Meet James Daniel Ross

James Daniel Ross

James Daniel Ross was born in 1973. He is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio who attended The School for the Creative and Performing Arts, which he still contends is one of the finest learning establishments he has ever seen. Surprisingly enough, his major was not creative writing, but drama. After graduation, James attended Miami University of Oxford, Ohio, but was devastated by the death of Michael Todd Mitchell, his boyhood friend. He did not return for the next year’s studies.

Only 19, with few marketable skills, he managed to secure work in various unskilled and semi-skilled jobs to make ends meet. It really wasn’t until the summer of 1994 that he began to guess that he had any skill in writing at all.

Then, in the year 2000, James began work on a novelette. The first chapter was posted to a mailing list, where it drew few comments. It did, however, catch the attention of a medical student from Hudson Ohio named Lewis Bear Pollak. Lewis offered to work as an editor for the story, a decision that would soon change both their lives.

Lewis wished to write a Roleplaying game of his own, and wanted James to provide the creative force behind the project. James accepted, and was instructed to develop something new, fresh and exciting. The duo known as Misguided Games Inc. released Children of the Sun. Hailed as a beautiful, thoughtful book, its sales did not measure up to the hopes of a few, but exceeded the expectations of many.

Sadly, funding ran out, and all projects are on hiatus at this time. James was forced to work as a freelancer during a very slow period in the gaming industry.

While moving boxes in his apartment, he found his old books of poetry, journals, and half-finished stories from high school. He picked up a single scrap of paper which had three paragraphs written fifteen years before. Suddenly, after fourteen years, he knew what came next.

This was the seed for his first novel, The Radiation Angels: The Chimerium Gambit, and submitted it for publication by Mundania Publishing. It garnered some critical success, and has spawned a sequel: The Key to Damocles, as well as many short stories in ever expanding genres. Anthologies he has appeared in have won the Dream Realm Award, and the coveted Eppie Award.

James is currently working on his first fantasy novel. You can learn more about James at his Web site, Radiation Angels.