James D. McCallister

author of the Edgewater County series

Notes on the DIXIANA Saga

Arriving this week at the conclusion of what we’ll remember as the Composition Period that began on May 1, 2013, the fifth and most complete draft of the entire DIXIANA story will soon rest comfortably fresh from its detailed line-edit. DIXIANA… it’s more than fiction, it’s a state of mind, one in which I’ve been immersed […]

Archival Phish Review: Raleigh ’99

In honor of today’s LivePhish archival release of the band’s show from Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, NC on December 16, 1999, here’s a partially tongue-in-cheek review I submitted to the original Phish reviews page, maintained in those days by my good friend and former University of South Carolina Newsfilm Library colleague Dan Schar.

DIXIANA Logline

While a close edit of my Southern literary epic DIXIANA is ongoing, the end is in sight, and discussions are beginning with outside candidates to continue the editorial process after the author’s composition period ends on April 30. My thoughts at this time are also turning toward notions of shopping or self-pubbing this literary project, so […]

DIXIANA Progress Report

And it’s an exciting one! On February 17 I completed a close line edit on what’s known as the fifth draft of DIXIANA, or rather, the first of the three volumes. With an April 30 deadline looming for the completion of all three manuscripts, I find myself not only pleased with the work, but well ahead […]

New DIXIANA Draft Completed!

Here at the end of 2014, there’s no greater news I could announce than to make this post trumpeting the completion of the third draft of my three-novel saga entitled DIXIANA, about which I’ve blogged in an extensive and ongoing fashion. Twenty months into a two-year timeframe to completion, with the current version I feel as though I’ve already […]

SO MANY ROADS: Grateful Dead Academic Symposium Schedule Now Set

Somebody pinch me. This may not constitute new news to regular readers of this blog, but today I’m beyond honored and energized to report that I’ve received notification of the scheduling of my appearance promoting and discussing Fellow Traveler at the upcoming Grateful Dead academic conference called So Many Roads: The World in the Grateful Dead! As […]

REVIEW (Theatrical): GONE GIRL (2014)

David Fincher’s most accomplished and entertaining film since Zodiac, this adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s hit novel Gone Girl emerges as one of the more trenchant and often hilarious satires in recent cinematic memory. A work of art that’s equally at home skewering male-female marital relationships, popular news media, celebrity worship, American spending and eating habits, or even suspense […]

THE ICE DAY (Featured Short Story)

Here’s another in a series of previously unpublished stories I thought I’d offer to my blog readers. This exercise in apocalyptic horror comes from about ten years ago when I sat down one day and said, let’s write a Stephen King-style short like I might have read in Night Shift, an early example of King’s collections of […]

Down to DOWN IN DIXIANA

It’s been some time now since I posted about my ongoing, two-year process of crafting a novel called DIXIANA, but that doesn’t mean the work has stalled. In fact, I haven’t posted because I’ve continued to plow through the revision of this life’s-work-grade project at a very satisfying pace. DIXIANA lives . . . but […]

Review (Live Music): PHISH, Fresh in Portsmouth 2014

Amidst a series of higher profile weekend gigs like Randall’s Island and MPP, Phish dropped back into what has become the East Coast’s coolest outdoor shed with a pair of solid mid-week shows stuffed to the gills with tour debuts, a couple of which can be termed definite bustout material, and a number of satisfying jams. […]