By J. Timothy King on April 19, 2010
Photo © 2009 goXunuReviews CC BY 2.0
I have a lot happening this week. The kids are out of school for spring break, which means I’ll need to find someplace else to work for most of the week. (Already this morning, I’ve been interrupted twice thrice four times with family issues. In between, I could hear the TV blasting upstairs and the music pounding downstairs, with me in the middle.)
I’ll need to find somewhere else to work so that I can complete the book reviews I’m ready to post. You see, I’m finally launching my new eBook Reviews blog. I managed to get the first review up this morning, and I’ve got others scheduled for the rest of the week. As you can tell from the title of the blog, I’ll be posting reviews of novels and memoirs that are available in electronic format, for e-readers and the like. Most of these titles are also available in paperback (and some in hardcover, too). Continue reading “eBook Reviews, Deals, and the Like”
Posted in Books | Tagged book review, ebook
By J. Timothy King on April 16, 2010
Photo © 2009 Tristan Nitot CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
As you may know, I’m a big fan of Penn & Teller’s Showtime series, Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, in which the trickster duo exposes, rips apart, and generally makes fun of various nonsense: mediums who claim to talk to the dead, acupuncturists, feng shui consultants, other new-age practitioners, self-help gurus, conspiracy theorists, big-foot hunters, politicians…
This is a sordid world in which huckstering pseudo-scientists—with just enough truth to appear plausible—prey on the fears, inadequacies, and delusions of innocent people, for money. And watching these jerk-wads rake in the cash, I’m overtaken by a single, unmistakable conviction—
I am so in the wrong line of work!
I mean, I’m a writer, a storyteller, at least as good a storyteller as they are. Why should I be starving, teetering on the edge of bankruptcy? Why shouldn’t I be raking in mountains of moolah?
So here’s my new ad campaign, adapted and ripped off from the best bullshitters in the business. After reading the following, you’ll see why you should immediately buy all my books and give me all your money. Trust me: you’ll be better off if you do. Here’s why. Continue reading “Get Me a Piece of That Action”
Posted in Humor | Tagged Bullshit, Penn & Teller |
By J. Timothy King on April 14, 2010
Photo © 2010 flickr.com/yhsoj CC BY-ND 2.0
Isn’t it funny, the snippets of life that our memories recall?
Lately, my online buddy and comrade in words, Jim “Suldog” Sullivan, has been talking about his days as a garage-band bassist. On Monday, he told a story of how one of his bandmates electrocuted him as a joke. And that reminded me of one of my own stories.
Okay, first of all, I must say one thing, as a fellow musician with experience in electrical engineering: Futzing with the ground wires is not a funny joke, dude. I don’t think I would have forgiven as readily as Jim did. He’s clearly a bigger man than I. (Or maybe that shock was simply bigger than either of us suspect.)
About 10 years ago, I was a keyboardist/bassist/guitarist/vocalist in a band called Priority One. Primarily, I played bass. But both D and I switched instruments between songs. So when I was playing keys, for example, he would pick up my bass. On one occasion, we gigged at a venue that had wiring problems. I knew they had wiring problems, because whenever I touched my keyboard’s metal chassis while also touching the microphone, I got a jolt. Either my keyboard or the mixing board (or both) was not grounded properly. As soon as I discovered the situation, I should have immediately done something about it. Maybe find a foam windscreen to insulate my lips from the mic. Or try plugging my keyboard into a different outlet. Or just run a wire from the microphone to the keyboard. (And if that shorted out the electrical system and blew a circuit breaker—or caught the place on fire—so much the better.) Continue reading “For a Real Buzz, Touch This Microphone!”
Posted in About Tim King, Stories, True Stories | Tagged friendship |
By J. Timothy King on April 13, 2010
I’m reading Maria Savva’s A Time to Tell, at the last minute for a GoodReads reading group. This is part of my goal to read more unknown, mid-list, and indie authors this year.
Maria sent me a copy of book as a PDF (even though it isn’t officially available as an e-book). She was also nice enough to read my book Love through the Eyes of an Idiot, giving it a whopping 5-out-of-5 stars. (Full disclosure for the comments that appear below.)
From the official product description: A Time to Tell is the story of Cara, her attempted suicide, how she became a smitten, eighteen-year-old, unmarried mother, her marriage, her husband’s death, her role as a grandmother, and her final, passionate reunion with the man she has always loved. It is also the parallel tale of Cara’s prodigal son Benjamin and his daughter Penelope, whose unhappy relationship with her father has led her into marriage with a man whose own dysfunctional family have turned him into a person who at first seems strangely attractive, but turns out to have a dark and terrifying side. Continue reading “Teaser Tuesdays: A Time to Tell, by Maria Savva”
Posted in Books, Teaser Tuesdays | Tagged A Time to Tell, Maria Savva |
By J. Timothy King on April 12, 2010
I recently finished Holly Lisle’s out-of-print romantic suspense, I See You, the story of paramedic Dia Courvant, who rescued the sole survivor of a terrible car accident, to find her own husband dead in the wreckage. Now, four years later, a series of deadly car crashes has brought handsome detective Brig Hafferty into Dia’s life. She’s drawn to Brig, but can she trust him enough to tell him of the terror that stalks her? Because Dia has received a message warning her of danger and death, a message that seems to have been sent to her from beyond the grave.
As I’ve grown to expect from Holly’s work, she immediately gets right into a gripping story filled with deep characters. I even saw elements of my own storytelling in I See You, so that proves that it’s good. (Actually, it proves that I’ve learned a little something about how to tell a story, that I see aspects of Holly’s writing reflected in my own.) Even the erotic scenes captivated my interest, and only in a couple places did the story seem slow or awkward. (Unfortunately, I can’t talk any more about those without giving away the ending, but if you ignore those few points, the story still works.)
By the end of the book, I was reeling from the experience. The main character Dia, as the danger increases, she almost seems to thrive on the helplessness of her situation, growing in strength and determination. To me, she is a true heroine, and not just in the figurative sense, because I actually found myself wanting to be like her, to feel like her, to react like her. No, she wasn’t always strong and independent. But when she needed to, she always refused to let her villain control her life. And it saved her several times during the story.
All in all, another great story from the pen of Holly Lisle. (I expected nothing less.)
4½ out of 5 stars – I loved this book, and I can hardly wait to read the next of Holly’s books that I have queued on my to-read shelf.
-TimK
Posted in Books | Tagged book review, Holly Lisle, I See You, romance, romantic suspense, suspense |
By J. Timothy King on April 9, 2010
Photo © 2009 Stéfan Le Dû CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Springtime is upon us here in New England, and you know what that means: rain, sun, sleet, rain, bitter cold, sweltering heat, wind, snow, rain, green grass, birds chirping, and—most significantly—taxes.
And it is this last that makes me feel like blech. Let’s be clear about this. Taxes are not the price we pay for a civilized society. Taxes are what brought down the mighty Roman Empire—seriously, that’s actually true. And in light of historical evidence and current practice, I think there’s one thing we should all be able to agree on: taxes suck. Continue reading “When You Don’t Feel Funny”
Posted in Humor
By J. Timothy King on April 8, 2010
I’m sitting here in my virtual living room, talking to Jessica Broughton, part-time writer and author of the blog GrrlWriter.
Hi, Jessica.
Hi, Tim.
I really need to update the picture, since I don’t have the pink anymore!
Yeah, well, I think that’s probably true of all of us. I know it is of me. The part about needing to update the picture, that is.
I was reading on GrrlWriter about the Day Zero Project.
Day Zero Project is a website started by New Zealander Michael Green. Their mission is simple but powerful—1001 days to complete your top 101 goals. It’s a totally free website where you can create your own list, get inspired by other people’s goals and dreams, and as you complete your goals or get them started, you get to check them off. It’s all about supporting each other and reaching for the stars.
What are some of the goals that you’ve set for yourself? Continue reading “Dreaming Big: an Interview with GrrlWriter”
Posted in Personal Improvement | Tagged bloggers, Day Zero Project, GrrlWriter, interview
By J. Timothy King on April 6, 2010
A couple weeks ago, I interviewed Linda Boulanger, author of Becoming, a collection of faith-based, short-short stories. After the interview, a pseudonymous Internet hacker promptly distracted me by breaking into my hosting provider and swiping a friend’s domain name. So it took over a week for me to get back on track, but I’m actually reading Becoming now, which Linda was gracious enough to send me in electronic form. She’s also reading my book From the Ashes of Courage. (I say this in the interests of disclosure.) Continue reading “Teaser Tuesdays: Becoming”
Posted in Books, Teaser Tuesdays | Tagged Becoming, Linda Boulanger |
