Jim Farrell moved to Florida in June of 2013. After he arrived, he completed his first novel, Brooklyn Boy, a semi-autobiographical novel about a young boy growing up in the 1940s and 1950s in Brooklyn and Long Beach, NY. When you read it, you will find yourself falling in love with the young Puertoricana, Anita Sanchez, the hero's young girlfriend. One person who does not love Anita is the hero's mother. The conflict between the boy and his mother creates compelling reading. Who will win in the end? The most often heard comment from readers: “It brings me back to my childhood. I loved it!”
In 2014, Jim published a collection of short stories, Kiss Me, Kate and Other Stories. KMK is set in a variety of locations and illustrates the depth of the human spirit, the importance of laughter and the miracle of love. Bill Reynolds, columnist for the Providence Journal, recommended the book in one of his columns.
In 2015 Jim completed his second novel, The Extraordinary Banana Tree, about the fall of Saigon in 1975. Again it is semi-autobiographical. The author was Manager of Flight Operations for Air America. The main character, Billy Dobson, is Manager of Flight Operations for Air America. The reader will also fall in love with Cheryl Flynn, the heroine, a beautiful, amazing woman. Jim seems to fall in love with all his heroines. EBT was featured in the fall issue of the Air America Log.
In 2016 Jim published his third novel, Mikey’s Quest for Father God, which he calls a joyous romp through his philosophical and theological past. A great read for the questioning teen-ager or adult.
That same year, he published his fourth novel, and his favorite, The Barge of Curiosity. It is the story of the lives, loves, and adventures of Sandy Roberts, Peggy Mayhew and Mark Tuttle, who are involved in a lifelong love triangle with Sandy as the focus.
In 2018 he published a second collection of short stories, The Committee and Other Stories. Anyone who has ever lived in a community with a HOA and the self-appointed enforcers of real and imagined HOA rules will love the title story. One story, It All Started One Saturday in Perth, is now one of the author's favorites. If the author likes it, it must have a pretty heroine. It does, Sky Winters. She appears in two other stories in the collection.
In 2018 he also published his fifth novel, Realities, the fictional biography of Dr. Sam Turner, Nobel-prize winning theoretical physicist, CIA Agent in Saigon, Catholic Priest in Tanzania, resident of Greenwich Village, and lover of Nancy Swann, twice!, in his alternate realities. It all comes together in the end.
Jim recently published his sixth novel, The Whale’s Tale: Call Me Moby Dick, the story of Captain Ahab’s hunt for the great white whale, but told from Moby’s perspective. It is not necessary to have read the classic to enjoy Moby’s telling of the tale. This novel has been called a “page turner” and “an absolutely fantastic version” of the famous Melville book.
His seventh and eighth novels, The Joyce Girls of Brooklyn and Kevin's Inferno, published in 2021 and 2022, completed his Brooklyn trilogy begun with Brooklyn Boy.
Jim is a member of the Florida Writers' Association, and has published a short story in their magazine. He also published a short non-fiction piece in The Sun, a literary magazine published in Chapel Hill, NC. His books are available at the Flagler County Library in Palm Coast., the Flagler Beach Library, the Deltona Public Library, and the Volusia County Library. And, of course, on Amazon and B&N.