Book Title: TIME-STOPPERS: INTERLUDES IN TIME by James Young
Category: Adult Fiction, 376 pages
Genre: Fantasy: Time Travel/Romance
Publisher: Mascot Books
Publication Date: June, 2026
Content Rating: PG-13
The “perfect life” is an impossible dream—or is it?
Aided by an ability to stop time at will, David Preston intends to find out. David is obsessed with making his world perfect: career, love life—everything. Most people settle for less because they know perfection is impossible. But David has a problem: He believes perfection is not just possible but attainable. At least, for someone with his extraordinary gift.
David can stop time at will for everyone but himself. The world freezes around him, giving him “time” to complete tasks on impossible deadlines, compose brilliant answers to sudden questions, and dodge the otherwise unavoidable disasters we can see coming but are powerless to stop.
But life is messier than it appears, and reality is not easily dissuaded—especially when there may be someone else out there, stopping time...
This is James Young’s first foray into fiction. He has spent over three decades in and around D.C. politics, immersed in economic and policy legislation. Alongside degrees from the University of Chicago (B.A.) and Cornell University (M.A., Ph.D.), Young’s writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, Washington Examiner, The Hill, American Spectator, The Federalist, Washington Post, New York Post, Barron’s, Forbes, Chicago Tribune, Townhall, Blaze Media, San Francisco Chronicle, Cleveland Plain Dealer, USA Today, and elsewhere.
In his early days, James was Kipling’s “cat who walked by himself,” working in a steel mill, sailing on the Great Lakes’ iron ore boats, tending bar, riding motorcycles, scuba diving, traveling extensively worldwide, and “doing all manner of things that would have consumed fully eight of the Kipling cat’s nine lives.” He is spending his remaining life more sedately, though still traveling with his family to America’s national parks—with only the occasional exotic foray here and there.
Interview:
1. What literary pilgrimages have you gone on?
A:
I like to go to the places that I am writing about and get a true sense for the
location. The results of this are all
through Time-Stopper. The Thomas
Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress is, to me, the most beautiful
structure in Washington. That Julia
would know it and be transported by it was very natural to me. I do the same thing in other parts of the
book, Del Ray for instance.
2. What is the first book that made you cry?
A:
Winnie the Pooh: It’s closing scene where Christopher Robin is trying to
explain to Pooh (“a bear of very little brain”) that he is leaving. Pooh, of course, cannot understand. I found it so sad then and, as I grew to
understand it even more fully, its poignancy grows as well. It still gives me a lump in my throat.
3. Does writing energize or exhaust you?
A:
Usually, it is energizing. The exception
is when I write very emotional sections.
There are several between David and Julia and, one especially, that I
found it hard to not simply write, but even to edit. I would have to steel myself to approach it
and then get up and leave the keyboard for a prolonged period until the scene’s
impact dissipated.
4. What is your writing Kryptonite?
A:
Schedules in general and deadlines in particular. Don’t get me wrong, I will meet them. Nevertheless, I don’t find that writing works
like that: There is not a switch that can be turned on and off. It flows or it doesn’t and can’t be
timed. So, putting a time schedule on
it—and especially a hard-and-fast one to produce something—often produces a product
that I’m not happy with.
5. Did you ever consider writing under a
pseudonym?
A:
No, not really. I can see why authors do
it; especially if they have reached such a level that their name immediately prejudices
readers’ responses. And I certainly toyed
with it in some writing projects. But
the whole point of writing is to express yourself, so doing so as someone else
defeats that purpose to me. I realize
that actors do it all the time, it’s what acting is all about, but that’s not
writing.
6. What other authors are you friends with, and
how do they help you become a better writer?
A:
I know several writers (and I hope you will forgive me for not divulging names),
and we talk regularly about what we love to do.
It’s very helpful because writing is very personal and its setbacks are
equally so. There are also all the nuts
and bolts of it—timing, amount of output, topics, wording, and innumerable
other details—which no one else would find interesting or be familiar
with. Sounding boards are important, the
danger that I worry about is that, while you are sounding out, you don’t come
to sound alike.
7. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or
are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?
A:
Stand alone. Each one is its own. I haven’t found a story that I want to keep
following and following. I believe that
each is sort of like a person: People may have one great episode in their lives
that could become a book, but most of us then return to our normal lives—and
normal lives are not that interesting, which is why we enjoy reading
stories. My fear with writing follow-ons
is that you could slip into that uninteresting part of characters’ lives or over-correct
make them sound contrived.
8. What authors did you dislike at first but grew
into?
A:
As a group: poets. It seemed
unnecessarily tedious when I was forced to read (and memorize) them in
school. As I grew up, I started to see
the beauty and the unnerving demand that each word, each syllable, must count
and is counted. Now, I read poetry every
day.
9. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel?
A:J.D.
Salinger’s Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction
comes quickly to mind. I remember
traveling in China decades ago and finding it on a table of books for
sale. It was included like the “B-side” of
a record to Catcher in the Rye.
Of course, I loved Catcher, but finding Raise High the Roof
Beam felt like my own unique discovery and, therefore,all the moreexhilarating. I also like Kipling’s stories that are now so
out of fashion: The world’s loss, he knew how to write and excelled across a
variety of genres.
10. As a writer, what would you choose as your
mascot/avatar/spirit animal?
A:
Easy: a cat. I love Kipling’s “cat who
walks by himself and all places are alike to me.” As I write this instant, ours is sitting next
to me on a folding table, on my open notebook, and purring up a storm.
11. How many unpublished and half-finished books
do you have?
A:
Yes! I have two manuscripts that I have
shown to other readers and am working on another that is three-quarters through
a first draft. One is another magical
realism, one is a contemporary literary fiction, and the other is almost a
borderline between magical realism and contemporary literary fiction. I’m always working on something.
12. What did you edit out of this book?
A:
A scene between David and the office assistant.
I really loved the scene (David explains to her that he can stop time
and proves it), but it just didn’t fit. It
would have taken the story away from its true course.
13. If you didn’t write, what would you do for
work?
A:
Well, I did that (working
in Washington) for almost forty years. I
was still able to write on the side for much of it though. My background is academics; this too entailed
a lot of writing. I can’t really imagine
not being allowed to write. Jefferson
said: “I cannot live without books.” I’m
sure he would have said the same about writing.
14. Do you hide any secrets in your books that
only a few people will find?
A:
All throughout, in a certain sense. Many
of the scenes really happened to me: David stopping on a motorcycle ride and
hearing the cicadas is a true story. I
also tried to leave foreshadowing clues in the book; I think these are secrets
of a sort, one that you are being told but don’t know it’s a secret at the
time.
15. What is your favorite childhood book?
A:
The ones I read to my children. Little
Houseby Virginia Lee Burton was particularly popular with one of mine, and
I have the fondest memories of my child bringing me the book. I used to read them in special voices and add
words (where I thought they were needed—until my children learned to read and
called me on them!). Having them
clustered around and within the circle of my arms as I read; that was heaven.
Connect with the author: Website ~ Instagram ~ Facebook ~ Goodreads
My Review:
This book has an interesting concept. What if you could pause time? What would you change? Would you try to improve your job? Research the questions you were asked? Try to impress someone you like? I think that I would read ( I have so many books on my tbr.), or maybe go back to school? What would the consequences be? Would the consequences outweigh the positives? After awhile I think that I would cause too much of a butterfly effect. That is what this book explores. What happens when you tempt fate and the backlash. There were times where the book was really serious and other times when there was some humor. There were also politics involved. What if you were not the only one that was manipulating time? This book reminded me of the television show Quantum Leap. You never really know what the future holds, even if you try to change it. Towards the end of the book the author talks about being radar versus being archive. Are we all just here to archive events for future generations? This book really made me think. I am giving this book a 4/5. I was given a copy to review, nevertheless all opinions are my own.
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