Tim Wojcik

Some of my favorite childhood memories.

There was a mature cherry tree in our backyard at home. The cherries would ripen in June, and I would be able to pick a few here or there from the lower branches. On a Saturday during that month, when dad was off from work, the kids would help him pick the tree. Of course we could treat ourselves to the cherries and save the ones nicked by birds till later.

I'd help myself to the pot of sweet tea my mom made and left on top for us to enjoy.

The warmth of the radiator after coming in from the winter cold.

Going to a baseball game at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

My first photo camera. Campouts with the Boy Scouts.

There were a couple of physical factors. One, I wasn't the biggest boy on the block. Two, living in a cool climate left plenty of time indoors – to read.

My parents purchased the Britannica Junior Encyclopedia. I explored the set, learning about different places and different people. Being able to explore a bit of the world through the written word and some small photos: that informed me of the value of books.

As a bookseller in my early 20s, the notion of the great American novel fascinated me. I guess I thought I could, one day, write one.

Before electronic texts, a book was this physical, tangible entity. Something enduring. Still is.

And, to be honest, this book object also had the author’s name on it.

I was blessed, or cursed with being the valedictorian of my eighth grade class in parochial school. So, I had to come up with a valedictorian speech. Everybody else in my class was enjoying their last week of school, while I was fretting and dreading this performance. I recall my attempt at the speech being completely rewritten by grown-ups.

On the advice side, Rule # 17 from Strunk and White’s Elements of Style – “Omit needless words.” Comes in handy on the re-write.

I took courage from Tom Wolfe’s exuberant writing style. Wolfe gave the words a verve, an energy along with the meaning. In his early writings he bent the rules of punctuation. I liked that. And, I suppose covering subjects such as Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters offered Wolfe a license not included in covering the social register or the obits.

There’s a useful little line I first noticed in Roddy Doyle’s writing. After Doyle’s description of some elaborate or overwrought emotional outburst, he sketches a simple response to it. “He said nothing.” The character’s silent response can speak volumes.

Meet demand as best you can – don’t go out-of-stock on a popular item if you can help it. People like what they like. It doesn’t matter how I value the subject.

I chose to blend 21st Century sensibilities with my characters from 30 CE. I think blending the behaviors from both eras was worth the risk. A reader, I believe, will respond to a form of speech they recognize. For example, if the belt is too tight, my male character doesn’t say to his fellows: “Oh, that my leather strap cease its chafe!” He’ll say something like “Hold up! I need to loosen my belt.”

Having said that, in At Cana I chose to include some words from versions of Greek, Hebrew and Latin. The reader sees and sounds out a word like khamor, then glances at the bottom of the page to see it is Hebrew for donkey. A bit of color for the place of the story --

Getting the details of an historical scene sufficiently correct requires research.

I started writing At Cana during my high school librarian career. I had the gift of time to write during summer vacations and other school breaks. For several years, At Cana was more of a hobby than a goal to complete. As my library responsibilities ended I had more time for writing. Also, an insurance policy unexpectedly matured which offered the funding for the publishing expenses. This funding pushed the project across the finish line.

One source of inspiration and example is historical fiction from the 30CE Palestine era. There’s a lot of it. Also, I’ll look for non-fiction on the history of the 30 CE era. A title I’m looking through these days explores the “social structures and social conflicts” of the 30 CE era in Palestine – the Roman Empire, the Temple hierarchy, and the people.

My target audience is a challenge. Most readers of historical fiction of the 30 CE Palestine era, I think, are women who prefer a traditional writing style. With my use of 21st-century sensibilities in my characters, some of these readers may be unused to the style. In general, my target for At Cana is an fiction audience familiar with the Christian story.

With contemporary sensibilities in the novel, I'm hoping the reader recognizes herself or himself in characters from 2000 years ago. They ate and drank, we're happy or grumpy, and teased or bedeviled each other just as we do.

First time fiction writers have a tremendous challenge creating demand for their product. With so many terrific authors already in the market, how does one fit in and get recognized? It is hoped family and friends would take note of the book and chat it up a bit. Everyone has a stack of books on their waiting-to-be read table. Convincing folks to set aside their reading choices for your book takes much persistence. I’ve used this hook – They’re short chapters! Read one a day.

It seems to me publishers would use opportunities such as local book fairs to promote the books they publish. They would sell more books. But there is a marketing “package” for that. Promotion from the self publishing companies comes with a price tag and is reserved for those authors willing to pay extra for the service.

It varies. Chapters which move the plot along need more pages/more writing. With several characters already introduced, an interior chapter can take time to simply get the chronology correct. On the other hand, I wrote a short chapter for At Cana after the novel was essentially complete. It was just over two pages with three characters and dialogue around a dining table. It flowed out in about one hour.

Fiction is more entertaining via audio. The reader of the audio gives a performance for the listener. Fast paced novels pair well with audio, and they’re great for long distance driving trips.

A book used more for reference, I find is more helpful in print. Print is still a winner for picture books – even if many kids are already hooked on their “device”. A printed book has the added value of being tangible – no electricity required to pick it up and get a feel for it.

If you want to load up on a bunch of books without loading yourself down, e-books can’t be beat.

A best seller would be nice. Travel. The Camino de Santiago sounds appealing. There’s that line from the Billy Joel song “Vienna waits for you”.

At Cana is set in a place. There are a couple more plot lines of places from 30 CE I’d like to explore. It could be Capernaum, or Nazareth, or Bethany. Jerusalem was destination #1 at that time.

I joined AllAuthor as a pro-member near the end of 2021. It was recommended by a fellow author from my writers group. At that same time I became involved is other promotion avenues for At Cana. It took a little while for me to explore the features of AllAuthor.

Besides the promotional benefits of AllAuthor, I enjoy browsing through the authors and their books to find a kindred spirit or a timely topic. The mockup banner is always fun. The Twitter prompts are a good reminder for me to get out another re-phrasing of the line Read My Book!