about

North Arrow Press is an independent publisher dedicated to bold, research-driven geopolitical fiction that challenges readers to think about the world we live in — and the one we may be headed toward.

The mission of North Arrow Press is simple: publish smart, global thrillers for readers who crave authenticity, depth, and adrenaline.

Founding author Mark James is an award-winning writer whose novel Friendship Games earned both the prestigious Kirkus Star and a Bronze Medal from the Military Writers Society of America.

The mission of North Arrow Press is simple: publish smart, global thrillers for readers who crave authenticity, depth, and adrenaline.

The story continues in James's gripping sequel, The Compass Room, which escalates the high-stakes drama of Friendship Games and cements The Wartmann Series as a must-read saga for fans of intelligent, high-octane thrillers.  The Compass Room is currently in production.

founding author
Mark James

Mark James writes intelligent, research-driven geopolitical thrillers and dystopian fiction. His award-winning novel Friendship Games reimagines the USS Maine incident that sparked the Spanish–American War of 1898 — only this time it's a U.S. aircraft carrier sinking in the Persian Gulf, plunging America into crisis. The novel earned a Kirkus Star, was chosen as one of Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of the Year, and received a Bronze Medal from the Military Writers Society of America.

Friendship Games launched The Wartmann Series, with its sequel, The Compass Room, currently in production. Together they explore the fault lines of a changing world order. His debut novel, Alter Road, is a powerful standalone story of unrest in Detroit after decades of economic decline, set in the same universe.

A U.S. Navy veteran of the late Cold War and after, James served in the Philippines, Japan, Guam, the Aleutian Islands, and Hawaii. Afterward, he earned a PhD in Geography from the University of Cincinnati and has taught political, economic, and urban geography for more than twenty years.

When he's not writing, you might find him on a surfboard chasing the breaks off Maryland and Delaware's Atlantic coast.