Timothy's Thoughts

I ’ve got one more book in the series I’ve been writing over the past few years. The cover will be blue. I know most of the characters. I know something of the events that will be taking place in town at the time of the story. I know some of the things that will happen. I used the previous book to setup part of the story. I just have one problem; I don’t know what the story is about. With me knowing so much already, you would think I would be set. If I were like some authors, I might just start typing and see what happens, but I haven’t found that to be an effective way to work. If someone were to ask me about the story, I could say that Sara is the protagonist and that a movie is being filmed on the street in front of Ellen’s café. Kelly has a role in the movie. David and the other movie people from And Thy House are all there. Ellen has a contract to feed the cast and crew, so Sara has a good excuse to hang around the movie set. Kelly’s dad will be making an appearance. I may bring ...

L ast week we talked about book videos and whether they are worth the time and trouble. One commenter saw no reason for an author to have a book video unless the money is available to advertise on television. When we consider the cost of television advertising, that would pretty much rule out any book videos except for bestselling authors and for those authors with books that are suitable for infomercials. The argument for that attitude is that no one really watches video except on television. I’m a video guy and I couldn’t disagree more. I promised to address other uses for book videos than expensive fifteen or thirty second ads. Facebook Status Updates I was surprised last week at the number of comments from people saying they had only watched one or two book videos. My experience has been that I watch video online all the time. When someone posts a video to a blog or on Facebook, I frequently click on it just to see why they thought it was interesting. I’ll admit that I don’t al...

I stumbled across a television show when I was looking at Netflix’s offerings. The name of the show was Dead Like Me . While I can’t recommend the show and I don’t know that I should have watched it myself because of foul language and sex scenes, what I have seen of the show got me thinking about the perception of the world. The premise of the show is that there are grim reapers living among us who are responsible for collecting souls when people die and escorting people to their final reward. They don’t get paid for what they do, so they must find a way to support themselves, through jobs or whatever is required. But what I found most interesting is the view the characters have of God. Even though they have already died, the grim reapers aren’t sure whether there is a God or not and the writers keep bringing in this concept that “the Universe” will keep everything in balance. In one episode, a Catholic priest dies, but before he does, he questions whether there is a God or not and re...

P lans change. When I was in college, I had a vision for the future. I would graduate, get a job in St. Louis, start attending a big church, fall in love, get married and live happily ever after in a big house. It didn’t quite turn out that way. I did graduate, but I didn’t move to St. Louis. I didn’t start attending a big church, though it seemed big to me at first. I did fall in love, eventually, but we didn’t get married and I haven’t a clue where she is now. I don’t live in a big house, but its big enough for me. A man’s heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps. Proverbs 16:9 My dad studied botany. His plans were to work for the US Forest Service after he got out of college. But God called him to preach and he ended up pastoring a church and working in fire protection at a diaper factory. I don’t know much about the US Forest Service, but I’m pretty sure it would be difficult to work for them and pastor a church at the same time. When I was younger, I hoped God wou...

E ditor’s Note: Today’s post is the first entry in Lieutenant Gamble’s Personal Log. After abandoning the best starship in the fleet for fear that it would explode, Lieutenant Gamble finds himself stranded on a planet with seven other people. The planet was once thriving, but now it has either been evacuated or the population has been killed due to a type of plague. The eight of them must find a cure or a way off the planet, or they will suffer the same fate 31 days after their arrival. (Reading Time: 8 Minutes) Lt. Gamble’s Personal Log (30 D.T.D): It’s a terrible thing knowing when you’re going to die. I used to imagine that it would be nice to know, you could do all the exciting things in life without having to fear dying. I really wished I could have known that when I joined the military and received my orders to board a starship going out into deep space. The war had just started and Mom was sure that the ship would explode as soon as it went into battle. I assured her that there...

R achelle Gardner’s post yesterday was about book videos. Do we need them? Do we not? Do they sell books? Do they not? The fact is that we don’t know how much we need them and how many books they sell, if any. That hasn’t stopped us from doing other things, such as handing out bookmarks, or book signings or blogging, but book videos are getting a lot of discussion. The real problem is that they are expensive. Even if we do it on a shoestring budget, book videos require an investment of time, but when we get the publisher involved, the cost of a book video starts at around $3,000 and a well produced one could run into tens of thousands of dollars. Is it worth it and what’s the point? Let’s step back and take a look at the big picture. Most readers don’t spend their days watching book videos, so even if we have one, that fact alone isn’t going to push our book sales up. It is a little like killer bees. One bee sting probably won’t kill you. Two bee stings probably won’t kill you. You ma...

Y esterday, I mentioned that the antagonist and the villain aren’t the same thing. Today, I would like to export that in more depth. In our example yesterday, I talked about the villain in a comic book. In a situation like that, the villain is very often the same thing as the antagonist, but when we move out into different kinds of stories, we find that the antagonist may not be the villain at all.   When we think of the villain, we think of one character. Lex Luther, for example, might be the villain in a Superman comic. But when we consider the antagonist of a story, we find that though it may be one person, it may also be several people. In one chapter, it may be one person. In the next chapter, it may be the another. In yet another chapter, it may be the weather. They all work together to keep out protagonist from his goal, whatever that might be.