Not James
Illustration by Rosemary Sease
Not James is the second novel I’ve published on Amazon (the first being Loco Motive) and I’m quite pleased with how it turned out. I’ve yet to receive my hardback copies yet, though the paperback format looks sleek and—dare I say—professional. I already had the surreal experience of holding one of my own stories in my hand but this one feels different. I think it’s because fantasy is the genre that truly got me into reading and loving it. The Harry Potter series definitely stimulated my interest, though The Book Without Words by Avi is the story that which I attribute my love for fantasy. Seeing Not James, a story I dedicated solely to that love for fantasy, fully realized in physical form is pleasing to say the least.
I find my own description of my stories awkward and biased (naturally). But to sum up Not James: the doppelganger to a king returns to his homeland and stirs race and class conflict in his wake as he fights, steals, and seduces his way to the kingdom capital. I suppose the way I put it doesn’t sound too bad. I think I still prefer its description in Kirkus Reviews a bit more. The audience Not James is aimed at is YA. That is, to say, pretty much anyone 12-years-old and up who have an interest in fantasy. It is the first in its series that is planned to span 3 books whose sequels have already been drafted (yet neither edited, ha ha). The titular character Not James was the core concept that the rest of the story materialized around; he’s witty, headstrong, and a contradiction in his world. His half-giant partner Idrid is who grounds him, and… Well, I’ll leave it at that since a story should speak for itself.
Map of Lanmar, the kingdom in Not James
Cunning, thievery, and swordplay are hardly all that drove me to write Not James. Sure, The Princess Bride was a key inspiration and remains a film I habitually return to alongside The Lord of the Rings trilogy. But in my own original world I also wanted original magic. Magic is surprisingly hard to make original. Or maybe it’s not surprising. And maybe “original” is too strong a word for the magic in Not James. But what is writing if not borrowing ideas and spinning new ones? So, flashback to writing my very first chapter introducing magic into the world. There I was, sitting in a cramped corner in a cramped dorm room leaning over my cramped desk as my feet futilely pushed against the floorboards while the back of my chair resisted against the foot of my bed. I didn’t want anything to be world-breaking. Impossible I thought. Magic inherently breaks the rules of the world. Then I changed perspective. Perhaps something that isn’t too overpowered rather than world-breaking, then. Naturally, I proceeded to write in characters who could control all the elements like the Avatar and further characters who could conjure any objects they wanted into existence and yet more characters who could bend space. I sat back and bumped into the chair still relentlessly resisting my attempts to make more room for myself. There I thought, satisfied as I returned to my senses after what could be called an in-the-zone moment.
The takeaway from that vignette, other than me contradicting myself, is that what I think I’ll write tends to change as I write. That chapter was Maia’s introduction as well, a character I’m in some ways more fond of than the titular character. I of course later implemented the rules to limit how much characters could change the world around them with magic. And I didn’t entirely diverge from my goal for originality. Borrowing magic from Avatar: The Last Airbender, Hunter x Hunter, and Harry Potter (among others) gave me the foundation for a world with a variety and versatility of magic. The versatility of the magic was most important to me, as magic being entirely bound by its rules to not grow, develop, or be innovative or discovered makes it less, well, magical and more ordinary and stagnant. Like a pebble. Anyway, magic is cool and contradiction is a major theme of Not James, and I hope I’ve demonstrated thusly in this post.
If you haven’t yet, I recommend checking out Not James. Not just because I wrote it, but also because I think it’s a good story.
“A wild and magical tale that will likely have readers eager for a sequel.” —Kirkus Reviews
