James H. Lucas moved to Greenville, SC from Miami, Florida when he was six years old. He says he still doesn’t know where anything is in this town, and queries, “Where is White Horse Road?” He first attended Greenville Tech. back in 1999 but left for a couple semesters and then returned in the Spring of 2008. He is pursuing a degree in literature and would like to be a working writer. He says that writing is his life; everything else just gets in the way. He also mentions that if he doesn’t write, he tends to get more cranky and irritable than usual. His first novel An Undead Wedding came out back in October and is slowly but surely developing a cult following. He likes to read contemporary American Literature with John Steinbeck, Christopher Moore, Chuck Palahnuik, Raymond Carver and Richard Matheson being some of his favorite writers. When asked to tell us about some of the work selected for this issue of Blue Granite Review he says, “Some Thoughts on Math 101″ was written in Math 101.” He is currently repeating that course. He says that “Songs from a Bar” was written after he went to Barley’s Taproom in downtown Greenville, and many of the people described were actual bar patrons or bartenders (one of whom is his brother–mention this story and get a free coaster). “The Waitress” was him emulating Charles Bukowski. He has currently just finished a new novel that fits into a horror /comedy genre. It is entitled Vampires in Pimptown.
James failed to mention his father (see “tree”) has published 3 novels, all of which pale contrastingly with the dark, bitter beer of better writing, which is James (see “apple”). Between you and me, I know the brother, too. He lets James drink free, as long as he doesn’t ask for a coaster. Our secret.