About Me

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Paso Robles, California, United States
Novelist, poet, songwriter, and journalist, I bring over four decades of experience to the written page. I just finished Mental Hygiene, a coming of age novel set in Fort Jackson, SC circa 1967-68.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

MENTAL HYGIENE - a novel by Timothy Dean Martin (Chapter Two)

CHAPTER TWO


"So, I understand that you're from Los Angeles which means that Sergeant
Gonzales won’t like you."

"I'm very likeable, Major Green,” Murphy answered.

Major Bert Green, who arrived back from lunch before Sergeant Gonzalez,
immediately ushered Murphy into
his office and made him feel totally at ease. “Sergeant Gonzales can wait to
chew on you,” Green said as he sat down.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Deja Vu All Over Again - Mental Hygiene Musing

"Are you bitter?" a friend asked me.   I was escorting her and her husband home after a dinner party the other night.

"No, I’m guilty," I answered immediately.  We were discussing the reason for writing my new novel, Mental Hygiene.

Mental Hygiene is a coming of age story of Michael Murphy, a privileged twenty-year old Southern Californian, who has been drafted at the height of the Vietnam War.  His considerable manipulative skills aid him in avoiding the warfront, and land him at Fort Jackson, SC as a Psych Tech in the Mental Hygiene clinic.  Its subject matter is loosely based on my own experiences at the same time and place.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Mad Men & Me - the Shortest Success in Advertising

The other night on Mad Men Don Draper won a CLIO, the world’s most recognized global awards competition for advertising and design.
I should have been more impressed.  Draper out does me in almost every department, good and bad.  I couldn't be as good looking as he is if I had the guys from Nip/Tuck all over me.  But Don and I have one thing in common.  We both enjoyed success in the advertising business, although he did it for way more seasons.