Do you have any inspirational or comfort snacks or drinks which keep you going when you write? I tend to imagine you cuddled up in a warm blanket with a hot drink and some fruit or bread sticks on the table next to you.

Oh, and what I like about your stories is that they are real and unsentimental and honest.

An absolutely awesome interview, Cia and tim! I agree with tim that After The Past is one of his best, but he has gems everywhere. I highly recommend following the adventures of James and Farris (and of course, Larry). So much charm and humor in these short and sassy offerings. I guarantee you will fall in love with these two men. As far as The Pledge, I think my favorite aspect was how, through the centuries, the main characters remained trapped in their original roles. No spoilers, so that's all I'll say. And I would be remiss not to mention tim is one of my favorite poets ever . Congratulations, tim, on having a light shined/shone on your work. Cheers, my friend... Gary....

In The Pledge I like how you resisted the urge to serialize. I suppose this tale could have blossomed out to tens of thousands of words, and you could have introduced any number of characters and min-arcs to develop in a run of chapters, but you kept it artistically satisfying by focusing on where the lives of the two men intersected. I admire that

I think the same successes of focus are evident in most things you write, and notably in After the Past too. 

Thanks for being you!

The Pledge had some awesome editors! hehehe. I enjoyed reading this story. You have a great talent at getting your character's personalities as well as the plot with out going into pages and pages of details. You are an amazing writer. Thank you for all of the help you've given me. You have helped me so much to continue to grow as a writer. 

xoxoxo

Jay

Great interview.. 

I know The Pledge was meant to be a short story and it was so very well done. Like all you write, I thoroughly enjoyed it and of course I felt like I could read more. I loved the historical era it was set in. Definitely appreciated the research you did to make it a different Vampire story, because it really worked.. 

My question, did you plan on William taking that dark turn or did he surprise you as you wrote him? He certainly surprised me and I think maybe Tristan too. 

What's coming sounds great so I'll be looking forward to that.. 

Thanks. tim.. 

I'm behind reading due to personal stuff, but I'm going to read it I promise. Sorry. Awesome interview.

So, I guess the question I have regarding The Pledge was, about the ending. Which of course for me was a huge downer. I didn't mind a lack of sentimentality, but it all felt so meaningless by the end. Was it intended to be as nihilistic as it felt?

Lots of great questions, and I look forward to the answers. I'll have to come back tomorrow, since I need to go to bed and nurse my cold. Have a great Monday night, and congrats on the CSR feature, tim.

Awesome interview. The Pledge question that comes to mind is how did Lord William's plans go so wrong? He is painted as a masterful, far-seeing creature, but in the end he is just as fallible as any human.  

Also, what sort of Brit shows are your favorites? 

So so very glad for this interview!

Do you have any inspirational or comfort snacks or drinks which keep you going when you write? I tend to imagine you cuddled up in a warm blanket with a hot drink and some fruit or bread sticks on the table next to you.

 

Oh, and what I like about your stories is that they are real and unsentimental and honest.

Mmmm fav snacks no not really, but i wouldn't say no to some Werthers candy or some popcorn. Drinks.. tea, i know tha's dull but it's hard to write when you're drinking rhubarb wine!  I actually sit in an overstuffed chair, with my feet up .. my laptop sits on an aluminum cooling stand which sits on my thighs. I'm usually cold so i to have  BIG blue, pink and white striped crocheted blanket. It was made for Michael so it's BIG and warm.  

Thanks Tim, I do try to keep things honest. Hope I'm not too unsentimental. 

xo

An absolutely awesome interview, Cia and tim! I agree with tim that After The Past is one of his best, but he has gems everywhere. I highly recommend following the adventures of James and Farris (and of course, Larry). So much charm and humor in these short and sassy offerings. I guarantee you will fall in love with these two men. As far as The Pledge, I think my favorite aspect was how, through the centuries, the main characters remained trapped in their original roles. No spoilers, so that's all I'll say. And I would be remiss not to mention tim is one of my favorite poets ever . Congratulations, tim, on having a light shined/shone on your work. Cheers, my friend... Gary....

Cia gave me some great questions, that's for certain!  Thanks Gary ... I have to write a Faris and James with Francis, Larry's puppy!  I'll get there, I'm kinda missing those two. 

Gary you pushed people my way when I arrived here and I will always be grateful to you for that and for all of your continuing support. 

Thanks again xoxo

In The Pledge I like how you resisted the urge to serialize. I suppose this tale could have blossomed out to tens of thousands of words, and you could have introduced any number of characters and min-arcs to develop in a run of chapters, but you kept it artistically satisfying by focusing on where the lives of the two men intersected. I admire that

 

I think the same successes of focus are evident in most things you write, and notably in After the Past too. 

 

Thanks for being you!

AC what i can i say to my amazing editor, reader and friend. You have taught me so much, and helped me, put up with my sentences glued with commas and gently showed me how to improve both my writing and grammar.  You're a brilliant and talented writer and generous with it. I am in awe of your work and your kindness.  

Thank you for all of your support of my work and me. (I better watch it or Tim will notice my sentimental side  ) 

xoxo

I never really liked poetry, then tim came along. I don't pretend to understand the rules of writing the different forms, but the words? They always get me to thinking. 

 

As for tim's stories? I haven't met one yet that I haven't liked. They vary greatly in their content, which is a testament to his boundless imagination. A couple of examples of his varied repertoire are Soul Food and Miss Silver Pretty-Pink-Toes. 

 

Thank you for sharing your words with us tim.

 

PS: Loved the interview.

Thank you Reader!  I'm glad you started to read poetry. It's soooo nothing to be afraid of. It's the poet's job to choose the form, the meter, the foot. The reader should just enjoy.  Poetry is such a personal thing, there is no right or wrong way to feel all that matters is that you do. 

Glad you liked the interview.. Cia's questions were excellent!

I do have a question specifically regarding The Pledge. After reading it and leaving an initial review, I got to thinking about Lord William's motives for wanting to overthrow humans and rule the world.

 

Tristan had it easy living in the world because he had always led a simple life. He was never in charge of anyone or anything, not even himself in his early days, I don't think. William, on the other hand was a Lord. Was living in the shadows and having to give all that up as the world changed, his undoing? Was he looking to get that prestige - and all that went with it - back? 

 

It can't be easy going from being "the boss" to being a regular joe. 

Yes Reader, you're right.  I think William just got bored and he had a big ego. In the beginning he was a kind man, thoughtful  right?  But he changed as he became so powerful. And men like that, they want more and more of that power, and the feeling it gives them.  Why not want to take over the world? 

I had to wonder though, if he had done it, then what?  

I am massively behind in my reading, but did manage to read The Pledge at the beginning of the month.  I enjoyed it and definitely got the Anne Rice feel from it. It's a very large story in short story form.  While I found some of the time jumps a bit jarring, overall I got the gist of the story.  I thought the ending was very powerful and brought tears to my eyes.  

 

I've enjoyed everything of tim's that I've read so far, and his stories are on my 'to read' list. As has been mentioned already he's a great poet who conveys raw emotion into his poetry very well.  

 

My question would be:  when did you feel the urge to start writing?  Was it as a youth or did it happen later in life? 

 

Great interview

Thank you Val.   I started writing when i was about 13 i think. I liked to write in school. Then when i was on the street, i wrote the poems that i posted here in Street Words. 

I didn't really know they were poems at first until a lovely lady gave me a book of poetry. But I wrote to get feelings out I couldn't other wise. 

Coming to GA re-awoke that love of writing and well, since the moment where copied the first poem into my first chapter and closed my eyes and pressed Enter., I haven't looked back. 

thanks Val (who by the way was a great lead for the NaPoWriMo last year!)  That was a hoot!!  

Wonderful interview.  You are a very important part of this group and we love you.  Thanks for making us your place to grow and express yourself.  Please keep up the good work.  

The Pledge had some awesome editors! hehehe. I enjoyed reading this story. You have a great talent at getting your character's personalities as well as the plot with out going into pages and pages of details. You are an amazing writer. Thank you for all of the help you've given me. You have helped me so much to continue to grow as a writer. 

 

xoxoxo

Jay

Jay!!  Thanks my friend!  You were a great help with The Pledge.. I appreciate it very much.  I'm sure I'll call on your skills in the future!!  

Ah, whatever i can do to help, i'll do.

hugs buddy xoxo

Nice interview!

My favorites of tim writing are James and Farris, After the past and of course his poetry.

 

Being a huge fan of the "Vampire Chronicles", it was very nice to read a story which relate to it in some ways.

 

For me it is although a story about tow characters on very different points in their life. The old one, knowing who he is, seen a lot, at last disillusioned about the future, and the young one, just starting, evolving, wanting a future. Both seem like to sides of a coin or can stand for the inner struggle, we often have to go through ourselves. (Or it is just me, feeling so.)

My question: It looks like William overpowers Tristan in the end, but Tris influence on him, seems to me nevertheless visible in the story.

Was there ever an alternative ending possible or did you knew from the start where it would lead?

 

Love  xo Lyssa

Oh Lyssa, I love you to bits!!  I wrote part of The Pledge a few years ago. It just sat there in my files and I'd look at it and say 'meh' and put it back. But Tris always called me and so did William's power. 

I showed it to AC who liked it, but I was having trouble finishing it. So i decided to write Tris' back-story, his youth, how he met William. Then I kinda thought I'd written myself into a corner once they were on their way to the compound. 

I took some time to think about what a man like William would do, if he was tired of life. Would he just become still and let his lover go on?  I thought, no. If William wasnt going on, either would his boy be.  So while I didn't know how it would end when I started it, it became very clear as i wrote it, even though it was horrible and unfair. 

Thanks Lyssa, you've become a dear friend.. thanks for your support. Means a lot to me xoxo

Great interview.. 

 

I know The Pledge was meant to be a short story and it was so very well done. Like all you write, I thoroughly enjoyed it and of course I felt like I could read more. I loved the historical era it was set in. Definitely appreciated the research you did to make it a different Vampire story, because it really worked.. 

My question, did you plan on William taking that dark turn or did he surprise you as you wrote him? He certainly surprised me and I think maybe Tristan too. 

 

What's coming sounds great so I'll be looking forward to that.. 

Thanks. tim.. 

Hello Boss!!   

I knew William was going downhill, i didn't know exactly how bad he would get until the day I wrote the end. 

If you remember he was kind and thoughtful to his staff, to little Tristan but the longer he went on the worse he got. William let the power that being a vampire gave him, go to his head and it only got worse. 

Frankly, I think the end I wrote was all that was left to William. 

Thanks Def.. for everything.. you know what i mean xoxo

I'm behind reading due to personal stuff, but I'm going to read it I promise. Sorry. Awesome interview.

Adi... personal stuff needs to come first. Thanks so much for this, I appreciate it and miss you around the place. Hope all will be well...

tim xoxox

So, I guess the question I have regarding The Pledge was, about the ending. Which of course for me was a huge downer. I didn't mind a lack of sentimentality, but it all felt so meaningless by the end. Was it intended to be as nihilistic as it felt?

It was horrible the ending. Absolutely. But as I thought  about it and about how truly useless vampires are.. they are no better than fleas on a dog - no matter how sexy you make them, i could see no other way out.

Seriously vampire Bed and breakfast or club owners?  Make a good comedy.  But in our world, what good are they?

I think William knew that and being as selfish as he ended up being, he did what he thought was best for him and Tris.

Thanks for your most excellent review Spikey!  I look forward to seeing your  reviews on anything we're both reading.

tim xxoo