In the interest of a complete permanent record, here’s that longer aborted version:<\/p>\n
\nOne early reviewer hit the nail on the head when they said the story of Timely Persuasion has “a premise that is very difficult to summarize in a review.” \u00a0That said, I’ll give it a shot below:<\/span><\/p>\nTimely Persuasion<\/em> follows an anonymous music critic on a quest to save his sister from the relationship that ended her life. After a chance encounter at a bowling alley leaves him with the ability to travel in time, our hero uses his musical knowledge to “blink” through the years attempting to keep the couple apart by any means necessary. But is her husband Nelson really to blame?<\/p>\nAlong the way he accidentally restructures his family tree, kick-starts his sagging love life, launches a new rock star, and crosses paths with the likes of Huey Lewis, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, and Billy Joel. Reliving past events through the eyes of his younger selves, he soon finds that correlation and causation are not always what they seem.<\/p>\n
This story of death, life, love, and rock and roll defies genre conventions while paying tribute to the classic time travel tales that came before it. Fans of Quantum Leap<\/em> or Back To The Future<\/em> will love Timely Persuasion<\/em>.<\/p>\nAnother reviewer read a version of the above synopsis and had this to say:<\/span><\/p>\nTo be blunt, Timely Persuasion<\/em>‘s misleading plot blurb makes a fun novel sound absolutely cheesy. Happily, Timely Persuasion<\/em> absolutely does not go down this road [and] ends up being much more enjoyable than the the above description had led me to expect.<\/p>\nSo we’ve learned that I’m a better author than I am a marketer.\u00c2\u00a0 Let’s try this synopsis thing again:<\/span><\/p>\nTheorizing that his sister’s death was the fault of her husband, an anonymous music critic drank too much at a bowling alley….and vanished.<\/p>\n
He awoke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that omit him and driven by a guilty conscience to change history for the better.<\/p>\n
His only guides on this journey are song lyrics, cryptic messages linking past and future that only he can see and hear.<\/p>\n
And so our hero finds himself blinking from year to year, striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next blink will find his sister safe at home.<\/p>\n
Ok. That wasn’t much better since I just parodied the intro to Quantum Leap<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 But it is a decent summary, and both QL and Back To the Future<\/em> were heavy influences that the story pays respectful homage to. \u00a0One more try:<\/span><\/p>\nOn the simplest level, this book is about music and bowling and beer and regrets and relationships and time travel. \u00a0It’s a love letter to a misspent youth, peppered with a soundtrack for the ages. \u00a0Contained in these pages you’ll find references and allusions to the music of (in rough order of appearance): Huey Lewis, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Harry Chapin, The Beatles, Blur, Carter USM, Cast, Supergrass, Black Grape, Oasis, James, Kula Shaker, The Wonder Stuff, Nirvana, Bob Dylan, Aerosmith, Pink Floyd, Possum Dixon, Pearl Jam, The Offspring, Rodan, Hole, Beck, Reverend Horton Heat, Butthole Surfers, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, 311, Jonathan Edwards, Soul Coughing, Metallica, G. Love & Special Sauce, Paul McCartney, Anthrax, Mary’s Danish, The Mr. T Experience, Bryan Adams, John Waite, Dinosaur Jr., The Moody Blues, Billy Idol, Paula Abdul, Britney Spears, Afghan Whigs, Guns N Roses, Jimi Hendrix, Don McLean, Pantera, Megadeth, Janice Joplin, Jim Morrison, Wilco and more.<\/p>\n
Better? \u00a0Summarizing seems almost harder than writing the book was. \u00a0It’ll make a heck of a lot more sense once you’ve read it. \u00a0Let’s finish up by going back to something else that first reviewer said:<\/span><\/p>\n“Think Back to the Future<\/em>. \u00a0Think The Butterfly Effect<\/em>. \u00a0Think…oh just read the book already. \u00a0It’s pretty good.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\nSounds more like a blog post than a proper story synopsis, eh?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As I’ve said before, I’m a better writer than I am a marketer. \u00a0That’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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,16],"tags":[31,9,5],"class_list":["post-206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behind-the-scenes","category-music","tag-back-to-the-future","tag-butterfly-effect","tag-quantum-leap"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3pfx3-3k","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/reviewed-by-mrs-giggles\/","url_meta":{"origin":206,"position":0},"title":"Reviewed by Mrs. Giggles","author":"LBDG","date":"April 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/commentary-24-24-hour-party-people\/","url_meta":{"origin":206,"position":1},"title":"Commentary 24: 24 Hour Party People","author":"LBDG","date":"July 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Behind the Scenes"","block_context":{"text":"Behind the Scenes","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/behind-the-scenes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3502,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/lbdg-commentary-33-through-the-living-years\/","url_meta":{"origin":206,"position":2},"title":"LBDG Commentary 33: Through The Living Years","author":"LBDG","date":"May 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"This short penultimate chapter breezes through 22 years as young Local Boy naturally ages into the timeline to become his future self at his daughter's wedding in the year 2000. Going into this novel the plan was to tell a Timely Persuasion adjacent story from Local Boy's point of view.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Behind the Scenes"","block_context":{"text":"Behind the Scenes","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/behind-the-scenes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Done-Gone-Leaving-the-Wedding-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Done-Gone-Leaving-the-Wedding-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Done-Gone-Leaving-the-Wedding-1.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Done-Gone-Leaving-the-Wedding-1.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":231,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/trickshot\/","url_meta":{"origin":206,"position":3},"title":"Trickshot","author":"LBDG","date":"November 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"You've probably figured out by now that I'm a sucker for any and all time travel stories.\u00c2\u00a0 Some might say I'm fascinated to the point of obsession, with those two magic words in the \"genre\" field giving me goosebumps and setting off impulse purchases. For the last few months I've\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Time Travel"","block_context":{"text":"Time Travel","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/time-travel\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":386,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/cover-me-the-art-of-jose-roberto\/","url_meta":{"origin":206,"position":4},"title":"Cover Me: The Art of Jose Roberto","author":"LBDG","date":"January 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the most common questions I get regarding Timely Persuasion is about the cover artwork. Where did it come from? How does it relate to the plot? Is that you in the picture? I was surprised to realize I haven't told that story on this blog before now. Way\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Behind the Scenes"","block_context":{"text":"Behind the Scenes","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/behind-the-scenes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The original painting","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/lost_in_time-254x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2970,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/new-novel-local-boy-done-gone\/","url_meta":{"origin":206,"position":5},"title":"New Novel: Local Boy Done Gone","author":"LBDG","date":"February 29, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Four leap years ago today I started this blog the same day my first novel Timely Persuasion was released. TP2: Local Boy Done Gone Now that 2\/29 has come around again, I'm proud to announce a sequel to Timely Persuasion titled Local Boy Done Gone. Picking up in 1969 at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Behind the Scenes"","block_context":{"text":"Behind the Scenes","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/behind-the-scenes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Local-Boy-Done-Gone-eBook-Cover.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Local-Boy-Done-Gone-eBook-Cover.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Local-Boy-Done-Gone-eBook-Cover.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Local-Boy-Done-Gone-eBook-Cover.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Local-Boy-Done-Gone-eBook-Cover.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Local-Boy-Done-Gone-eBook-Cover.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2979,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions\/2979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}