Q1. Hello, can you please introduce yourself? Readers would love to know more about you.
A1. Hi, I’m Tim. Like most people, I’m a dreamer. I’ve always wanted to use stories and media to make people’s lives better. I used to draw and paint and make amateur films. Then I went to USC film school with the result that I got a job doing visual effects in a production house that primarily did commercials. I stayed in the visual effects business and was even on the board of directors for the prestigious Visual Effects Society for more than a decade.
When most of the Visual Effects work got shipped overseas I began doing a different kind of effects work for Walt Disney Imagineering where I focused largely on elaborate illusions in theme park attractions. The work offered new challenges and a different kind of storytelling so it kept me interested and I had a blast for 18 fun years.
Q2. What were the key challenges you faced while writing your book “Addie’s Eyes”?
A2. Addie’s Eyes came into existence in the form of a screenplay I wrote in the early 1990s entitled “Jo-Jo’s Kingdom.” It was a spec screenplay that never got any traction in the real world. But it was a decent story and my wife encouraged me to turn it into a book. But making a living consumed my world then, so the story sat on a shelf, waiting for its time. More than thirty years later I finally had the time and motivation to do the conversion from screenplay to novel.
There were always things in the story that bugged me, and this was the chance to fix them. And with the passing of thirty years my skills had sharpened somewhat, and Jo-Jo, one of the primary characters who is based on a real historical person, became more historically accessible as the internet opened up new information into this mysterious celebrity over those intervening years.
This new knowledge precipitated a change in setting for the story from Connecticut to Liverpool England. Certain characters were changed or added as you might expect from such a rewrite. New scenes were added. But amazingly, large portions of the screenplay made their way almost directly into the novel. All I needed to do was change the tense from present to past and add the literature conventions such as dialog attributions.
As a result I had a first draft in a mere 45 days! That’s unheard of speed for most people. Then I spent another three months editing and refining. But the story was there in only a month and a half.
Then I turned my attention to getting a literary agent so that the manuscript could be submitted to publishers. Long story short: Unless your name is Stephen King or J.K. Rowling you’re not getting past the gatekeepers. So after wasting 4 months getting hundreds of rejections I made the decision to self publish.
The people that I’d had doing beta reading for me were very enthusiastic about the manuscript, however, so, despite the rejections, we thought it had a chance.
The advantage of self-publishing is you get to do it your way; whereas a major publisher would take it out of your hands and do all the design and layout to their liking, whether you liked it or not.
So all of a sudden I had complete creative freedom—but also complete responsibility. So I tried to do it right. I designed four different covers and got them focus grouped, resulting in one of the designs getting 60% of the vote. So that became our cover.
Then I decided that I wanted the book to be illustrated, not heavily, but enough to support the fantasy. I worked with a Ukrainian artist who used ChatGPT to translate back and forth from Ukrainian to English and worked on the project with me for several months despite having bombs and drones whizzing over her in her native country. There were times she took her work into her bathroom to get away from injury from exploding windows. And then power and internet would regularly go out. But miraculously, with God’s help, we completed 24 full color illustrations for the book, which about that time took on the title Addie’s Eyes.
Q3. What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?
A3. I’m a fan of H.G. Wells, Vladimir Nabokov, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Steinbeck, Salinger, Twain, and Dickens
Q4. What’s your favourite spot to visit in your own country? And what makes it so special to you?
A4. I love Monument Valley in the Navajo Nation in Arizona/Utah. We’ve been there several times and it’s always special, not only because it’s beautiful and a photographer’s paradise, it’s where a lot of my favorite movies were filmed.
Also, speaking of which, I have always adored wandering movie studio backlots with the historic standing sets that have helped to tell so many of our culture’s classic stories.
Finally, another time and place that was always special to me is Disneyland in California, at about 7am as the sun is coming up and the birds are chirping, but it’s otherwise quiet since there are no crowds because the park is not yet open. It’s so peaceful and magical with anticipation each day before it fills with guests.
Q5. What inspired you to write the book ‘Addie’s Eyes’?
A5. In the early 1990s I was working in Visual Effects, trying to find a way to move up the Hollywood ladder, so I decided to try to leverage my VFX skills by writing a screenplay that would utilize computer graphics in a new way, to depict an Alice in Wonderland kind of fantasy world. Mind you this was before the first Toy Story film, so I was thinking ahead.
In addition I was always a fan of Beauty & the Beast type stories: King Kong, Phantom of the Opera, Elephant Man etc. I looked into a historical figure known as Jo-Jo the Dog Faced Boy from the late 19th Century. He was a beloved and fascinating figure at that time and one of the highest paid entertainers of the era. I decided to match him up with a fictional blind girl in an adventure story to see what might happen. I also wanted to use the story to bolster readers’ faith in the face of adversity. Everybody has problems. I wanted to show how some characters, who had been dealt difficult circumstances, held up under challenges.
Q6. How long did it take you to write your book ‘Addie’s Eyes’?
A6. Technically it took about 33 years.
Q7. On what platforms can readers buy your books?
A7. Amazon of course. Ingram Spark, Barnes & Noble, and about 36 audiobook outlets as well, including Audible and Apple books.
Q8. Tell us about the process of coming up with the book cover and the title ‘Addie’s Eyes’?
A8. As I said I tested several different cover designs. The ones that featured images of Jo-Jo amazingly scored the lowest. I mean—he looks like a Wookie! He’s adorable! What’s not to like? But that’s not what the committee wanted to see. So we ended up with an image of a stylized and fanciful fairy tale palace that I first designed in the 1990s and updated using more current techniques.
The original title ‘Jo-Jo’s Kingdom’ actually didn’t work because it’s mostly the blind girl’s story, not Jo-Jo’s. And not flagging that fact in the title was a source of confusion to test readers. So we tried a few other options and ended up with ‘Addie’s Eyes.’
Q9. When writing a book how do you keep things fresh, for both your readers and also yourself.
A9. When I’m writing a story I try to make sure to give the reader a surprise of some sort on every page if possible. That keeps them turning pages.
Q10. What keeps you going in time of trouble and frustration?
A10. My faith in Jesus Christ gives me peace and hope in the face of many challenges as I grow older. Not only do I look forward to a life with Him with a renewed body and no more pain or tears, but the hope of being re-united not only with my own loved ones who’ve passed from this life, but saints throughout the ages who have shared my hope.
My book ‘Addie’s Eyes’ contains all kinds of characters, but it includes some who truly live their Christianity. I’m hoping that their journey and example will help readers start to embrace the true hope that faith in the Savior brings to your life.
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