James Lee (writer): Difference between revisions

| image = James Lee at a book signing.jpg

| imagesize =

| name = Jim Aitchison aka James Lee

| caption = James Lee at a book signing in 2012.

| pseudonym = James Lee<br>David Carrick

| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1947}}

| birth_place = Australia

| website = {{URL|flameoftheforest.com}}

'''Jim Aitchison''' (born 1947), better known by his pen name '''James Lee''', is an [[Australian]] writer.

Born in Australia, Aitchison lived in Singapore as a permanent resident there sincefrom 1983 until 2010 when he returned to [[Langwarrin, Victoria]]. Before he became a full-time [[writer]], Aitchison was a [[voice actor]], and creative director of an advertising agency. He also published books on [[business]] and [[advertising]].{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}

Aitchison's earliest work was a script called ''Under Her Spell'' written for Grace Gibson Radio Productions underusing the pseudonym David Carrick called ''Under Her Spell''. While working for an advertising agency, Aitchison penned the first two episodes over a long weekend and slipped them under the office door. Grace's assistant Reg James passed them on to Grace who put them in production. The serial lasted 130 episodes and starred Fay Kelton, James Condon and Diana Perryman.

He gained popularity in the late 1990s when he began writing the children's [[horror fiction|horror]] ''[[Mr. Midnight]]'' book series under the pseudonym of James Lee in 1998, after his [[publisher]] Flame Of The Forest Publishing came up with the idea of publishing a series of horror and [[suspense]] stories for children using Asian names and [[Backstory|backdrop]]s - which was considered refreshing for Singaporean audiences who were used to existing [[Western world|Western]] literature. The series was anthological in nature, each book containing two stories where readers would contribute their character's backstories and settings while "James" would flesh the stories out in their entirety. The series became widely popular not just in [[Singapore]], but also neighbouring [[Malaysia]], [[Thailand]], [[Indonesia]], [[Hong Kong]], [[China]], and [[Vietnam]] with over 3three million copies sold.

* [http://www.flameoftheforest.com/Books/James-Lee/ MrJames MidnightLee] on the [https://www.flameoftheforest.com Flame Of The Forest website]

[[Category:20th-century Australian male writers]]