Newtown has our hearts, our prayers and our scam artists....

It is with great sadness that I type this missive on the 23rd of December 2012. Only two days before Christmas and scarsely more than a week after the senseless tragedy that took twenty precious children and six valued adults from their families. As you all know, I seldom tackle news events because as a fiction writer I strive to keep my political, religious and other opinions to myself. My readers deserve to know that the writer from whom they are willing to purchase entertainment is not working publicly to undermine their political and other beliefs. Though every citizen has a right to his or her opinion, I believe this platform is not mine alone so I strive not to abuse it. That said, I think several points about the Newtown tragedy should be shared.

First, of course, is that on behalf of my family, my friends and my readers I would like to give our heartfelt prayers and best wishes to those that are churning through such a terrible time. Though we can never know the depth of your pain, we hope that our voices can in someway be of help. Please be well soon.

I also wanted to mention an unusual event I experienced a couple of days ago. While standing in a short line at a local variety store, I heard the cashier discussing a card and several gifts that she was preparing for the families of the Newtown victims. She mentioned that she had found the address on a website and planned to mail her gift package that night. If you have similar plans, I commend you BUT PLEASE BE AWARE there are scam artists advertising in multiple locations. These lowlife, scumbags are all too happy to accept your resellable gifts and cash so that they can fund their illgotten lifestyles. Please be sure to confirm your gift-giving addresses with the Newtown police or other Newtown locals, and be sure to double-check that information.

A final note about this horrific event and the current discussion raging about guns: as previously mentioned, I try not to use my platform for political or idealogical discussions of any type, but the recent suggestion that we fill our schools with armed guards strikes me as dangerous. My Southern Maine city has a salaried police officer dedicated to our various schools, and in that case I absolutely agree it is a fine idea. Official police services across the country are staffed by heros who deserve both our trust and the extra hours. However, what I fear is that private schools, less-well-off and rural communities will hire private guard services, some of which are no doubt wonderful and trustworthy. Unfortunately, many are not. Commercial services are often filled with low-wage, unvetted and sometimes dangerous people. To have these types of questionable people standing within firing range of our children and teachers is unacceptable. Now, I've heard some say that private services will simply need to make sure that their guards are properly hired with background checks, etc.... That is obviously a great idea...until it fails. What happens when several guards turn up sick or injured at the same time? What happens when the company owner falls on difficult financial times because of divorce, medical issues, whatever? I'll tell you what happens, someone calls someone's unknown uncle, aunt or nephew and hands them a uniform and a gun. It's not an intentional infraction but it happens all the time.

Please, let's think about these solutions before we implement them. Our children and families deserve no less.  

“The Craft of Writing Queries” by Robert Begiebing

Hi, Everyone.  I'm sure you all remember the fabulous submission information that Robert Begiebing provided on one of my recent guest posts. Well, Robert is back on Derek Flynn's blog (a blog you should all be following, by the way) and this time he's talking about “The Craft of Writing Queries.”

Don't miss this one: http://derekflynn.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/guest-rant-the-craft-of-writing-queries-by-robert-begiebing/

Also, don't forget to check out Robert Begiebing's latest release, "The Strange Death of Mistress Coffin."

My guest Robert J. Begiebing talks about "Selling Your Novel: Creating a Compelling First Impression"...

I'm really pleased to have Robert J. Begiebing as a guest on my blog today. A recipient of the Langum Prize for historical fiction, Robert is the author of seven books, a play, and over thirty articles and stories. He is the founding director of the Low-Residency MFA in Fiction and Nonfiction, and Professor of English Emeritus, at Southern NH University.

I could go on with the introduction, but I think Robert's following post speaks beautifully for his credentials. If you're a writer who wants to make editors, agents and dare I say readers take early notice of your fiction, you've definitely found the right advice to follow. So here's Robert...

 Selling Your Novel: Creating a Compelling First Impression, Robert Begiebing

I’m often asked how to approach an agent or editor with a manuscript for a novel.  Let’s assume that through many revisions and critiques you’ve completed a novel.  You have a referral or a list of agents and editors to query.  You know you only get one shot in the door with each editor or agent, so how do you prepare the most engaging materials possible?  The three basic elements are the query letter, the synopsis, and the first thirty pages (or three chapters, whichever comes first).  There are lots of sources to get help with the first two, but the manuscript sample is perhaps the most difficult and most misunderstood.  So assuming you know how to set up a manuscript typographically, let’s focus on the manuscript sample, based on my own experience and on what I’ve been hearing from editors and agents for years in answer to questions from others.

What does a professional reader NOT want to see in the opening of your novel?

·        Giveaways to your amateurism: all kinds of authorial tics or other repetitive annoyances and hack constructions, (from the use of ellipses to indicate suspense, to italics to indicate moments of fear or stress, to single-sentence paragraphs to indicate climactic zingers or sentimental emphases, and so on).

·        Prologues, especially lengthy ones, that if containing information absolutely needed should be reprocessed into the tale itself; avoid, in short, anything that keeps the reader from getting right into the central drama.  A venerable editor at Norton upon encountering a prologue of any kind used to say, “Get out of the bathtub!” because she read so many fictional prologues set in tubs where protagonists ruminate on life and their problems.

What are the attributes or qualities of successful opening pages, some of which a professional reader hopes to see in your ms.?

·        Indications that by your reading, your writing experience and education, and by, in short, your long and painful apprenticeship, you are no longer an amateur or dilettante.

·        Energy, animation, originality of VOICE (a question of your point of view choices and the narrative persona you’ve created).  One agent told my workshop students he looks for a certain “intensity” of voice or language.

·        A texture of mind or descriptive power that comes through the prose.

·        “Profluence” ( we’re getting somewhere, on to something, care where the story is going, a power of interest, set up early and satisfied later).  The Pull: novelist John Gardner’s sense (from Aristotle) of character (the emotional core) and plot (the profluent focus of your narrative plan).  An engaging drama has begun.

·        An “Inciting Incident” that radically disrupts the balance of forces in your  protagonist’s life to which he/ she must react, through progressive complications (a point I borrow from Robert McKee’s book Story).

·        Drama vs. Exposition/ Explanations/ Backstory.  Resist the Urge to Explain (RUE) and weave in necessary but brief segments of backstory later, once the reader is hooked and the drama is fully underway.

·        A sense of your opening chapter especially as the crucial “manner by which reader gains entrance,” to quote Douglas Bauer’s The Stuff of Fiction.

·        Questions raised in the reader’s mind.

·        That opening sentence.  As an editor at Houghton Mifflin once said, “If you can’t write that opening sentence, I don’t have much hope for your ability to write the rest of the book.”

·        Your mastery of dialogue (see three chapters devoted to it in Renni Browne and Dave King’s Self-Editing for Fiction Writers)

·        A clear sense of the book’s subject matter and major characters.

·        Any foretelling of theme, purpose, or significance in an intriguing manner.

Once more, you certainly want to avoid any coy, irrelevant, or expository/ explanatory material too soon that might be bottling up your real beginning of the conflict and drama.

Happy writing. Enjoy the journey.

Your friend,

Robert J. Begiebing

The 20th anniversary edition of The Strange Death of Mistress Coffin, a novel set in 17th-century New England, will be released on August 14, 2012 and is now available for pre-order. Originally published the early 1990s, Mistress Coffin was a Main Selection in The Literary Guild, The Mystery Guild, and Doubleday Book Clubs, and is currently optioned for a film.

Visit his website at www.begiebing.com.

Link to Book at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Strange-Mistress-Hardscrabble-Books-Fiction-England/dp/1611683386/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1343818134&sr=8-2&keywords=the+strange+death+of+mistress+coffin

Does history suggest the Katie Holmes' divorce will topple Tom Cruise from his box office pedestal?

Many of us have grown up watching and appreciating Tom Cruise and the 6.5 billion dollars he has generated in ticket sales worldwide. With a domestic average per movie of 97 million dollars, for the last thirty years, Mr. Cruise has been pounding out box office gem after box office gem. Of course, there have been a few bumps in the road (like Lions for Lambs and Rock of Ages--the latter of which I really liked and would be willing to prove it by purchasing an early ticket to Tom’s first full-fledged rock concert if this movie thing doesn’t pan out).

So the question is simple: how many bangs and bruises can Tom’s reputation take before the public turns its back on him and his offerings? But before we answer that question, let’s review the damage previously done. First, back in Roman times, just after Top Gun, Rain Man and Cocktail, there was the 1990 divorce with actress Mimi Rogers, after which she blurted out that Tom was asexual and simultaneously implied he was impotent. Mimi also left him with one other parting gift: Scientology. Though the Cruise-Rogers marriage hadn’t been meant to last, Mimi’s ties to the unusual religion transferred readily to this man who has since taken a public thrumming for his adherence to and outspokenness about those beliefs.

It doesn’t help that Scientology was invented in 1952, by Ron L. Hubbard, a science fiction writer whose roots stem back to the early pulp magazine era. Hubbard’s fingerprints are easily seen on this religion which claims that millennia ago beings were dragged here from another world by an evil leader called Xenu (I swear, I’m not kidding; this is what the science fiction writer claimed, and this is what his Scientologists believe today).  Supposedly, 75 million years ago, Xenu then killed most of the aliens by setting off chains of nuclear explosions around the Earth’s volcanoes, but not before the alien souls were stuffed into human forms and primed with all sorts of crazy ideas, including the existence of one or more gods. Of course, all these “little-known” facts will cost you a bundle to learn, because Scientology requires its believers to ascend a ladder of enlightenment before they can realize their own potential and get a peek at this grand space opera-ick history. By some accounts, it can cost tens of thousands of dollars to reach even the lower levels of Scientological awareness, but rumor has it if you don’t have the requisite cash you can don a geeky uniform and trade a few years labor for lessons. I encourage my readers to do a few internet searches if you question anything I’ve said or would like to learn more.

Tom Cruise survived the impotence and cult accusations stemming from his 1990 divorce and, scarcely ten months later, went on to marry Nicole Kidman and climb to even greater box office heights as evidenced by A Few Good Men, Interview with the Vampire, The Firm, Mission Impossible and one of my favorites Jerry Maguire. It seemed as though Tom, with his second statuesque wife in hand, had fully recovered his mojo, if it had ever been lost at all.

Of course, like all good-looking leading men, over the years Tom has been peppered with gay accusations, but it wasn’t until the 400-day movie shoot of Eyes Wide Shut in 1998-99 that the rumor mill went into overdrive about Tom and Nicole’s inability to be intimate that the gay rumors hit full tilt. Those rumors were still strong (and I believe wrong) when Tom separated from Nicole two years later in February of 2001.  Of course, the whisperings of Scientology being behind the split were even louder than the gay innuendos, but it's important to note that Nicole was pregnant (later to miscarriage) at the time of the split. Since we all know how much Tom loves and dotes on his children, I’m betting that unborn child is a major clue about how and why the relationship suddenly ended.

Once again, however, Tom Cruise bore the storm of public opinion with seeming ease. His box office exploits neither slowed nor dipped in gross sales. Minority Report, The Last Samurai and Mission Impossible II and III were all proof positive that Hollywood’s most dependable leading actor could still carry huge sway with audiences. Even the Steven Spielberg collaboration War of the Worlds had time to become a super-success film before the bottom gave way beneath Tom’s career.

Of course, we’re talking about the period that started with the 2005 private audition and public courtship of Katie Holmes. Tom’s May 2005 couch-jumping incident on the Oprah Winfrey show started tongues wagging about his mental stability, but it wasn’t until he got into a verbal declaration against psychiatry with Matt Lauer and then accused the Today Show host of being “glib” that the wheels fell off the golden celebrity wagon.  That’s the day Tom Cruise’s career went into free fall. The next twelve months were like a drumbeat of failure for a man who had once seemed to be impervious to everything, including age. Suddenly, every comedian on the planet took daily pot shots, and for the first time ever Tom Cruise was unable to defend himself against the daily barrage of insults and innuendo that came at him from media outlets in every corner of the globe. When the “chatter” about his sanity and his obsessive ties to the crazy “cult” Scientology had reached a crescendo, in August of 2006, Sumner Redstone chairman of Viacom (parent company of Paramount) broke his fourteen-year-old ties to the actor, because 'Tom had irrevocably damaged his economic value as an actor and producer with his controversial public behavior and views.'

Tom took the news pretty well. After stumbling for only a few months, he acquired financial backing and took an ill-fated stake in United Artists studio, only to preside over two notable big screen flops: Lions for Lambs and Valkyrie. The mistake was to be short-lived, however, and soon Tom moved away from UA toward other movie ventures while also being able to put the cap back on his personal reputation elixer.

His 2008 small but popular bow as Les Grossman in the hit comedy Tropic Thunder pointed the way to better times, and his next film Knight and Day, costarring Cameron Diaz, was a moderate success that further paved the way. Then in 2011, Ghost Protocol, the fourth installment of Mission Impossible series hit theaters and became Tom Cruise’s best-performing movie to date, grossing a staggering 693 million worldwide. All in all, it looked as though the Cruise world had drifted back up to its old level of no boundaries and limitless success…until this week’s news of Katie Holmes’s divorce filing.

Once again, questions about sexuality and Scientology are swirling like seagulls over the trash heap of Tom Cruise’s personal life. Can he weather another public relations storm, or will the movie-going public finally write him off as another “old” actor who has been allowed to feed too long and too well off the forgiveness of the world’s kind audiences?

I, for one, think that the beautiful Katie Holmes will move on to have a comfortable life and a moderately successful career, not unlike the trajectory she was on when she came into the partnership, and certainly not in the least bit hurt by her short relationship with Hollywood’s thrice-married, elite leading man. I also think that Tom Cruise will brush off his Teflon suit, grab the next dozen guaranteed money-making scripts and fly onto thousands of more theater screens, at least until a few creases start to show. That’s good news, too, because though I swear I’m heterosexual, I like a good Cruise flick as well as the next guy.

An emotional freight train...crashing through the walls of a California courtroom...

Have you ever read a story that made you ignore the ringing phone, made you late for appointments and made you absolutely NEED to read late into the night? If not, then you're in for a treat because Rebecca Forster is an author who understands that storytelling is, first and foremost, about making us yearn for the next page, and then the next, and then the next. In "Hostile Witness," the first book in the Witness series, she creates a whole lot of reader yearning.

 

Our story begins with Josie Baylor-Bates, an attorney who has turned away from the fame and fortune of a super-successful criminal defense career. For reasons we don't understand, she settles into a quiet California beach town where elderly estates and urinating in public are among her more challenging cases. However, when beautiful Linda Sheraton, one of Josie's past volleyball teammates, comes banging at her door, we quickly learn that Josie is not just taking time off, she's terrified at the prospect of returning to her previous high-profile career. But when she learns that Linda's sixteen-year-old girl daughter has been wrongfully imprisoned for the murder of a seated California Supreme Court Judge, the hellish gates of her past come swinging wide open.

And all of this happens in just the first few pages. To say this unfolding legal drama is an emotional freight train would be a gross understatement. Step into Rebecca Forster's "Hostile Witness" and you'll agree that this is one legal thriller that puts relationships up front while giving us front row seats to a no-holds-barred courtroom battle.

Definitely a keeper. Read "Hostile Witness."

Reviewed by "Maine's Other Author"(TM) Tim Greaton

"Red Gloves" FREE today only!

"Red Gloves" FREE today only (26 May 2012) on Amazon Kindle. Book 2 in the Samaritans Conspiracy. http://www.amazon.com/Red-Gloves-Samaritans-Conspiracy-ebook/dp/B0081WIZHY/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1338025126&sr=8-8.

More than 80,000 Tim Greaton novels have been downloaded in the last few months.

Just as the City of Portland Maine is struck with a horrific crime wave of high school drugs and teenage killings, Lead Detective Priscilla Harris’ life swirls out of control. A terrible car accident has derailed her son’s basketball dreams, so he quits college and turns to methamphetamines to cope. To keep him from backsliding any further, Priscilla spends thousands of dollars on two drug rehab programs, but when the second try fails she doesn’t know where to turn. Worse yet, she learns her husband has stolen the remaining $30,000 of her inheritance money to run off with his beautiful, blond secretary. In the midst of it all, a mysterious red-gloved stranger is stalking both Priscilla and her son.

Can Priscilla find some way to save her city and her son before the bodies of more Maine teenagers are found stacked like cordwood?

In “The Santa Shop” Tim Greaton showed us the bitterness of despair and the sweet taste of hope. In this second book of “The Samarians Conspiracy” he serves up a full, seven-course emotional meal. Priscilla’s story will drag you through the depths of struggle and despair but not without amazing rewards.

One reviewer says, “Tim’s fans will follow him to Hell in gasoline raincoats….”

You're invited to find out why.


A note from the author:

Dear Reader,

Thank you for considering "Red Gloves."

When I was about sixteen years old, several police cars converged late at night on my father's house. Apologetic for disturbing our family, a detective explained that a local 24-hour store attendant had been stabbed and I was one of a handful of known males about the right age and within walking distance.

I was visiting my girlfriend's house several miles away at the time, and the detective readily agreed with my father that it wouldn't be right to embarrass my girlfriend's family by showing up there. Instead, my father called and asked if I could "...get home right away!"

My girlfriend's mother kindly offered to drive me, but because she had just finished a glass of wine she dropped me off several blocks from my home, a location not so likely to invite questions about her sobriety. Unfortunately, that added twenty minutes of walking time before, quite confused, I walked past the police cars in front of my house and through the door. The detective took one look at my slim frame, button-up shirt and dress slacks then acknowledged I didn't look anything at all like the criminal.

I was, of course, relieved even if my evening had ended early. But, as the apologetic detective turned to leave, he gestured to one of the patrolman and said, "Do you think you could drop this young man back where he was?"

That detective's kind manner is a trait I modeled while writing this novel. Our female detective is street savvy but not jaded, and even though her personal life is filled with disaster, she continues to treat the people around her with compassion and respect.

I enjoyed spending time with Lead Detective Priscilla Harris, and I hope that if you do decide to share her experiences that the conclusion of her difficult journey will leave you with a smile.

Thank you once again for sharing so generously of your time.

Your friend,

Tim Greaton

Below are some of my other titles :-)

Only a few hours left. Your Thank You copy of "Under-Heaven" is absolutely FREE right now! :-)

I'm not sure I ever say it often enough or loud enough, but I really appreciate all the help and support from friends, bloggers, fans and readers in general. It's with your help that over 90,000 of my novels have been downloaded in the last few months.

THANK YOU!

In appreciation, my "Under-Heaven" novel will be free today until 12am EST.

If you've already read Under-Heaven and there's another of my books you'd love to have but finances have been a problem, please email and I promise we'll arrange something.



More than 80,000 Tim Greaton novels have been downloaded in the last few months, and now "Red Gloves," is finally out!

More than 80,000 Tim Greaton novels have been downloaded in the last few months, and now "Red Gloves" the long-awaited follow-up to "The Santa Shop" is finally out...

Just as the City of Portland Maine is struck with a horrific crime wave of high school drugs and teenage killings, Lead Detective Priscilla Harris’ life swirls out of control. A terrible car accident has derailed her son’s basketball dreams, so he quits college and turns to methamphetamines to cope. To keep him from backsliding any further, Priscilla spends thousands of dollars on two drug rehab programs, but when the second try fails she doesn’t know where to turn. Worse yet, she learns her husband has stolen the remaining $30,000 of her inheritance money to run off with his beautiful, blond secretary. In the midst of it all, a mysterious red-gloved stranger is stalking both Priscilla and her son.

Can Priscilla find some way to save her city and her son before the bodies of more Maine teenagers are found stacked like cordwood?

In “The Santa Shop” Tim Greaton showed us the bitterness of despair and the sweet taste of hope. In this second book of “The Samarians Conspiracy” he serves up a full, seven-course emotional meal. Priscilla’s story will drag you through the depths of struggle and despair but not without amazing rewards.

One reviewer says, “Tim’s fans will follow him to Hell in gasoline raincoats….”

You're invited to find out why.


A note from the author:

Dear Reader,

Thank you for considering "Red Gloves."

When I was about sixteen years old, several police cars converged late at night on my father's house. Apologetic for disturbing our family, a detective explained that a local 24-hour store attendant had been stabbed and I was one of a handful of known males about the right age and within walking distance.

I was visiting my girlfriend's house several miles away at the time, and the detective readily agreed with my father that it wouldn't be right to embarrass my girlfriend's family by showing up there. Instead, my father called and asked if I could "...get home right away!"

My girlfriend's mother kindly offered to drive me, but because she had just finished a glass of wine she dropped me off several blocks from my home, a location not so likely to invite questions about her sobriety. Unfortunately, that added twenty minutes of walking time before, quite confused, I walked past the police cars in front of my house and through the door. The detective took one look at my slim frame, button-up shirt and dress slacks then acknowledged I didn't look anything at all like the criminal.

I was, of course, relieved even if my evening had ended early. But, as the apologetic detective turned to leave, he gestured to one of the patrolman and said, "Do you think you could drop this young man back where he was?"

That detective's kind manner is a trait I modeled while writing this novel. Our female detective is street savvy but not jaded, and even though her personal life is filled with disaster, she continues to treat the people around her with compassion and respect.

I enjoyed spending time with Lead Detective Priscilla Harris, and I hope that if you do decide to share her experiences that the conclusion of her difficult journey will leave you with a smile.

Thank you once again for sharing so generously of your time.

Your friend,

Tim Greaton

Some of my current available titles (just click on a cover to see full descriptions and purchase links)...

"Red Gloves," the second book in the Samaritans Conspiracy will be available in 48 hours!

I'm beyond excited to say that "Red Gloves" the second novel in "the Samaritans Conspiracy" will be out within the next 48 hours!

Just as the City of Portland Maine is struck with a horrific crime wave of high school drugs and teenage killings, Lead Detective Priscilla Harris’s life swirls out of control.  A terrible car accident has derailed her son’s basketball dreams, so he quits college and turns to methamphetamines to cope.  To keep him from backsliding any further, Priscilla spends thousands of dollars on two drug rehab programs, but when the second try fails she doesn’t know where to turn. Worse yet, she learns her husband has stolen the remaining $30,000 of her inheritance money to run off with his beautiful, blond secretary. In the midst of it all, a mysterious red-gloved stranger is stalking both Priscilla and her son.

Can Priscilla find some way to save her city before her son joins the other teenagers whose bodies are stacking up like cordwood?

In “The Santa Shop” Tim Greaton showed us the bitterness of despair and the sweet taste of hope. In this second book of “The Samarians Conspiracy,” he serves up a full seven-course, emotional meal. Priscilla’s story will drag you through the depths of struggle and despair but not without amazing rewards.

One reviewer says, “Tim’s fans will follow him to Hell in gasoline raincoats….” Isn’t it time you found out why?  

This novel has been over a year in the making, and I sincerely hope it lives up to the expectations of the 80,000-plus readers who have already enjoyed "The Santa Shop." Please know that I couldn't have done it without the support of so many readers. I will be forever grateful for this life of writing that you have all so graciously granted to me.

John Carter...a spectacular disaster...

I am not a typically fussy viewer when it comes to science fiction, but I have to say "John Carter" blew it in nearly every way possible. This was especially disappointing because I've been a Taylor Kitsch fan since first encountering him on "Friday Night Lights." Many great actors have survived similar box office crashes, so here's hoping he comes out on top...and a good place to do that would be in his next big-budget flick "Battleship."

Lynn Collins (The Princess of Mars) was beautiful and did a fine job with what she had, but no matter how well you act it's just hard to get past dumb lines and even dumber settings. It was truly amazing how the makeup people presented her as a bronze goddess when she is in reality so pale...but the look was a good one. That's one positive note, I guess.

Back to "John Carter" the flick and all the other points that just plain didn't work. First, let's talk about plot. I, like many middle-age sci-fi readers grew up on "John Carter of Mars." I haven't had one of those slim paperbacks in my hands in over 30 years, however I'd be the first to admit they were fun romps that didn't take themselves too seriously--HOWEVER, there are limits to how many holes you can leave in a plot and still claim it resembles a story. This big screen "John Carter" adaptation has more story and logic holes than a soccer net. Suffice it to say that not even Edgar Rice Burroughs on a bad day would have let this clunker leave his typewriter. I don't want to give away too much, but how about watching John literally slaughtering huge multi-limbed martians by the hundreds, if not the thousands, but a few scenes before and few scenes after he's having a tough time handling just a few of the same breed of creatures. Then there's the little logic issue about how he can snap thick steel chains and rip rocks in half, even though lower gravity can't explain those superhuman feats. While we're discussing it, I also tend to wonder why his flesh seems mostly immune to dizzying impacts with everything from steel to stone to...well, you get the picture. Yes, I know you fall slower in low gravity (which you couldn't tell from John's Hulk-like, high velocity landings) but he not only fell down, he was thrown, swung and hurled in every possible direction all throughout the film...but never with more than a few scratches and dust marring his pale skin.

I've never been a fan of Victorian anachronistic technology, so it's no surprise that I had faint appreciation for the gauze and frame flutter-bug aircraft that often filled the "John Carter" screen, but my absolute central peeve had to do with John Carter's nonsensical reaction to the low gravity environment on Mars. Of course, we all know that was how the author explained the Earthling's super strength (he grew up in high Earth gravity and therefore had dense powerful muscle when in Mars' comparitively low gravity) but none of that provides any clue as to why all the leaping in the movie shows John mostly flying face-forward as though his forehead were weighted with lead. When he first arrives on the red planet (which isn't all that red), he keeps falling forward and can barely seem to crawl without his bangs dragging in the sand. It seems to me that he should have been fighting to stay on the ground, but instead in those opening scenes he looked as though he was struggling to get up out of the sand. Then, every time he leapt, the director may as well have left the cables visible in the scene because the flying movements projected the presense of wires to the point it was painful to watch. It almost felt like a 1930s adventure scene shot on the cheap outside of an early Hollywood studio. Not a single leap seemed believable in any human movement, laws of physics sort of way.

Probably one of the biggest crimes with this picture, however, was how the movie dragged and dragged and dragged. It's no wonder the budget tanked any chance of profitability. It truly felt as though the screen-writer and director couldn't figure out how to end this debacle, so they just kept filming, maybe hoping the equipment would break down and make the decision for them.

I know I haven't given a lot of specifics about the story and characters here, but it's mostly because none of that matters with the many flaws constantly grinding at any reasonable viewer's sense of acceptance. I just wish Disney had called me before they began production, because for a few hundred bucks I would happily have reviewed their plans and scrapped this catastrophe before it ever went into production.

I regret to say that "John Carter" barely registers one star on my five star scale :-(

"Zachary Pill, Of Monsters and Magic" is absolutely FREE book for any e-reader format...

This first book in the Zachary Pill fantasy series is over 200 pages of action-packed fun. From conception to completion, the first three books in the Zachary Pill were easily the most challenging yet most rewarding and fun novels that I've ever written. They also took me five years to complete. I could take a few minutes to describe the book to you, but why don't we let the some of the reviewers of the first Zachary Pill trilogy do it for me :-)

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books I've read in a while, August 7, 2011

By

Patrick Jones - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Zachary Pill, The Dragon at Station End, Trilogy (The Zachary Pill Dragon Magic series - books 1, 2 & 3, 765 pages) (Kindle Edition)

Five Stars
Many thanks to Tim Greaton for writing such a brilliant book.

This book is really FANTASTIC and it's written with such a unique writing style. There is no series, that I have read, that I can compare it to. It's both funny and dark at the same time, and I really enjoyed all of the characters, especially Madame Koochie and her "rockets."
Zachary Pill grew up in Boston, but when bats attack and his father suddenly disappears, he is thrown into a whirlwind of danger and magic. From the bats that attack him in Boston, to his forced imprisonment with Madame Koochie and his trips with friends through the nostrils that are just as slimy and gross as they sound, this book is amazing. And to see a wizard boy transform into a dragon was one of my favorite scenes.

I loved this and I'm sure many others will as well. I can't wait for the next book in the series.

Read Zachary Pill, The Dragon at Station End. You will definitely not be sorry.

FREE book here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/131693

Tim Greaton Sparks Fantasy and Adventure with Verve and Panache, August 19, 2011

By

A. J. Grady, Author (NYC) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Zachary Pill, The Dragon at Station End, Trilogy (The Zachary Pill Dragon Magic series - books 1, 2 & 3, 765 pages) (Kindle Edition)

Zachary Pill, The Dragon at Station End (The Zachary Pill Series): It's seldom you see fantasy written with such verve and panache. Greaton delights his readers with a montage, a veritable cornucopia of magical, mystical, supernatural elements incorporated within one novel. The book is loaded with action and fantasy yet Greaton doesn't fail to deliver on the story. Zachary Pill is a typical kid with his share of bruises and bumps from schoolyard altercations. Because of a major problem with bats, a problem so great that the early extermination might have saved his father. The fate of his father is a key question after his disappearance with the bats. Zachary moves in with a Madame Koochie ,an orange haired, brightly dressed caretaker that does nothing and lives in filth. Here he makes a refuge. As the story moves on, the possibilities for his dad are learned and history of the family is attached to a unsuspected background that moves in space and time in a place called Pandemones
The mystery of his father's fate is connected to a Krage, a family rival of sorts. Magic is primary to the family powers and is exercised by magic wands and other implements like magic rings, key to the dad's powers. Time after time creatures like Medusa with snake encrusted hair add depth and background to the story, a kind of secretary. Notable and key is the event with a dragon figure that serves to transform him in a kind of metamorphosis.

If you are looking for a fun read that contains bats, werewolves, wizards, trolls, dragons, creepy flying things that resemble snakes all set in a magical fantasy, this is the book. Zachary Pill reads well as it goes from one fantastical event to the next.

I loved the Boston setting and a myriad of bats in this setting. Sections of Boston remind me of New Orleans especially around Halloween.

Fantastic action packed adventure, October 28, 2011

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The Kindle Book Review - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zachary Pill, The Dragon at Station End, Trilogy (The Zachary Pill Dragon Magic series - books 1, 2 & 3, 765 pages) (Kindle Edition)

WOW, I don't know where to begin. This book was amazing. Harry Potter meets How to Train Your Dragon. Loved the story and the world that is created within it, so many levels and creatures and Tim's imagination is just out of this world...

Zachary Pill is a normal kid, or so everybody thinks. He gets bullied at school and one day has had enough. Zachary saw another kid being picked on and decided to stand up for him and himself. This is the day everything changes. Zachary started to fight back, literally and ended up with a broken arm and bruising all over. His father was called to school and demanded that Zachary not be taken to the hospital. The School was dumbfounded, why would a father not allow his child to go to the hospital? Well, there is a family secret that has been hidden from Zachary; he is a Wizard, well half Wizard. Zachary was taken to a special hospital, where wizards and creatures and beasts go, he was patched up and his arm put in plaster. Everything would be normal again, or will it? Nope, when they arrive home, his father is vague and wouldn't answer his questions. Eating spaghetti for dinner, Zachary looks at his father's plate and sees worms instead of pasta. Surely Zachary was just imagining things because of his injury. Everything went into chaos, bats swarmed the apartment and everything went dark. Zachary could only use his one arm to find his father. There was a brilliant blue light and his father disappeared. Poof, gone!

Zachary is now on a journey to find his father, calls in his Uncle who palms Zachary off onto an old woman that lives in a pigsty, Madame Kloochie. His Uncle too disappears in search for his father. Zachary befriends the kid from across the road, Bret. Together they try to work through his father's belongings and a way to find his father. Zachary is the last Pill on Earth and is being attacked by all sorts of monsters. He must survive and find his father and Uncle.

This book is quite long, but the story is just amazing and I couldn't put it down. Tim really knows how to draw you into the book and I know there will be a lot of Harry Potter fans that will love it. There are just so many amazing things happening that you will have to read it and find out for yourself (the nostrils, they're travelling tunnels for example, hilarious and gross). ~ Katie Turner (The Kindle Book Review)


Prepare for a sleepless night., October 4, 2011

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Earnest - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Zachary Pill, The Dragon at Station End, Trilogy (The Zachary Pill Dragon Magic series - books 1, 2 & 3, 765 pages) (Kindle Edition)

This book is fantastic! The story never stands still. I was doubtful at first, thinking, "Oh, boy, another Harry Potter read-a-like," but I was rapidly sucked in by the colorful characters and constant action. I shouldn't have taken it with me on a cruise, because if I hadn't, I'd have gotten a lot more sleep.

5.0 out of 5 stars Modern High Fantasy-at it's best!, October 31, 2011

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Linell Jeppsen (The mountains of Northeast Washington State) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Zachary Pill, The Dragon at Station End, Trilogy (The Zachary Pill Dragon Magic series - books 1, 2 & 3, 765 pages) (Kindle Edition)

Trolls, Orks, Goblins, wizards...Dragons! This marvelous modern-day fantasy has it all.
Zachary Pill seems like a regular boy until he breaks his arm in a bullying incident (Zachary is the victim). Suddenly his world is turned upside down. His injury has triggered a series of magical events that will effect his world and many other mysterious realms, because he is the son of one of the most powerful wizards in the universe! This magical tale will hold you, and wisk you away to the land of...anything's possible! Move over, Harry Potter...Zachary Pill's in town!

5.0 out of 5 stars Great fun and characters you care about!, February 25, 2012

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Chris A. Reardon - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

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This review is from: Zachary Pill, The Dragon at Station End, Trilogy (The Zachary Pill Dragon Magic series - books 1, 2 & 3, 765 pages) (Kindle Edition)

I'm going to address the elephant in the room right out of the gate: Yes, _Zachary Pill, The Dragon At Station End_ owes a debt to the Harry Potter series. Downtrodden boy discovers his magical identity and goes on amazing adventures with a male and female friend. Sounds familiar, hmm?

In this case at least, the characters and worlds that Tim Greaton introduces us to and develops throughout this book are so offbeat and engrossing that some plot parallels to "that other young wizard" can be easily overlooked.

Zachary himself is a multi-layered character with a lot of heart. I dare say that many readers will immediately be able to relate to him. Aside from his naturally green hair, there is nothing really outstanding about him at the start of the story. As the plot proceeds, he discovers more and more about who is really is. I am not just talking about his magical persona, but also the personal qualities he has within himself that emerge as he is placed in challenging situations. For me, that is the hallmark of a terrific piece of fiction: a protagonist you can connect with and watch grow and change throughout the plot.

There are many other characters introduced in the story. Greaton makes no secret of the fact that this is intended to be a series, and many characters that we meet are not developed. The assumption is that their part will come in future installments. Zachary's sickly best friend Bret and the outrageous and mysterious Madame Kloochie are two characters that stand out here. There is a great deal of foreshadowing of events that are to come in future installments, and Greaton's characters are developed in such a way that makes them intriguing enough that the reader develops a genuine interest in what is going to happen to them beyond this book.

For the most part, Greaton's fantasy elements in _Zachary Pill, The Dragon At Station End_ are simply whimsical figments of his imagination that he has worked into the tale. And that is a large part of the charm. A flying pig, a "porkasis", is just that, a wacky invention worked into the story for the sake of humor and fun. There are many such inclusions on Greaton's part, as well as familiar fantasy entities such as trolls, ghosts, and werewolves. The mix of the familiar with the unexpected really drew me in while reading _Zachary Pill, The Dragon At Station End_.

This book is geared toward the 9-12 year old crowd, but older children and adults who admire escapist fantasy will also find it appealing. If you enjoyed Harry Potter, or are merely a fan of light fantasy, you will likely enjoy _Zachary Pill, The Dragon At Station End_. I'd encourage you not to compare Zachary to Harry, but just enjoy his story on his own merits. I am very much looking forward to Tim Greaton's next installment in this engrossing series.

5.0 out of 5 stars The next great Magic series is already HERE!, November 30, 2011

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K_Karie (Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Zachary Pill, The Dragon at Station End, Trilogy (The Zachary Pill Dragon Magic series - books 1, 2 & 3, 765 pages) (Kindle Edition)

This book has one thrill after another. You barely start to recover from one adventure before there is another! I've never read a Harry Potter book, so unlike other reviewers, I can't compare. In terms of magic and mystery, this book strikes just the right balance. It leaves you craving more. I've literally just finished (like five minutes ago) and my head is reeling with questions and possibilities of where this story might go next. I can't WAIT for the sequel!

One thing I really love about this story is how realistic Zachary is. He speaks as I would expect my son would in a similar situation. He reacts to his parents and other adults with sarcasm, annoyance, begrudging obedience, etc. He thinks with the wild imagination of a teen exposed to the unimaginable.

Well, those are some of the things readers are saying. Did I mention the first book in the series is FREE! Thanks so much for taking the time.

'Hope you like your free book. Just click on the first cover above and you can get a copy for any e-reader! :-)