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A Confounding World
Not Yet Your Time follows a self-deprecating office worker whose mundane New York life derails after a near-death encounter with a mysterious woman, leading him to question everything he knows about time, fate, and faith. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I have always felt that the best drama or comedy follows from individuals being placed in situations for which they are utterly unprepared. (Being trapped on Everest while climbing is not the same as crash landing on Everest in your swim trunks) I have also always had the sneaking suspicion that our history, our myths, and the foundations of our culture are on very wobbly grounds. Finally, as someone who spent a full career in marketing, I know that reality is just a press release away from changing.
I found Titus to be an interesting character who gets pulled into a strange situation and manages to adapt despite everything that happens to him. Were you able to achieve everything you wanted with the characters in the novel?
When I embark on creating, in effect, an entire world, I need a central character to react to, digest, and pass through it. I needed Titus to be that person. I gave him the vulnerabilities and hidden strengths to attempt to deal with a confounding world that has sucked him in against his will, only because he was attracted to a mysterious woman. I was also pleased with Kanenas, my, in effect, flawed and reluctant messiah. A good man with ideas, totally unprepared for the greatness that is hung on his shoulders. (Inside secret) I patterned him after the attitude and speech mannerisms of the late actor Peter O’Toole, also a great and deeply flawed person.
I found this novel to be a cutting piece of satire. What is one thing that you hope readers take away from your novel?
Absorb all you can in life from as many sources as you can tolerate because no one person or philosophy has all the answers.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when can your fans expect it to be out?
The world’s greatest historian has a dark secret. He travels back in time and gets deathbed confessions from great figures in history. A Gesture to the Wind is narrated by the historian’s unsuspecting assistant, who is drawn into a world of illegal historic relic dealers, Russian spies, EPA investigators, and the Battle of San Juan Hill, all while developing a deep and abiding friendship with a time-displaced Ben Franklin. (As you can see, I’m having fun.)
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This odd trio embark on a perilous odyssey that includes imprisonment in a labyrinthine security complex under the ruins of the World Trade Center; flight through a murky unfinished tunnel beneath the Hudson River, a safe house masquerading as a defunct museum; and a perilous train ride to link up with a terror cell. Ultimately, the reluctant Titus will face a rendezvous with life, love, death, and destiny in the green wilds of New York’s Hudson Valley.
Not Yet Your Time
James Terminiello’s Not Yet Your Time is a strange, sharp, and funny novel that refuses to play by any ordinary rules. The story follows Titus Carneades, a self-deprecating office worker whose mundane New York life derails after a near-death encounter with a mysterious woman he dubs the “Benevolent Pumpkin.” What begins as a simple act of rescue spins into an absurd web of government agents, terrorist dance troupes, cultish believers, and philosophical riddles about time, fate, and faith. The tone flips easily between satire and suspense, and the plot lurches forward with a cinematic kind of chaos that somehow always lands on its feet.
Reading this book felt like falling down a rabbit hole built by Kafka and decorated by Mel Brooks. The dialogue snaps with dry wit, and the narrative voice never takes itself too seriously. Terminiello clearly enjoys skewering bureaucracy, politics, and the media, and he does it with a mix of intelligence and goofiness that’s both refreshing and exhausting. Some scenes stretch on like fever dreams full of bureaucratic jargon and absurd acronyms, but that’s part of the joke. Beneath the humor, though, there’s a weird tenderness. Titus, for all his bumbling and sarcasm, starts to feel like an everyman trying to locate meaning in a world so absurd it can only be laughed at. The book made me laugh, then think, then laugh again because I realized how close the nonsense hits to home.
The writing style took me a while to settle into. The sentences wander, full of digressions and witty detours, but there’s a rhythm to it, like jazz. The story moves in bursts, then slows to reflect on life’s ironies, then speeds up again in a flurry of chaos. I liked how Terminiello uses humor to talk about big ideas without sounding preachy. The world he builds feels surreal but eerily plausible, and that combination stuck with me. Sometimes I wanted a breath, a quiet moment without a punchline. But then again, that’s life in Titus’s head, too much, too fast, and too real to pause.
In the end, Not Yet Your Time is an absurdist romp with a beating human heart underneath all the noise. I’d recommend it to readers who enjoy satire with teeth, or anyone who’s ever felt trapped in the grind and wondered if the universe is just messing with them for sport. It’s witty, weird, and surprisingly soulful. If you like your fiction bold, funny, and a little philosophical, this one’s worth your time.
Pages: 186 | ASIN : B0FMHB61S5
“Rip and Read”
The Conscience of the C.O.D. follows the PR director of a luxury cruise line who gets an unexpected surprise when he discovers the owners have donated it to house 4000 refugees, and that is just the start of the nightmare. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
As they say in newspaper circles – “rip and read”. When I read that New York City seriously considered housing the migrants on cruise ships, the idea sparked in my brain. I was looking for a starting point for a satire on today’s culture. What better way than to compress it all on a cruise ship? With the C.O.D. as my focal point, I loaded the ship up with people and events which became part of my shooting gallery.
Trip Torrent thinks he has it good as the PR director on a luxury cruise ship, but he ends up in a world where if it could go wrong, it is going to, and he has to make the best of the situation. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
Once again, I noticed that in the real world presidential spokepersons only last about 18 months. It is a grueling meatgrinder. They must live in a bizarre world where reality is passed through a prism of interpretation and expedience. (There is an old joke: How much is 2 + 2? The answer: Are we buying or selling?) Torrent wants to rise to that level of achievement and even dreams about how this whole life of presidential misdirection could play out. I could easily see that someone with Torrents personality would love to be the master of misdirection. Keeping reporters confused and guessing. Torrent is not a particularly noble character but I see him as very real with genuine desires and hopes. And he does get tested by events mostly out of his control. He even has a spot of nobility when he thinks (wrongly) that one of the migrants was executed. O’Higgins the revolutionary is a true idealist who is forever battered and bruised by real life (My mother-in-law was a disappointed idealist and served as an inspiration) We all have our ultimate wants in life and too often reality gets in our way.
This is an action-packed and entertaining novel. Did you have fun writing it?
I had a blast! There is so much in today’s society that needs the santizing enema of satire that I had to hold back. In my previous satire Junkyard I have a master media manipulator named Sebastian El Dorado turn a simple old man who built an extraordinary vehicle into a semi-messianic, global figure.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?
Working title: It Is Not Yet Your Time. An ordinary man is saved from a traffic death by a woman who is a member of a group called The Apologizers. He is capitvated by her. Her group believes that God has abandoned humanity and they must perform good works in order to … apologize. The man is accidently drawn into an Arab terrorist kidnapping, falls in with goverment agents, and meets the mysterious founder of the Apologizers – all in an effort to romance the woman whom he calls the Benevolent Pumpkin.
I hope to get it out by late 2025. I hope.
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The Conscience of the C.O.D.
James Terminiello’s The Conscience of the C.O.D. embarks on a frantic adventure aboard the luxury cruise ship Climax of Dreams. Here, the PR director, Trip Torrent, is thrust into a day that spirals increasingly out of control. Initially faced with the news that his vessel will shelter 4,000 refugees, his challenges escalate when the ship is overtaken by O’Higgins and his crew during a high-profile fundraiser, sparking a chain of chaotic events.
Torrent’s ordeal is amplified by an approaching hurricane, a kidnapped tech entrepreneur, and a malfunctioning automated ship, among other crises. Amidst the turmoil, he interacts with a vibrant ensemble of characters—ranging from semi-nude female commandos to a dubious repairman and a charismatic robotic bartender—each rendered with a mix of sharp wit and vivid detail. Terminiello skillfully blends suspense, action, romance, and comedy to navigate the disasters befalling the C.O.D.
The protagonist, Trip Torrent, is portrayed as a grumpy yet endearing figure whose resilience garners reader support, while O’Higgins emerges as a complex antagonist who elicits unexpected empathy. The novel’s humor shines as one of its core strengths, weaving through the bizarre and intricate circumstances that conspire to complicate Torrent’s day. Terminiello’s satire is particularly effective, offering a clever critique wrapped in humor that might not suit all tastes but stands out for its incisiveness. Action sequences in the book are vivid and engaging, with Terminiello’s detailed prose ensuring that readers remain riveted. The strategic intricacies of a naval maneuver and the ethical quandaries faced by the characters are portrayed with a compelling clarity that effectively balances the narrative’s humorous and tense moments.
The Conscience of the C.O.D. offers an absorbing mix of laughter and adrenaline, making it a delightful pick for readers who enjoy a dynamic blend of humor and suspense. While Terminiello’s distinctive comedic style may vary in appeal, his sharp wit and engaging storytelling craft a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience.
Pages: 180 | ASIN : B0CZZCJPRP
LITERARY TITAN 