Jim Minick is the author of five books, including the novel Fire Is Your Water (Ohio UP, 2017), and The Blueberry Years: A Memoir of Farm and Family (St. Martin’s, 2012), winner of the SIBA Best Nonfiction Book of the Year Award. Minick has also written a collection of essays, Finding a Clear Path, two books of poetry, Her Secret Song and Burning Heaven, and he edited All There Is to Keep by Rita Riddle. His honors include the Jean Ritchie Fellowship in Appalachian Writing, and the Fred Chappell Fellowship at University of North Carolina-Greensboro. He has also won awards from the Southern Independent Booksellers Association, Southern Environmental Law Center, The Virginia College Bookstore Association, Appalachian Writers Association, Appa
Above all things, I am a mood writer. I love jumping from genre to genre, trying out different tenses and POVs, and pushing my writing outside of my comfort zone.
After self-publishing my debut novel SLICE in 2023 (a horror/thriller), I knew I wanted to write full-time. So, I opened up my laptop and got to work. The only problem? I was stuck between two ideas: a new horror novel, and the fantasy novel I couldn't get out of my head. So, I figured—why not write both?
Thus, my life as a mood writer was born.
My goal for writing is the same reason that I read: to feel. Whether you’re internally screaming at a character’s stupidity, gasping at a plot twist, or blushing at steamy banter, I want it all. Fall into a story and let it con
