The firstborn son of a Southern Baptist minister and an elementary school teacher turned counselor, J. Patrick Lemarr grew up in Texas and later rural Oklahoma escaping into comic books and children’s fiction. A fascination with poetry and lyricism took root in high school and collided with an inspiring creative writing professor in college. Though it would be many years before writing became his pursuit, Lemarr never lost his love for the written word, nor for the easy escapism of genre fiction.
In 2005, just before the loss of his father, Lemarr put together a short press run of a book that combined his loves of poetry and fiction into a singular whole.
“It wasn’t designed to sell, really,” the author explains. “It was mainly my attempt to get something in print before my dad was gone. Thankfully, he was able to hold a copy and told people–long before it was true, mind you–that his son was an author. It’s a moment that has stayed with me ever since…that he saw me. That he recognized a truth about me I was only just beginning to see.”
2006 was a year of highs and lows. Shortly after marrying the love of his life, the writer lost his mother suddenly, leaving him to care for his younger brother, Jason, while trying to build a life and start a family. A few short years later, his brother would pass away due to a heart complication.
“I lost all three in a span of six years,” Lemarr said. “And I had nowhere to put it. I was angry. I was sad. I was devastated. We had a toddler at the time and a baby on the way. I couldn’t fall apart. Life wouldn’t wait. So I took my pain and poured it into poetry, hoping to purge a bit of that weight and, if possible, help a few people grieving over their own losses.”
After the release of his first book, I Am a Broken House, in 2011, Lemarr turned his attention away from poetry toward his first literary love…genre fiction. A world-builder by nature, he began crafting YA Fantasy and speculative fiction, producing two volumes of his Tales of the Evermore series. In 2018, he collected the short stories he had written over many years and released the assortment in the book, Shadow Plays.
2022 marked the first time the author had two of his books published within the same calendar year. All That Waits in the Night was released in paperback that summer. An assortment of short horror tales that coalesce into a complete work, it was inspired by the author’s love of The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery. Then, in October of that same year, The Christmas Cabin arrived. The author’s first holiday release, it featured 3 short tales designed to embrace and celebrate the hope and joy of the season.
On January 1st, 2024 Lemarr offered a free novella, The Willing, The Wounded, and The Wizard, to those who joined his mailing list. Those 4 short stories serve as an introduction to his 3 recurring characters, Dylan Drake (The Willing), Darke (The Wounded), and Azael the Sly (The Wizard.)
J. Patrick Lemarr currently lives in Indiana with his wife, Heidi, and their children. When he isn’t crafting horror and fantasy for Write Crowd Publishing, he is writing exclusive content for his Patreon supporters.
