Welcome to Tim Fairchild Books.

Thanks for stopping by my blog for a glimpse into my experiences in becoming a published author; glimpses into my personal life, and thoughts.

My first effort is an action/adventure novel titled "ZERO POINT" A novel that blends science with fast paced action. I've been told by a few readers that it reads like a Tom Clancy or Clive Cussler story, which is fine by me. I read those authors, and others in that genre for many years now. It is written in TPO, or third person omniscient, which drawls the ire of many these days. Nothing against first person narrative, but I find it distracting, and seeing the scope of my work, it would be difficult to accomplish. I just can't comfortably manage it. Personally, I'm not going to follow the herd. If it means less sales, so be it.

The work on my novel started in 2008 after my retirement whereas I finally discovered I now had plenty of time to accomplish what I had dreamed of  doing for many years. Having a career and raising a family had left little time for writing in my world, so now…there was nothing to stop me other than myself plus the arduous, and intimidating process of finding a publisher to print my work of art… (at least in my eyes anyway.)

Okay… It was done, so off went the query letters to publishing houses. Some wanting the synopsis in one page or less. Some wanting outline and first chapter in a particular font and size and so on and so on. I felt like I was jumping through hoops and to make matters worse, most Publishers were not interested in my genre of action, unless it was horror or Gothic. Sorry folks, no vampires in this story.

While I awaited the responses,(which never came), I took a few writing courses to sharpen my skills in story structure and technique. They were very helpful to me and I would recommend that option to anyone new to writing a book. Okay, I digress… After weeks turned into months with no reply, I began to doubt my work and finally placed two years of work on the shelf . To my surprise,  I discovered from my course instructor, the world of self-publishing as an option and slowly began looking into it.

Now a year later, I have set up an account with Lulu.com. I have redone my manuscript, had people read my story, had a professional format my text and do a cover design, and finally, but most importantly, had someone do the red pencil edit. That is imperative in my belief. I read over the same mistakes so many times and never spotted them. Bottom line…YOU CAN"T DO YOUR OWN EDIT! Everyone's story in getting published is probably different from mine, but I hope this encourages others to look at all options and not give up on your dream of writing a story. Recently I had to remove my novel from print to be eligible for the Clive Cussler Adventure Writer's Competition. It was well worth it! I made it to the top five finalists

I may from time to time comment on this blog about current events. Things that just plain make me scratch my head in wonder; an occasional rant, or things in the world that make my day. Just my thoughts only.