Living The Dream, by Tim Baker

In Tim Baker’s first novel, Living The Dream, Kurt, a down and out plumber’s helper; Jimmy, a dishonest businessman, who is up to his ears in cheating and embezzlement; Vicky, a disheartened wife; and Danny, an easy going dive shop owner all have two things in common: they’re all having some very strange dreams and they all feel that somehow, their dreams will come true. Kurt’s dreams lead him on a very rough ride to the Florida coast to carry out a get rich quick scheme that is not even fully developed in his mind. Jimmy thinks that his dreams are telling him that the walls are closing in around him and it’s time to break away and start a new life. Vicky is dreaming of a handsome mystery man, who is everything her husband is not. Danny is dreaming of a mysterious woman, the girl of his dreams, so to speak, and he is following clues from his dreams to find her.
Their dreams do, in fact, come true, but not in the same ways as each one envisions, as they are all drawn together by circumstance, while trying to sort through the craziness of their individual dream worlds. When their lives unwittingly intermix, it is an ending for some of them and a new beginning for others, but one thing is certain. They never dreamed that it would be like this.
Readers will never be bored while reading this comical race to riches, where nothing is at it appears. No one is truly in control, although they all think that they are. It’s hard to tell the guys from the bad, at times, and you may be surprised who ends up winners in this truly entertaining tale, as they all search for riches and happiness.

You can find Living The Dream and other books by Tim Baker at Blindogg Books

In today’s writing market, just about anyone can become a published author, if they are willing to pay the price. This is a double-edged sword, because although authors are no longer forced to be faced with countless rejections before finally receiving that long awaited acceptance by a publisher, but it also means that you don’t have to actually write well to be published. While I have reviewed many independently published books that are, indeed quality works of literature, I have also reviewed several that have appeared as if the author either hasn’t bothered with the editing process at all, or tried to do the editing themselves and didn’t have the proper skills to do it properly. Nothing ruins a good story as quickly as having to muddle through a poorly written work that is full of grammar and punctuation errors.
Don’t misunderstand me. There are many talented authors out there that publish independently, such as Chris Keys and Tim Baker, whose books I have reviewed here. I did a profile of Tim Baker in my post “Author Tim Baker recommends publishing independently“, because I feel that his books are examples of quality writing. Tim emphasizes the amount of work involved when publishing independently, due to the fact that you do not have the vast resources of a publishing powerhouse at your fingertips. When you choose to publish independently, the preparation for publication, as well as the marketing is all up to the author.
While traditional publishing houses provide editors to help writers make their work the absolute best that it can be, independent authors must spend more of their hard earned money, over and above the publishing costs, to have their work edited. In his article, “The Three Types of Editing: Which Does Your Manuscript Need?”, Yahoo contributor Steve Thompson gives a good definition of the differences between the three types of editing that one might require when preparing a manuscript for publication: basic editing, which is giving the manuscript a proofread, or run through to check for spelling grammar and punctuation errors; line editing, which goes more in depth to check plot structure, syntax, character development and factual errors; and substantive editing, which goes beyond that and involves reworking major pieces of the manuscript . Most editing services offer all of these types of editing for various prices, including my own, Write It Right Editing Services, found at Kaye’s Literary Corner.
If you are trying to get picked up by traditional publishers, you may have feedback from previous rejections to clue you in to what type of editing your manuscript requires, but if you plan to publish independently, it is up to you to determine what type of editing your manuscript needs. Even if you are a proficient speller and have a working knowledge of grammar and punctuation, I caution you against doing even basic editing, which is basically proofreading yourself for one simple reason. An author knows what a sentence or paragraph was meant to say and often, when rereading the work, will see what was meant instead of what is actually there, therefore missing many mistakes that someone else might pick up on. Independent authors owe it to their readers to make their manuscripts the best that they can be. They owe it to themselves, as well, for a book that has been published without the proper preparation shows, and will end up being a book that doesn’t sell. If you are going to spend the money to publish independently, it just makes sense to go the extra mile and have your manuscript professionally edited, so you have a chance of making your investment back on book profits.

" Many of the places I enjoy visiting are (coincidentally) the same places Ike and the rest of my characters frequent!"

Independent author Tim Baker has published four novels, under his own personal brand, Blindogg Books, and has at least three more in the making. He published his first book, Living the Dream, in 2009: a story about a kid-napping plot that takes some crazy twists and turns along the way. Since then, he has published Water Hazard, where a stolen set of CDs leads the unwitting hero into more mayhem than he ever imagined; No Good Deed, in which an embezzlement scheme drags unsuspecting characters into the mix to combine forces and outwit the bad guys; and Backseat to Justice, where an effort to find a murderer leads to a web of intrigue that is full of surprises. In fact, all of his books hold surprises in store, making readers feel as if they are on a literary roller coaster at times.
For Tim Baker, writing is a way of life, or as he puts it, “That first novel was a long and arduous process but the dam had burst and I couldn’t hold back the flood. Now I’ve gotten to the point where I am always writing in my head.” His delightful stories begin with “what ifs”, not unlike bestselling author Stephen King (Danse Macbre). Baker’s imagination, however, may not be as bizarre as King’s. Tim likes his readers to feel as if the situations in his stories could possibly happen to them, which he feels is crucial in having them relate to his stories.

“The one key factor I strive to maintain is something I call “the real-life” factor. In a nutshell it works like this…sometimes our lives can be seriously altered by a seemingly insignificant event. A guy forgets to set his alarm clock…the next morning he wakes up late and he’s driving to work but his normal coffee shop has a line a mile long at the drive-thru. He’s running late so he goes to a different one. While he’s there he gets caught up in a hold-up and gets himself shot. All because he forgot to set his alarm clock.”

Tim would recommend becoming an independent author, (what some refer to as self-publishing), for writers trying to get published, as long as they realize that becoming an independent author is a lot of work, with no high paying advances, and no high powered marketing firm to tell the world about your book.

“It’s all on you – and believe me, it’s a full time job. If there’s somebody reading this who thinks they have a book inside them, I say write it…but understand that writing it is only the beginning. Once it is written, edited, re-written, re-edited and re-written again, then formatted and printed – the real work starts. Promoting it.”

When he is not actually writing, he is promoting his work, as all independent authors must. Baker says that he spends countless hours on spreading the word and generating sales. He has reached out successfully to readers through newspaper articles, blog-talk radio and personal appearances, but about 85% of his advertising is done through social media.

“Unless you have a large marketing firm behind you (which is rare) social networking is your bread and butter. You can potentially reach millions of people for practically free. I would say that for every hour I spend writing I spend two hours promoting myself one way or another.”

In addition to the time he spends on writing and promoting his work, Tim holds down a day job in civil engineering and donates time to a local charity, Christmas Come True (www.christmascometrue.org ), that provides Christmas to needy families that are unable to provide Christmas for themselves. He cherishes leisure time, when he can ride his motorcycle along the Florida coast and frequent all the places where his characters hang out. Tim is also interested in martial arts and is a wiffle ball champion, as well as being a huge animal lover.
Tim’s love for animals is apparent in his Facebook “Likes”, which include books about dogs, animal rescue resource pages, animal oriented non-profit organizations, dogs trained to surf with individuals with disabilities, Misty the Dog and Friends, Guiding Eyes for the Blind. In fact, in the 90’s Tim Baker raised Labrador retriever pups to be used as guide dogs for the blind, which may have a lot to do with him calling his brand Blindogg Books, and half the proceeds from his e-book, Back Seat to Justice, will be donated to a non-profit animal rescue organization, Golden Hugs Rescue Inc., (http://www.goldenhuggs.org/index.htm ). Though he considers himself to be “primarily a dog person”, he currently has two cats, Philbert and Blaise.
One might wonder how Tim finds time for all of these things, but somehow he does. His next book, Pump It Up, is due to be out this coming summer and promises to be as fast paced and exciting as all of his previous books, and delves into the realm of black market silicone treatments. He is also planning two others: Unfinished Business, which will explore the connection between this existence and the one beyond death; and Full Circle, which deals with “karma, fate and the forces of the universe.”

As a final thought, Tim would like to add,

“Thank you offering me the opportunity to discuss my work. For anybody who might have more questions, I am more than happy to answer them. I enjoy meeting new readers and exchanging thoughts and ideas – so feel free to connect with me on Facebook, start a discussion, email me – whatever. You’ll get a response from me (not an intern or a flunky) I promise.”

At some point however, the way that writers read changes and reading for pleasure and entertainment may fade, and we may find ourselves reading more critically. We start noticing writing style, word choice, character development, story lines and plots. It’s not that we no longer derive pleasure from reading a good story, but now we think more about the creative process, and these things just seem to jump out and grab our attention. It may be that the dialog rings so true that we long to emulate it in our own writing, or perhaps an ending is so totally sappy that it spoils an otherwise great story.

This change occurs because when we read like writers, we learn from other authors; both their successes and their mistakes. For example, in Patricia Cornwell’s The Book of the Dead, halfway through the book I found that although the story line was compelling, I wasn’t really invested in the characters. As I continued to read, I found myself analyzing this further. Most of Cornwell’s characters in this series are independently wealthy and act rather pompous. Most people that I know do not possess either of these qualities and so to have a group of them, who seem to take being well off for granted does not ring true for me. The only character that I could really identify with was Marino, who is portrayed an emotionally messed up puppy dog, who has followed Scarpetta around for years harboring feelings for her that he conceals because he knows that she has a thing going with Benton. He seems to always be hurt because she doesn’t look at him as her equal, let alone a prospective lover, which makes him look rather foolish from the third person’s, or reader’s POV. Even though I have read other books in the series and I have some idea of what brought the characters to this point in time in the story, Cornwell was unable to interest me enough to really care about them, because they just didn’t seem realistic to me.

In comparison, the works of Anne Rice such as The Vampire Chronicles series holds characters that stand on their own merit and one doesn’t have to know what came before in the series to be invested in them. Whether Lestat is in the spotlight, where he most likes to be, as the hero or the villain, the reader still cheers him on and cares about what happens next. When the story is over, we want to know more about his exploits and he becomes almost like an old friend. And who could not fall in love with kind and mild mannered Louis, who fights against what he is so desperately, even though he is only featured in the first book. In fact, throughout her entire vampire series, Rice allows you to know many of her characters intimately, and she keeps the readers coming back for more.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out which author I would rather emulate in my own work. Obviously, I want to create characters that are rich rather than shallow. The point here is that these differences are what I notice now when I’m reading. Dialog that doesn’t sound realistic makes me stop and say to myself, “Who says that?”; improper punctuation makes me pause; misspelled or missing words cause me to stumble on the text. These things never seemed to happen when I was just a reader. I’m not complaining though. I could never have become an editor if I didn’t read like a writer.