Journalist turned writer for children
Once upon a time, there was a journalist who thought of making a living pursuing the thing he loved the best – storytelling.
So, following Charles Dickens’ path of journalism to fiction writing, James Russell, while on a train bound for home, thought of a story.
“Beside an ancient forest, before you reach the sea, you’ll find a tiny cottage and a happy family,” the story started.
“Two brothers, Flynn and Paddy, their parents, Mum and Dad, a lovely dog named Coco – their chocolate-colored Lab,” it continued in the rhyming fashion it had begun.
He had just come from the newsroom. As an editor, it was part of his work to look for stories on sustainable lifestyle and business to combat environmental degradation.
His two sons loved the stories, becoming budding environmentalists themselves, but they also had an insatiable need for tales, particularly about dragons!
Thus, began the Dragon Hunters, the first of The Dragon Brothers trilogy of children’s picture books for 3-7-year-old children.
After he spoke to an agent for information about the publishing business, Russell self- published his first book.
Russell was the first in New Zealand to have arranged for an animator to create an augmented reality (AR) app. A reader may hover over a page using a phone or a tablet and dragons and volcanoes come to life!
He launched Dragon Hunters by hiding 30 large paper mâché dragon eggs around the Auckland hillsides.
Children looked for them using clues posted on his website. The ones who found the dragon eggs exchanged them for free books.
With Link Choi as the illustrator, Dragon Hunters became a finalist in the LIANZA Russel Clark Illustration Awards in 2013.
Its sequel, The Dragon Tamers, came out a year after and the third, The Dragon Riders, in 2014.
The Dragon Defenders was also the top-selling junior novel by a New Zealand author for the first five weeks after its launch on the Nielson Bestsellers list in 2017.
He traveled to Italy to visit the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and got the picture book trilogy published overseas: US, Canada, the UK by Sourcebooks, and China courtesy of China Youth Press.
A journalist for 12 years, which included editing for Element, a sustainable business and lifestyle magazine, Russell is now a full-time author and publisher. Though none of the 12 years have ever gone to waste. Even the paradise island is a response to his need to heal the world from the harm people are causing it.
He hails from Hamilton and now lives in Auckland with his wife Rebecca and two boys Flynn and Paddy.
Last year, he completed a seven-city book tour in the United States and has visited more than 60 schools in New Zealand.
He was a guest speaker at the recently concluded annual SPARK Festival 2018 at Wintec.
