James A. Owen is an author, illustrator, and speaker. He has written and illustrated two dozen StarChild comics, and was named to trade magazine Hero Illustrated’s list of the one hundred most influential people in the Comic Book Industry in 1994 and 1995.
His Mythworld novels were published in Germany (Kai Meyer’s Mythenwelt) and France. The first book won the 2003 AI award for Best Novel, and was nominated alongside books by Stephen King and Michael Crichton for the prestigious Phantastik Prize for Best International Novel.
James drew over 200 illustrations, as well as the covers, for his epic young adult novels the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica, which concluded with book seven in November, 2013. More than a million copies of his publications are in print, and are sold all over the world.
Often asked to speak at schools, James rarely discusses his books, instead choosing to focus instead on stories drawn from his own life – examples of overcoming obstacles and adversity, about how making choices in life is like drawing a Dragon and how he came to do what it is that he loves most in the world for his job. These stories are collected into the inspirational non-fiction book, Drawing Out The Dragons, the first in a series of three books called The Meditations.
Fool’s Hollow, the first of a five-volume YA illustrated novel series, is both a literary homecoming for James as well as a starting point for a bold, new adventure, because Fool’s Hollow will be a grand retelling of – and completion of – the StarChild saga and will include dozens of all new, original illustrations. “Fool’s Hollow is the work closest to my heart,” James says, “Through writing the Imaginarium Geographica series, I gained experience as a storyteller, and I feel that now is the best time for me to return to a story I love and tell it in a new way as a series of illustrated novels.”
James is the founder and executive director of the Coppervale Studio, a 14,000 square foot, century-old restored church in Northeastern Arizona. Learn more about James and his work at jamesaowen.com.