JANESVILLE — He’s always wanted to be a writer, James Salimes says. When he was young, he made up stories. As he grew older, he told those to his children at bedtime.
Now, the Edgerton resident and Lake Geneva native has authored a book based on the stories that once filled his head.
Salimes, who goes by the pen name J. Ellis Blaise, signed with publishing company Ten16 Press, a division of Orange Hat publishing in Waukesha in January of 2022. He’s since been anxiously awaiting the release of his book, “Treasure in a Field: The Fullness of Time.”
It comes out March 7, the first installment in a trilogy planned for release in the next couple of years.
In an interview this week with The 69, Salimes said one of the hardest parts of the writing process was balancing writing about landscape, how the characters experience that and background like the history of the world and people. He said making the story flow and keeping readers engaged was different than having a story in his mind.
His first drafts were “really heavy with backstory, but it really kind of didn’t help the story go forward,” he reflected. The goal is “really to take on the experience of the character in the scene. And to bring the reader into that without, without losing them somehow,” he said.
This is a young adult novel that follows main character Wesley Delaine, whose deepest desire is for the kingdom of Nantes to return to how his mother described it in his childhood.
Writings of his great-grandfather, the long-lost King Gaspard, speak to a time of peace like his mother described and also serve as proof of Wesley’s royal lineage. Wesley seeks to reveal that he and his brothers are the true heirs of the throne but they can’t take those places until the prophesied fullness of time. It isn’t clear when that will occur.
The brothers make a pact not to reveal their lineage until all four are of age to ascend to the throne. But then, the kingdom’s walls are breached by pirate trolls, and a sorcerer’s violent winter storm threatens everyone’s safety. A growing rebellion also seeks to turn the Delaine siblings against the king.
Salimes said the two later books in the trilogy will be about how Wesley brings everything back together and reorders his life.
Salimes said that the book’s setting is historical makes it a bit different from other fantasy novels. The story takes place in a time where rifles and pistols are being invented.
Salimes also said the story is a metaphor for life, inspired by how people start life with kind of a naive understanding of how things are. As they get older, they’re thrown into chaos and come across things that aren’t clean and neat. Then everyone goes through a process of reevaluation as they age.
“It’s as he calls it, order, disorder and then reorder in life,” Salimes said. “The first book is about order. The kids assumed everything was nice and neat... then this book kind of shakes it up for them.”
Asked if he based any of the characters on himself, Salimes said “there is not just one character based on me; each character has pieces of my personality in them.”
