about me

I AM SEEKING AN AGENT OR A PUBLISHER WHO WILL SHARE MY VISION AND COMMITMENT TO WHAT THE PHENOMENON OF DRAGONWORLD CAN BECOME.

I HAVE RECENTLY BEEN AWARDED THE TITLE OF '2011GENERAL FICTION SHORT STORY WRITER OF THE YEAR' IN A NATIONAL SHORT STORY COMPETITION. IT WILL BE PUBLISHED SHORTLY IN A COLLECTION OF THE STORIES OF THE WINNERS OF EACH CATEGORY.

I CAN BE CONTACTED AT johnrmills@onetel.com
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I have always been an avid reader, first learning to read at the tender age of three, and by the time I was five, I was reading fairly advanced books and driving everyone crazy by insisting on reading aloud to them at every possible opportunity.

As I grew older, my spectrum broadened and it was perhaps only natural that I was drawn to the local library where I worked as a volunteer in my early teens. What was perhaps less predictable was that, given my love of the written word, I did not try to write any of my own for many years.

My interests included painting and etching which I studied at the Jacob Kramer College in Leeds. I am also interested in horticultural design and recently won a gold medal in the Leeds in Bloom competition.

I started my writing with poetry and, as well as becoming quite prolific, I became interested in the origins of poetry. I have run readers’ groups at local libraries and schools both for adults and children from the age of five up to early teens. I have also lectured on writing at adult education centres and have raised money for charity from my poetry readings. Some of my poems were used for ‘national poetry day’ and read out in local schools. A little while ago, Leeds City Council produced an illustrated book on the arts and crafts of West Yorkshire and chose me as the only poet to be featured.

I suppose it was inevitable that, sooner or later, the urge to write a novel would take hold of me but the idea of writing a series seemed much more challenging and exciting. With my background of working with children, I have selected a target market between the ages of eight and fifteen but with the hope that, like a recent, well-known phenomenon, my work might be read by those much older.

The first series, consisting of a dozen 400/500 page books is nearing completion and I already have a second series in mind. The stories are all about dragons and unicorns, the relationships that develop between them and the adventures they share. My unicorns do have the gentleness and mysticism that is usually associated with these mythical creatures but my dragons bear little resemblance to the maiden-devouring monsters who usually meet a sticky end at the hand of some chivalrous knight. My dragons are much more complex and diverse!

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The next three completed books in the series are:-
The Stones of Shulara
The Soul of Darkness
The Shadow Dragons
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Apart from my (hopefully) artistic temperament, my varied, and mostly successful experience has given me a keen eye for business and, within my books, I can see a number of lucrative product marketing opportunities. If I really let my imagination fly, I become aware of the fact that, in the world of computer animation, suitable product is in very short supply.

H. Hudson -Mills.

favourite books

John Galsworthy -The Forsyte Saga
J.R.R.Tolkien - Lord of the Rings
Anything by:
Steve Berry
Sharon Penman
William Butler Yeats
Dylan Thomas
Khalil Gibran
Philippa Gregory

my websites