Jim Breslin is a writer, storyteller and a former television producer who spent seventeen years with QVC, the world’s largest home shopping network.
Jim is the author of Shoplandia, a novel which gives a glimpse into the mayhem in the live television studios of the fictional home shopping network known as Shoplandia. Working in a live television studio can be a crazy experience, and when you add in reality TV stars, self-help gurus, and A-Team actors, daily life becomes a three-ring circus. This is a novel told through stories, with perspectives from production assistants, show hosts, producers and a Marketing VP, that captures the spirit of the studio and shows the bonds that form under pressure in the workplace. Shoplandia launched in May, 2014 and is available at Amazon or through bookshops.
Jim’s short story collection Elephant (2011) features twenty-one stories about loneliness and hope in suburbia. In these stories, men and women struggle to find meaning in their lives and seek redemption.
Jim’s short stories have been published in the Schuylkill Valley Journal, Turk’s Head Review, The Molotov Cocktail, Metazen and Think Journal. His non-fiction writing has appeared in Main Line Today, WHYY, Newsworks, Daily Local, Chester County Cuisine and Nightlife, and the Town Dish websites.
Jim’s micro-publishing project, Oermead Press, has published four books, Elephant (2011), Chester County Fiction (2011), Virginia Beards’ poetry collection Exit Pursued By A Bear (2014), and Shoplandia (2014) to date. West Chester Story Slam, Selected Stories 2010-2014, featuring forty stories, was published in November 2014.
Chester County Fiction is an anthology of sixteen short stories by thirteen local writers and received positive press in Main Line Today and on WHYY’s NewsWorks.
Jim is also the founder of the West Chester Story Slam, a monthly storytelling event that ran from 2010 to 2018, where hundreds of people took to the stage and told their stories in front of rousing live audiences. In 2012, West Chester Story Slam was awarded Most Entertaining Night Out by Main Line Today. The West Chester Story Slam was also turned into a monthly podcast, available on iTunes. In January, 2015, Jim co-founded the Lancaster Story Slam and the Lehigh Valley Story Slam.
Jim is the former Vice President of the Brandywine Valley Writers Group.
For seventeen years, Jim worked to maintain peace and love between celebrities, hosts, viewers and the production crew at electronic retailer QVC. He held various positions such as: Director of Live Production, Managing Producer, and Line Producer. He was known for his creative ideas and QVC viewers responded; having described him as both a “marketing genius” and a “mental midget” on the company’s bulletin boards (in separate posts, of course). Jim was also a news producer for three years, producing live shows from the Reagan/Gorbachev Summit and the 1988 Republican Convention.
Jim lives in West Chester, PA.
Jim Breslin 