Tim Tigner's Blog

Actually, movie is a bit of an exaggeration. Video is more accurate. Video clip better still. But I’m not complaining. Allow me to explain.

As an author, I get a lot of impactful email. Every day, people write me to praise or criticize projects that I spent many months of my life slaving to perfect. While most are similar, earlier this month I received one that really stood out.

A media relations executive at Ezvid Inc. wrote to let me know that they’d included my novel Pushing Brilliance on their wiki’s list of ten Thrillers That Will Keep You On The Edge Of Your Seat. They even made a promotional trailer to promote their list. To my knowledge, that’s the first time someone else has taken a stab at rendering one of my stories on a screen. Hopefully it won’t be the last.

You can watch the video here, where you’ll also see Ezvid Wiki’s trailers for books by my friends James Hankins and J.B. Turner among others.

I’m writing to dispel the misperception that the Achilles series is a trilogy. While there are 3 books at the moment, many more are to come. I expect to be writing Achilles stories for decades.

The confusion results from Amazon offering of a 3-book bundle and calling it the “complete series.” That book set is something Amazon automatically generates whenever a series adds a third book. It is not a sign of completion.

I heard the 80’s song Forever Young this morning, and it held particular meaning as I’ll be saying goodbye to my 40s later this month.

The refrain includes the question: Why can’t we be forever young?

For the first time, a satisfying answer struck me. It’s so that we can watch our children grow.

If we lived forever, we couldn’t have children (lest we run out of room.) With that simple realization, my anxiety over aging melted away and a tremendous sense of satisfaction took hold in its place.

I would trade a forever-life for life with my children any day. I’ll be keeping that in mind as the years pass. With this new perspective, I hope to never bemoan the passage of time again. And now that I know what I traded for them, I’ll be spending even more time with my kids.

Continuing the quest to make the most of my life by exploring and experiencing as much as possible, I just enjoyed my first surfing lesson—as did my wife and daughters. We went down under for the summer, and our trip included time in Surfer’s Paradise. (Isn’t it cool that a country would officially name a place Surfer’s Paradise? Got to love a government that doesn’t take itself too seriously.)

Don't look for me surfing in the picture above (I’ll need a few more lessons before posting one of those pictures) but rather my youngest running along the beach we surfed. I included it because it resembles the painting hanging over our living room fireplace, the one I stare at when I want to relax and it’s too hot to light a fire. It’s nice to have lived the picture.

On that topic, I wanted to pass along a couple of resources that made our summer abroad possible--in case you’d like to put yourself into your favorite picture. (Please note, I have no affiliation with either website.) The first was homeexchange.com. Through their website, we arranged to exchange homes and cars with an Australian couple, thus paying nothing for local accommodation or transportation (beyond the $150 annual .com membership fee.) Our exchange experience was fantastic, making the trip much richer than it would have been had we stayed in hotels. And saving $$$ took the guilt out of splurging on other experiences while vacationing.

My second tip is scottscheapflights.com. Scott’s regular emails alert you to international travel bargains from your airport. This will help you get to most popular tourist destinations for under $600 round trip. Highly recommended.

Whether you travel or not, if you own a Kindle, there's always a great getaway at your fingertips. Let me know if you need a reading suggestion ; )

A top literary agency in Japan just asked to represent me. Holy smokes — I said “asked” not “agreed”. Usually it’s the author who does the asking (and more asking, and waiting, and hoping, and praying…) when they want the people who represent Dan Brown and Tom Clancy to pitch their work.

It feels like good fortune and no doubt it is, but it wasn’t pure luck. Unpaid years of apprenticeship came first, as did countless sweaty nights and daily sacrifices.

Just ten days ago my wife and I returned from our first trip to Japan. Coincidence? Maybe. But coincidences certainly seem to happen more often when we venture beyond our comfort zone.

As an aside, I must say the gardens of Japan had an impact on me. You've no doubt sat in awe and wonder at nature’s majesty. A quest for those experiences is one of the main reasons I travel — research for my international thrillers being the other.

During those moments of Zen, whether gazing into a waterfall or my daughter’s eyes, I often find myself reflecting that man can’t come close to creating nature’s beauty. But in Japan, for the first time, I saw where man had done a phenomenal job of enhancing natural beauty.

The monks improve on God's grace by pouring love into their gardens the way we do our children. The results are both remarkable and touching. They justify a trip to the land of the rising sun — even if you have no hope of landing a literary contract.

PS: On that note, if you haven't yet discovered Scott's Cheap Flights, I urge you to do so.

My wife and I are curious, adventurous souls. Back when I wore a corporate suit and our girls were yet to be conceived, we racked up passport stamps like grocery receipts. Then I started writing and the children started coming and we found ourselves restrained -- for twelve years.

Well, not any more.

With our youngest approaching 6, and our careers now accommodating (Elena teaches college math online) we’ve returned to our old tricks. Our 2017 travel schedule looks like the National Geographic channel. Man, it’s good to be back!

Used to be I toured and traveled and attempted the unusual to get everything I could out of life. I still do, but now I also do it with my plots and characters in mind. In other words, I’m working.

This was the vision that got me to hang up my suits and gave me the courage to leap from safety into the unknown. Now that I’m here it all feels worth it, but along the way I endured years of doubts. It’s great the way things eventually come together, with a bit of luck, a lot of sweat, and an unrelenting determination to succeed. Don’t stop dreaming my friends,

The plate is kind of like a wedding ring, it doesn’t change anything, but the public commitment feels good.

I’ll turn 50 later this year (Yikes!) and it’s given me pause to look back. What a wild ride. Soviet Counterintelligence in the Special Forces. Foreign Exchange Trader for a pharmaceutical giant. Managing Director at a couple of medical device giants. CEO at couple of Silicon Valley startups.

Now I’m a novelist.

Where did that come from? I majored in philosophy and math. I got an MBA in finance. I spent 20 years managing medical technologies – people, marketing, sales. The answer: passion and sweat. Enough passion to spend six years living off savings while I taught myself the craft. Enough sweat to soak stacks of bed sheets (although amazingly my wife remained wrinkle free.) But now my writing is being read at the rate of two pages per second, and I feel like I know what I’m doing. No less importantly, I’m loving it.

I covered a lot of ground before I put a ring on Elena’s finger, but I’ll be with her for life. Likewise, though the car will change (gotta go electric) the plate’s gonna stay the same – for the next 49 years at least.

Thank you for reading,

Last night, I had the pleasure of attending a banquet in my mother’s honor. Seeing all the love pour forth around the room and reflecting on her lifetime of achievement reminded me of something that seems to be widely forgotten of late: how fortunate Americans are.

We live in a place where anyone can achieve her dreams, if she takes responsibility on her own shoulders, rather than looking for excuses or others to blame, and lives within her means. She can even make the world a better place in the process. Head down nose to the grindstone is an old axiom, and one worth remembering.

My thriller FLASH currently has 996 reviews on Amazon.com and 936 reviews on Audible.com. I'm excited to be hitting 1000, so it's time for a little fun. If you write the 1000th review and leave your name, I'll be sending you something special.

On that note, consider leaving your contact information on your Amazon reviewer page. Authors often want to reach out to reviewers to thank them or answer questions but can't because there's no contact information. Leaving your email is a great way to connect with the authors you love and get free stuff from other vendors, which is why most top Amazon reviewers leave their contact information.