WELCOME

to the virtual home of James Callan, a writer and artist based on the Kapiti Coast, New Zealand

Writing is a ghost that enters a room we sit idle within. It haunts us, not by showing itself in the mirror over our shoulder. It haunts us, not by hovering or dropping china teacups, but by making us tell its story. Through us, the ghost expresses. Writing… call it a possession. To exorcise the ghost, we must tell the tale.

My favorite times in life are when I am possessed. The exorcism… that final moment… It is bittersweet.

I’m a little afraid of ghosts. But I am far more afraid of no ghosts.

Learn more!

THOSE WHO REMAIN QUIET

A man finds a human head among the cabbages in his
garden. An invasive weed devours the landscape like
an emerald tide. A father and son’s warm ritual goes
cold. A teenage girl is convinced her neighbor is a yeti.
A young boy trades his soul to save his small town.
Herein lies debauchery and delusion, a collection of
strange, sad stories spiked with humor and perversion,
tales of woe and unhinged glory.

“Here is the author peering out at the reader through eyes stuck on
taxidermied beasts, through starlit bars, from the distant clade, and what
he sees are creature zoos and men zoos, Auschwitzes for big cats and
would-be modern romancers, vivid with detail. I picture Callan swinging
from the dead limbs of giant trees he has stuffed into the creepy nocturnal
house where he pens his tender bavardage, all his wonderful lines –
movies within stories, trailer park standoffs, creatures and freaks, all in a
slow-motion butcher god gallop to the finish.”

– Colin Gee, author of The Penult

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Selected Stories

Here are some of my recent published works.

Pirate Phase
Scaffold

Sky Over Mountain
The Arcanist

House of Arcanum
 
Dumbo Press

Literary Garage
 
ExPat Press
 
Bottle Rocket

The Gorko Gazette

Cuddle Me Coco
The Gorko Gazette

My Knight in Shining Armor
The Gorko Gazette

Chrome Baby

Horror Sleaze Trash

Revolution John

Bottle Rocket

The Necromancer
Blood+Honey

Horror Sleaze Trash

Cave Folk
The Gorko Gazette

Nocturne
Urban Pigs Press

A Thin Slice of Anxiety

Eternal Bonds
Don’t Submit!

A Meatless Course
The Pixelated Shroud

The Accused
The Pixelated Shroud

The Martyr of Elmdale
Bridge Eight

Chicken à la King
Citywide Lunch

Citywide Lunch

A Thin Slice of Anxiety

A Cosmic Affair
Apocalypse Confidential

X-R-A-Y
Revolution John

Bottle Rocket

House of Arcanum

A Thin Slice of Anxiety

Hawai’i Pacific Review

Apocalypse Confidential

Maudlin House

Barnstorm

Apocalypse Confidential

Bridge Eight

Masks Literary Magazine

Reckon Review

ANTHOPHILE

anthophile
noun
1. an organism that visits flowers.
2. a person who loves flowers.

Jonathan Sweety is a nobody, a bored and disgruntled hospitality worker living on a backwater mining asteroid known as A-Typical. As a hopeless VR junkie, he squanders what little credits he earns at the simulation vats, feeding his addiction to virtual reality adventures that offer an escape from mundane materiality. But when Jonathan meets Bud, a seven-foot cactus of the lab-grown race of plant people known as Agave, his everyday life soon becomes more exciting than even his wildest of fabricated realities. Friendship escalates to romance, and Jonathan discovers the wonder of botany… but it’s not all roses. When Bud reveals that Agave abductions have been linked to a drug called Ambrosia, Jonathan is thrown into a perilous effort to reveal the grim origins of a narcotic believed to have prophetic properties. Together, plant and human must navigate a sordid rock in space, a corrupt world where other lab-grown races wander, where dog men known as Wolfhounds rule with an iron paw, where politicians and prophets rise up to exercise their tyranny.

‘On the surface, Anthophile is a wild, comic, sci-fi romp told through the perspective of a disgruntled, sarcastic, horndog. Despite this, its narrative is laced with relevant, real world issues, examining notions of self worth and the challenges of sexual expression amid a culture and society entrenched with institutional classism, racial tension, addiction, and corrupt politics. What is delivered as lighthearted is a reflection of the protagonist’s constant reliance on humor, his defense mechanism against the bitter reality of a difficult and cruel world. Overall, despite its heavy themes, the tone of Anthophile remains playful and fun. The commentary that is present throughout its off-kilter misadventure never detracts from the narrative itself, yet it is there for those who wish to unearth a more meaningful element among the amusing, unhinged escapade.’

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A TRANSCENDENTAL HABIT

Palindrome is a sprawling, sordid, mega-metropolis populated by roborgs, shapeshifers, holographic kids, and rats the size of Labradors. Among its myriad of destitute city-dwellers is Jarred, a down-and-out nobody whose tedious existence amplifies into an ultra-bizarre escapade after meeting Bee, an alluring enigma loaded with bionic upgrades and brimming with Squidge, a coveted drug new to the black market that enhances anything it touches. With Bee by his side and Squidge in his system, Jarred savors a newfound zest for life. But when the founder of Squidge, an unhinged zealot corporate mogul, becomes the target of Bee’s obsessive need for revenge, Jarred finds himself immersed in a violent feud between ex-lovers who have the power to save or destroy the world.

Review Excerpt by Jerry L. Wheeler

‘As I’ve often said, one of my favorite things about doing this blog is running into new books, especially the odd one I can’t classify or stick into a convenient box for labeling. It doesn’t happen often, but it’s sublime when it does. Such is the case with James Callan’s A Transcendental Habit, which is part quest, part buddy/caper novel, part romance, and part urban fantasy. But its congealed whole is a fascinating, wild ride you’ll heartily enjoy.’

‘A Transcendental Habit, then, is a terrific read. It’s funny, it’s fast, it’s unusual, and it’s totally absorbing. I finished it in a couple of sittings and found myself wanting more. Highly recommended!’
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Get in touch

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