(Originally published in Free Times, Columbia, SC, January 2011) The swinging, heady San Francisco scene of the 1960s remains a long, strange distance from the bucolic conservatism of a place like South Carolina, but in a weird brand of cosmic irony, Columbia now has an important, tangible link to those flower-child days of yore: Former […]
With this piece of key art now (almost) in place, the time is here for Fellow Traveler! Once my revamped website goes live, there will be content aplenty that explains the origins, themes, and long gestation period of this very personal novel ‘of the grateful dead‘ that is being published on November 1, with pre-orders but already live and shipping […]
It’s a wonderful time in this writer’s life! My long-gestating novel Fellow Traveler is now on the fast track for an October 2012 release—the galleys are almost ready for my scrutiny, the cover is underway, and promotional events are being planned! There will be much more to say about this novel as its release nears, […]
Summer 2012, a season of writing: Following a terrific SC Book Festival in May, I launched into the writing of Novel 2012, whose actual title is LET THE GLORY PASS AWAY, and here in mid-August—not actually the end of summer, but the beginning of back to school season certainly feels that way—I find that I […]
The South Carolina Book Festival, which continues today, has been terribly good to my writing career. Yesterday, as I moderated two panels consisting of talented authors and engaged audiences, I felt very much at home.
Welcome to the blog of James D. McCallister, which for the time being serves as my principal internet presence (except, of course, for Facebook). Here one may find an explanation of the blog name, as well as biographical material on who I am and why I’m here. This blog represents the only public glimpse into […]
Captain Mandrake, as he calls himself, strides into the room—a living space, warm, cluttered, three generations’ worth of portraiture and bric-a-brac, the only sound the crackling of a dying fire—and proceeds, as he is wont to do, to cause me no shortage of distress: And it is late, and the chill of January has settled over the world. I am reading; I am at a good part. It is my one escape, this.
But by now, I am used to the routine. I’m just especially tired tonight.
While it hasn’t been publicized yet by the South Carolina Arts Commission, I’m pleased to announce that I’ve been selected for the second time as one of the 2010 winners of the SC Fiction Project. In 2008 my story “Howdy from Upstairs” was honored with this award, and here we are two years later with […]
From my latest encouraging rejection: “I like the premise but wasn’t happy with the execution.” Now, what we have in this is code language to soften the blow, execution as euphemism for the writing itself. For the thin-skinned nascent writer, such a rejection can be devastating. For me, however, this spurs me on to evaluate […]
ANTICHRIST (dir-scr. Lars Von Trier, 2009) Dutch provocateur Lars Von Trier’s ANTICHRIST is a mature work of art from a filmmaker, by his own admission, in the bleak throes of major depression, one who has produced a motion picture to be reckoned with, albeit one destined to be perceived as perhaps profoundly silly as well […]
