|
Blog of Jim Flynn
|
AuthorJim Flynn is a humorist, writer and novelist. He is available for speaking engagements. To contact email: [email protected] Archives
December 2025
Categories |
Back to Blog
Wrong Angle, Kemosabe8/30/2025  There’s an old joke where Tonto looks at the Lone Ranger, then at the rear end of a horse, and simply says: “Kemosabe.” That’s about as concise a definition of trust issues as you’ll ever find. Thrillers thrive on this kind of mistrust. The best ones put their heroes in situations where survival depends on someone else—and that someone else might be a traitor. The “we” in thrillers is almost always provisional. Think about it: Bourne and Marie in The Bourne Identity. Every time he helps her, she wonders if she’s helping a protector or a lunatic. In le Carré, spies treat every ally like a possible mole. That sideways glance is where the real suspense lives. In my next book, JR Johnson isn’t just worried about one partner—he’s torn between two. He needs both of them, but he can’t decide which is more dangerous: the one who might be setting him up, or the one who might decide it's easier to just kill him. It’s like sharing a lifeboat with two people and wondering which one is secretly drilling holes in the bottom. So when JR hears “we,” he doesn’t relax—he tightens up. Because in the thriller world, “we” usually comes with an unspoken asterisk. Sometimes the only smart response is Tonto’s: take a hard look at the view in front of you, then mutter, “Kemosabe.”
0 Comments
Back to Blog
 Kick, Push, Perspective. Brooke Johnson skateboarded across America. Coast to coast. On a board with wheels the size of pancakes. Three thousand two hundred and sixty-six miles. My first thought: I hoped she alternated legs every mile or so. She did it in honor of her stepfather, who’d been paralyzed in an accident, and she raised $50,000 for spinal cord research. That’s purpose. That’s grit. That’s love on four wheels. Meanwhile, what do I usually complain complain about?
Here's another big challenge for me: I refuse to play Starbuck's precious little game, so I order “A coffee, black, small” and the barista stares like I’m speaking Latin. Then I know, I just know, they spell "Jim" wrong on purpose. Brooke’s was skating across deserts, mountains, and traffic that would make a cabbie faint. So next time we start griping about the weather, or how the TV remote batteries died, maybe remember Brooke Johnson: the woman who literally pushed herself across a continent. Perspective isn’t just a nice word. Sometimes it’s a skateboard. Coming Next Week: BIG, BIG NEWS Note: the comments function for this blog doesn't work reliably, so if you have comments, please send them via email to:: [email protected] If you haven't checked out my latest book, please do so: www.amazon.com/dp/B0FHWMRTQ2 
Back to Blog
 We’re All Just Bumping Bubbles
Everyone lives in their own private bubble. Inside yours? Thoughts, grudges, your personal ranking of which relatives you’d let into the lifeboat if you were on the Titanic. We think we share reality with people we know—family, friends, the spouse we’ve been married to for thirty years—but really, it’s just neighboring bubbles. Even shared memories don’t match. They remember the vacation as “relaxing.” You remember “five endless days stuck with your in-laws.” This is a running theme in Code Name: Nobody. We see the story through three characters—JR, Toni Anne, and Pennington—each trapped in their own bubble. Sometimes their lives intersect, but they’re watching different movies. JR thinks it’s a paranoid scramble to stay alive. Toni Anne thinks it’s a high-stakes chess match. Pennington thinks it’s just another Tuesday where he might have someone killed and a chance to steal billions. So if you’ve ever wondered why people don’t see things your way—it’s because they can’t. They’re in their own bubble, just like you. All we can do is drift close, bump for a second, and hope we’re at least in the same parade. Above is the working version of the book cover. You may notice I've gone with "J.P. Flynn." From now on the novels will use this author name, the short funny books listed by "Jim Flynn." As long as you're here, feel free to look around the website.
Back to Blog
 Well, Rose didn’t exactly review my book—unless you count coloring in the pages as a review. Rose, unlike many grownups, knew exactly what to do with my new book, Paperback Writer: Now Appearing at Bingo Night. Turns out, some people love the book. And some people hate it—they just don’t get it. That’s fine. It’s a strange hybrid: part satire of today’s writing and publishing circus, part stand-up comedy in print, with a few illustrations mocking the Adult Coloring Book craze. Rose didn’t care about any of that. Her grandmother, loyal reader Denise, handed her the book, and Rose went to town with the crayons. Did a great job, too. Thanks, Rose. And Denise. Meanwhile, I’m knee-deep in writing my JR Johnson thriller, Code Name: Nobody. That one’s still a ways off. If you’d like to support a geriatric writer, you could grab Paperback Writer. Or, if golf is more your thing, check out my best-seller Hit Your Second Shot First. That book, now five years old, still sells every single day without a dime spent on advertising. It’s been bought in Japan, France, Germany, England, New Zealand, India… and pretty much every country where English is spoken. Of course, because it pokes fun at people who take golf way too seriously, it has its haters too. That’s the deal—if nobody hates it, nobody’s reading it. And for those who prefer listening to their books: yes, there’s an audiobook of Hit Your Second Shot First. link to Paperback Writer: Now Appearing at Bingo Night: www.amazon.com/dp/B0FHWMRTQ2 Link to Hit Your Second Shot First: www.amazon.com/dp/B09CGMTCBQ
Back to Blog
Why Trust Real People?8/2/2025  Why We Trust Movie Characters More Than Real People My friend Bob is one of the most successful men I know. Financially secure. Very generous charity donor. Eats vegetables voluntarily, and weighs about what he did in high school But every time we talk, I’m reminded of one thing: Bob believes, deep down, that John Wayne movies are real. Not based on a true story real. Not inspired by American values real. I mean real real—like Duke himself is still out there somewhere, riding a horse across Monument Valley, solving global conflicts with a squint and a shotgun. I always tell him: Bob, you're the most successful man in America who still thinks John Wayne is more trustworthy than people he’s actually met. Not John Wayne the flesh and blood person. John Wayne the movie character. But honestly? I don’t think Bob’s alone. Most people I know are taking life advice from characters who don’t technically exist. Whether it’s some grizzled cowboy, the avatar of a self-help author who has 19 bestsellers that all say the same thing, or the misunderstood lost love of a billionaire in a romance novel who finds her redemption in the final chapter—we all do it. We trust the people who live in our heads more than the ones sitting across from us at Thanksgiving. And maybe that makes sense. Real people are inconsistent, unpredictable, and often disappointing. Fictional characters? They’re curated. They’re written with arcs and theme music. They don’t leave passive-aggressive comments on Facebook or forget to pick up the dry cleaning. So yeah—Bob believes in John Wayne. And JR Johnson, the main character in my new thriller series? Same deal. When things go sideways, JR doesn’t ask a friend for advice. He asks himself what Jack Ryan would do. Or Harry Bosch. Or maybe John Corey, Jason Bourne, or Jack Reacher. Because in JR’s world—like ours—trusting real people is a gamble. He's been very disappointed in people...for good reason. But a movie hero? Now that guy won’t let you down. It will be a while before the new books are out. Meantime, please check out Paperback Writer: Now Appearing at Bingo Night. It's funny. I'm getting feedback from people who have tried to write--they identify with the struggle. Support a writer, and laugh a bit. Check it out on Amazon. Link: www.amazon.com/dp/B0FHWMRTQ2  |
RSS Feed
