J. Timothy King

Now that the expanded, edited version of the first 4 episodes of The Conscience of Abe’s Turn is almost ready to be posted…
(And yes, I realize I said it would be done over a month ago. I’ve learned so much from the process, however. The first lesson: Editing your first novel-length work will take 5 times as long as you think it will.)
Whereas: Just about every great story has had those who hated it, frequently with great passion. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Godfather, Firefly and Gilmore Girls, all had and still have their detractors. No great work of fiction or non-fiction has ever failed to piss off a few million people, because every great work must say something. And as soon as you say something, you please the few people who “get” it, and you piss off everybody else.
Therefore: I knew I was onto something special, when I started getting angry emails from people I’d never met, roundly criticizing me for writing something so stupid, so unrealistic as The Conscience of Abe’s Turn.
In the spirit of the great works of literary, film, and television history, you might hate The Conscience of Abe’s Turn if…  Click to continue »

… or “Some People Just Don’t Think 30 Rock is Funny!”
Now, I usually hate it when people mess with my mind, so why would I want to mess with someone else’s?
The best manager I ever had simultaneously impressed and appalled me when she explained parts of her interviewing process, from the inside, with me as […]

In the episode “New and Improved Lorelai.”PARIS: “So you live in your grandparents pool house?”
RORY: “Yeah.”
PARIS: “Aren’t you afraid of sleepwalking into the pool and drowning?”
RORY: “I am now!”  Click to continue »

In the episode “One's Got Class and the Other One Dyes.”BABETTE: “Rosa Parks!”  Click to continue »

This is a honey-baked chicken recipe that we make every year for our synagogue’s Passover seder. But we like it enough that I tend to make it all year round. I was whipping up a batch for Sunday dinner tomorrow, because my parents are coming over to visit, and I mentioned it on Twitter. One […]

I haven’t blogged in a long time, because I’ve been editing my upcoming novel. (And I’m keeping notes, so that I can blog about the experience. First lesson: Editing your first full novel will take 5 times as long as you think it will.)
But this week I got a direct mail piece from my cable […]

I was in the mood for a romantic comedy, something to make me giggle and at the same time to make me feel. What I came out with was a bit less romance, a bit less comedy, but a whole lot of feeling. A Good Woman, starring Helen Hunt, based on Oscar Wilde’s play Lady […]

This is the last chapter of the last episode of the first half-season of Abe’s Turn, an extremely difficult chapter for me to write. It’s true what Holly Lisle says about your characters. You need to empathize with them, but do not dare to sympathize with them. I goofed. I allowed myself to sympathize with them.
Read the last chapter of this special episode: The Conscience of Abe’s Turn, Season 1, Episode 4, Chapter 5. And subscribe via RSS or email to keep up to date. (See the “Keep Up to Date” block in the sidebar, with the big, orange logo.)
The book is still coming. It will have revised and expanded chapters, which I’ll also post on the website, as well as bonus extras. The latest schedule for the book is that I’ll have advanced copies somewhere around the middle of May. At that time, I’ll have a contest and give away a number of them.
-TimK  Click to continue »

On Lag b’Omer this year, I’m giving away 10 copies of e-sheet music, a Hebrew choral score based on Psalm 8, מָה־אַדִיר שְׁמֶךָ (Mah-adir Sh’mecha, or in English, “How Majestic is Your Name”), for a-cappella SATB choir.
Lag b’Omer is a minor Jewish holiday, the 33′rd day of counting the omer, on 18 Iyar. This year, […]

Psalm 8 provides the lyrics for this hauntingly middle-eastern, 4-part (SATB), a-cappella, Messianic Jewish choir arrangement. (Also suitable for use in other other Jewish sects, because the words are completely from the Psalms.)
Click here for more, including a synthesizer demo, lyrics, preview, and other information.
-TimK