Antioch's James McNeil releases his first science fiction novel

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As a child James McNeil was interested in science fiction television shows and comics, but never dreamed that one day he would be writing his own science fiction novel.

Somewhere in the back of his mind he had thought that he would like to write a book, but he had been busy most of his life working and raising his family. Last month he released his first novel, "The Journey."

"My line of work didn't go along with being a writer," he said. "But after I retired I started thinking about it again and decided to give it a try."

For most of his life, McNeil worked as a professional mobile and stationary equipment operator for road landscaping.

"Besides that, my wife and I were busy raising our family," he said.

A few years back an idea for a science fiction novel came to him and he wrote down some notes, but he put it away while he finished working out the rest of his obligations to his job. After retiring he pulled out the notes and started writing.

"I think the story is pretty original," he said. "The idea didn't come to me because of something I read or saw in a movie."

The novel is about a man named Henry who loses his memory and sets out to find out who is he. In the process of finding out that he is, he discovers the important things in life.

"I would say the underlining story is about the importance of family and the journey this man takes that shows him a whole new outlook on life," McNeil said.

McNeil says his novel is filled with adventure, action, suspense, drama, fantasy, science fiction and even a little bit of romance.

McNeil said that he has learned a lot through the process. "I'll probably do a lot of things different the next time around," he said.

Wanting to move his newfound career along quickly, McNeil decided to self-publish this book through an online publisher called iUniverse. The online publishing company works with writers of various styles of books by offering a printing on-demand service and e-book services.

The publishing company offers little in the way of promotional services and leaves it up to the individual author to decide how much promotion to provide for the book.
McNeil has been working to promote his book through online bookstores such as Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com.

McNeil is currently working on a sequel to "The Journey."

"I'm hoping to expand on the lead character's journey and see where it takes him."
He isn't sure how long it will take him to complete the second book or get it marketed. So far, McNeil says, he is getting good feedback from the readers on his book.