Meet Author James Roy Roberson
Thanks for taking a look at my bio!
My books aren’t quite as important as my wife, my children, or my grand-children—but close. Each book I write, and I’ve written 10 of them—about a million words total, is like one of my children or grandchildren.
When I saw my first byline, in my high school newspaper, The Ram-O-Gram, I was hooked on writing and telling other people’s stories. I was 16 years old.
After two college degrees and a 30-year career as a journalist and having written thousands of stories about other people, places and things, I retired early to follow my dream: To write a great American novel. I was 52 years old.
Failure had never been even a remote companion—at anything in my life. But, I failed in my first attempt at writing novels. So, I formed my own consulting company, went back to work, traveled the world and accumulated some great stories and met too many interesting characters to count.
At age 61, I woke up about 3 AM one morning with a strange story in my head. Like a song you just can’t get off your mind, this story grew in my head, until I finally struggled to my upstairs office and began writing it. I felt as if I was writing this story, but someone else was telling it to me. That story became Some Days in June, my first published novel in 2014.
On August 1 of this year (2018), I pushed a computer button and my 10th novel came to life on my over-sized 27-inch monitor. At approximately 120,000 words, Goodbye Mr. Kang, is my longest, and I believe, my best novel. It is Book 2 of the Davis Sisters Adventure Series. Book 1 in this series, Warrior Sisters: Revenge for 911 will be released September 11, 2018 in print, E-book and audiobook formats. Goodbye Mr. Kang is scheduled to be released on Audibles in the last quarter of 2018.
In between my first sports article in the Ram-O-Gram and the completion of Goodbye Mr. Kang, I published Some Days in June, Kings of Rock & Roll, Ethan’s Way, Escape from Milltown, Call Me Deaconblue, Warrior Sisters, and three other books in the Davis Sisters Adventures Series, which will be re-released under new titles, in print and E-book formats, before they are released via Audibles on audiobooks.
I currently reside in Auburn, Alabama with my wife of 45 years, Suzanne. We travel every chance we get, and I incorporate the places we see and some of the people we meet in my novels. All my books are based on some historical event and are filled with historically accurate people, places and events.
My website is under construction. What I have, you can soon find at jamesrobersonnovels.com. You can also find me on Twitter and Instagram at James R. Roberson@James R. Roberson or James Roberson Novels on Facebook.
Why I Write
Growing up in a cotton mill village in East Alabama, my idol, my hero, my constant companion for the first 12 years of my life was my maternal grandfather, Charlie Henry Davis. He had a sixth-grade education, an Irish temper and genes that craved hand-rolled cigarettes and cheap whiskey. My grandfather also had a God-given talent for story-telling. He could captivate old and young alike for hours with his stories of growing up dirt poor in Cullman County Alabama around the turn of the 20th Century.
I believe I inherited my grandfather’s gift for story-telling, though my delivery has proven to be in the written, rather than the spoken word. The one thing I never want to do in life is disappoint the memory of Charlie Henry Davis, nor fail to use the God-given talent I inherited from him.
I write my stories for my children and grandchildren. I wish, quite often, that I had written some of the stories my grandfather told me, before he died of a massive heart attack, when I was 12 years old. Later in my life, I have vowed to drag myself out of bed in the middle of the night, when a story starts bouncing around in my head and WRITE IT DOWN.
I write my stories in hopes that some message of humor, hope, optimism or information helps just one reader have a better day. I hope everyone who clicks on this link on this site will read or listen to one of my stories. If you do read or listen to one of my stories, I'm confident you will find something that makes your day a little better and your load of troubles a little lighter.
For me, that would truly be a humbling experience and a blessing from God.
What I Write
I write about people I’ve met, places I’ve been, things I’ve done, and a few things that seem to just pop into my brain at the oddest of times. For a hack, career journalist from the backwoods of Alabama, I’ve been fortunate to travel the world. I’ve been equally fortunate to work with and for some of the most interesting people in the world, though they didn’t always know it.
Among other things, I'm a frustrated historian. I often wonder what would have happened if this thing or that thing in history had gone another way. All my books are based on historically accurate places, people, things and events. I'm particularly interested in the untold stories of HOW some of these historical events happened.
For example, having grown up a hunter and owner of too many guns, I had to know how guns and bullets work. Despite that knowledge, I don't have a good clue who killed John Kennedy, but I know for certain Lee Oswald and one bullet didn't do it. Likewise, I don't know how and why 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists flew airplanes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, but from my research for my books, Davis Sisters Adventures Series, I'm certain they had a great deal of help from within the US and from the homeland of 15 or the terrorists--Saudi Arabia.
I write about things that I'm told to believe, but can't believe. And, don't get me started on Vietnam. Three of my books, Escape from Milltown, Call Me Deaconblue, and Kings of Rock & Roll provide some historically accurate insights into the 10,000 day debacle in Vietnam.
I love to travel, and in particular I love ships and boats—generally anything that floats and is big enough for me to ride on will do. I spend a lot of time on ships writing books. I wish I could tell you the boat below (my pictures didn't make it, photos are apparently not allowed here, but trust me, it WAS a pretty boat) is my main source of on-the-water-entertainment. It is not!
However, I did take the picture. (Again, trust me, it was a beautiful picture of the archway near Cabo San Lucas, Mexico) I have been to Cabo San Lucas. I do know a great deal about boats like this one (be creative, use your visual side) and several of my books include good and bad things happening on boats.
On one of many trips to the Caribbean, my wife and traveling partner, and I met a couple who were captain and first mate of a large catamaran, Golden Eagle. The woman was the Captain and her boyfriend was the First-Mate. From that chance encounter came the book Sail the Morning Son, which will soon be re-released as Book 3 of the Davis Sisters Adventures Series and will be titled: “Kill the Evil Son.”
I also like to play golf. It’s a frustrating, costly hobby, and I don’t recommend it to many people. If you read, Warrior Sisters-Revenge for 911, which is Book 1 in the Davis Sisters Adventures Series, you will learn a bit about golf. In particular, about golf in Ireland.
Also, among my favorite things are Mustangs—the horses, the automobiles and the World War II fighter planes. One of my books centers around eight young men who attend flight school together in 1942 and end up flying the ‘souped-up’ version of the P51 Mustang. Some Days in June is an inspirational story that demonstrates how growing old and growing up don’t always go well together.
As a kid, I thought I had the talent to be a professional baseball player—a left-handed pitcher. That dream ended rather early in life. My dream of being a professional golfer on the Senior Circuit died a similar death and for the exact same reason—a lack of talent.
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