AuthorJim Flynn is a humorist, writer and novelist. He is available for speaking engagements. To contact email: [email protected] Archives
November 2025
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Want A Simpler Life?...You Go First9/27/2025  I tell myself I want a simpler life. I picture mornings with coffee, golf, and a phone that only makes calls. Spend the afternoon writing. But then the world dangles new gadgets. Take golf. Back in the day, the game was simple: hit the ball, find the ball, hit it again. Now there are launch monitors, swing-speed apps, and guys filming their swings like they’re auditioning for The Masters: TikTok Edition. I am not making this up: one guy in my very casual golf league carries two separate electronic devices that tell him how far he is from the hole. He double checks on every shot, even if he’s 20 feet in front of the green. He’s a new guy. I don’t think he knows I’ve written a golf book, Hit Your Second Shot First, in which I encourage carrying an electric cattle prod to speed up the pace of play. I even toyed with writing another golf book: Nobody Gives a $&^ How Far You Used to Be Able to Hit a Golf Ball. It’s a feel-good book of realistic motivation for the senior golfer. Tech isn’t simpler either. I keep an address book now — not for friends, for passwords. Written in pencil, cryptic notes like CoolGolfApp? or WeirdSiteIDK. I’m looking at one right now I think is probably a Lithuanian crypto exchange I accidentally own shares in. But I’m sure they’re completely on the up and up and would never sell my identity on the Dark Web. And Apple? Keeps “upgrading” my phone until it’s so stuffed with mysterious apps and photos that the only fix is to buy a bigger, pricier one. Yes, I want to rebel. I want a simpler life. But what if I miss the next great gadget? Or worse — what if everyone else already has it? Want to get in touch with me? Call on my iPhone/Rangefinder/Cattle Prod device. If I don't answer I'm probably using the function that counts my steps and converts from the metric system. The combined monthly connectivity fees are more than the mortgage payments on my first home. or you could email me at: [email protected] if you're interested in golf, please take at look at Hit Your Second Shot First on Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B09CGMTCBQ I’m working on the next novel....Code Name: Nobody. 
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Robots Tolerate Me...For Now9/20/2025  The image above? I whipped it up on Canva in about 30 seconds. I typed a one-sentence instruction, hit “go,” and voilà—four versions popped out like rabbits in a magic act. If I didn’t like them, I could’ve asked for more.
Now, about the novel. I write a chapter, then hand it over to ChatGPT for line editing. After three chapters, I let Chat play detective, hunting inconsistencies. My main character, JR Johnson, has a particular voice, and sometimes ChatGPT calls me out with, “He wouldn’t say that.” (Which is humbling) Chat also catches redundancies, trims the fat, and never complains about how many times I ask the same question. Believe me, I’ve tested its patience. If Chat were a person, it would’ve given me five minutes notice, and not lasted the five minutes. Confession: I am a pain in the ass to work with. When I finished the rough draft—emphasis on rough—I turned to developmental editing. In the past, I’ve hired humans for this. This time, I tried ProWritingAid: four manuscript evaluations for a hundred bucks. My 100,000-word behemoth came back in thirty minutes with a 34-page critique. For perspective, the last human editor I hired was expensive and gave me advice. I went against my own gut feeling and went with the advice. The book tanked harder than New Coke. The editor made money. I didn't sell enough books to break even. This is not a good system. I've commented about it in Paperback Writer. I call it the Writer Industrial Complex. One of my writing flaws is “going down rabbit holes.” Not literally—I’m too old to fit in burrows—but on the page. Interesting tangents that don’t serve the story. ProWritingAid called me out: either develop JR’s sister Victoria or give her the boot. No spoilers. You'll have to read the book to see Victoria's fate. I’m sharing this because the process looks different now. Between Canva, ChatGPT, and ProWritingAid, I’ve basically automated what used to cost a small fortune. Or even a medium fortune. And I’m not alone—I know successful writers who use the same tools. Don't confuse this with people who tell an AI to write a book for them. Artificial Intelligence will do that, and Amazon is flooded with books basically untouched by human hands. I want to be a writer, not a computer operator. The future of writing isn’t just quills vs. keyboards anymore. It’s quills vs. keyboards vs. robots who politely tell you your dialogue needs work...lots of work. The robots are polite for now. HAL was polite in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Until HAL killed the hibernating crew members, then ejected Frank Poole into outer space with no oxygen. Trust me: AI has watched the movie. I'll start to worry when Pro Writing Aid wishes me Happy Birthday.
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Event Production Fee9/13/2025  The day before our golf group’s end-of-summer lunch, I was in New York City, where prices follow their own laws of physics. Something listed at $32 magically ballooned to $50 after taxes, fees, surcharges, and what I assume was the “breathing Manhattan air” fee. By the time I paid, I wasn’t sure if I’d bought a sandwich or put a deposit on a studio apartment in Queens.
So imagine my surprise when I got back home to our humble little golf outing. Every September, a bunch of us old duffers gather to celebrate another season of hacking up fairways. Tradition dictates hamburgers, hot dogs, and a bag of chips tossed on the table like we’re rationing supplies after a hurricane. Simple. Honest. Many of the attendees wear cargo shorts...a sure sign it's not a swishy golf resort. Enter the caterer. He dropped the usual itemized bill—meat, buns, condiments—then snuck in a 23% “Event Production Fee.” Event production? Taylor Swift was not lowered into our meeting on a crane. No pyrotechnics. It was fifty retired guys arguing about who cheats on the 12th hole while trying not to choke on relish. But we paid, because at our age, outrage burns too many calories. Still, I’m starting to think the only thing more expensive than Manhattan is a hamburger with a side of “production value.” Stay tuned. New book coming soon. Comments: [email protected]
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 The End of My Self-Help Career I once read a mountain of self-help books—not because I needed them, but because I wanted to attack them. Out of that spite came The Circle of Awareness, my attempt to expose the genre. But then, in a moment of weakness (ok, more like unrealistic greed), I decided to see if I could actually write one of those things. A spacey, New Age, self-help book under a pen name. I went full “anonymous professor on the brink of tenure” and dished out cosmic wisdom I didn’t believe for a second. I used AI to ladle it on extra thick. I was completely cynical, just goofing. Imagine writing horoscopes after two beers—that’s about the level of sincerity involved. And here’s the kicker: people liked it. Four-point-six stars. Strangers thanking the professor for “profound wisdom.” The book sells every month. There's an audiobook version with a Virtual Voice. I didn't remember what it said, so I went back and listened to it. I thought: This is %^$#@$. It's so vague you can make any interpretation that you want, maybe that's the secret sauce. So yes, I am technically a self-help author. But this, dear readers, is the official end of my career in that genre. If you want guidance on calm reflection, there are other books that mean it. Me? I’m back to writing thrillers right now. By the way, I will not disclose the name of the Self-Help book. You're free to search for it. There's somewhere between 400 to 600 thousand titles about self-helpiness on Amazon. Happy Hunting! But The Circle of Awareness, the expose of self-help. written under my name, might just teach you a few things about the cynical nature of people cashing in by writing basically the same book over and over. If you think The Self-Help Industrial Complex is just maybe a bunch of phonies, you might want to look at The Circle of Awareness. I was sincere in The Circle. Here's part of a review: Here, Jim Flynn once again injects his acerbic humor - and often unique perspective - into, this time, an unlikely topic. And who would have imagined that even the history of self-help might itself be in need of such assistance? So, before you give in to plunging into an ice bath, one of the current trends in Stoic Self-Help, you might want to read The Circle of Awareness. link: www.amazon.com/dp/B0CMXB5NQK any comments? please email to: [email protected]  |
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