As I’ve said before, I’m a better writer than I am a marketer. That’s not to say I’m necessarily a brilliant writer, just that one skill outshines the other. On the Timely Persuasion website, I periodically play around with “The Story” section at the top in an attempt to get the best mix of marketing…
Category: Behind the Scenes
The Quantum Leap Connection
I pointed out a few times in the commentary posts that Quantum Leap was a big influence of mine. It’s even specifically referred to in the book more than once. What I haven’t talked about in depth is how Quantum Leap (and more specifically, Al the holographic observer) served as the genesis for the time…
Buddha Blessed?
Some astute readers have pointed out that the narrator’s journey has an uncanny similarity to the Noble Eightfold Path of Buddhism. To learn more about this concept, visit Wikipedia or read The Way to End Suffering by Bhikkhu Bodhi. For an analysis of how this fits into the story of Timely Persuasion, read on. 1….
Commentary: Prologue (Reprise)
There’s a little epilogue to my tale of sadness. Originally I used the typical Prologue/Epilogue pairing. Later I changed them both to Prologue to emphasize that they were sort of the same chapter as told before and after the events of the book. I didn’t really like losing the song titles as chapter titles theme…
Commentary 26: Across 26 Winters
And we’ve almost come to the end. Generally speaking, endings are tough. You need to tie up as many dangling threads as possible, leave the reader satisfied that reading the book was worthwhile, and try to go out on a memorable high note without it feeling abrupt or forced. Let’s see how I did… So,…
Commentary 25: 25 Minutes To Go
One last blink to set things right, and our hero finally learns enough to know what has to be done. I sort of knew from the beginning that the story would more or less start and end at the bowling alley, and that comes to fruition here. Other tidbits: My wife’s favorite excerpt is the…
Commentary 24: 24 Hour Party People
We get a little time travel heavy at the start of this chapter as far as “rules” go, but later move into some hands-on fun as Local Boy revisits his origins with an eye on trying to undo them. Other tidbits: I admit the cliffhanger in the previous chapter was a bit of a tease…
Adventures in Customer Service
Yesterday morning I woke up to an email from Coverville’s Brian Ibbott pointing me to a blog post that referenced Timely Persuasion: Customer Service – Compare and Contrast (Most of the relevant content is crossed out – a good thing I’ll get to in a minute…) The owner of the blog had heard about the…
Commentary 23: 23:59 End Of The World
I’m stuck on an introduction for this chapter, so let’s just dive straight in: Nelson had served his purpose in the story, so putting him on the machine and making him go comatose was mostly just to get him out of the way. His fate is intentionally left ambiguous just in case he needs to…
Commentary 22: 22 Days
The path to resolution begins here, and the narrator finally has his long awaited confrontation with Nelson. Other tidbits: We learn that the only reason a paradox hasn’t occurred is because the old man is still “displaced” in time. Since the old man and the young narrator are the same person, time allows both of…