Timing Is Everything follows a broken Detroit Tigers executive who travels into baseball’s past and discovers that changing history can give legends another chance, reshape generations, and perhaps offer him the redemption he never thought he deserved. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?  

The original premise of the book started in 2019 and was about my favorite all-time ballplayer, Mickey Mantle.  When you think of a story of redemption, one needs to go no further in baseball than Mickey Mantle.  Between untimely injuries, self-destruction through alcohol and other vices, Mickey was a great candidate for a redemption story.  Originally, the narrator of the book was going to be Mutt Mantle, Mickey’s father.  That is also why I started the time-travel story with Jim Thorpe, who grew up close to where Mickey did in Oklahoma and had his own story of unfulfilled promise. My thoughts branched out to other baseball characters who were misguided or misconstrued.  From there, the book came together.  Multiple stories of redemption for the sports stars and the protagonist.  

What does Mark discover about himself through helping other people receive opportunities they missed in the original timeline, and how do his experiences with alcoholism, grief, Vietnam, and family estrangement shape the choices he makes in the past? 

I believe Mark was headed in the right direction as a young man but was derailed by the Vietnam War.  Not only did he experience the horrors of war, but he lost his brother.  So, a young man of promise came back to the country with less ambition, will, and discipline.  He fell into the vices and the “going through motions” of work and family life.  Deep down there was a passion of life in him.  At first, his time travel shocked him and he was trying to figure out what he had to do to get back to his time.   No drinking and trying to do good deeds was the ticket for him.  As the years went on, he didn’t despair that he wasn’t going home, he was energized by the good he was doing.  When he got home, all was right in the world.  This then pushed him into doing more good in the world, which is why he turned to politics and trying to help his fellow man.  

As the story expands beyond baseball, how did you approach connecting changes in sports with broader changes in society, and what does the novel suggest about the importance of acting at the right moment rather than simply having good intentions? 

I think about perception and careless journalism when it comes to Ty Cobb.  Yes, he was no saint.  But he was documented as being a fan and proponent of Black players coming into Major League Baseball.  It was a biographer by the name of Al Stump who crucified Cobb in his book, forever making Cobb out to be a horrible person.  I felt by using Ty in my book to not only bring about racial integration in baseball earlier, but then also do the same in a way for the integration of the military during World War II.  It is not out of the realm of possibility that this part of my book could have happened under the right circumstances.  What’s interesting to me is that the crazy 1960’s that we all know of, could have been much simpler and better times for all Americans if it played out like it did in my book.  From there, I think you can go away from the “protest and resist” mindset of so many Americans in the last 60 years and work towards a more harmonious life with very little focus on race.  

What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?

To be honest, I am thinking of a prequel/sequel to this book, Timing is Everything.  I will explore how Baseball fares out into the future and then go backward and focus on Ireland and its difficult history and struggles.  I will stay in the lane of historical fiction; this is what interests me the most.  

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