J. R. Locke

Jerome Roger "J.R." Locke (born September 3, 1972) is an American author, best known for his novel series, The Canadians go to Ireland, which was developed from his own life experiences.

Biography

Early Life

J.R. Locke was born in Manhattan, New York City, NY on September 3rd, 1972. His mother, Marrianne Locke, died during child birth. His father, Franklin D. Locke was a book salesman working mainly out of New York City. Marrianne's death caused a rift between Franklin and his in-laws forcing Franklin to stop all contact with the two of them. Even though money was tight Jerome attended some of the best private schools in the city up until the age of eight. However, due to a lower income Franklin soon realized he would not have enough money to continue living in New York City. He accepted a job working for a publishing company in Quebec. As the two moved away Marrianne's parents fought for custody of Jerome. The custody battled from 1977 until 1980 when Jerome's grandparents were in a horrific car accident thus ending the custody battle. That December Franklin was finally able to take Jerome to Quebec to begin life anew.

Early Life in Quebec and Trouble

For Locke life was not easy in Quebec. It was rough transition moving from the premier life of New York City to the less premier life of Quebec. He was also forced to learn French in order to better communicate with the locals. As a youth Locke struggled to make friends. It wasn't until he had lived in Quebec for two years that he made his first real friend, Charles Mangy. Charles Mangy was a trouble-making young boy who had behavioral issues. However, for Locke there was no better friend. Mangy and Locke began to get into a lot of trouble eventually getting Locke and Mangy expelled from private school. Due to their records the two were unable to enroll in any other private school in the area and both ended up at public school.

The Final Prank

By the time Mangy and Locke were fifteen they had gotten a reputation as being bad boys. However, the two still continued to commit pranks around school and get in trouble. However, it was one prank that went horribly awry that changed Locke's life forever. When the two boys were fifteen Charles Mangy created a prank that was supposed to cause issues with the plumbing in the school. At first it seemed like the prank had not worked as nothing really happened. However, one week later the school was closed due to plumbing issues. The situation got worse and the foundation of the building began to crumble since the problem was detected so late. Two weeks after the prank the gymnasium fell apart and crumbled causing other parts of the school to fall apart as well. 2 were injured, but no one died.

The Death of Charles Mangy

After the prank Charles Mangy's parents decided to send him away to boarding school. No one is quite sure what school he was going to because J.R. Locke refuses to state which one it was. However, it is known to be in Ireland because it inspired his series, The Canadians go to Ireland. It is also known that this flight did not make it all the way to Ireland. It crashed in the ocean and rescue ships were unable to save everyone. Fortunately, most people survived The crash, Charles Mangy was one of the four people who did not make it through the crash.

Mangy's death affected Locke immensely. He was no longer able to pull pranks at his school without feeling lost. He also has claimed that he was never the mastermind for the pranks, but most if not all of the pranks were Mangy's IDeaS. Eventually Locke was able to live a normal life when he turned to a therapeutic writing of his novels. The novels were inspired by Mangy and intended to preserve his spirit in a way that be memorable to everyone.

The Canadians go to Ireland

After the death of Mangy, Locke started to write in a therapeutic journal what life may have been like for Mangy had he not died on his way to Ireland. From these novels Locke came up with the idea for The Canadians go to Ireland, however the novels would not be published until years after the death of Mangy.

Publishing

In 2001, when Locke was 29 he found his old journals AbOUT Charles Mangy. At the time Locke was jobless and still living at home with his father. Locke really enjoyed the creative stories he developed for Mangy and decided to start writing them into novels. By the end of 2001 Locke had written the first five novels and had set out to get them published. It didn't take a long time for Locke to get a publisher and on March 17, 2002 Locke published the first book in The Canadians go to Ireland series, Away We Go.

Early Failure, Later Success

Initially the novels were a major failure failing to sell in most stores. However, Locke did receive a lot of critical acclaim for the novels and he continued writing them. He later published Ireland's Best and Finding a Place to Go, which achieved the same level of success as Away We Go. With the books not selling Locke decided it was most likely time to stop writing the novels, but he couldn't give up so soon when he loved the books so dearly. He decided to take matters into his own hands and contacted a friend at a local high school where he could do a book reading. It went over fairly well and all The Teens in the High School wanted to get a copy of all three novels.

After the reading the sales of the novels began to pick up and by December of 2002 each book had sold enough to grant a second printing of each novel. The publishers also decided to enter into the American market where the novels were hit with the same problem, but through word-of-mouth the novels began to sell. While the novels never became a best seller or ever achieved amazing numbers it had created a cult following and was selling consistent numbers. The publishers ordered more novels from Locke and he gave them the next three novels in the series right away as he had already written them. From then on Locke has been releasing novels at a fairly regular rate until he went on hiatus in 2007.

Recent Criticisms

With some of the recent novels Locke has received a lot of criticisms from his loyal readers about the novels. While Locke claims he never intended to make people lose faith in the novels there were rumors that he was trying to drive the series into the ground. He has refuted these claims. Instead Locke has stated that he understands the readers concerns with the more recent novels as he agrees they have become a little more "far-fetched," but he insists that every story has a point and each novel has helped developed the characters. He does insist, though, that with The Life of Angela Grace that he will be returning to a more angst-driven storyline that will hopefully reinstate the readers feelings about the novels. The readers have reacted favorably to The Life of Angela Grace and there has been a feeling of a revival of the series since its release in 2007.

Hiatus

Locke went on hiatus from writing the novels when his father died in 2007. He had just finished the 25th novel in the series, The Life of Angela Grace two weeks before his father died. Locke allowed the publishers to publish the piece promising to continue writing the next novel as he dealt with his father's death.

Depression and the 26th Novel

While writing the 26th novel in the series Locke entered a deep depression. His intentions for the 26th novel was to bring back some of the original magic that was lost in the series in more recent novels. However, he felt that when he was writing the 26th novel it was too dark so he scrapped the entire project. Locke decided he would not continue with the 26th novel until he had correctly dealt with his father's death.

The Return

Recently there have been rumors that the 26th novel is completed and many are anticipating that the 26th book will be released sometime in 2009. However, neither Locke nor his publishing company has stated anything positively yet, but when asked in a recent interview what his plans were for the release of the next novel were Locke simply replied, "Very soon. I promise."