Tim Wendel

Coming down the homestretch. These edits need to be back to the publisher by mid-September.

Since January, I've been working with a voice coach, improving my delivery for the classroom at Johns Hopkins and with an eye on the next book tour. It's been fun to take on some commercials, animation and narration. Learning how to vary the pitch, cadence, dare say the feeling of what I'm saying.
In the course of the lessons, with the amazing Mark Neely, I realized the audio for several of my books (Red Rain, Night on Manitou Island, Down to the Last Pitch) has yet to be done. I think I'm now going to tackle them myself.
Last week, I did a demo tape at Bias Studios in Springfield, Va., where Danny Gatton, Emmylou Harris and my friends Eddie From Ohio have cut albums. It was a bit unnerving to walk into Studio B and go through multiple takes of my scripts for commercials and narrations. But, all in all, it went pretty well.
Meanwhile, the good folks at Cornell Press, the publishers for Cancer Crossings: A Brother, His Doctors and the Quest to Cure Childhood Leukemia, sold the audio rights to the new book to Blackstone Audio.
In a nice twist, Blackstone is interested in having me do the narration for Cancer Crossings. At the very least, I have a quality demo to send their way. Read More 

It usually falls to the writer to secure the permissions for artwork and photographs in a book. Invariably, one or two images can prove elusive. When I was writing CASTRO'S CURVEBALL, I had heard about a photo of Fidel Castro running to first base with his baseball team that toured the island after the  Read More 

I received an email last week about Bob Gibson's scoreless streak in 1968. In my response, I returned to some of the points I made in SUMMER OF '68: The Season That Changed Baseball, and America, Forever. The scoreless streak belonged to the Dodgers' Don Drysdale in the Year of the Pitcher. Bobby Kennedy's assassination  Read More 

After much discussion, we've decided on a subtitle and a slight alternation to the main title. The entire package is now -- CANCER CROSSINGS: A Brother, His Doctors and the Quest for a Cure to Childhood Leukemia.
That sums up this part family memoir, part medical narrative pretty well.
Next up? The final edits  Read More 

With the manuscript into Cornell Press, the production phase is now underway. There will be 15 photographs in the book, placed within the text instead of the usual insert. The permissions from the various hospitals and outlets have been secured. In addition, several family photographs will be used.
At one point, the working title was " Read More 

The final edits for The Cancer Crossings went off to Ithaca, N.Y., and Cornell Press late yesterday. I've done seven or so revisions on this work since Memorial Day, which will be my 13th book, out early next year.
It is my search for my younger brother Eric's legacy. (He died of leukemia  Read More 

Thanks to the Internet Review of Books for the superb write-up about Down to the Last Pitch.
Here's the closing:
"(The) games are just the platform, the launch pad for remembrances, sidetracks and conjectures. Frank Robinson tells us that the sound of a home run is so pure even a blind man can know  Read More 

The news that the U.S. and Cuba are seeking to normalize relations put my first novel, CASTRO'S CURVEBALL, back in the spotlight, as well as my novella, HABANA LIBRE. Check out my column for USA Today about the sea change in the Caribbean.

A week-long swing through Buffalo, Syracuse and the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown is over and I'm back in northern Virginia. Time to work on some new projects and prep for the fall semester at Johns Hopkins.
Thanks to everyone who came out to my appearances this summer, from the East Coast  Read More