J. Timothy King
My Life Playing Musical Chairs: An Interview with Jen Knox
I’m sitting with Jen Knox, author of the indie memoir Musical Chairs, here in my virtual living room today. Hi, Jen. Hi, Tim. As you know, I loved Musical Chairs. What does the title allude to? “Musical Chairs” came from the name of a game, where music plays and kids run around a circle of […]
25 Things You Should Know about the Original Americans
And by “original,” I don’t mean the Pilgrims. I don’t mean the Jamestown settlers, who arrived some 13 years earlier. I don’t mean the first permanent Spanish settlement in 1565. I don’t even mean the African slaves who escaped their Spanish captors, who had landed in 1526 in modern South Carolina. Those Spanish shortly left […]
The Great Water Panic of 2010
“Always bet on stupidity.” I heard that quote last week on a classic episode of Babylon 5, “Ceremonies of Light and Dark.” Fascinating that it should be so apropos. I first heard about the water emergency Saturday afternoon when my daughter’s school phoned us with a pre-recorded message. They said there had been a break […]
Now’s Your Chance to Get Back at Me
Just a quick announcement, since I was feeling ill this week and didn’t get to write a proper Friday post. If you want to get back at me for the picky comments I’ve been making on everyone’s books over at Goodreads, or if you thought one of my reviews was petty and opinionated (which it […]
Why Do You Write?
A number of people who follow this blog not only enjoy reading, but also write. In general, I’m finding that a good number of the people who participate in online reading groups are also writers. Some are published writers; some, freelance writers; some, indie writers; some, aspiring writers. Most of us are some combination of […]
The Price of eBooks: 7 Reasons Why I’m Raising Mine
A couple months ago, I talked about why I believe e-books should be cheap. Big, scary (and scared) publishers tend to be raising prices on e-books, sky-high, sometimes charging as much for the e-book as for a hardcover. Responding to this trend, I advocated prices as low as possible, even under a dollar. Why then […]