What to talk about, James, here on this first post.

Well, first, I hope you have some ideas about who I am as a person—I feel it is safe to say at the end of the day, I am human like everyone else. I grew up having books read to me at the age of two and reading on my own at the age of three. My mother was a purchaser for the local county library, so I had access to books for my childhood, preteen, and teenage years without worry

Kid’s books bored me by the time I was five, and I read books from young adult fiction to read Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven when I was six. While I did not understand, that poem opened up fictional worlds for me for the first time. I love books from those authors who came before me, present, and those I find through others. 

My mother passed away on December 15, 2019, which significantly impacted me because my mother was my biggest supporter. When my diagnosis became official of schizoaffective disorder, and then reclassified as Bipolar 1 with psychosis, PTSD, panic disorder, and social anxiety during Thanksgiving 2007, after a suicide attempt, my mother helped me get everything I needed to get better. It took years to find my place within my diagnosis, and I continue to be on this journey of self-discovery.

I returned to school and got my BA in Creative Writing and English, finishing in 2018 and graduating Summa Cum Laude. I started my MA in English and Creative Writing part-time with a specialization in fiction, ending in 2021. My father had a heart attack that year, so I entered the MFA program, all of which will/has been completed at Southern New Hampshire University. 

My love for science fiction and then fantasy came at an early age when my fascination with the men in black and UFOs sparked my first foray into writing (sadly, those stories are long gone). I knew I wanted to write because reading was an escape from reality. Reading and writing have always gone hand in hand, but it wasn’t until about ten years ago that I decided to pick it back from when I was a teen. 

After reading 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale in high school, I chose to write dystopian fiction alongside dark fantasy fiction. I began to love the genre, but I also liked dark fantasy; I read a lot of manga and books, so I decided that would be my main writing area. I have two books self-published (see my “Books” section), and I am poised to sell my first novel by getting an agent. 

My current book for publishing is called Rise of the Nephilim and will be a six-book series. My published novels include a memoir called The Bipolar Writer: A Memoir, where I chronicle my experiences in the first ten years of my diagnosis in a nonlinear fashion.

The second is a short contemporary fiction adult novella, Angel on the Ward. I lean toward speculative fiction writing these days, but in Nanowrimo 2022, I wrote a contemporary fiction novel entitled Memory of Shane. Lastly, I am starting to write a New Adult fiction novel entitled I am Aurora, Legend of the Myths of Old. 

Lastly, since 2017, I have been a mental health advocate. I had a mental health blog sharing my journey from 2017 to 2021 and a podcast called “The Bipolar Writer Podcast.” I was also a co-founder of the short-lived 10-episode podcast “2voices.” I will be starting a new podcast soon where I interview writers, more on the speculative fiction realm, and will blog reviews here. 

If you want to know more, you can comment, and I will write another one of these in the future about the interests that I have in life. 

James

Image by Egonetix_xyz from Pixabay

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/jamesEskye