Another review, this time courtesy of Mrs. Giggles. My two favorite excerpts: “Some of the first person narration is beautifully written, I find, which makes Timely Persuasion a book to read for the sake of reading as well for the story, if I am making any sense here. There are times when I wonder why…
Commentary 6: 6ix
Back at the bowling alley in search of answers, our hero confronts the old man. This chapter is exposition heavy on early time travel nuts and bolts, and one I struggled with most in rewrites. The idea was to set a foundation that would have some parts hold true and other parts be called out…
Commentary 5: Five Seconds to Hold You
Although Timely Persuasion has a science fiction premise, I really wanted to ground the story in reality as much as possible outside of the time travel. Thus I knew I wanted to send the narrator back to save Kurt Cobain, but I also knew that his mission would ultimately have to fail. The physics of…
First Review!
Thanks to Devon Kappa from the blog None May Say for the first ever review of Timely Persuasion. I found it to be honest, balanced, and fair. Also opened my eyes a bit to the synopsis, which I’ll probably take a stab at rewriting shortly… Review: Timely Persuasion by Jacob LaCivita
Commentary 4: Four Hours In Washington
Going back in time to save Kurt Cobain was one of the first inspirations I had while brainstorming. This chapter sends the narrator to Seattle with this goal in mind, while the underlying narrative purpose is really to flesh out his musical background and further along his time travel discovery process. It’s a sort of…
Pretending I’m Like Kurt Cobain
I can’t believe Kurt Cobain has been dead for 14 years. Both he specifically and Nirvana in general were big influences on me growing up, and that influence clearly bled into the narrator and the book. And how about this for an illustration of time travel cause and effect in action: One could make an…
Commentary 3: Gimme Three Steps
This is the first of many introspective/exploratory chapters where the narrator is trying to piece together exactly what is happening to him. High on stream of consciousness, low on dialogue. I’ve always hated writing dialogue, which is probably one of the many reasons I abandoned my screenwriting training and wrote a novel instead. Most of…
Commentary 2: Two Of Us
A bowling league felt like a neat place to kick off the journey and was a setting I hadn’t seen explored in literature before. It also allowed me to include a few nods to bowlers and teams I had encountered over the course of my short semi-recreational league bowling career. Once Bowlingus got his nickname…
The Movie
Got a call a few days ago from a friend in the industry. He circulated his copy of Timely Persuasion around the office and said it generated interest faster than anything he’d ever seen. I’ve been commissioned to convert the book into a screenplay (with an option for a sequel) in a mid six-figure deal…
Commentary 1: One
While the prologue seemed to write itself in a single sitting, I was at a loss for how to kick off the first real chapter. Two paragraphs in and I was already at my first roadblock. How would I ever write an entire novel? It was then that I got some help from my younger…