Author Archives

James is a full-time writer.

• A quiet night in

  By James Ellis on March 14, 2016 • ( 0 )

  It’s official: I have tinnitus. So the cracks, pops, whistles, groans and the constant background hiss, like a layer of cicadas inside my head, are here to stay. For a while at least. Probably. There is ambiguity. I’m told tinnitus is… Read More ›

• Why Unbound is the right choice for The Wrong Story

  By James Ellis on February 10, 2016 • ( 3 )

  

  Two years ago I started writing my first novel The Wrong Story. Now, bar the final edits, it’s complete. To some extent I thought the journey was over: I’m a writer, I have written. Veni, vidi, vici. But of course,… Read More ›

• 2015 in review

  By James Ellis on December 31, 2015 • ( 0 )

  The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 400 times in 2015. If it were a cable car, it… Read More ›

• Begin at the end and end at the beginning (or how to fail exams and confuse your friends)

  By James Ellis on November 8, 2015 • ( 0 )

  Excuse me if these words look wobbly. I am taking a short break from NaNoWriMo 2015. National Novel Writing Month means just that – writing a novel in a month. 50,000 words minimum, 70,000+ if you want to hit a… Read More ›

• Living in Bath – cigar optional

  By James Ellis on October 21, 2015 • ( 1 )

  

  It’s more than two weeks since we moved from South London to South Bath; eighteen days since we swapped the bars, restaurants and sirens for the stillness and silence that surround our new home when darkness falls. It feels like… Read More ›

• Acrophobia (or why I like the valleys)

  By James Ellis on September 29, 2015 • ( 0 )

  

  I live with acrophobia, a psychological nuisance more commonly known as a fear of heights, and which loosely translated means being scared of peaks, summits or edges. In other words, when I am in high places I am frequently and… Read More ›

• Notes on The III International Flann O’Brien Conference

  By James Ellis on September 23, 2015 • ( 0 )

  

  Last week I spent four days in the company of Flanneurs, Mylesians, academics, authors, onlookers and whiskey-drinkers. All drawn together by a fascination with the works of… well, it depends. For some he’s Brother Barnabas of Comhthrom Féinne fame; to… Read More ›

• Life in the slow lane: a swimmer’s guide to the pool’s natural hazards

  By James Ellis on September 5, 2015 • ( 0 )

  I like to go swimming two or three times a week, and I like to swim a length for every year I’ve been alive. Up and down I go, counting the lengths, thinking about how old I’m getting and keeping… Read More ›

• A Sublime Sleight of Hand (or Why I Love The Comforters)

  By James Ellis on August 31, 2015 • ( 0 )

  UNKNOWN WRITER: It is almost sixty years since the publication of Muriel Spark’s debut novel The Comforters (1957) and for me, it remains one of the finest metafictional novels of all time – all because of one simple, almost casual, feat of… Read More ›

• Metamorphosis: Bean Bags, Flann O’Brien & Getting It Out There

  By James Ellis on August 27, 2015 • ( 0 )

  A year has passed since I submitted the first 25,000 words of my novel as part of a creative writing MSt. Since then I have written, re-written, abandoned, restructured and despaired of, the remaining 60,000 words. Writing a novel takes… Read More ›