Jim Stallings, Short Story Writer - served in the Peace Corps in Brazil
The Short Stories of Jim Stallings
Phillip Green - - - Lizard's Bluff
About Jim Stallings
For the past twenty years, Jim Stallings lives in the Boston area. Jim grew up in a military family and lived all around U.S., including Hawaii....basically a 'pan-American.' Jim says, "I'm a babyboomer who came of age in the sixties and entered the work force in the seventies. I've been an engineer in the toy industry, a consultant in healthcare, served in the Peace Corps in Brazil with the United Nations, went back to school and earned a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology with a focus on myth, narrative and socialization I did my fieldwork on multi-ethnic communities of kids in residential homes in the Southwest of the U.S. - - how they're socialized, the politics of idealization - - and for the past ten years have been an editor at NewsEdge, Inc., where we nightly clip and customize electronic news for the desktop for clients worldwide.
Besides being on the night desk at NewsEdge, Jim and his wife, during the daylight run our editorial services and freelance writing firm, Mockingbird Press, which was started in 1986. Jim goes on, "While helping others polish their writing, I decided to do some writing of my own. I actually wrote my first fragment of a novel as a teen, another try in undergraduate school, where I had the opportunity to study with James Dickey and Robert Penn Warren. Later I kept journals and story ideas. But recently, I've gotten down to the hard work and written two novels, a collection of short short-stories, two film scripts and a small collection of poetry. My longer works are being represented by an agent and their marketing is underway. I've also ghostwritten a dozen other projects, scripts, novels, novelizations. Our most successful client reached the New York Times Bestseller list and stayed on for nine months; we've also had two clients' short stories be nominated for Pushcart Prizes."
Jim likes quiet and says he was probably a monk in a past life. He enjoys reading, conversation and long walks through the wetlands and colonial cemeteries. His biggest vice...buying books and finding space for them. He also enjoys a good cigar and a pipe.
Jim Stallings pet peeves currently: leaf blowers and chain saws!
Philosophicaly, Jim Stallings Says, "Writing, the act of composing, is a daily, almost religious act of catharsis and realization. I listen for the voice, wait for the image, and then go with it to the end. From there I've learned from my various writing teachers to rewrite and read aloud until the language, the vision and voice come together. I especially enjoy the sprint of short, spontaneous, Zen-like stories; the marathon of scripts and novels are the same thing but repeated many times over. I've always favored the 100 yard dash and the quarter mile to twenty-six miles to break on through to the other side."
Jim says, "My friends say I look like Jerry Garcia...I remind them, while that may be true, I've got all my typing fingers and I'm staying a bit longer in this realm...good karma willing.
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