fiction

Writing Communities

/ abtimothy / Leave a comment

Overview

“What I owe them all is incalculable.” – C.S. Lewis on his Writing Group the Inklings

Having a community of writings, particularly one in person, is such an incredible book to one’s walk. There are innumerable benefits to having those who can truly empathize with what you, as an author, are going through, not just sympathize and see what you are experiencing. Sure, your church group, or college friends, or work buddies might listen to you and be there for you, but it’s a different kind of experience when you know the person sitting across from or next to you has lived through what you are living through. When they can take your hand, emotionally but sometimes literally, and say “Hey, you’re gonna get through this.” Or “This is temporary I went through it just the other week/month, you’ll persevere.”

When I began writing again, in earnest, as an adult, in fall of 2025, I had no one. My online writing community of six years had kicked me to the streets and said, “Figure it out bud.” So, feeling totally beat, I had given up. That’s when I attended my local Comic-Con. Now, if you’ve been around on this blog for a minute you might have read my article Keeping the Beacon Lit, where I talk a little bit about my experience at this Comic-Con. Now what I didn’t mention there is that one of the creatives on that life-changing, yet sparsely attended panel, was a friend of mine from my first ever Dungeons and Dragons games. So when my friend who is now an author, Cameron Blackwell, invited me to attend a “Writer’s Coffeehouse” at one of our local libraries, I was sold.

Since then, in the intervening eleven months I have learned a whole heap about communities and writer’s groups so let me share some of my experiences and recommendations!

A Writer’s Coffeehouse

Are you looking for a low-stakes place to simply exist with other authors? A place where not much more than your name is expected of you, but you can still grow in community and experience as a writer? Well, Jonathan Maberry likely had a similar wish in 2004 when he began something called the “Writer’s Coffeehouse” in Philadelphia. It began as a no-agenda networking and discussion group for writers/authors. It has since gone nation-wide. All the way over here in Southern Arizona there is a Writer’s Coffeehouse with the same mission that meets every month.

I can confirm, having a near perfect attendance record for 8+ meetings now, that nothing is asked of an attendee other than their name/author name and what they write! After that others ask the questions, or you can, and there is fruitful conversations had for around two hours. This idea isn’t copyrighted or anything so if your city doesn’t have a monthly meeting already, consider grabbing a few writing friends, and starting one! As they said in The Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come.” So even if you start with just you, I’m sure your library would let you post an announcement on a community bulletin, you could share the idea on a local-focused Facebook Group.

Critique Groups

Now, these are the real bread and butter of writing groups. A Critique Group is a place where you build deep personal relationships with other authors whose sole-duty it is to rip apart and critique your writing. This is the place where you can develop thick skin and become near-bullet proof against cynics or trolls who will trash on your writing after it is published. But it is also the place where you will learn to take what feedback you need to take to make your writing better.

You should not attend one of these, or ask to join one, if you have no intention of helping others grow, or taking feedback and growing yourself. I, for one, have advanced leaps and bounds in the short two-ish months that I have been attending my bi-weekly critique group. As goes for any of these groups, don’t have one local? Consider creating your own. If you go that path, be sure to check out Ross Lampert a.k.a. “The Critique Doctor”‘s books on the subjects of giving and taking critique, and finding the right critique partners for you!

Online Writing Communities

The last group I am going to write about today is Online Writing Communities. These are a mixed bag and I might not be the best to give advice here. I know the Critique Doctor, whom I mentioned in the previous section, talks a little about this type of connection in his series, but I would strongly recommend the other kinds of community described above FIRST, and online communities as a supplementary resource or a last resort.

However, I must admit, these would likely be the easiest kinds of communities to find and join. When you do join them, however, remember that you are an outsider for a LONG time depending, especially, on how long the community has existed prior to your membership. You can find networking communities like “The Fellowship of the Indie Author” or you can even find critique groups, like “The Writing Circle.” I am or have been a member of these communities and I love(d) them dearly. The best advice I can give here is this: find a group that someone you know in real life has already joined and see if they would be willing to be your “Sponsor” so-to-speak. That is the best way to ingratiate and integrate the fastest.

Conclusion

Writing groups are 100% worth your time and effort to find/join/establish. They will help inspire you, keep you accountable, and grow you as an author/writer. Whatever you do, just remember to keep writing and don’t give up!

If you are looking for advice and inspiration on your writing journey, consider listening to my podcast, “Keeping the Beacon Lit“
Subscribe to this blog too!

Lets talk about your experiences in writing communities in the comments or over on X!

Quest System Earth: Initiated, A Review

/ abtimothy / Leave a comment

Hello, and welcome to a review of “Quest System Earth: Initiated,” a book by Michael Lopez. As it says in the Afterword, this is the first book in a series that chronicles the adventures of Jonathan Galas. I will likely be reading and reviewing the other books in this series, and as a slight spoiler for this review. I am excited to do so.

The Beginning

At the start of the book, we see Jonathan drop back into reality after spending many years on a faraway planet called Franesh. There, he was gifted with something he calls “The System.” The System is heavily based on RPG User Interfaces of D&D fame. Games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, or “The Witcher,” or other video game RPGs will use a similar idea to what happens here. There are 5 stats: Strength, Stamina, Agility, Intelligence, and Perception. Each of these is directly linked to the user’s human attributes of the same name. Jon says at one point, “…if you distribute the 25 points evenly, you’ll add 5 points to each attribute. Believe me, you’ll definitely notice the difference of a 5-point increase.” As you progress in The System, the real world becomes easier and easier for you as well, at least that seems to be the implication of the story.

Jon, whose name the author spells with an h, confronts his father first, who does not believe that his son has returned to him. After some drama, Jon convinces them that it is he, their son, who has been missing for 6 years. Jon uses the funds he accumulated on Franesh in tandem with the abilities he gained there, which include a ridiculously high agility stat, to gather funds, off which he subsists for the rest of the novel. Basically, if you think, “Where did Jon get that?” The answer is likely Franesh.

There is a family reunion with his siblings, some of whom believe and accept Jon back into the family, but one brother, Tim, denies it and uses his resources as a federal agent to begin investigating his brother. While he is doing that, Jon reunites with his childhood friend, Abigail, a.k.a. Abby. He reveals the truth to her, at least in part (we’ll get to that), and with the revelation of the system, Jon offers her the chance to grow stronger like him so she can protect herself and her family.

The Middle

The next stage in the book is old-school RPG dungeon hopping. With some new friends, Carl and Gary, who are other players of the System who were taken to a different world for a much shorter time than Jon, and are thus much less powerful than he, Jon and Abby enter a few dungeons and clear them with the intent of leveling Abby up so she can defend those she loves and her own life.

After a particularly harrowing dungeon, where the quest that they all received basically said, “New Quest: Survive.” The team pops out of the dungeon, Gary and Carl go home, and Jon and Abby have a heart-to-heart. Jon goes into detail about his time on Franesh, where he spent many years. He leveled up, became part of the community of the world, and eventually even married a village girl. His life was looking up until a princess from a nearby kingdom got jealous of the woman Jon had married, tricked him into leaving them alone to go be a hero, and sent a team of men to raze the village. Among the dead were Jon’s wife and child. This is why he had rejected Abby when she basically told him, “I’ve been waiting this long for you to come back.” She ended up telling him, “I can wait a little longer.

I appreciate the fact that the romance between Jon and Abby is clearly something that will likely be explored in future installments, but right now it is enough for them to just be friends, adventuring and taking down dungeons together.

During all this time, Jon’s brother, Tim, has been trying to take this thing that calls itself its brother into captivity. Every attempt has failed, hilariously. In the last attempt perpetrated by the U.S. Secret Agents, Jon breaks everyone’s arms and hitches a ride with them back to their HQ. There, he confronts his brother and tells him, in no uncertain terms, to back off. He says, in response to Tim asking what would have happened if Abby was hurt: “I would have killed all but one of the agents earlier, then followed the survivor back here and destroyed the building.” -pg. 147

The brotherly conflict in this book is satisfying and realistic in my interpretation. As someone who grew up with four brothers, how the conflict is resolved is amazing. The fact that Tim decides, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, is his best bet, is very understandable. Hopefully, we will see more of Tim going forward.

With his brother dealt with and Abby informed, Jon can move into the endgame for this book. There is still some black-suited agency coming after him, but it’s not American.

The End

The endgame here is Abby’s little sister, who, up to this point, has been pretty background and not important, but becomes, arguably, the focus of the last three chapters. Save chapter 19, the second-to-last chapter, which focuses on a brand new character whose existence was only hinted at earlier in the book. Melanie, Abby’s sister, is called “a Natural” in chapter 20, and we learn that she takes to her new powers very well. Killing slime and horned rabbits comes like second nature to her. By the end of the dungeon, she had leveled up several times and was excited to keep going.

I feel like now is a good time to bring up a gripe I have with the book as a whole. The parents of these children are brought up to inform the reader that they definitely do exist, but they are never consulted for any major decisions. Jon is basically an Adult; his trials on Franesh forced him to mature much faster than he should have needed to, so I understand his independence, but Abby and Melanie are very much children and still dependent on their parents for housing, clothing, food, and the rest of their being. So when Jon offered, and Abby so quickly accepted The System, I cringed. Shouldn’t the parents have a say in whether or not their children accept this deadly responsibility? Then they ask Melanie, a FIVE-YEAR-OLD, if she wants to be like a video game character. Meanwhile, Jon knows and understands the concept of “Player Killers” very well. Putting this five-year-old on the target list of blood thirsty villains. I hope this is addressed in the next book.

In chapter 19, before Melanie gets her chance to shine, a self-proclaimed PK’er or Player Killer, arrives on the scene. He is a Russian diplomat by the name of Aleksei Kozlov. He calls out Jon without taking a moment to consider that there may be someone more powerful than himself. Jon puts that illusion to bed quickly and tries to end things without bloodshed, but the Russian pushes the point and pays for his arrogance with his life. One of the Men in Black who was there working security for their diplomat tells Jon that he has left Russia defenseless against the gates. Jon fixes this by granting this patriotic Russian The System and the ability to fight the archways in defense of his motherland.

At the end of the book, we know there is more to come. Jon’s killing of a Russian diplomat is caught on camera, and we are left wondering what will come of this. The Feds, the Russians, and the local police all want to bring Jon in, but none of them have anyone strong enough to make Jon bend.

Review:

Final review:

“Quest System Earth: Initiated” by Michael Lopez is a fast-paced action story written for a younger audience. The formatting stands out from among its English peers, but I have not read many Korean or Japanese Light Novels to compare this one to. There are some editorial issues, such as spelling, that could be addressed as well. However, despite its flaws, I am looking forward to reading the next adventure of Jonathan Galas and the “Quest System”. If you are looking for a very quick and easy read that will keep you turning pages way past your bedtime, give it a read!

Final Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Be sure to watch the video version of this review on my YouTube Channel, linked below!

Too Much Positivity?

/ abtimothy / Leave a comment

By: A.B. Timothy

Let me preface this by saying, read what you want, review how you want, and talk about your books and reviews however you want. What follows goes for me and people who value my opinion on things.

Is it really 5-stars?

Oftentimes, readers, and consumers generally, will give the content they just consumed a grossly positive rating. This can be the high of a meal at a new food place in town, the satisfaction of finishing that book you’ve been reading for the last two weeks, or the excitement of a movie. But we need to slow down as consumers and really consider the piece we just finished, compare it to other pieces we’ve consumed in the past, contrast this feeling and story against stories and feelings we’ve been given before, and final decide where this new experience ranks among the pantheon of the past.

Processing

When I finished reading “Fortis: The Return of the Vulture King” by C.K. Kesterson I immediately wrote the plot summary portion of my review. This helped me process what I had just read and understand what I was feeling now that I had finished it. I was able to really consider my experience and my time reading it.

Comparing

After the summary was written, then I mentally compared it to other children’s literature I had read in the past such as “Percy Jackson” or “The Chronicles of Narnia” or “The Hobbit.” These comparisons helped contextualize the story found in Kesterson’s work. That made me realize, while it wasn’t on the same level as “The Hobbit” it was in the realm of “The Chronicles of Narnia” and “Percy Jackson” which made it an easy 5-star for me. I am reading another indie book right now, called “Quest System Earth: Initiated” which is gearing up to be a 3-star book. The story is amazing but the editing and formatting are so far subpar.

Contrasting

You have to look at the material and see it in conversation with the other works you’ve read. How do the characters in this book hold up to the characters in Wheel of Time? How does the romance compare to the romance between Annabeth and Percy in “Percy Jackson”? In the light of these great works we can see the detail in these new works. Without contrast we have a hard time seeing the issues where they lay.

Finally, review

Be honest. As you review something, the worst thing you can do is sugarcoat your criticisms and hide them behind flowery language. To improve, artists must face the reality of their flaws, otherwise they will never grow. If someone did not tell me, “Your scenes are blank. I can’t imagine anything.” I would never have grown to the point of most readers saying, “Wow, your imagery is so vivid and colorful.” Critique and well-mannered but negative reviews are what push is to greater heights.

If you’re interested in seeing what all the fuss is about and want to see how my scenes now come alive off the page, go pre-order my book on Amazon.

Summer Soon! More Posts??

/ abtimothy / Leave a comment

Hey blog readers! It’s been another minute since I’ve come on here to chat. This year has been wild! My book has been edited, the cover art painted, the design crafted, the content formatted, and the documents uploaded to Kindle Direct Publishing. During this time I have been derelict in my blogging duties. I have thought often of the blog, during my time away, and am quite pleased with many of the updates and changes that WordPress has made to the back end. I am writing this post in what looks like Times New Roman with maybe a ten-point font. That is not what it shows up as for you on the reading end, but it does help me enjoy the writing experience a great deal more.

I have also been in school this spring semester which has taken a great deal of my time and energy. It is part of the reason I have been absent. This means with summer coming I should be able to post a bit more often soon. I am taking a two-month course at my local community college, this summer, well two of them, but one is online. When those end I will have a few months before my University courses start up in the fall.

I am going to use this time to crank out as much prose as humanly possible. That way, during the semester I can edit and get all the other things done for a release in December. I would like to have the first two books to the trilogy done this summer and have the outline for the third well in hand. The second book is gearing up, if my vision holds true, to be almost 200k words long. But at least I am in good company. The average Wheel of Time book is well over 300k words. This first book is looking like it will be over 100k too.

I plan to post more blogs and more short stories as time wears on, but I don’t know how many or of what quality they will be. I have been doing more Handwriting the Bible, I just haven’t posted an update here in a while.

Anyway, I hope you’ve had a great spring so far and I hope you are ready to hear more from me as the summer comes and goes.

Was Your Laptop Stolen?

/ abtimothy / Leave a comment

Sadly, yes. But now I have a new one! It’s true, about a month ago, on a Thursday evening, a homeless person in my town broke into my car and stole my laptop. I have been without a portable laptop computer for about a month now, but finally I have one again. While it isn’t my old machine, it will do the job! I lost no progress on any major project I had been working on outside of the cover design of The Shards of Arthur’s Shield. I have since made it anew and even better than it was. You can see it below:

How cool is that? The quest begins on May 22nd via Amazon on Paperback or E-book. If you buy it on E-book the copy is yours to do with what you will!

I plan on being a bit more active on this blog here in the next few weeks as we approach the release date and I look forward to my next release coming December 2026!

More magic, more myths, and more adventure is on the way!

Early-March Update

/ abtimothy / Leave a comment

January and February have come and gone. Let’s set some goals, shall we?

Social Media Goals

Novel Goals

> X Growth
As per my last goal, I smashed 220 in January and made it to 240+ by mid-February. By the end of February, I had made it to 256+ followers on X, and now I sit at 259. My goal for March? 270 followers by the month’s end.
> A Monthly (formerly weekly) Short Story
I haven’t written a short story in a minute. I plan to change this to a monthly short story of about 2-3k words.
> A Weekly Newsletter
This, too, will be changing to monthly with the March edition out this Saturday.
> Daily Motivational/Non-fiction blogs
These are being discontinued for the time being. I would like to make one per week at least, but I can’t make any promises.		The Shards of Arthur’s Shield <
████████████░ 99%
I got my editor’s feedback and am now implementing it in one last read-through. I am also writing the Epilogue as we speak.
The Early Years of a Great Mage <
The time has come. The Student will begin to learn the ways of magic. (Coming December 2026)
Brothers’ Feud <
The Brothers’ Feud has had a name change and has been split into three books. The First of which will be coming in Spring 2028

How’s it going?

February was hard and stressful, with school, edits, and work, I have barely given myself time to breathe. But now, a rhythm has been discovered, and I believe I will begin to regulate again. I cannot wait to start writing the first in my first Trilogy, coming out this December. The name has changed, but I will keep “The Early Years of a Great Mage” as a working title.

Hello, I am still six-feet above ground

/ abtimothy / Leave a comment

Good morning, afternoon, or evening (just covering my bases). I have returned to the land of blogging and am excited to write this post. It might just be the coffee flowing through my veins as I sit at the coffee shop I so love (Cartel Roasting Co. in Tucson, AZ, come check it out, seriously), or it could be a sudden burst of inspiration from… uh… nope, coffee is all I’ve got to explain it. What gets you guys writing? Does the coffee stop the yawning long enough for your eyes to focus on the page, too, as it does me? Let me know in the comments.

In other news, the Kickstarter is live! Check out “The Shards of Arthur’s Shield” on Kickstarter today by clicking here (or on the picture to the right) and clicking the link you find on that page. The most expensive option is less than a triple-A game. This is all about building trust and hype, so tell your friends and “Trust me on this.”

I will be posting a progress update today, too, as it is the first Tuesday of the month. But know that the book is nearly finished. I will be doing one last read through with the notes from my editor in mind during the first half of March and will finalize the formatting by the end of march and I should have author copies in my hands sometime in April! I still can’t believe this is real, can you? I am finishing the rough draft of the Epilogue today, called “Jonathan’s Rest.” It is a heavy-hearted short story with which the story of Thomas will conclude and allude to what is coming in December this year ;).

Doing A Bit More

/ abtimothy / 2 Comments

By: A.B. Timothy

Have you unexpectantly found yourself with a bunch of free time, like me? I recently had a Tutoring student who I would tutor for four hours a week tell me he is taking a break for two weeks. This has freed up so much time for those two weeks, so what am I doing with it? Well, what do you do when you suddenly find yourself with more free time? Tell me in a comment below.

I have decided to start getting caught up on a lot of reading I wanted to get done for the past few months, but haven’t yet. Is that my own fault? Maybe. But does that mean I can’t course correct now? No! You will never get anywhere in life if you give up before you even start. Never stare up the stairs, my friends, only step up the steps.

So if you find yourself with a sudden influx of free time, don’t waste it, like you might be tempted to, but rather use it! Tackle that backlog, fold those clothes, edit that book, or walk that dog. Don’t sit around and doomscroll X or Instagram (unless you are doomscrolling my X @ABTimothyAuthor, in which case keep going).

Today, I got to my “office” (coffee shop) three hours earlier than I would have on a regular Wednesday, so what am I going to do with all that extra time? Well, so far, I’ve read today’s Bible reading in my “Bible in a Year” plan, I’ve promoted my show “Keeping The Beacon Lit” on X, and now I am writing this article. What will I do with the rest of my time? Probably get a bunch of editing done on my book, The Shards of Arthur’s Shield, and troll around on X promoting myself and building my following (importantly, not doomscrolling).

What will you do? Tell me below, let’s chat about it!

Notes on More’s Utopia #3

/ abtimothy / Leave a comment

By: A.B. Timothy

Discourses of Raphael Hythloday, Of the Best State of a Commonwealth (Cont. again)

We continue reading the introduction on the sixth page of my copy, beginning with the words, “While I was talking this, the Counsellor, who was present, had prepared an answer…”

In this section, the Counsellor is about to speak up to debate Hythloday, but the Cardinal speaks him down, saying that they can debate if they have time to meet up tomorrow, as there is not enough time to have that debate today. Instead, the Cardinal asks, essentially, “What should we do then? If we lessen the punishment of criminals and stop killing thieves, then that will only embolden them to commit more crimes, right? If death already doesn’t stop them, wouldn’t things get worse if we loosen up?”

Hythloday responds by disagreeing. He doesn’t think that taking someone’s life from them for something as petty as money is working. This is because it treats all crimes the same as the Stoics may wish to do. But the reality, Hythloday argues, is that if people realize the punishment for theft is the same as murder, they would rather kill the person they are stealing from than leave them alive after the theft to testify against them. The same principle that Hythloday argues should restrain the death penalty for them, that being money is not worth the same as a human life, would work in reverse here to save the lives of those persons who have been killed during a robbery. If the thief fears not for their lives, they are more likely to leave the person alive and take their money only.

In the next paragraph, Hythloday answers the question, “What more convenient way of punishment can be found?” He goes on to describe a people he encountered during his travels in Persia. They are a content people with set borders that are not rich but are not poor, and don’t have to worry about invasion due to their geography and a tribute they pay to the Persian King every year. They are called the “Polylerits.” This name, should the reader understand the Greek roots, will tell the reader that this is a fictional people used as a prop by More to describe a political idea. Hythloday explains that these people, instead of killing their thieves, enslave them. This slavery is not what we today think of when we think of slvaes, rather this slavery is more of a Civil Service paid by the criminal to atone for their crimes. A thief must pay retribution to the victim of their crime, and if they can’t pay it, they are put to work by the state to earn the money that goes to the person they wronged. Giving one of these slaves anything is fine, so long as you don’t give them money. Giving them money, weapons, or aiding them in their escape is punishable by death. Escape itself is also punishable by death. To encourage the slaves to behave, they entice them to tell on slaves who have escaped or are planning to, by offering anyone who gives them information either money, if they are a free man, or liberty, if they are a slave.

The slaves are also forbidden from speaking with slaves from other counties in the state. This prevents a wide conspiracy towards rebellion. The Punishment for discovery being death, and the reward for betrayal being freedom, helps maintain this system. There are also several that are set at liberty every year because of good behavior on their part. The Counsellor says that this could never happen in England, as it would be too much of a risk and require too much upheaval. Then the Cardinal speaks up and says they could try it on a smaller scale, where a prince could condemn a thief to death and then forgo their punishment while keeping them in this “slave” state to test the idea. If it helped reform the criminal, then all the better; if not, they could just kill him. The cardinal also says this could be a good way to deal with some of the vagabonds on the streets, too, which many voices at the table agree with.

Interstingly Hythloday points out that the table seemed to disagree when the slavery concept was only in regard to criminals, but as soon as the Cardinal threw vagabonds in the mix, they all jumped on board.

Conclusion

I ended my reading on page 29 of the story as a whole. Slowly but surely, I will have the whole of this book notated here on my blog. It will be interesting to see if I get the chance to turn these notes into some kind of essay during my college career, but we will have to wait and see. If this intrigues you and you feel inspired to go read some old literature, consider subscribing to my WordPress so you get emails whenever I post a new part of this series or any other I am currently working on. Or sign up for my Newsletter to get updates every week on Saturday.