Tim Chambers's Blog
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Sep.03.2011
Yes, the President would have been wise to throw the game in 2008, but we would have had Hillary in his place. She was lick spittle to Bush his entire Presidency, and she would have made most of the same dumb moves. The simple fact of the matter is that we don't live in a democracy or even a...
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Sep.02.2011
Rod Lurie Remakes Peckinpah’s ‘Straw Dogs’ - NYTimes.com.
What is the purpose in revisiting the theme of Straw Dogs with a remake? I can think of only one that is legitimate. And it isn't (my apologies to widows and orphans) the tragedy of 9/11. We make far too much of that incident, driven...
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Aug.15.2011
I've been looking for some book length works of political analysis, to add to what my consulting experience and reading of other sources tells me is going on beneath today's headlines. I'm particularly interested in Sheldon Wolin's Democracy, Incorporated and Chris Hedge's Death of...
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Aug.01.2011
Voice in literary fiction is one of those intangible qualities that separate the artist from the craftsman. It is something no one can teach us, either to develop in our own writing or to recognize in the writing of others, because it is such an individual thing. It is the manifestation of a person...
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Jul.10.2011
Call me Philistine. Call me Ishmael. Call me Thingamajig. Just, please do not call upon me to read your streams of consciousness. I am sorry, but I cannot do it. Much as I appreciate literature, including the early works of Joyce, I cannot read Ullysses, though I think the words are wonderful in...
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Jun.26.2011
I have a new work in progress, the first draft of which is taking shape here. I call it The Unlucky Thirteen. Its genesis is an incident that occurs in my first novel, Banana Republican Blues, previously known as Moonbeam Highway, and totally ignored before that as Gopher Anus Chili. It concerns...
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Jun.17.2011
Following comments from ABNA reviewers about my title, Moonbeam Highway, I have decided to make a change to something more descriptive. From here on out it will be called Banana Republican Blues and subtitled A Travesty in Five Rants, in honor of Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark, An Agony...
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May.30.2011
Recently, I was introduced to the author Norman Rush through his interview in Paris Review. I had heard of him years ago, when White People and Mating came out, but I had never read him, so it surprised me that with so few books to his credit, he would make make it into such august company. Curious...
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May.29.2011
Believing that limited choices foster creativity, I decided to tell my entire tale from single character's point of view. Using the illeistic third, rather than first person narrative, he occasionally reveals himself in a journal he keeps in first person. This detaches the character from himself a...
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May.28.2011
As I started the process of writing my novel, I only knew it would involve a road trip and a prize winning chili.
The first sentence came to mind immediately as a way of expressing the undertaking and seemed true not only of my character’s journey, but that of nearly everyone. I loved the cadence...
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May.03.2011
http://www.kickstarter.com/profile/tsc
Following the critical appraisal of Moonbeam Highway by Publishers Weekly in the ABNA, I have decided to launch a Kickstarter project, to raise the funds I would need to flesh it out more with the local color by undertaking the road trip, once more, and...
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Apr.28.2011
My quest for publication through the ABNA was setback earlier this week when it didn't make the cut for the semi-finals. The reviewer at Publisher's Weekly said:
"Wall Street wizards, Christian conservatives, and preening politicians are prominently skewered in this entertaining if sometimes...
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Mar.22.2011
I just got the word that Moonbeam Highway made the quarter finals of the ABNA. I made the mistake a of looking at it when I awoke a three in the morning and now I can't get back to sleep.
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Mar.18.2011
Many years ago, unable to find my place in life, I became a collector of things; books, classical music recordings, wine, photographic equipment, lovers; not much else, really. Whatever money I earned in my various endeavors, it all seemed to go into my collections. They were things that my parents...
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Feb.24.2011
I was happy to see that Moonbeam Highway made it one small step closer to publication today with the announcement on Amazon that it had made it into the second round. There is no telling how it will do there, of course, but it's reason to keep up hope.
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About Tim
I've been a working writer most of my life, doing other jobs, occasionally, to augment my income. I now teach language and English composition at the university level overseas.
Connections
Causes Tim Chambers Supports
Occupy Wall Street
Tim’s Favorite Books
The Time of Our Singing,
The Gold Bug Variations,
The Rosy Crucifixion