James Paul Blaylock is an American fantasy author. He is noted for a distinctive, humorous style, as well as being one of the pioneers of the steampunkgenre of science fiction. Blaylock has cited Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle and Charles Dickens as his inspirations. He was born in Long Beach, California; studied English at California State University, Fullerton, receiving an M.A. in 1974; and lives in Orange, California, teaching creative writing at Chapman University. He taught at the Orange County School of the arts until 2013. Many of his books are set in Orange County, California, and can more specifically be termed "fabulism"that is, fantastic things happen in our present-day world, rather than in traditional fantasy, where the setting is often some other world. His works have also been categorized as magic realism. He and his friends Tim Powers and K. W. Jeter were mentored by Philip K. Dick. Along with Powers, Blaylock invented the poet William Ashbless. Blaylock and Powers have often collaborated with each other on writing stories, including "The Better Boy", "On Pirates", and "The William Ashbless Memorial Cookbook". Blaylock previously served as director of the Creative Writing Conservatory at the Orange County High School of the Arts until 2013, where Powers has also been Writer in Residence. He has been married to his wife, Viki Blaylock, for more than 40 years. They have two sons, John and Danny.
Awards
Blaylock's short story "Thirteen Phantasms" won the 1997 World Fantasy Award for best Short Fiction. "Paper Dragons" won the award in 1986. Homunculus won the Philip K. Dick award in 1987.
Novels
The "Balumnia" Trilogy
Whimsical fantasy inspired, according to the author, by Wind in the Willows and The Hobbit.
The Elfin Ship
The Disappearing Dwarf
The Stone Giant
The Man in the Moon The original manuscript, initially rejected, from which The Elfin Ship was reworked, with commentary and an additional short story.
The "Narbondo" Series
Novels
Sharing the character of villain Ignacio Narbondo; The Digging Leviathan and its sequel Zeuglodon are contemporary fantasies set in 1960s California, while the remainder are steampunk novels set in Victorian England.
The Digging Leviathan
Homunculus
Lord Kelvin's Machine Expansion of the eponymous 1985 novelette.
Zeuglodon
The Aylesford Skull
Beneath London
Short fiction and novellas
"The Ape-Box Affair"
"The Idol's Eye"
"Lord Kelvin's Machine" Expanded into a novel in 1992.
All short fiction and two novels have appeared in two collections by Subterranean Press:
The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives Omnibus of Homunculus, Lord Kelvin's Machine, and the stories "The Ape-Box Affair", "The Idol's Eye", "Two Views of a Cave Painting", "The Hole in Space".
The Further Adventures of Langdon St. Ives Omnibus of The Ebb Tide, The Affair of the Chalk Cliffs, The Adventure of the Ring of Stones, and the new stories "The Here-and Thereians'' and "Earthbound Things".
