This isn't what it looks like

Because everything is about me, let me tell you a story. Born of a stone on a mountain-top, it was apparent to everyone from a very early age that I would only be allowed to survive if I surrendered my divine powers to the Moon at the Winter Solstice. In return, I was blessed with a silver tongue and cursed with an imagination.

I dream in Technicolor and believe in shades of gray. I have travelled as a pirate along rivers, and explored tunnels as a rat. I have breathed fire on top of towers, and travelled to distant lands to seek wisdom in the form of being repeatedly hit. I have performed in arenas, and whispered in cathedrals. My soul is simultaneously a circus ringmaster and an arboreal witchdoctor, equal parts theologian hermit and moral prosecutor.

I am an aquired taste, at best.

Current Projects

WHAT WHISKEY AND COFFEE GENERATE

I've been fortunate enough to spend a significant portion of my life creating stories and poetry at varying levels of sanity, and some of those have made it out of the notebooks and into the world.

I know, I'm as shocked as you.

While not an exhaustive list of everything I'm working on at the moment, these are some of the main projects that are taking up my focus.

If anything catches your eye, tickles your fancy, or arouses your ire, then just know that I am equally as entertained and appreciative of your time.

Blake:
The Shadow of Smoke

The first entry of a brand new trilogy that combines supernatural horror and contemporary fantasy, Blake: The Shadow of Smoke presents a world full of shadows, where even the best can fall short. And the road to Hell is always paved with the best intentions.

Grigory Blake has spent a lifetime protecting innocents from evil. But now, he has been called to investigate a gruesome series of murders in the heart of Paris, and what he uncovers will rearrange the very nature of the world.

Ghost Notes & Fugues

Ghost Notes & Fugues is a new compilation of work that deals with the silences in conversations that never get filled.

A 'ghost note' is a beat you don't play, or a quiet stroke on a drum that is softer than the rhythm - it fills the space without being noticed.

Sometimes, everything that needs to be said gets left behind, or placed aside in favour of what needs to be done - but it's still there, and still bears weight on the shape of your world.

Atreus Oighdru

A compilation of novellas and short stories, this work is the tale of the Black Captain, Atreus Oighdru.

A fever-dream legend that has carved his way across the oceans, the Black Captain is a throwback to a generation of Pirate Lords that once dominated every wave.

But now, the seas are being tamed, and the once-great Captains are being hunted in every hidden cove.

Atreus Oighdru has never run from a battle, be it with cutlass, pistols, or cannon and mortarfire.

He'll be Damned if he runs from this.

Mountain King Imprints

THE WRITING OF
J. M. HALL

WHO'S GOT TWO THUMBS AND A WEBSITE? THIS GUY!

BEHIND THE WORDS

"Growing up, I was always able to express myself most through the written word. I’m fortunate that I was able to translate this ability into a blossoming career as a professional writer. I always strive to learn and develop my literary style and voice, approaching every challenge I come across as an experience to grow and develop as a writer. That’s why, in addition to working on projects similar to those I have already completed, I also seek out new types of endeavors I have yet to encounter."

...Isn't stock bio amazing? I didn't write that stuff above, but I wanted to leave it there for posterity and because it made me laugh. Don't get me wrong, a lot of it is true. I've spent my entire life cobbling words together until they made pretty shapes happen in my head. Then I realised that it made pretty shapes in other people's heads too, and a low-paid writer was born.
The short and skinny of it all? I'm a writer, and I think I'm not too bad at it. This website gives me a platform to harass the internet until they agree with me and give me a Pulitzer. Or a Hugo.
Hell, I'll settle for a voucher for a free coffee.
Let's do some stuff.