CJ Franklin
Jimmy James and the Circus of Wonders
James is an utterly average musician - playing bars around town, his gigs barely pay the rent he owes to his Mom, and his dreams of stardom are fading fast. That is, until he’s abducted by a TV-obsessed alien warlord, who's desperate for fresh talent in his Circus of Wonders… And someone to talk with about Game of Thrones.
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James is forced to play for all manner of aliens, races, and species. If they have the money, he’ll be there. Will he remember the words? Does it matter? That thing goes where? Navigating space relations is tricky.
Lights up. Curtain call. And if he bombs? Well, in this show, the booing comes with stakes.
Jimmy James and the Circus of Wonders is the first book in the Jimmy James Chronicles. It's a fun and wild adventure ride, with some NSFW things that just sort of happened.
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It's in KDP! (For the time being at least..)
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Read below for the making of and more information on Jimmy James and the Circus of Wonders.
More About Jimmy James
Jimmy James is a cozy sci-fi. It was inspired by my favourite television show; the one, the only.. Doctor Who.
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I love the idea of a character who floats through a weird universe, doing whatever comes up. Part nomad, part unexpected adventurer. Also, he's a bar musician whose used to going with the flow.
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About halfway through writing, my girlfriend gifted me a copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. And gosh darn, it hits a lot of the same notes. It's silly, it's fun. It's everything I hope Jimmy James is and will be.
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Discworld, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Doctor Who, Legends and Lattes.
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All were different, and at some times random, influences on this book.
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More on that...below...
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A Selection of Scenes from Jimmy James and the Circus of Wonders:
Had someone spiked my drink? Had one or two turned into a few more?
I’m embarrassed it took me so long to notice, or mention, that I was in a tiny robe. My traditional jeans and plaid shirt stage combo had disappeared, and the tiny, blue robe did not account for gravity’s pull. My underwear was absent from its duties. And my sagging-more-than-I-would-hope family jewels ducked below the hem.
I was hanging low in a cushion-y steel box.
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–
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Clicking noises and three whistles. ‘What’s your name?’
I didn’t respond. I sat in stunned silence, staring at it. It looked uncomfortable with the staring, but I couldn’t stop. More whistles and clicks. ‘Your cloth says James.’
‘Call me Jimmy.’ My immediate response to anyone calling me James. I then had the immediate reaction to cross my legs. The blue robe was still small. The giant creature man beast was getting a very free show.
‘Jimmy James.’ The tinny voice from the translator responded to the clicks and whistles. I wanted to correct him, but the noises didn’t stop. ‘My name is Mitondospectavardillir.’
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–
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Tammy was clearly looking right at me. ‘Can we talk?’ she said.
I heard some oo-ing from the crowd. We went into the tent for some privacy.
I started to say we shouldn’t do that again, but she cut me off. ‘We shouldn’t do that again.’ Her musical language translated in the tinny translator sounded strange.
I didn’t love being on the other side of this. I thought I did pretty well last night. By Earth standards I was great, but then again, almost nothing we did last night was earthly. Was I a terrible space lover?
Tammy kept going. ‘It’s just you’re so,’ Oh boy. ‘Pink and fleshy and doughy.’
That wasn’t the worst thing I’ve been called by a woman, but it stung. I mean, I gained a bit of weight while we’d been here sitting and drinking. It wasn’t that much weight. It’s like my coach used to say; take the losses the same way you take wins.
‘I understand, well at least it was fun.’ I said.
She didn’t say anything back. It wasn’t a disagreement, but not an enthusiastic review.
The Making Of
Jimmy James was the first novel I ever finished.
Sort of.
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I think, like many aspiring authors, I wrote a few different novels. And many, many more starts of novels.
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Two years ago, I read a book that I honestly can't remember the title of. It wasn't a particularly good book, but it had one section where it said over 80% of people never finish a large project once they start it. It may have been a completely made up statistic, but it stuck with me.
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I wanted to finish this gosh darn book.
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The idea of a random, middling musician from Earth had been rattling around my head for a long time. I'd put it off. I kept thinking, 'let me write a few bad ones before trying the one I want to write.' Which is... terrible advice.
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I finally decided to just write it. Maybe it'll be bad. Maybe it won't. There's always editing. There's always the next one. There's always the one after that.
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So, I wrote it over the next 4 months.
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I then had to endure the torturous experience of having to edit the book. I knew nothing about editing. (I'll admit I still don't know much.) But I put my mind to it.
I read craft books. I consulted blog posts. I watched YouTube videos.
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After several rounds of editing, I had no more excuses. I could tinker with it for millennia, but I made up my mind not to. Whatever was going to happen, would happen.
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I had a book I was proud of.
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I went about trying to make a cover. (Check the blog for what happened there.)
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I wrote a blurb. (A surprisingly annoying thing to do.)
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I learned how to format a book. (Ugh.)
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Finally, I had everything in place.
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No more excuses.
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With sweaty fingers, I opened up KDP.... To find my account had been suspended for some reason.
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I got that sorted out. (Thankfully, they responded to my email.)
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Then, I pressed publish...