Today Archer’s Aim hosts Tim Hemlin who’s the current Rave Reviews Book Club “SPOTLIGHT” Author. This is Tim’s week to shine and I’m happy to host him today. Take it away, Tim!
On Revising
Old habits die hard. When I was young, word counts determined a day’s success. If I hit my 500, 750, or 1,000 words then life was sweet, if not I was cranky and unsociable. At the very least, having a daily goal forced me to sit at my desk and work. Over the years I discovered the downside proved to be sloppy writing simply because I wanted to hit my target. I needed to learn the art of revision.
Naturally revision needs to be tempered with common sense. Paul Valery once professed that a poem is never finished, only abandoned. At some point it is time to move on. After all, what writer is ever completely satisfied with his work? However, I think the opposite tends to be more of an issue. A friend of mine who ran a literary journal once complained that so many poems she read were two or three drafts from fulfillment. The novelist Tom Williams told a bunch of young and hungry writers back in the 1980s that often his student’s work was initially better than his. A pause, a smile, a puff on his pipe—yes, professors smoked in class in those days—and then he added but none of them worked as hard as he did to improve it. Now I see that was why he was published and reviewed in the New York Times and few of his students ever joined him. Editing and revising are, for me, the heavy lifting in writing. Yet it can make all the difference.
Author Bio:
Tim Hemlin is a marathoner, teacher, and has his master’s degree in counseling, but his passion for the environment sparked him to write The Wastelanders, a dystopian-clifi published in both e-book and paperback by Reputation Books. He is represented by Kimberley Cameron of Kimberley Cameron & Associates Literary Agency.
He has also published a Wastelanders short story called Black Silence as a bridge between the first book and its sequel. He is currently in the notes and brainstorming stage for the Wastelanders sequel.
Recently the Muse has kindly allowed him to tap into that creative magic and pen a young adult urban fantasy. If all goes well with the edits and revision, the final draft should be completed by early summer.
Finally, in the late 90s Ballantine published the Neil Marshall series of culinary mysteries set in Houston, Texas. These include If Wishes Were Horses, A Whisper of Rage (nominated for a Shamus Award), People in Glass Houses, A Catered Christmas (the one I most enjoyed writing), and Dead Man’s Broth. He has recently gotten the reversion rights and is planning on reissuing them under an elite publishing house out of New Orleans.
Hemingway liked running with the bulls. Tim enjoys running with dragons (that’s what he calls his grandkids.)
The Wastelanders
iTunes: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-wastelanders-tim-hemlin/1108613068?ean=9780991363575
Barnes & Noble: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-wastelanders/id874164149?mt=11&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
Reputation Books: http://reputationbooksonline.com/2014/05/22/wastelanders/
Thanks to Tim for appearing today on Archer’s Aim as the Rave Reviews Book Club “SPOTLIGHT” Author. If you would like to know more about Rave Reviews Book Club where Tim and I are fellow member, just click the link to visit the website. This is one of the incredible ways the club promotes its members. If you do decide to join, please let them know I sent you!
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