Book Details:
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
Book Description:
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...
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Meet the Author:
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.
Guest Post:
My writing journey began when….
This is a surprisingly difficult question. It is because I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t writing. My mother told me that one of my first phrases was “Read a book,” spoken as I carried one to her. Skipping to college, I went to the University of Chicago, where writing was accentuated and seemingly every class that didn’t have a lab had papers assigned. I was convinced that my career was academics and went on to Cornell University, wrote my doctoral dissertation, and started academic writing…BUT, while I was finishing my dissertation, I began working on Capitol Hill to make ends meet (I also worked as a bartender, but that is another set of stories!) and never made it to academia. Instead, I worked in and around the legislative process—House, Senate, administration, lobbying—for the next several decades. Through it all, I wrote on the side; these were mostly analytical pieces, and I was fortunate enough to place many over the years in a wide variety of national publications. What I didn’t do was write fiction—so, here is where THIS journey begins.
Writing fiction is a real jumping off point, or perhaps a return to my “Read a book” earliest beginnings. As I loved to be read to, so too I loved to read to my children. My wife, also an avid reader, did so as well. As I read and listened, I became more enthralled with the structure and content of stories (my professional analytical side remaining engaged at all times!), until I started crafting some in my head.
The springboard for taking this further came from a conversation with my daughter when she was very young. We were musing on superpowers; as we worked our way down the list of possibilities (the usual suspects: flying, speed, strength), we came to traveling through time. I said to her, “What about stopping it?” We kept talking, but I never stopped thinking about stopping time. The more I thought, the more I imagined it in certain situations; these of course included my work. Well, as my work at the time was lobbying, a whole series of situations came to me.
Before long, I had the core of a story in my head. Because I love to write, I thought I would commit the core to paper. The more I did, the more the story came together, and the more engrossed I became in the characters and the story’s direction. I showed it to some editors, which is of course where the real writing process (the hard part) begins.
Then there was a big leap of faith: to leave my comfortable analytical surroundings and take it to a publisher. I had told no one, except the handful of people in the professional process, that I was doing this, or even thinking about it. The first my wife knew of this book was when I showed her its galley proof.
So, there is the journey’s beginning. I hope it continues (yes, I am writing more), and I hope you enjoy its result.
My Review:
When I read the blurb for James Young's Time Stoppers: Interludes in Times, I knew I had to pick it up and give it a read. At first the writing style took me a little bit to get used to. Once I was in about a quarter of the way through, I was hooked. It was nice to find a unique style and plot in a story. I liked the main character, David Preston, and learning about his ability to stop time. It sure did made me think of what if this could be a real thing from time to time. The sprinkle of humor all throughout the book made me giggle from time to time. It was fun and entertaining to find out how his ability to freeze time would turn out for him. Overall, I thought it was a great tale to read and once I got into it, I did not want to put it down. A wonderful debut for this author.
I am going to give Time Stoppers: Interludes in Times four stars. I believe fans of time travelling fantasies with a touch of romance will enjoy it. I would be interested in reading more from the talented author, James Young, in the future. I am curious to see what he has in store for his readers.
I received a paperback copy of James Young's Time Stoppers: Interludes in Times from the publisher, but was not required to write a positive review. This review is one hundred percent my own honest opinion.
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