About Eric

published children’s author, word tickler and champion asparagus thrower

Hello!

I’m Eric. You probably clicked on the “About” link because you are curious to know who I am, what I’ve written, and why on earth I do it. Or perhaps you’ve come here for a picture of a hamster and a rhyming verse. Well, I wouldn’t want to disappoint …

“

In a land far away lived the young Eric James,
He was often inclined to make overblown claims …

As a child he was small but, (I swear this is true!)
He just covered himself in manure … ‘til he grew.

I’ve had a number of books published, Christmas ones, Halloween ones and Easter ones (check out the book section). All of them have localised versions available, so for example there is “A Halloween Scare in Texas“, “A Halloween Scare in Minnesota” and so on – see most of them here).

I always do my best to ensure there is a solid story behind each book – I have often seen localization used as a gimmick, but there is no reason why stories can’t be localized and decent, as long as they are written with localization in mind! I like to think this is the reason why sales of these book have been so strong. In some titles, like “Halloween Scare” I even wrote completely bespoke localized verses for each book (see the facts below).

Here are some

Random Facts

Yes, this *is* what I do for a living. I’m a published children’s author, word tickler and champion asparagus thrower, and I have a number of books out … about 300 or so; Honestly! Most of those are localized variations on a few titles though.
America is my main market (which I why I spelt "localised" with a 'z' above. I'll never spell 'colour' without a 'u' though - that's a step too far!!! And note that I said 'spelt' instead of 'spelled' - I am what you call an anarchist. Yeah, take that America!)
I’m the youngest of four, and I was that boy who used to sit at the back of the class and write silly little rhymes to amuse his friends.
I went to university to study Economics (for three whole months) then I left, got a job in a record shop and grew my hair long (my mum was delighted).
I taught myself programming and eventually got to speak at conferences all over the world (San Francisco, Milan and …Brighton!) I had “lead” in front of my job title (this was not because I was a dead-weight), and then I got given a fancy title by a company called Adobe and became a “Community Expert”.
None of this programming stuff impressed my mum, but when I cut my hair again she was delighted.
Like most Children's book writers, I don't get to choose who illustrates my stories. This surprises a lot of people and surprised me at first too. Because the localized books need so much artwork whole teams of 'copycat illustrators' get to work on a single title, but one person is responsible for the core style.
One day I wrote a rhyme in the shower. Actually it was more of a song. It was about a monster under the bed and it contained the line “I mashed him up with buttercups. He tasted quite exquisite”, and thus, “Max’s Little Brother” was ‘born’ and so was my writing career.
All my localized books are written from the ground up, with localization in mind (it isn't an afterthought!) For "Halloween Scare" I wrote two additional bespoke, localized verses for each book - meaning that I wrote an additional 156 rhyming verses!!! Check out the "Halloween Scare" book page for examples.