James D. Mills is a writer, editor, and a wanderer. He writes Dark Fantasy and Sword & Sorcery that exemplies classic heroism translated for the modern reader. His main goal is to be awarded "Best Dad Ever" for 18 consecutive years by the people who matter most. After that, he wants to topple that record indefinitely.
He is most well known for his role as Editor-in-Chief for The Literary Fantasy Magazine. He is author of Ashen Rider and SOIL. He scribbles away at novels, soon to be unveiled. In his free time he walks around the woods, manually types out linux commands on old PCs, and sings to his family...
The Man Behind the Keyboard
I was born in the December heat of California's Central Valley. Now, I live in beautiful Bloomington, Indiana, where my wife, Eden, and I hope to raise our family and grow old. We live slow and strive towards self-sufficiency, enjoying the trees and our garden.
I earned my BA in Creative Writing and Psychology cum laude from Southern New Hampshire University, where I'm now limping my way through an online MBA program. By day, I'm an IT Systems Administrator. By early morning, I'm a writer and an independent publisher.
I established The Arcanist: Fantasy Publishing, LLC in 2019 as a hub for my work in TTRPG Design. It wasn't until 2024 that I teamed up with my good friend Lee Patton to create The Literary Fantasy Magazine. Thinking about how I might publish my novels, I began publishing novels on behalf of my colleagues and contributors to the magazine. It's been a wild ride, and I haven't looked back.
My debut Mythological Dark Fantasy novel, Ashen Rider, hit the community with a bang. It funded on Kickstarter in less than 12 hours and has enjoyed small-scale critical acclaim.
Here are some things people I admire have said about my work:
Dr. Cameron MacKenzie, a writing professor who helped me with early drafts of Ashen Rider, described it as: "a dramatic and propulsive work, full of the kind of drama and suspense you can expect from the best of the genre."
Dr. C.D. Jensen, author of The Crown and the Caged God, told his YouTube audience, "I may not be a hoarder, but James Mills creates hoardable art!" One semester, he assigned Ashen Rider as required reading for his "Science in Writing" class at University of the Pacific.
Dr. Erik D. Goodwyn, a psychiatrist, prominent jungian scholar, and author of King of the Forgotten Darkness wrote in his review of Ashen Rider: "Dark as the abyss, and beautiful as Elysium. A fascinating reading experience, bold, wildly evocative, and at once empyrean and intensely human [...] As such, the juxtaposition of light and dark, joy and sorrow, torment and triumph, so boldly presented, leaves an undeniable impression..."
My Approach to Fantasy
I've made it one of my life's quests to create thoughtful Fantasy worth thinking about. I admire the genre for its unique ability to carry us away into a dark and beautiful worlds that simultaneously, and paradoxically, allow us to escape our woes and face them them head on.
I began writing in earnest after my mother passed away from a brutal fight with brain cancer. She was a brilliant psychologist who helped a lot of people better understand their relationships. Grieving her passing and inspired to carry on her legacy, I studied psychology in addition to writing. I leverage my knowledge of the human mind and the vast range of emotions to forge nuanced and relatable characters.
After moving from my dry sub-desert hometown to Bloomington, I became enthralled by the forest hills of Southern Indiana, characterized by its limestone caverns, rainy mixed deciduous forests, and sporadically cold winters. What is Fantasy at its core, if not a story about people hiking across wild landscapes for some noble cause? I inject my scenes with a healthy dose of nature writing, attempting to harness the vivid personification of the land exhibited by adventurous writers throughout history, such as Jack London and Lady Anne Barnard.
Beyond that, I've always been fascinated by the unique tone and narrative devices of Classical Mythology. I'm no scholar, by any means, but I've made an effort to immerse myself in the stories of Greek antiquity and the Norse sagas. I've also taken a keen interest in other classics such as Beowulf, The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Divine Comedy, and Paradise Lost.
While I was formally trained in Modernist and Contemporary Literary Fiction, my love lies with hard-hitting pulp fiction, specifically Sword & Sorcery, popularized over time by writers like Robert E. Howard, C.L. Moore, Clark Ashton Smith, and Micheal Moorcock. Almost all of my work is informed by the unique feeling that it evokes. Take a look at the pen and ink illustrations in early Dungeons and Dragons editions and you'll know what I mean. As a result of my exposure to and respect for both styles—which to some are polar opposites—elements of both pulp fiction and up-market fiction are found in my work.
I am endlessly fascinated by the whimsy and mystery hidden within our own world. Though I write in a secondary world of my own creation, its geography, culture, and history closely mirrors ours. Before I seek to invent some mystical fixture, I look to the past and the outdoors for guidance. There is no need to write about an obscure red potion that magically heals wounds when a character has access to mashed tobacco leaves and some knowledge.
Growing up in the height of a postmodernist pop-culture and zombie fever, my work is firmly set in the sub-genre of Dark Fantasy. However, where much Dark Fantasy and Grimdark can come off as cynical and amoral, I write darkness with a sincere belief that the light shall return. Ashen Rider perhaps takes this concept the extreme, given where it begins vs where it ends. I've known much darkness in my life, almost succumbed to its chilling grasp, but I persevered to know again the warmth of summer.