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James P. Barry
What is your connection to Ohio?
I was brought there when I was two years old, grew up here, and graduated from OSU.
What inspired you to become an author?
Difficult question. I was able to write and like to write as early as high school. While I was in OSU I became interested in the history of some commercial sailing boats, did research on them and wrote a couple of articles about them that were published in Yachting magazine. I suppose that was my start as an author.
What advice do you have for a young author or illustrator?
Prepare to start in some congenial occupation other than writing. Few authors make enough money to support themselves entirely and almost none do so at first.A job at a newspaper or in the editorial offices of a magazine or book publisher will give you some good experience, but such jobs are notoriously underpaid. They may also use up your writing energy. After a busy day at this sort of work, you may want to do nearly anything except more writing of your own.
A non-writing job will also give you general experience that will provide depth for almost any kind of writing that you do.
What do you like to do for fun?
Read. Travel. Sail. Write.
Some of your most popular books are:
- Hackercraft (2002)
- Ships of the Great Lakes:300 years of navigation (1996)
- Georgian Bay:the sixth great lake (1995)
