About James Paxton Priestley

Hello. I'm an alumnus of Aberystwyth University in Ceredigion, Wales, where I was conferred with a BA (Hons) degree in Creative Writing and a PGCert in Creative Writing. I also hold a Diploma in Ericksonian Clinical Hypnosis, Cognitive Psychotherapy and Neurolinguistic Programming.

My short story Bargain at Blackwardine appears in Crossroads, an anthology of writing from Aberystwyth University’s Creative Writing MA, published by Broken Sleep Books in 2025.

My primary genre interests include weird and 'New Weird' fiction, haunting texts, folklore, horror (especially folk horror), and Gothic fiction.

I have a particular interest in the works of the Welsh author and mystic Arthur Machen (1863-1947). Machen was best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction; Irish writer Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873). Le Fanu was a creator of Gothic tales, mystery novels, and horror fiction; and English writer Algernon Henry Blackwood (1869-1951). Blackwood was a broadcasting narrator, journalist, novelist and short story writer, considered by many to have been among the most prolific ghost story writers in the genre’s history. I also admire the works of Angela Carter, Shirley Jackson, and Sir Terry Pratchett.

My writing method

One might also state this as 'how I write.' I have no magic formula or panegyric to offer. My approach is rather simple—I write what I like, when I like! Although I steer towards the interests I’ve stated above, this approach is never exclusive. In the same way that reading eclectically is beneficial to broadening and deepening one’s mind, so is eclectic writing—or so I believe. This disclosure will explain why I might write about Jim Henson’s Muppets in one story, and a piece of dark horror or speculative fiction in the next. Like a box of Maynards Bassetts Liquorice Allsorts, you cannot be altogether certain what you’ll get when you delve into the box!

My current writing projects

  1. Welsh Wyrd. An anthology of contemporary weird and uncanny tales based on Welsh folklore.