J. Timothy King’s Blog

I’ll Send You a Postcard from my Vacation

I just got back from a holiday vacation to see family in southern New Jersey. During the trip, we visited Longwood Gardens, across the border in Pennsylvania. I’ve only visited the gardens in summer, when the flowers are in bloom and the sun beats down upon your head as you stroll down the garden path. I’ve always assumed that nothing much happened when the weather got cold. Not so! The place is open year-round. In fact, Christmas is one of their busiest times.

So I picked up a bunch of postcards at Longwood Gardens. If you want one, just email me. First come, first served.

-TimK

Ha! I KNEW Peter Drucker was Wrong!

I wasn’t going to write about this, but it was such a juicy tidbit, I just had to pass it along. So I looked at all of my colleagues, who begged me to keep it quiet, I looked them straight in the eye and told them, frankly, to buzz off. This is an exceedingly valuable tip for small businesses, I just couldn’t in good conscience keep it a secret.

Peter Drucker declared, in one of the most important chapters of his landmark volume The Effective Executive:

Effective executives know that time is the limiting factor. The output limits of any process are set by the scarcest resource. In the process we call “accomplishment,” this is time.

(Read more…)

The Christmas Meme

I usually don’t do memes, because (a) they don’t interest me or (b) they’re too long or (c) they require too much research. (Seriously.) But I saw this one over on Alison Kent’s blog and thought it was just interesting enough, and just the right length, and required just the right amount of research. 10 questions about me and Christmas.

1. What is your favorite Christmas romance to re-read each year? Ah, that’s a trick question. I don’t have a favorite Christmas romance. In fact, I’ve never even read a “Christmas” romance (as far as I remember). And that’s really ironic, because my very first story idea, the one that inspired me to learn to write fiction, that story idea was a Christmas romance. Fortunately, I was aware enough to figure out that I had no idea what the heck I was doing, and I put the project on the shelf until I learned a little more. That was a long time ago, and I never got back to that project. And good thing, too, because the project as it stands now is completely unworkable (which I didn’t know back then). I do know what needs to be done to make it workable, and maybe some day I’ll get back to it. Even though the original story idea itself will probably never see the light of day, some of the characters, though largely undeveloped, still occupy a special place in my heart. I’d like to think that someday I’ll tell their story.

2. What is your favorite Christmas movie or show? (Read more…)

2 Virtual Holiday Gifts Bloggers Love to Get

These are some of the best holiday gifts you can give a blogger. And the best thing about them is they’re absolutely free!

Clayton Makepeace put me onto this idea, and it struck a chord, even though he doesn’t even have a blog. He has an e-zine. Actually, this is also the best gift you can give to someone who publishes his own e-zine or writes for any kind of opt-in email list.

If you’ve never heard of Clayton Makepeace, he’s a world-class, old-school copywriter. His story is like that of many self-made people. At the end of his rope, broke, surviving on Ramen noodles (or however it goes), he learned how to write killer copy, and he got rich. Of course, somewhere in there were many, many hours of work. That’s the part of the story the get-rich-quick schemers never tell you, the many, many hours of work. But Clayton always levels with you regarding that part of the story, and I appreciate it. (Read more…)