Rain

  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, […]

MANSION OF HIGH GHOSTS: A Major Revision is Done

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 […]

MANSION OF HIGH GHOSTS: The Story River Peer Review

Two years ago I began a journey with Pat Conroy’s fiction imprint at the University of South Carolina, Story River Books, that led to both wonder and disappointment. In receiving peer review that’s on the whole positive, the manuscript still did not manage to fully connect. Publishing is a tough business, a heartbreaking one. During the […]

Dear DIXIANA

Two years ago, DIXIANA, you were but a gleam in my eye. Out of reach for so long, yet here now I find that you exist. You are one of the great loves of my life. In the room with me. Corporeal. I can touch you. How we began seems like only yesterday. Now, my […]

State of the Projects: Spring 2015

The last couple of years here in Edgewater County have made for quite the novelistic ride. From seeing the publication of Fellow Traveler to getting an agent for DOGS OF PARSONS HOLLOW (no sale) and then losing said agent over trying to cut a deal with Story River Books on MANSION OF HIGH GHOSTS (no sale, […]

Manuscript Evaluations Now Open

Now that I’m into the revision phase of my work on DIXIANA, and a light revision phase at that, I thought I’d once again promote the availability of my editorial service, which is explained below. By this point in my life I’ve enjoyed quite the varied writing career, with much accumulated knowledge and professional experience to share, including […]

Storytelling Workshop Returns this Summer!

While we’re all making plans for this summer, Columbia SC-area writers may wish to consider taking my five week class, Storytelling Workshop, that’s again offered as part of the Midlands Technical College Corporate and Continuing Education program. Students may anticipate the structure of the course as half lecture/salon on writing topics such as discipline, style, and various other elements […]

Notes on the DIXIANA Saga (Part 3)

After two prior novelistic forays, what more could possibly occur in the Southern-fried universe of my series DIXIANA? Despite the intensity of the narrative peaks at the conclusion of DOWN IN DIXIANA, much remains unresolved for the characters caught in the personal and social dramas of my Edgewater County literary world. Here, then, is the synopsis of the third […]

Notes on the DIXIANA Saga (Part 2)

With the lengthy establishing act that is DIXIANA already described, we continue the synopsis of the seriocomic Southern literary journey of Roy Earl Pettus, Button Sykes, Christy Beaudock, and all the other characters driving the narrative of DOWN IN DIXIANA, the second volume of this three-novel series for which I’ll soon begin seeking a publishing berth. While book one […]