Spotlight On Writers
James Nelli
- Where do you originate from?
I was born and raised in the western suburbs of Chicago. During the early part of my working career, I also spent time living in downtown Chicago on the 60th floor in a high-rise apartment building just off Rush Street overlooking Lake Michigan. It was a glorious view. I attended college at the University of Illinois where I learned how to drink beer, enjoy college life, protest all sorts of social problems, and as a sidelight get my bachelor’s degree in economics and international marketing. After college, I worked at Hart, Schaffner & Marx for two years before heading out with a friend in 1972 on a fantastic and enlightening one year journey to Great Britain, Europe, North Africa, Scandinavia, Greece, and Turkey. This journey ignited the travel bug in me that survives to this day. After returning home, I went back to graduate school and received my MBA from Northwestern University. During my thirty-five-year working career, I had the unique opportunity to live, work, and travel all over the United States. However, since 1992, my family and I have called Southern California our home.
- What do you cherish most about the place you call home?
No matter where I look, I’m surrounded by the natural beauty of my surroundings. The unbeatable climate, the mountains, the desert, and the ocean are just short trips from my home in Orange County, California. It has been a great place to raise a family, stay healthy, meet new friends, and improve my golf game. Southern California also offers me peaceful mornings at home, cool afternoons at the beach, and late-night opportunities under the stars to reflect, write, and create new stories. It is a very stimulating and creative environment.
- What ignites your creativity?
My Midwestern roots and my personal experiences dominated my early writing. My moral compass led me to naively concentrate on all things good. This approach limited the creativity in my writing. However, in my more recent successful writings, I have found myself creating stories using the experiences of others that I have met or characters I simply created from a combination of interesting personalities I have encountered. My creativity has become less introspective and more socially conscious of both the good and bad events going on around me. This balance and approach to creativity is essential in preserving a sense of hope and constructive purpose in my life. I feel most creative when I’m able to write about the evolution of a character’s actions and feelings that leaves the reader with a clear picture of life through my character’s eyes. My writing is unabridged, but with an emotional purpose. The outcomes of my stories may not be what every reader expects or desires, but I believe it does reflect the realities many of us have had to or will face sometime in our lives.
- Do you have a favorite word and could you incorporate it into a poetic phrase?
My favorite word is emotion. I continually strive in my writing to create characters, situations, and outcomes that evoke an emotional response from the reader. The success of my writing occurs when the reader feels something that he may or may not have expected. These feelings can be anything from empathy to anger, and success to failure. The stronger the feeling the better. If the emotional response is accompanied by a physiological change in the body like laughing or crying, that to me is the real success of a great narrative. This response leaves the reader with an emotion that the reader can retrieve, relive, and experience over and over again. Here is a short verse I found that sums up my love for emotion:
In the quiet of my heart, emotions rise and fall,
A dance of joy and sorrow, echoing through it all.
Like waves that kiss the shore, then swiftly drift away,
They shape the soul within me, in a tender, fleeting way.
- What is your pet peeve?
My pet peeve is being caught up in rigid routines and overly structured environments that suppress spontaneity. I get frustrated when I’m forced to follow strict rules or conform to conventional methods. I dislike mundane, repetitive tasks that don’t allow room for imagination or creative expression. I believe that focusing too much on practicality or tradition rather than innovation stifles the mind and the body.
- How would you describe the essence of James Nelli?
I’m a blend of creativity and curiosity, tempered by a mature skepticism that keeps me grounded. This combination allows me to explore the world with an open mind and a deep sense of wonder. My independence fuels my journey and allows me to carve my own path while enabling me to easily connect with others. Small talk is entertaining, but conversations on important issues always get my full attention. I try hard to understand the world and the people who inhabit it. I have a hopeful outlook, always searching for the silver lining, but I always remain thoughtfully skeptical while questioning the status quo in order to uncover deeper truths I can improve my life and use in my writing.
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