J. Timothy King’s Blog

My eBook Destroyed a Kindle?

Myridom, Haunter of the Night, (not his real name) offered to test my eBook on his Kindle. He sent back some great screenshots before time ran out. (Click each screenshot to enlarge it in a new window.)

Then his Kindle died. I actually don’t think my eBook destroyed it, of course. His cat did, and he’s forgiven the cat. Click here to see what happened to it.

-TimK

Looking for Beta Testers for Kindle/Mobipocket/Palm/iPhone eBook

This has been simmering on the back burner for a while. I’ve put together a digital, open-ebook (OEB) version of The Conscience of Abe’s Turn. I have tested it, of course, using the Mobipocket Reader for Windows, but I can’t test it with handheld ebook readers that support this format, because I don’t personally have access to them.

In particular, I need to test with the major handheld devices that Mobipocket Reader supports:

• Palm OS
• Blackberry
• PocketPC
• Symbian

If you have one of these devices and you’d like to read (or at least to flip through) a free copy of The Conscience of Abe’s Turn (Season 1, Volume 1), please comment here or email me, and I’ll have a download link sent to you.

I’d also love it if someone could test with the Amazon Kindle. As I understand it, you simply have to upload the file to the Kindle using a USB cable, but I don’t know anything about the process. In particular, I’m a little unclear as to whether the ebook must have DRM in it. (My ebooks are not DRM-crippled, because DRM causes more problems than it solves, and it doesn’t even stop copying.)

-TimK

A Free Gift You Can Give to Authors

During this holiday season, if you are thankful for a book you’ve read, or if there’s an author you want to do something special for, here’s a simple, free gift you can give them. It will only take a few minutes of your time, and the author will really appreciate it, more than anything else you could give them.

Here what it is: Write a simple, one-paragraph review–good or bad–of one of their books, and post it on a free site. I’ll show you how to write such a review easily and quickly. This kind of review is great for posting on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, GoodReads, Google Books, and other similar sites. You can even turn it into a quick blog post, with a little bit of enhancement. The review does not need to go into detail as to what the book is about, because that information is already on the pages where you’ll be posting your review.

Here’s how to write one: (Read more…)

Book Giveaway Winners: Can You See God in This Picture

Here are winners for the Can You See God in This Picture? giveaway.

(Read more…)

Book Giveaway Winners: The Conscience of Abe’s Turn

Here are winners for the Conscience of Abe’s Turn giveaway.

(Read more…)

Book Giveaway: Can You See God in This Picture

The giveaway has completed. I’m keeping this post and its comments here for historical purposes. Click here to see the winners.

Welcome to the Can You See God in This Picture exhibit of the Bookroomreviews Book Giveaway Carnival.

Here I’ll be giving away a copy of my dad’s memoir, Can You See God in This Picture: A Letter to My Sons Making Sense of 25 Years as a Pastor.

This is partly the story of my youth. More than that, it’s my dad’s story. Written as a letter to me and my brothers, it shows how God worked in our life, through both the good and bad. Things didn’t always work out as we expected, but they always worked out. Unlike many Christian memoirs, this is not a story of unabated miracles. It’s a story of getting beat up and knocked down and tripping up and making mistakes, because that’s the greater part of life. The miracles are few and far between. (Read more…)

Book Giveaway: The Conscience of Abe’s Turn

The giveaway has completed. I’m keeping this post and its comments here for historical purposes. Click here to see the winners.

Welcome to the “Abe’s Turn” exhibit of the Bookroomreviews Book Giveaway Carnival.

Here I’ll be giving away a copy of my novel, The Conscience of Abe’s Turn: The Birth of the Conscience, Volume 1 (Season 1, Episodes 1-4).

This is the story of a group of young professsionals who are also political acitivists in the fictional town of Abe’s Turn. This is the first set of a series of episodes, which read like a TV crime drama, except that the law in Abe’s Turn is corrupt, and these activists resort to espionage to defend innocents caught in this corrupt system. This first volume contains the first 4 episodes–4 stories in one–plus an additional short story, a behind-the-scenes essay, and other bonus chapters. (Read more…)

Friday Snippet: Kick the Pastor Out of the Church

Another snippet from my dad John King’s memoir Can You See God in This Picture, this time a particulary painful chapter in my own memory.

Unlike many Christian memoirs, this is not a book full of feel-good experiences. It’s not always “Praise God!” and miracles, because that’s not life. As Dad said to me:

[In another book I read] everything was blessing and miracle and miracle after miracle, in his whole book. My book, you read it, and you don’t see any miracles. You see us getting beat up and knocked down and tripping up and making mistakes, which is the greater part of life. The miracles are few and far between. Where people really live is where we were.

Preachers get in the pulpit every week: ‘Praise God, what He’s going to do.’ It’s always ‘what He’s going to do.’ You know, ‘I can see revival in the air.’ It’s always ‘revival in the air.’ It never comes. It’s always ‘in the air.’ And this book was written to say: I’m not looking ahead to what’s coming. And I’m not taking one miracle in my life and letting that be the sole testimony. We went through this, and now we want to explain this in terms of a blessing from God, in terms of true ministry, in terms of achievement and success and calling. That’s the way it was. And it doesn’t deny us the fact that we were called, that we were blessed.

And sometimes the blessings were tiny. I didn’t win the lottery. Someone didn’t come to me and give me a brand new car when mine broke down. But the real blessings were, I played football with you boys across the road in Burgettstown. Or we played hide and seek in the woods. That’s life. And you lose the little things, because you’re looking for the big things.

-TimK (Read more…)

Friday Snippet: Back to Butler, PA to Teach Biblical Greek

Here’s a snippet from my dad John King’s memoir Can You See God in This Picture. This is part of the story of our life in Butler, PA. At the time, I was just a few years old, so I don’t really remember these stories first-hand.

I’m glad Dad wrote them down before he ran out of time.

Letting our children in on the bad times of our lives requires vulnerability. And that’s what I saw most reading my dad’s memoir, vulnerability. He told me that of all the people he mentions in the memoir, no one really comes out looking bad, except for him. After reading it, I agree. But as a writer, let me tell you, vulnerability is where passion and poignancy come from.

And I’m thinking now that maybe it’s also where wisdom comes from. What if you had to reach down into your soul and explain to your kids why you quit your job to pursue your dream? Or why you work at a job that keeps you away from them? I’m not saying that either A or B is the right or wrong choice. I’m only asking: What if I had to reach down deep into my soul and explain my choices to my kids? What wisdom would I end up imparting to them?

I’m not sure I know the answers. But I do know, I’m glad my dad imparted that wisdom to me before he ran out of time, because it’s at least nice to know that he didn’t know what he was doing back then any better than I do now. (Read more…)

Good Enough, Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People LIKE Me

Yeah, I’m probably dating myself with the Stuart Smalley reference.

Anyhow, the first comments are in on the first book of The Conscience of Abe’s Turn, and largely positive. “Can’t put it down.” “Want to find out how things turn out.” And so forth.

Of course, these were all from friends and family, whom I expect to be as honest as they can without hurting my feelings. But at least they are reading it, which says something about how engaging it is. Expecting other comments soon from those not related to me.

-TimK