Look and Listen

Biography

Tim’s earliest memory, as a four-year old, is his father telling him, “I think you’re full of bologna.” What a revelation. He has written two novels, in 2006 a World War II flashback entitled For Thou Art With Me and in 2010 the conspiracy thriller The Doc. He was raised in a small farming community. As the son of a grain farmer he found that life rich in hard lessons. He leaned towards the arts in early college years and considers writing as another art form. He was married too young in the war years, and dropped out of college for five years. He likes to ski, snorkel and to draw and paint. He taught sciences for thirty-six years. He is married and lives in Fresno, California and spends time with grandchildren and Civil War reenacting.

Inspiration

It probably cannot be helped, but that writing influences are of what one has liked to read. These were: Encyclopedia Britannica, an early book about Krakatoa, Lindberg's Spirit of St. Louis, Bantum's war biography series paperbacks of The Last Samuri, Tarawa, Robert Johnson's Thunderbolt, The Agony and Ecstacy, Henry Miller's Tropic of Capricorn. While required school classics were covered, later Hemingway, Fitzgerald and later still popular writers were enjoyed. These were Phillip Wylie, Frank Slaughter, Harold Robbins, John Updike, Richard Ford,and the spy novels of Len Deighton. Today, it's difficult to diminish the works of Robin Cook, Clancy, Creighton, Cussler, Grisham, and Scott Turow. Especially liked are works by Elmore Leonard, James Elroy and Michael Connelly. More important may be the rural life of being a young grain ranch boy in California. Those memories are inspring. Having been somewhat of a farm mechanic, the love of machines is inspiring. The many unanswered scientific questions are inspiring as well as the many conspiracy theories we've grown up with. One being with the assassination of JFK. I remember my first thought on hearing that news as I sat in class. That thought was, "We aren't really very civilized as I once thought." And, yet, with so much being learned with the cellular biology and disease, life is still a mystery.