About Jim
James R. Van Laan lives in a remote area at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the western Carolinas. Known as Dark Corner with a long history of moonshining, the area has cast its shade on Jim, giving rise to his poems of loss, survival, hope, redemption, and love. After the loss of his wife, Nan, to vicious cancers, Jim is emerging from the darkest corner of his life and pursuing his recurrent dream of fifty years: writing. His collection of poetry (The Whole Shebang) and his novel Rosa’s Cantina (to be released in 2026), the first book in his Chisum and McDaniel series, are the first manifestations of his dream.
While continuing to lurk in the corners of his mind, Jim’s dream of writing was unrealized as he pursued a career in advertising and public relations and then as a consulting computer programmer and systems analyst. He nurtured his dream of writing as he taught creative writing in public schools as a visiting writer and poet and gave poetry readings at several colleges in North Carolina. Now retired, Jim is an old man, not only dreaming dreams, but finally fulfilling his dream of writing.
Contact
Author’s Name
James R. Van Laan
jrvl@jamesvanlaan.com
Address
409 Elm Avenue, Landrum, SC 29356
Landline Telephone
864-457-4134
Mobile Telephone
864-510-4683
FAQ's
Why is a 74-year-old man publishing books now?
Writing has been a dream of mine for the last 55+ years. Now, as a widower, I have the time and a little savings to realize my lifelong dream.
Why write poetry? Isn’t that a pretty limited target audience?
Probably. Poetry was the first writing I pursued seriously. I was drawn to the English Romantics and then to French Symbolism. Longfellow, Whitman and Dickinson caught my attention. Wilfred Owen and Rupert Brooke had voices all their own. Yeats and the Irish Literary Movement had a certain magic. Eliot, Pound and Thomas spoke a different language. I toyed with cummings, Stevens, Ginsberg and O’Hara for a while. But I found a voice in Auden and Ransom. But, perhaps, more than any other, the long poems of Edwin Arlington Robinson moved me and inspired me. I’d like to think a few of my poems might have a little impact on another young poet-to-be.
Why is your collection of poetry divided into 4 sections?
Well, each was originally planned to be a chapbook. Over time, some poems were discarded. Now, at my age, I don’t know if I would live long enough to publish more than one book of poetry. So, I have combined what I think are the better poems of each chapbook into one “whole shebang” and added the poems I wrote for my late wife as the final section.
Your background is a little unusual for an author, isn’t it?
Well, life gets in the way of our dreams sometimes and we must adjust to survive. I was in public relations in an earlier life and owned an advertising agency. After that, I survived as a consulting creative director and freelance copywriter. I taught myself computer programming and became a computer programmer and systems analyst at Duke University Medical Center and the Medical University of South Carolina. Then I became a consulting custom programmer for hospitals around the US. And now, retired, I am writing the books I toyed with for all of those years before.
Now you live in a small town of about 3500 people in the western part of South Carolina, just a few miles below the North Carolina state line. Why did you choose that location?
I lived in Raleigh, NC and Cary, NC for about 20 years and then in Charleston, SC for 7 years. I was born out in the country near Manassas, VA when Manassas had a Western Auto Store, a grocery store, a bus station (with a wonderful hamburger stand), a few churches and a school. When I was 7, we moved to Maryland because of the relocation of the company where my father worked. We lived a few miles outside of a town with 350 people and 32 antique shops. Camp David and the Catoctin Mountains were about 30 miles away. I liked the look of the land in both cases. Rolling hills. Mountains just a little away. I also tired of “city life.” So, when the opportunity to move presented itself after a hurricane and mandatory evacuation of Charleston, my wife and I found this little town and, at least for me, a sense of peace.
Sell Sheet
The Whole Shebang
The Whole Shebang is a four-part collection of poems about life and survival, love and loss.
A Railing Against The Night, a defiant cry against death, is a memorial to people lost and a celebration of their lives. A lyrical testament to the lives of people who touched the poet. Changed him. Made him who he is.
Survival As The Whole Of Existence reveals the poet’s view of life. The complexities. The ironies. The pleasures and disappointments. The struggles and the hopes. It is his lyrical recognition of overcoming adversity. A celebration of survival.
Hymns Of A Would-Be Lover chronicles the hopes, dreams and disappointments of love in all its shapes and forms. Loves desired. Loves lost. The yearning for love. The recognition of fading love. The despair of lost love. But, always, the dream of love.
NanSong is a collection of some of the poems the poet wrote to the love of his life on the special occasions of Christmas, her birthday, Valentine’s Day. It, too, is a lyrical testament to love and failure and salvation.
Author: James Van Laan
Genre: Poetry
Price – Printed Book: $12.99
Price – eBook: $3.99
# Of Pages: 156
Print ISBN: 979-8-31781-458-8
eBook ISBN: 979-8-31781-459-5
Publication Date: November 15, 2025
Formats Available: Print and eBook
Testimonials
Sample Poems
Country cold night rain grinds lonely streets into obsidian gems, polishing away time and flaws. Tarred roads and tar babies […]
I have fought my independence in your soul’s marshes, played Sumter and Marion in the fields and pastures of your […]
I have grown this summer, somber, into the suits of death. Tailors have chalked my lengthening sleeves as deposition for […]
Sleep, my child, and let the worries of the world pass you by, for the world starts anew each morning […]
In fields of quilted snow, I see two birds exiled from worlds of warmth, ruffling white feathers in white fields […]
I always knew that someday I would be a lover. I could feel it, beating in my blood, throbbing in […]