The Wastelanders – Fiction Favorites

I am happy to welcome this week’s Rave Reviews Book Club Spotlight Author Tim Hemlin. He is on a tour, and you can see his stops by visiting Rave Reviews Book Club. Okay, Tim, the floor is yours.

Influences: Tolkien and a Middle School English Teacher

When I was in 7^th grade my English teacher, Mr. Perry Onion, handed out this thick paperback to the class and at first I groaned. The Hobbit? What in the world was a hobbit? It sounded dumb. The only books I’d read at that point had been about sports, and they had pictures, too. Mr. Onion introduced the book and read the beginning to us. He then told us to take it home and read the next couple of chapters. I read that and more. I couldn’t put it down. I decided right then and there I wanted to be Gandalf when I grew up. When I told Mr. Onion how much I liked The Hobbit, he mentioned there were three other books like it. My parents were shocked when I told them I wanted to read The Lord of the Rings, and they went right out and bought me the series. I read every word. Finding myself in Middle Earth surrounded by all these fantastical creatures not only made me want to read more, it made me want to become a writer. While I was teaching middle school, often students will tell me how much they enjoyed The Hunger Games or Divergent or any number of other titles. I wonder if it’s a turning point for them the way reading The Hobbit back in the 1970s was for me.

Author Bio:

Tim Hemlin is a marathoner, teacher, and has his master’s degree in counseling, but his passion for the environment sparked him to write The Wastelanders, a dystopian-clifi published in both e-book and paperback by Reputation Books. He is represented by Kimberley Cameron of Kimberley Cameron & Associates Literary Agency.

He has also published a Wastelanders short story called Black Silence as a bridge between the first book and its sequel. He is currently in the notes and brainstorming stage for the Wastelanders sequel.

Recently the Muse has kindly allowed him to tap into that creative magic and pen a young adult urban fantasy. If all goes well with the edits and revision, the final draft should be completed by early summer.

Finally, in the late 90s Ballantine published the Neil Marshall series of culinary mysteries set in Houston, Texas. These include If Wishes Were Horses, A Whisper of Rage (nominated for a Shamus Award), People in Glass Houses, A Catered Christmas (the one I most enjoyed writing), and Dead Man’s Broth. He has recently gotten the reversion rights and is planning on reissuing them under an elite publishing house out of New Orleans.

Hemingway liked running with the bulls. Tim enjoys running with dragons (that’s what he calls his grandkids.)

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