Jim Fraiser
1954-
Major Works
- The Plutonian Chronicles (1989)
- M is for Mississippi: An Irreverent Guide to the
Magnolia State (1991)
- Shadow Seed (1997)
- Majesty of the Mississippi Delta
with John C. Willis and West Freeman 2002
- For Love of the Game: The Holy Wars of Millsaps
College & Mississippi College Football
- Mississippi River Country Tales: A Celebration
of 500 Years of Deep South History 2000
- The French Quarter of New Orleans
2003
- Vanished Mississippi Gulf Coast
with Rick Guy 2006
- Whiskey with Chaser: The John Clements Novels
2007
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A Biography
of Jim Fraiser
By Anna Elizabeth Hillman (SHS)
Mississippi is known as home to many of the South's most well
known and respected authors. It provides a unique cultural
setting for many writers. Jim Fraiser grew up in the Magnolia
State which remains his home. Though he has been writing
now for many years, he has only just begun his career
as a Mississippi writer (Ole Miss 2).
Jim Fraiser grew up in the Mississippi Delta in a small town
called Greenwood. He was born on October
27, 1954 . His name, John James Fraiser, III, was given
to him after being passed down through the generations.
In 1972, he graduated from Greenwood High School with plans
of attending the University of Mississippi. While at Ole
Miss, he received a Bachelor of Arts in English as well as history
in 1976. Then in 1979 he received his law degree from
the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss 2). 
From there, Fraiser acquired his first job in the legal profession
as the assistant district attorney under Ed Peters for Hinds
County (Criss 10). In 1983, Fraiser began his own private
practice which he had until 1995 when he became the special
assistant attorney general in the Civil Litigation Division.
This is a position he still holds today. Between this
stretch of time, Fraiser had many other occupations. In
1988 he practiced his writing techniques as a columnist for
Down South Magazine. From 1990 until 1993,
he worked as a paralegal instructor both at Ole Miss and the
Mississippi University for Women. To continue in his writing
career, Fraiser is now the contributing editor for the Jackson
Business Journal, and the contributing writer for the
Northside Sun (Ole Miss 2). Under General
Mike Moore, Fraiser also acts as the General Counsel for the
Mississippi Claims Board (Criss 10).
In 1981, he picked up other interests and began performing
professionally with Jackson's New Stage Theater. He performed
in films such as Good Ole Boy, Mississippi Burning,
and Blind Vengeance. These roles lead
to a membership in the Screen Actors Guild. Fraiser not
only performed, but he also wrote a few unpublished plays.
For example, he wrote adaptations of Walter Percy's novel Love
in the Ruins and Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also
Arises as well as Fraiser's own Cosmos by Copernicus
and The Judas Principle, all of which have been
performed. Fraiser then became more involved in writing
as he wrote articles for an assortment of journals and newspapers.
Some of his freelance writing was done for The American
Bar Journal, The Clarion Ledger, Daily Mississippian, Down South
Magazine, Greenwood Commonwealth, Mississippi Lawyer Magazine,
National Women Lawyers Journal, and North Mississippi
Business Journal (Ole Miss 2).
Fraiser's first short story was called "The Plutonian Chronicles"
and was published by Down South Magazine in 1989.
Next,  Fraiser
published first book, M is for Mississippi: An Irreverent
Guide to the Magnolia State, which he said did very
well. He also wrote the novel Shadow Seed.
In an interview done by Amazon .com, Fraiser lays out the plot
of Shadow Seed by saying that it "concerns a lawyer
who lies to a judge and obtains bail for a vicious murderer,
who in turn executes witnesses until the lawyer attempts to
stop him, and then the murderer goes after the lawyer".
Fraiser continues telling about a second plot which involves
the lawyer's grandfather (also a lawyer) who is representing
a man accused of a murder that he did not commit; furthermore,
Fraiser says that this second plot is shown through a diary
which had belonged to the grandfather (Amazon.com 1).
As one who appreciates philosophy and history, Fraiser enjoys
the work of many Mississippi writers such as Walker Percy, William
Faulkner, Willie Morris, Barry Hannah, Richard
Ford, Eudora Welty, Charles Wilson, and Larry
Brown. He also enjoys Ernest Hemmingway's work.
Fraiser enjoys fiction books such as Percy's The
Moviegoer and Love in the Ruins, Hemmingway's
The Sun Also Arises, and Ford's Independence
Day (Amazon.com 1). He appeared in the film My
Dog Skip by Willie Morris.
The son of Chief Judge John Fraiser, Jr. of Greenwood and Adelyn
Gerald Stokes, Fraiser grew up surrounded by Mississippi's influential
heritage, which has paved the way for much of his work.
In an article in the Jackson Business Journal,
Fraiser says, "...if you write about the South, which I do in
Shadow Seed, you can't help but be drawn in by
the mystique and the legend surrounding this region," (Criss
1). Fraiser says that he can follow his love of literature
and theater all the way back to his parents. Both his
mother and father supported him in his creativity as a child.
Fraiser talks about how much his parents helped as he was growing
up. He says that they helped any way they could, always
encouraging him. "They both have always been very supportive
of my creative urges, in writing and in acting," says Fraiser.
He also gives credit to his wife, Carol, who he says was his
first real editor. "She has a natural sense for writing,
actually a much better sense than I do," he says of her, while
also adding what a tremendous help she was (Criss 2).
 2008
UPDATE: Jim Fraiser produced Majesty of
the Mississippi Delta with John C. Willis and
West Freeman in 2002 and Vanished Mississippi Gulf
Coast with Rick Guy in 2003. Fraiser published
Whiskey with Chaser: The John Clements Novels
in 2007.
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A
Timeline for Jim Fraiser
October 7, 1954- John James Fraiser III was born in
New Orleans , Louisiana
1972- Graduated from Greenwood High School
1 976- Received Bachelor of Arts in English & history
at the University of Mississippi
1979- Received law degree from University of Mississippi
1980-1982- Hinds County Assistant District Attorney
1981-1991- Performed professionally with Jackson's New Stage
Theater
1980-1982 Served as assistant district attorney for
Hinds County
1982-1995- Private law practice
1988- Plays veterinarian in film based on Willie Morris's
Good Ole Boy
1988- Became member of the Screen Actors Guild
1988-1990-Philosophy columnist for Down South Magazine
1989- Film role in Mississippi Burning
1990-1993 Paralegal instructor at the University of
Mississippi and Mississippi University for Women
1992- Film role in Blind Vengeance
1997 -Published novel called Shadow Seed
1995-present, Special assistant attorney general in
the Civil Litigation Division for the State of Mississippi,
still holds position
- Contributing editor
for Jackson Business Journal, contributing writer
for the Northside Sun
- Lives in Jackson with
wife and two daughters
2003-Published The French Quarter of New Orleans
2006--Published Vanished Mississippi Gulf Coast
2007--Published Whiskey with Chaser: The John
Clements Novels
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A Review of Shadow
Seed
by Anna Elizabeth Hillman (SHS)
Jim Fraiser's Shadow Seed is a novel of excitement
tied into the legal scene. Fraiser goes into detail in
both the life of a lawyer as well as his practice and moral
responsibilities. Using these areas of his protagonist's
life, Fraiser also brings thrilling action into the novel.
John Clements, the protagonist in the novel, is an average
man who is married with no children. He is a lawyer who
has come to try his cases only for the victory and not for the
right reasons. Clements's' life is at a point of
turmoil. He and his wife are separated because she became
vividly aware of an affair which he was having with his secretary.
Clements struggles throughout the novel with what is morally
right and wrong, both in his business life and in his private
life. He also struggles with the direction in which his
life is going. He feels that somewhere along the way he
has gotten off track from the principles with which his father,
who is now deceased, raised him. He finds himself constantly
entranced in a journal which
he has found that belonged to his grandfather. Throughout
the novel, Clements compares himself to the kind of man he once
was and the kind of man he has come to be. Eventually,
Clements is forced to face reality when he is assigned a man
who has killed a helpless, innocent elderly woman in cold blood.
His client's name is Roosevelt Daulks, a man who thrives off
violence and fails to see what is right and what is wrong.
While trying Daulk's case, Clements is put in a position where
he must choose whether to lie and win the case, risking the
life of a witness and putting a murderer back on the streets;
or tell everything that he knows, making the case a much harder
one to win. Leaning more towards risking anything to win,
Clements selfishly lies to the judge, freeing his client.
Soon, more and more people involved in Daulk's criminal activity
show up dead, and all evidence points to Daulks. When
Clements is accidentally aware of new evidence and faced with
the decision, once again, of telling all he knows, he
looks back for guidance in his father and grandfathers teachings.
This time, Clements chooses to make the right decision and therefore
is the next victim on Daulk's list.
Fraiser uses this to begin the part of the novel which makes
it a thriller. Clements finds himself in fear of his life
and also needing time to decide between his marriage and his
affair. He leaves town to escape his client, or so he
thinks. Soon, Clements finds himself within the grasp
of a crazed murderer with no hope of escape. After all
of the excitement is over, Clements finds himself content with
his life, as he feels he has gotten it back on the right track.
No longer having a tempting secretary, his personal life is
also headed in the right direction, leaving Fraiser with a great
ending.
Fraiser did a great job of tying everything together.
The suspense and the great detail were captivating. Although
his writing is somewhat simple at first, it becomes much more
experienced towards the end. I thoroughly enjoyed this
novel, and will be sure to read any more of Fraiser's in the
future, but I will give a fair warning: If you are
opposed to explicit language and sexual content, you may want
to steer clear of this book. Otherwise, it was a great
read.
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Related
Websites
The
Mississippi Writers Page is similar to the Mississippi Writers
and Musicians Page, but it is done by Ole Miss.
Information
about Fraiser's The French Quarter.
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Bibliography
Criss, Jack. "Jim Fraiser/Novelist; Another Great
Mississippi Writer: The 'seed' has been planted."
Jackson Business Journal July 1997:
10-11.
Fraiser, Jim. Shadow Seed. Montgomery,
AL: The Black Belt Press, 1997.
"Amazon.com Talks to Jim Fraiser." Amazon.com Author
Interview: n. pag. Online. 4 Nov. 1998.
Available http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/show-interview/f-j-raiserim/002-6771966-1730428
"Jim Fraiser." Mississippi Writers Page:
n. pag. Online. 29 Oct. 1998. Available
http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-writers/dir/fraiser_jim
"Your Say." Bookwire: n. pag. Online.
World Wide Web. 12 Nov. 1998. Available http://www.bookwire.com/banned-books/yoursay.html
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