Meet Timothy J. McSwain
Hi, I'm Tim. Yeah, I know it say's Timothy J. McSwain, but I just use the fancy title for putting on books and stuff. You, however, can call me Tim. I'm a simple guy with a simple background. I grew up in West Tennessee, initially in a town called Big Sandy. There really is nothing big about Big Sandy, not even the sand. I mean, there could be a large person named Sandy in the town, but I never met her. Big Sandy is so remote, it might as well be located in Middle Earth, somewhere between the Shire and Rivendell. It's hard to find, but its wilderness filled the imagination of my youth. Exploring endless miles of hills, creeks and lakes transported me to other worlds. I guess you might say that living in the country inspired me.
Since I was a kid, I've lived in Paris, Tennessee (yeah you got excited when you saw the word 'Paris.' Different Paris.); Murray, Kentucky; several towns in Illinois and even the country of Honduras. These days I hang my hat in the panhandle of Florida. One thing is certain, my life has be filled with diversity. I grew up in the land of pick-up trucks and currently live in the world of surfboards and sailboats. I've had some crazy moments in life like the time I rode a bus up a trail on the side of a mountain and got a birds-eye view of the actual road, which had been destroyed by a landslide; or the time when I was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer and walked away without a scratch. I've looked down the barrel of a loaded gun, snorkeled in a underground river, explored caves, and even ate kale. I'm a bit of an adventure addict, but I'm also one of those nerds who likes to draw things and write stuff. I bet you already figured that out by the articulate words I've used so far in this description.
Zombie Getaways
This website was birthed from my two contradictory personalities. At first I started it because everyone on the planet was either addicted to the Walking Dead or those vampires books and movies with the pale, sparkly vampires and large wolves. I thought I could capitalize on that addiction by creating a travel blog with tongue-in-cheek references to the zombie apocalypse. Since I'm not too business savvy, two people and about 40 bots read my blog. It was amazing! I was one of the two people, by the way. I'm not sure who the other one was. Anyway, my creative idea didn't really take off. I get it, I'm not that good of a writer and the idea of combining zombies and vacations was a little too weird.
Back in 2012, I wrote a book and paid an exorbitant amount of moola to make it happen. The Night Terror was an okay book for a mediocre writer like myself. I knew that book would be my claim to fame. I ignited a social network fire that would make Amazon proud. I went to stores and malls, selling books and doing book signings. I worked like an ox. I even started a business known as Stratosphere Networking (SN). SN was a promotional tool for my book and some creative arts from friends. When the dust settled, I sold a few dozen books, not even enough to recoup the cost of publishing it in the first place. It wasn't a wash, however, it was a great learning experience. I learned how to write, edit, and publish a mediocre book. I also learned about social networking, blogging, and website administration. It was a couple years before I expanded and started this site as my second blog.
A couple years ago Stratosphere Networking folded. It never made any money, but what really did it in was my neglect. I spent so much time away from the site, I forgot to renew it and lost the URL. Don't ever do this. If you do, some bozo buys your site really cheap and offers to sell it back to you for half the gold in Fort Knox. Since SN never made any money in the first place, I didn't take out a loan to get my URL back. I just let it disappear like Nick Fury at the end of Infinity War. For awhile, things just sat dormant. I did continue to renew Zombie Getaways, but I didn't really have a clue why, just nostalgia I guess.
Fast forward to 2019. My life had some train wrecks over the last few years and I just didn't care anything about writing for an uber long time... or was that Lyft. Who knows. Anyway, I'm not sure if it was Stranger Things or moving to Florida that inspired me, but I started writing again. I decided to go back and make that mediocre book into an Epic Novella. That book inspired another and I started working on a manuscript I had long tossed aside. Anyway, I found myself writing again. Over the years my writing has blossomed and I'm definitely a better writer than I was seven years ago... or at least I think I am. Since I started writing again, I was definitely not going to shell out my life savings to some greedy publisher that won't lift a finger to help promote my book. I know I'm not Stephen King or J.K. Rowling, so neither Harper nor Simon & Schuster are knocking at my door. My best option is the self publish. Thanks to Amazon, it's super easy to do. I signed up for the KDP program and am going to publish my book electronically and in print. Thank you Amazon. (I will gladly accept some money for that plug.) Anyway, my books need a publisher and since SN is dust, that leaves Zombie Getaways. Honestly, my books focus on remote locations, scary stuff and Scifi, so Zombie Getaways actually fits.
So, by a strange turn of events, my failure of a blog has become my publisher. Since I already have the site so perfectly set up for blogging, I'll probably add some stuff, maybe some prose or songs. Actually, I may connect my blogs to my books, but I'm not certain yet. For now, keep an eye out on this site. I hope to have two books published by October 2019.
Thanks for wasting your time reading this long screed. If nothing else, I hope it can suffice as a replacement for your Unisom prescription. Remember, it the zombie apocalypse happens, it's a good time to plan your vacation, I'm sure the hotels will offer a sick deal.
Tim
Since I was a kid, I've lived in Paris, Tennessee (yeah you got excited when you saw the word 'Paris.' Different Paris.); Murray, Kentucky; several towns in Illinois and even the country of Honduras. These days I hang my hat in the panhandle of Florida. One thing is certain, my life has be filled with diversity. I grew up in the land of pick-up trucks and currently live in the world of surfboards and sailboats. I've had some crazy moments in life like the time I rode a bus up a trail on the side of a mountain and got a birds-eye view of the actual road, which had been destroyed by a landslide; or the time when I was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer and walked away without a scratch. I've looked down the barrel of a loaded gun, snorkeled in a underground river, explored caves, and even ate kale. I'm a bit of an adventure addict, but I'm also one of those nerds who likes to draw things and write stuff. I bet you already figured that out by the articulate words I've used so far in this description.
Zombie Getaways
This website was birthed from my two contradictory personalities. At first I started it because everyone on the planet was either addicted to the Walking Dead or those vampires books and movies with the pale, sparkly vampires and large wolves. I thought I could capitalize on that addiction by creating a travel blog with tongue-in-cheek references to the zombie apocalypse. Since I'm not too business savvy, two people and about 40 bots read my blog. It was amazing! I was one of the two people, by the way. I'm not sure who the other one was. Anyway, my creative idea didn't really take off. I get it, I'm not that good of a writer and the idea of combining zombies and vacations was a little too weird.
Back in 2012, I wrote a book and paid an exorbitant amount of moola to make it happen. The Night Terror was an okay book for a mediocre writer like myself. I knew that book would be my claim to fame. I ignited a social network fire that would make Amazon proud. I went to stores and malls, selling books and doing book signings. I worked like an ox. I even started a business known as Stratosphere Networking (SN). SN was a promotional tool for my book and some creative arts from friends. When the dust settled, I sold a few dozen books, not even enough to recoup the cost of publishing it in the first place. It wasn't a wash, however, it was a great learning experience. I learned how to write, edit, and publish a mediocre book. I also learned about social networking, blogging, and website administration. It was a couple years before I expanded and started this site as my second blog.
A couple years ago Stratosphere Networking folded. It never made any money, but what really did it in was my neglect. I spent so much time away from the site, I forgot to renew it and lost the URL. Don't ever do this. If you do, some bozo buys your site really cheap and offers to sell it back to you for half the gold in Fort Knox. Since SN never made any money in the first place, I didn't take out a loan to get my URL back. I just let it disappear like Nick Fury at the end of Infinity War. For awhile, things just sat dormant. I did continue to renew Zombie Getaways, but I didn't really have a clue why, just nostalgia I guess.
Fast forward to 2019. My life had some train wrecks over the last few years and I just didn't care anything about writing for an uber long time... or was that Lyft. Who knows. Anyway, I'm not sure if it was Stranger Things or moving to Florida that inspired me, but I started writing again. I decided to go back and make that mediocre book into an Epic Novella. That book inspired another and I started working on a manuscript I had long tossed aside. Anyway, I found myself writing again. Over the years my writing has blossomed and I'm definitely a better writer than I was seven years ago... or at least I think I am. Since I started writing again, I was definitely not going to shell out my life savings to some greedy publisher that won't lift a finger to help promote my book. I know I'm not Stephen King or J.K. Rowling, so neither Harper nor Simon & Schuster are knocking at my door. My best option is the self publish. Thanks to Amazon, it's super easy to do. I signed up for the KDP program and am going to publish my book electronically and in print. Thank you Amazon. (I will gladly accept some money for that plug.) Anyway, my books need a publisher and since SN is dust, that leaves Zombie Getaways. Honestly, my books focus on remote locations, scary stuff and Scifi, so Zombie Getaways actually fits.
So, by a strange turn of events, my failure of a blog has become my publisher. Since I already have the site so perfectly set up for blogging, I'll probably add some stuff, maybe some prose or songs. Actually, I may connect my blogs to my books, but I'm not certain yet. For now, keep an eye out on this site. I hope to have two books published by October 2019.
Thanks for wasting your time reading this long screed. If nothing else, I hope it can suffice as a replacement for your Unisom prescription. Remember, it the zombie apocalypse happens, it's a good time to plan your vacation, I'm sure the hotels will offer a sick deal.
Tim
