Independent author Seth W. James has been writing fiction for more than twenty years, with his work across multiple genres appearing in many journals and magazines, as well as independently published novels through Amazon. Though a long-time resident of New Jersey, Seth was born in West Virginia; having come to New Jersey before the age of two, however, it is the only state he has ever called home. Seth lived in several towns across north Jersey, spending most of his teenage years on the outskirts of Mendham, before joining the U.S. Army at eighteen.
Seth enlisted in the United States Army in 1994, selecting Infantry as his specialty. Before serving in the 25th Light Infantry Division, Seth enjoyed the privilege of completing Airborne School, as well as Air Assault School, several other infantry-related courses, and the Primary Leadership Development Course, a requirement for promotion to sergeant. Seth won the prestigious Expert Infantryman’s Badge, several boards, and citations for excellence before his promotion to sergeant in 1997. Seth’s time in the army would not extend to the twenty years he had originally envisioned, however: faced with the reality of incessantly receiving orders, Seth came to appreciate that his tolerance for the impositions of others was far lower than he had initially believed. He knew that his native autonomy would eventually earn him a trip to Fort Leavenworth and so, on a training exercise during a monsoon, growing more and more furious as he watched a young lieutenant engage in hand-to-hand combat with a map case, Seth decided to leave the service at the end of his active-duty commitment.
After the army, and after a couple years working in the security field, Seth returned to his education, enrolling in Rutgers College, Rutgers University. There, Seth would earn a Bachelors of Arts in English, with a minor in History. Within a month of graduating, Seth had landed a job as an editor at a small advertising publisher—and was promptly fired two weeks later. Autonomy again. Fortunately, Seth called upon a friend from Rutgers, who had joined a scientific publisher and would recommend him for a position. Seth then worked for the publisher for the next sixteen years, in their journals department, rising to the position of Managing Editor. Despite his affection for his fellow MEs and the great pride he took in the team he had built, Seth eventually left the publisher, entering the health science field as a director, helping authors to reach their publishing goals.
Seth’s focus in life, irrespective of other occupations, had always been, and remains to this day, the writing of fiction. Seth had written his first novelle (a rambling pirate adventure, nearly devoid of punctuation) on an ancient word processor at the age of eleven. He would continue writing short fiction until Rutgers, where he wrote his first novel, a literary crime-noir piece so dense that, reading it years later, he was not entirely sure what it was about. Nevertheless, Seth had secured an agent for the manuscript, who, ultimately, could not sell it to one of the Big Five. Disappointed but too stubborn to become discouraged, Seth knew that he had many more stories to tell and so embarked on a tour across multiple genres, writing short- and long-form fiction in fantasy, crime, literary, espionage, and even horror. In every work, Seth not only strives to tell an interesting and satisfying story, but to also explore issues confronting humanity.
Having enjoyed his time writing in diverse genres, beginning in 2014—after finally feeling that his craft had suitably developed for the challenge—Seth made the decision to devote his talents to a single genre going forward: science fiction, specifically near-future, climate change and inequality focused, cyberpunk science fiction. Seth had first enjoyed cyberpunk in the 80s, when the new genre’s novels would get him thrown out of the school library. Today, Seth believes that cyberpunk is the only sub-genre capable of adequately portraying the end-game of climate change and inequality, the two most critical challenges confronting humanity. Through short- and long-form fiction, including a recently completed cyberpunk trilogy, Seth explores what the world will become and how we will survive a hundred years hence, when the seas have risen over cities, when populations must migrate to find food and water, and when conflicts erupt to protect the fortified worlds of the billionaires.
Seth’s short fiction appears in many journals and magazines, links to which may be found on SethWJames.com. Seth’s novels and short story collections may be found exclusively on Amazon, in both Kindle and hard-copy formats. In his blog, Seth delivers regular updates on his stories and books, as well as discussing in plain language recent climate events. Seth lives in Montclair, New Jersey.
