Best of Family & Relationships
Best of Family & Relationships
"So Many Books, So Little Time!"
Exclusive Interview with
David James
When did you start writing?
I have been writing stories for about ten years, mostly short stories. I tried to write a legal novel about 8 years ago, but never finished it.
What makes writing your passion?
I write to explore emotion, and I want my readers to feel something. When my own words make me laugh or bring me to tears, and that happens more often than I expected, I know I’m doing something right. And when I hear feedback from my readers that they cried or wanted to throw the book across the room because they are mad at what the villain did or what happened to their favorite character, I feel so good; it means that I have brought the characters to life in such a way that people care about them, and that drives my passion.
How long have you been writing?
I love telling stories. I’ve always been a big talker, and I’ve never stopped inventing characters and storylines. Back in college, thirty-five years ago, I remember sitting with friends in a park and making up a game I called “What Am I Thinking?” We’d pick someone across the park, flip a Boggle sand timer, and give ourselves sixty seconds to narrate what that person might be thinking. Then someone else would choose a new subject and do the same.
It was hilarious, and without realizing it at the time, it sharpened my improv skills, and it was just a short leap to taking that skill to writing.
What was the feeling when you published your first book?
I couldn't believe I did; even now, I can't believe I did, and now that I am getting great reviews, I am clouded. Probably the biggest validation was receiving the Kirkus "GET It" award. I actually cried on the ZOOM call with Kirkus when they told me I received that award.
What’s the story behind your choice of characters?
Ecsala Winter is based on my favorite roleplaying character.
I first created her during the COVID lockdowns in 2020, for a D&D campaign on Roll20. When that game ended, I wasn’t ready to let her go, so I brought her into a Pathfinder 2E campaign that’s still running as I write this. At the time of the first printing of this book in December of 2025, every Monday night, I still play Escala in new adventures with my group, and she continues to grow in those games.
Part of the reason Escala feels so alive on these pages is because pieces of her are pieces of me. Her curiosity about love, her naivety, her stubborn hope—those come from the hopeless romantic in me. Writing from that perspective came naturally—maybe too naturally at times. And because I’ve spent years playing her week after week, slipping into her voice and her mindset, I’ve come to know her as deeply as I know myself. I guess this is as close to method acting as I’ll ever get.
This story is shaped by so many influences that I could never list them all. But I know in my heart that the authors who first made me fall in love with fantasy—J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen R. Donaldson, Terry Brooks, Terry Goodkind, and Robert Jordan—left their mark on me. Their worlds and characters have stayed with me for years, and I’m certain they’ve found their way into my own writing, sometimes without me even realizing it. More specifically, for this story, I drew inspiration from those 1980s comedies I grew up on—"Can’t Buy Me Love," "Pretty in Pink," "Better Off Dead"—those messy, awkward, beautiful coming-of-age stories of young love. The movie "Mean Girls" inspired me as well, because every good story thrives on drama, rivalries, and just a touch of cruelty—and that spirit fit perfectly into the cutthroat world of faerie court politics.
I also drew from the intrigue, brutality, and layered political storylines of "Game of Thrones," and I daresay Morvena Winter could give Cersei Lannister a run for her money.
LL Cool J’s love song “Two Different Worlds” from his third album Walking with a Panther (maybe the panther in the final battle?) sums up the forbidden love between Escala and Roedyn nicely. This song meant a lot to me back in 1989, and deep inside, I think it helped me write their love story arc.
When I first pitched Escala to my dungeon master back in 2020, I asked if I could play a pixie. His answer wasn’t just “no”—it was more like, “Come on, pick something normal from the Player’s Handbook.” So, I got sneaky. I created a pixie exiled from the fey realm but trapped in an elf’s body. Technically, she counted as an elf, which satisfied his rule—but her heart and backstory were pure pixie, and I roleplayed the heck out of it. Ironically, about a year later, both D&D and Pathfinder introduced pixies as playable options. If I’d only waited, I could have played Escala as the pixie I wanted from the start, but then I never would have invented her tortured backstory, the very chapters that became the seeds of this book (chapters 3 and 17 were the original backstory I wrote for Escala).
When the campaign began, I played Escala as an elf, but I insisted to everyone that she was really a pixie trapped in an elf’s body. That single idea sparked endless role-playing fun. Both the players—through their characters—and the dungeon master—through NPCs—constantly prodded Escala about her outrageous claim, and with every exchange, her backstory deepened. Bit by bit, I built out mischievous faeries, fey courts with all the drama of high-school cliques, tricksters, betrayals, and impossible quests. I even gave Escala a vague, mysterious mission—to “remove boulders from the True Cycle”—so that the dungeon masters could weave her story into their worlds however they wished.
Week after week, as the adventures unfolded and the party pressed her with questions about her past, her banishment, the courts, and the boulders, the world of the Court of Dreams grew clearer.
As the roleplaying unfolded, the world of the fey began to take root in my mind. Escala’s parents, their conflicts, her stepmother and stepsister, her best friend—all of them started as fleeting ideas at the table, but over time they grew into living, breathing characters. That’s the magic of roleplaying: it plants seeds.
For me, that seed became Escala’s Wish—a story woven from laughter, heartbreak, cruelty, and courage, shaped not only by the game but by the countless stories that inspired me. What began as improvisation around a table has grown into the story you now hold in your hands.
What annoys you the most in pursuing a writing career?
I always dreamed of seeing my books on the shelves of physical bookstores. That’s why the decline of brick-and-mortar stores genuinely disappoints me. It feels like stories are now expected to exist—and succeed—almost entirely in a digital space, marketed through algorithms instead of serendipity, and that loss still stings.
The second frustration is the sheer volume of weak books in my genre. I’m self-published too, and I believe deeply in that path—but when anyone can publish, truly good books are often buried beneath an avalanche of mediocre ones and may never be discovered.
What makes a book boring to me? Flat characters—and worse, perfect ones. I want flawed characters: people who make mistakes, say the wrong thing, hesitate at the worst possible moment, and grow because of it. Pair that with endless lore dumps delivered by narrators who drone on for pages about kingdoms and ancient histories instead of letting the characters reveal the world, and you lose me fast.
Where’s the banter? The humor? The teasing? Think about your own friendships; don’t you joke with the people you care about? Think about romance, flirting is awkward, uncertain, and, honestly, scary, especially at the beginning when you don’t know if the other person feels the same. That tension is gold–write about that!
Don’t give me sanitized worlds where everyone gets along. Make me hate your villains. Make their motives personal. Make me root desperately for the heroes—and make it feel like the villains might actually win. Make me laugh. Make me cry.
And think about how you tease your family, friends, and co-workers? Think about inside jokes you share with them? Why wouldn't your characters have the same thing? Mine do, and so should yours!
If a story doesn’t do those things, then for me, no matter how polished the prose or how intricate the lore, it falls into the “boring” camp.
How do you get over the “writer’s block”?
I don’t really experience writer’s block because my writing process is designed to keep me moving forward at all times.
At the core of my process is a Word-based outline for my novels, divided into six distinct columns. The columns are as follows:
1. Chapter number
2. Plot point (why is this chapter here? How does this chapter advance the story?)
3. Characters (which charactesr appears in this chapter)
4. Entry ( this is how I plan on entering the scene)
5. Exit (this is where I want to exit the scene)
6. Notes (this is where I put clever quotes, funny lines, notes on easter eggs, hints, etc.)
So how do I actually use this model when I write—and how does it keep me from getting writer’s block?
I start with the entry point and simply improvise the scene, the action, and the dialogue until I reach the exit point. I don’t stop to judge whether it’s good or bad; I just keep moving.
That doesn’t mean the first pass is brilliant. Now I might have eight versions of the chapter, but if I feel stuck, I will try it again with a totally different, improvised attempt to go from the "entry point" to the "exit point."
We all know the writer’s path is never easy, what makes you keep going? What advice would you give to new authors?
Write for yourself and don't think about writing as a business. If you don't like what you write, then rewrite it. If you like your own story, your love of your work will show through when it's done, and you start telling people about your work. You can't expect to make money either; writing is about telling stories; I'm sorry, but I don't think writing is about a business.
Do not use AI to write your book or to prepare your cover. It will show, and you will get tormented in reviews.
Get a good editor, too.
If you could go back in time and talk to your younger self, what would you say?
1. Outline using the method I described above.
2. Improvise dialogue—you can’t script it, it won't be natural. Let the characters snap at each other, tease each other, and yell when they need to.
3. Don’t make the romance easy. Make the characters earn the love.
4. You don’t need smut to tell a powerful story.
5. If the story makes you emotional, you are on the right path; keep going
Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with the bad ones?
Oh heck yeah—I love reading reviews. To date, I’ve received 92 reviews on Amazon, and all but one are four- and five-star ratings with genuinely glowing feedback. The single two-star review didn’t include any comments, which was frustrating—I would have loved to know what didn’t work for that reader.
As for editorial reviews, I’ve been fortunate across the board, but the one that means the most to me is Kirkus. They’re known for their sharp elbows and high standards, and they not only gave my book a glowing review but also awarded it a GET IT designation, an honor given to only about 20% of the books they review.
So no matter what anyone says in an Amazon comment, I know that the most prestigious independent review outlet in the industry read my book, loved it, and formally endorsed it. Because of that, I’ll never lose sleep over a negative review.
What is the feeling when you get a good review?
Cloud nine, every time. I love reviews that clearly show the reviewer actually read the book. It’s especially rewarding to see how different moments, characters, and themes resonate with different readers. Some reviewers are drawn to things I never expected, and I find that endlessly fascinating.
So far, that variety has only reinforced my confidence—I haven’t received a single negative professional review yet, and every one of them has found something to love in the book.
Have you ever incorporated something that happened to you in real life into your novels?
My book is full of things drawn from my real life. No, I wasn’t actually kicked out of the Court of Dreams, but at its core, this is a story about relationships. All kinds of relationships: parents and children, friends and lovers, community and enemies, siblings and rivals.
The book explores responsibility and love across those connections. As a son, a father, a husband, a co-worker, and a Christian, I’ve lived inside each of those roles. I’ve experienced both success and failure in them, just like the characters in the story.
What I hope the book does is give readers a glimpse into those relationships—the beauty, the tension, the mistakes, and the grace that come with loving other people.
Which of your characters you can compare yourself with? Did you base that character on you?
Escala Winter is, in many ways, me—a hopeless romantic with a relentless refusal to give up.
What do you think, the book cover is as important as the story?
I wanted the cover to immediately communicate who Escala Winter is and hint at the world she inhabits. In the novel, the castle is where the villain resides and where the final confrontations take place, so it felt essential to include it.
On the left side of the cover is a fey crossing—an element that’s deeply important to the story. By placing both images together, I wanted a potential reader to instantly understand that this is a story about a female elf hero, rooted in the fey realm, moving toward an ominous, evil castle.
I also knew I had to have the cover professionally designed, so I went to a cover design firm that had prepared a hundred or more covers for other novels in my genre.
Do you connect with your readers? Do you mind having a chat with them or you prefer to express yourself through your writing?
I would absolutely love to talk with readers. If I could, I’d do a Zoom call with every single one of them after they finished the book. I’d want to hear their reactions—who their favorite character was, where they laughed, where they cried (or did both), and whether they caught the little hints I tucked into the story. I’d love to know what surprised them most.
That kind of connection would be pure joy and any reader can friend me on Facebook and Goodreads.
How do you feel when people appreciate your work or recognize you in public?
It genuinely makes me happy. I’m writing about deeply emotional subjects, and knowing that those stories resonate with other people is incredibly meaningful to me. When a reader connects with the characters or feels something real because of my words, it reminds me why I write in the first place. That shared emotional experience, the quiet understanding between writer and reader, is both humbling and joyful.
Who is your favorite author? Why?
Stephen King. He’s mastered first-person storytelling and has an unmatched ability to explore extraordinary emotional experiences using plain, everyday language.
My writing style is heavily influenced by his works.
What’s the dream? Whom would you like to be as big as?
I have two dreams for Escala’s Wish.
The first is national library placement. I found so many of my favorite authors by wandering library shelves—Stephen King, Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind, Terry Brooks, J.R.R. Tolkien, and John Grisham. As a middle schooler, discovering the fantasy worlds of Tolkien and Brooks felt like magic. In high school, my library had "The Wheel of Time," and once I checked it out, I was completely hooked on Robert Jordan’s storytelling. Years later, I discovered Terry Goodkind the same way. My dream is that one day, a middle schooler checks out Escala’s Wish from a library shelf and falls in love with fantasy the way I did.
The second dream is to see Escala’s Wish brought to life as a movie.
And ss Escala Winter herself would say: “Dreams aren’t promises—they’re permissions.”
Would you rewrite any of your books? Why?
I would like to issue a second printing of Ecala's Wish at some point. Why?
Because the first draft was 186,000 words and the current version is 146,000.
I had to cut a number of chapters, so I would love to add them back in. For example, there is a reference to Ecsala negotiating a peace treaty with a swarm of bees. That chapter where she actually does that was cut, and I would love to put that in an extended version.
If you could switch places with any author – who would that be?
No one-- I am happy being me. If I switched, who would write "Mad as a hornet"?
What would you say to the “trolls” on the internet? We all know them – people who like to write awful reviews to books they’ve never read or didn’t like that much, just to annoy the author.
I don't engage with trolls; it just feeds them.
It is like the famous Mark Twain quote: "Never argue with a fool; onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.”"
What would you say to your readers?
Thank you for reading Escala's Wish; it means the world to me that you walked with my characters in Valla.
There are scenes in this book that bring me to tears and others that make me laugh out loud. Not because the story is sad or funny in the usual sense, but because those moments echo something raw and deeply personal—choices I’ve made, regrets I carry, or dreams I’m still chasing.
When I laugh, it’s because the sarcasm and quips in this story remind me of the players I’ve adventured with over the years—their quick wit, sharp banter, and unforgettable one-liners. I’ve tried to honor that spirit here.
Every laugh is a tribute to those memories, those friendships, and the joy we created together around the table.
When I cry, it’s because the characters’ struggles feel like my own—their pain echoes something in me, something real and familiar. I feel the release because, in writing those words, I’m not just uncovering the character’s truth—I’m uncovering my own.
As an author, I’ve done my best to open that door and welcome you inside—to share Escala’s emotional journey in the hope that, somewhere along the way, you feel something too.
Whether you laugh, cry, or just enjoy the ride, I hope Escala’s Wish touches you in some small way because creating it has meant the world to me.
Share a bit about yourself – where do you live, are you married, do you have kids?
I live in Northborough, Massachusetts, with my wife, Tonya, who has somehow endured thirty years of my endless parade of ridiculous character voices echoing through the house. Together, we've raised three wonderful children, now off conquering the world through college, law school, and Boston courtrooms.
When I'm not writing fantasy novels, designing campaigns, or crafting multi-page backstories, I record and publish Christian hip-hop under the stage name “DJ the Not So Ordinary.” His music is available on all major streaming platforms.
I am also the creator and Dungeon Master of a homebrew fantasy world Valla™ (www.vallaworld.com).
I’m already hard at work on my second novel, Mad as a Hornet, also set in Valla—because apparently sleep is optional when your imagination refuses to shut up.
What is your day job if you have one?
I am the Chief Legal and Risk Officer for a national financial service firm.
What are your hobbies? What do you do in your free time?
Writing, music production, hiking
Did you have a happy childhood?
Yes
Is there a particular experience that made you start writing?
Do you have unpublished books? What are they about?
What do you think should be improved in the education of our children? What do we lack?
If you were allowed 3 wishes – what would they be?
Wow—my book is called Escala’s Wish. What a great question.
If I could make one wish, it would be that every person in the world could live with lasting peace and contentment in their heart, never feeling the desire to harm another.
I’d save the other two wishes.
What is your favorite music?
Share a secret with us 🙂