John A. Heldt

Time-travel extraordinaire

Monday, December 19, 2016

Behind a holiday masterpiece

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One of the things I like most about this time of year is that people and organizations focus more on disparities in society and the needs of...
Thursday, December 15, 2016

A first draft for a last book

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Fifty-five days after telling others I would not begin writing the fifth American Journey book until January 1, I have finished its first dr...
1 comment:
Saturday, November 12, 2016

Starting down the final road

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There is nothing like bringing a series to an end to focus the mind. Authors pay more attention to details and getting it right because they...
2 comments:
Friday, October 7, 2016

Review: Edge of Eternity

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I am not a fast reader. I almost never finish a book before it’s due at the library and usually max out my renewals before bringing it back....
Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Review: Timeless

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Like a lot of people, I love time travel. I’ve written nine time-travel novels and read or watched everything from A Sound of Thunder , Time...
Friday, September 16, 2016

Review: Brooklyn

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I don’t watch a lot of movies these days. One reason is that I don’t take the time to watch them. Another is that I don’t find current offer...
2 comments:
Friday, September 2, 2016

Finding fun in the Fifties

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In every series there is usually one novel the author looks forward to writing the most. For some, it’s the first book, the one that sets th...
1 comment:
Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Giving a nod to my better half

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She is usually the first person I consult on writing matters and the contributor I trust the most. She is the person most likely to recogniz...
1 comment:
Thursday, July 14, 2016

A finished first draft and more

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It took seven weeks, a lot of sweat, and some swearing at the cat (just kidding), but I finally got it done. The first draft of Class of ’59...
Sunday, June 5, 2016

Getting a jump on novel nine

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Those who know me well know that I rarely keep my word when I say I will take a long break between books. The temptation to jump into the ne...
Monday, May 9, 2016

Review: Friction

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There’s a reason Sandra Brown , author of more than 50 New York Times bestsellers, is still going strong 35 years after publishing her firs...
Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Two more for the audio files

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As a reader for the past couple of years, I have really been a listener. More often than not, I have selected audiobooks over print and digi...
Friday, April 22, 2016

Putting disaster on center stage

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One of the things I enjoy most about writing time-travel novels set in twentieth-century America is learning about the people, customs, and ...
Friday, April 15, 2016

A book with a bit of everything

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If there is one thing I’ve learned in four years as an indie author, it’s that people like certain things in the books they read. They like ...
Friday, April 1, 2016

Touting the tools of the trade

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As one who came of age in the early 1980s, I remember what writing was like before Microsoft Word, spell check, and the Internet. I remember...
Sunday, March 20, 2016

Review: The Martian

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When it comes to movies and books, I’m not a first-run or first-edition kind of guy. I will almost always wait until the works are inexpensi...
Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Pictures, words, and covers

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According to a saying popularized by newspapers, a picture is worth a thousand words. It can say things that even a hundred words cannot. It...
Monday, February 29, 2016

Review: Of Mice and Men

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I barely remember the first time I read Of Mice and Men . It was one of those classics I read in school because I had to. As a teen in the 1...
Thursday, February 18, 2016

Review: The Nightingale

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Near the end of The Nightingale , a novel by Kristin Hannah , the protagonist, an old woman, makes an observation in 1995. Looking back at h...
Saturday, February 13, 2016

American Journey, Take Three

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I didn’t quite match the frenetic pace of some in the NaNoWriMo crowd. It took me five weeks to write fifty thousand words and eight to wri...
Thursday, January 7, 2016

One (hundred) is not enough

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There are days I think Nora Roberts isn’t real. No one, I am convinced, could write 214 books, including 195 New York Times bestsellers, e...
6 comments:
Wednesday, December 9, 2015

The best in Christmas movies

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I like the Christmas season. I like the music, the lights, the festive spirit, and, of course, the holiday itself. No other time of the year...
2 comments:
Monday, November 16, 2015

Review: Unbroken

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As a reader, I am not easily impressed. I have read more than 500 books and wouldn’t consider more than 30 great works of literature. Every ...
Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Remembering our veterans

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If there is one American holiday that never seems to get its due, it is Veterans Day. Lost in the maze between Halloween and Christmas, it i...
Sunday, October 25, 2015

A Halloween treat for the ages

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If there was one event that dictated the primary setting of Mercer Street , released last week, it was a radio broadcast that was supposed t...
Thursday, October 22, 2015

Driving down a different Street

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I admit I resisted writing this book. Even as one who had written six novels set in the twentieth century, I resisted writing about the 1930...
Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Back to the Present Part II

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It’s been a while since I’ve seen Back to the Future Part II . Maybe twenty years, in fact. But today, the movie is fresh in my mind, if not...
Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Making The Journey to audio

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Of the six time-travel novels I have published in three and a half years, The Journey is perhaps the least like the rest. It is easily my s...
Thursday, October 1, 2015

Review: Radiant Angel

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I never tire of reading Nelson DeMille . There is no one in the business who combines suspense and humor as well as the New York novelist, w...
Friday, September 4, 2015

When life influences art

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As a sports fan, I generally root for the underdog. If my favorite team is not playing in a game or in the hunt for a playoff spot, I side w...
Friday, August 14, 2015

Heading down new roads

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One of the first things I learned as a self-published author three years ago was that I was more than an author. I was a businessman who had...
4 comments:
Saturday, August 1, 2015

Review: The Finest Hours

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As I noted in a review of Timothy Egan’s The Big Burn more than two years ago, I don’t read many non-fiction books. And, when I do, I tend ...
Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Finding a place in Princeton

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When you write historical fiction, you are immediately confronted with at least two challenges. The first is to describe a time. The second ...
Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Giving animals their due

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I admit I’m not very good at keeping track of these things. Had I not seen an obscure Internet reference yesterday, I would have never known...
Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Book Seven: A midterm report

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Of all the rules Stephen King has laid down for writers, none gets my attention like this one: "You have three months." That’...
Friday, May 8, 2015

Breaking through the 'block'

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Oxford defines writer’s block as "the condition of being unable to think of what to write or how to proceed with writing." It ...
Thursday, April 9, 2015

Review: Second Honeymoon

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There was a time when I went through James Patterson novels like some people go through newspapers. In a stretch of five years, I read thir...
Monday, March 2, 2015

My go-to place for info

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I have sought its assistance when writing every book. When preparing The Mine and The Mirror , I asked it for information on the peacetim...
Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Review: Winter of the World

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To say that Ken Follett is one of my favorite authors is a serious understatement. I have read eighteen of his novels, including four of hi...
Sunday, February 1, 2015

A plotter, not a pantser

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E.L. Doctorow once said, “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whol...
2 comments:
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About Me

John A. Heldt
John A. Heldt is the author of twenty-six bestselling time-travel novels. The former reference librarian and award-winning sportswriter has loved getting subjects and verbs to agree since writing book reports in grade school. A graduate of the University of Oregon and the University of Iowa, Heldt is an avid fisherman, sports fan, coin collector, and reader of thrillers and historical fiction. When not sending contemporary characters to the not-so-distant past, he weighs in on literature and life at johnheldt.blogspot.com.
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