James Ellis: Author, playwright and screenwriter in Cardiff, United Kingdom.

Currently trying to figure out the running order of scenes for issue # 42 of ‘Modern Days.’ Writing the finale to a volume is exciting but damn tricky it has to be said …

This autobiography I’ve been writing isn’t just an autobiography anymore. It’s kind of growing and mutating. I recently stumbled upon a wealth of unfinished and unseen stuff along with a bunch of unpublished interviews, lost ideas, unused lyrics, excerpts and various bits and pieces from years worth of work. So now I’m finding myself looking for ways to incorporate all of this stuff, this stuff that has no other place to be or to be seen. So yeah, not just an autobiography anymore …

Just finished Issue # 37 of 'Modern Days.' There we are then ...

It occurs to me I’ve only been posting extracts ( on my Tumblr page ) from things I’ve actually finished. So I’m thinking I might post some other stuff too from now on. Perhaps extracts from unfinished stuff and work in progress stuff, that sort of thing. Stay tuned ...

Well, issue # 35 ‘All The Best Angels Have Daddy Issues’ is done and dusted. And onward …

Memoirs … that’s all I’m saying … Memoirs …

Just finished up issue # 33 of ‘Modern Days’ which is probably going to be called ‘Arizona Dreaming.’ Just another 20 or so issues to go. It’s a big ol’ story but I’m getting there somehow!

Okay, so the creative game plan so far for this year is finish Vol. 4 of ‘Modern Days,’ continue to write ‘The Orphan Collector’ and finish the pilot issue of ‘Magic America.’ This, of course could all change at anytime! …

Just can’t get into the head space to jump fully into any big projects at the moment. So for now I’m going to spend some time just quietly developing a few things …

I was supposed to be taking a little creative break until the new year but somehow I’ve already begun writing issue # 1 of ‘Magic America.’ And there’s nothing more thrilling for a writer than creating a new world to play in …

I’ve only always had a vague idea of where the whole ‘Modern Days’ story is going - I certainly know how it ends - but I still like to properly sketch out at least one issue ahead of the one I’m writing. It’s still very much a ‘by the seat of your pants’ way of writing, but it seems to work well for me …

Issue #33 of ‘Modern Days’ is either going to be called ‘Whatever Happened to Gwendolyne Jones?’ or ’Arizona Dreaming.' The jury’s still out …

Issue # 32 of ‘Modern Days’ is packing in a lot more story than I’d anticipated, so … I’m going to have to start rewriting, trim back some stuff. Either that or it’s a double sized issue or a two part story, neither of which sit right with me …

Issue # 32 of ‘Modern Days’ is throwing up a whole load of surprises, including a Morningstar sibling I never realised existed until I started writing her …

The best and worst thing about ‘Modern Days’ is that it’s all me, absolutely me, straight from my head to the page, as honest as I get, the most risk taking I’ve ever been. If you read it then you’re reading who I am. It’s really the closest I’ve got to running down the street naked.

A few pages into Volume 4 of ‘Modern Days’ now. It’s issue # 32, an interlude issue called ‘And The Stars My Name,’ set a millennia ago, and chronologically speaking it’s the first time we see the Morningstar Family …

Hoping to write the pilot issue of ‘Magic America’ over the next month or so …

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO DREAMSTORM UNIVERSE? … I discovered something recently, something I’d actually forgotten. A little piece of my creative past that had somehow fallen through the cracks of the world. Well, more than a little piece actually, more a little universe. The DreamStorm universe. All of it, tucked away in a notebook, which itself was tucked away among a drawer of notebooks that somehow had been completely forgotten about. I suspect though that ‘Modern Days’ came along and became all consuming. What I discovered in that forgotten notebook was the beginnings of an idea for a shared universe. From my vague memories I think I was exploring something along the lines of Alan Moore’s ‘America’s Best Comics’ rather than the huge universes of Marvel and DC. A smaller, contained universe of about seven ongoing series all set in the same world. Inside that little notebook were a surprising treasure trove of bits and pieces. There were series pitches and back cover blurbs, character names and descriptions, back stories and detailed issue one synopsis. All there, in my handwriting. I’m pretty sure I had no intention of writing it all myself. I think my idea was to write the first issue of each series, provide some future storyline ideas then give it to other writers to see what places they could take it off to. If the DreamStorm Universe had come top pass then we would have met First World War super soldier Tommy Thompson, better known as ‘The Magic Bullet,’ we would have witnessed the god like powers of the immortal group known as ‘The Atlantians.’ We would have ventured into the Sci - Fi opera of ‘New Jerusalem’ and the Spy - Fi world of ‘Joe Midas: Boy Genius,’ and we would have explored the mystical world of crime saga ‘Knightwatch, the paranormal world of ‘Miracle Days’ and gone to the future with conspiracy series ‘Hymns Of Our Fathers.’ But of course it never happened. It never came to be, at least not yet. Never say never. Stay tuned.

I recently finished ‘Mortal Lives’, Volume Three of ‘Modern Days.’ Here’s the introduction for it … ‘Origin Of A Dream’ I’m writing this a few days after finishing the final script for ‘Mortal Lives,’ Volume Three of ‘Modern Days’ and I’ve been thinking, I‘ve been thinking a lot. Thinking way back to when this whole thing started. If all goes to plan I’ll be wrapping this story up at the end of Volume Five. I’m estimating around about issue 60. I could be wrong. I’ve been wrong before. No matter. I’ve still reached the half way point, well, just past it anyway, and now with Volume Four it’s all headed toward a final issue that’s already planned and has been planned for the last four and a half years. So that’s where I am at the moment, about half way through. Which amounts to 3 volumes, 31 issues and about 900 pages of A4 script so far. And sitting here now, I’m musing on just how much of my original thinking has come to pass and how near I’ve come to getting what I first saw in my head. In the introduction of Volume One I talked about how this story started life as a potential series of prose novels but what I didn’t mention is how another abandoned project greatly influenced the writing of it. That’s perhaps become more obvious to me with the writing of this volume and the more pronounced involvement of the Academy, an organisation pulled from a potential three volume comic book series called ‘The Fallen’ which I was working on way back in 1998. Most of what that series was didn’t survive but the idea of the Academy did. Looking through my scribbled pile of notes I can see what my original intentions were, what I hoped to achieve. It’s clear it was always about being in a family from the very beginning, but originally the family was Solomon’s and though they were immortal they weren’t angels. And it’s clear I always wanted to tell a serialised long form and epic story. The five volume idea was there right from the very beginning too. Have I achieved what I originally set out to do? Well, so far, I think I have, and then some. I’m only just over half there though, so time will tell. But I’m certainly more proud of this story than anything I’ve written. I’ve delved into history, I’ve used tricks like foreshadowing and non linear storytelling, I’ve created characters I love dearly, and I’m writing a story which is constantly evolving and never fails to surprise me. So, it’ll be very interesting to see what I’m writing in the introduction to Volume Five. I’ll see you there. James Ellis November 7th 2015

I recently finished Volume Three of 'Modern Days.' Here's the back cover blurb for it ... “We‘ve been around since the time of the Crusades. We‘ve watched, we‘ve waited, and we‘ve learnt. But it‘s time we finally acted.” Who are the Academy? The ancient secret organisation who observe and chronicle the lives of the fallen angels. Are they friend or they enemy? And what part will they play in the world changing events to come? Old friends are lost and even older foes return and the Morningstar family must decide who it is they can truly trust. Somewhere, battle lines are being drawn, allegiances formed, and a long kept secret is about to change everything forever.