149 ratings | 48 reviews | avg rating:3.72

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Joe Turk

Goodreads Author

Born

in The United States

Website

https://www.facebook.com/joe.turk.524

Twitter

joeturk182

Genre

Science Fiction, Classics, Horror

Influences

Gary Gygax, Philip K. Dick, HP Lovecraft, Kurt Vonnegut, Ambrose Beirc ...more

Member Since

March 2016

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Joe Turk is a gallery exhibited surrealist painter, animator, professional hand double, licensed architect, gaming enthusiast, and collector of amusing cat photos.

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Popular Answered Questions

Where do your characters' unusual names come from?

Joe Turk When I get stumped for a name, I refer to 19th century baseball rosters. The history of baseball is rife with memorable and sometimes weirdly evocativ…moreWhen I get stumped for a name, I refer to 19th century baseball rosters. The history of baseball is rife with memorable and sometimes weirdly evocative nicknames.
However, in 'Breaking the Toy', the main character's name is 'Gob/Gobalian'. And I got that name from Dickran Gobalian, otherwise known as 'Leon Redbone', Mr. Gobalian/Redbone is a musician known for songs that recall the 19th and early 20th century. But in addition to his nostalgic music, he's known for giving bizarre interviews. He has insisted that he is 'very old', 'thousands' of years old..."I just keep coming back". And when asked about his parents, he said he was the son of Jenny Lind and Paganini. Jenny Lind was a Swedish opera singer born in 1820...which would make Leon Redbone roughly 160 years old Leon Redbone maintains these details of his backstory, to this day, never once 'breaking character'. And if that isn't strange enough, if you look at photos of Jenny Lind and Leon Redbone...they have VERY similar bone structures to their faces.
Since you've read, 'Breaking the Toy', you know the premise involves living multiple lives, so it seemed appropriate to appropriate Mr. Gobalian's name. It's an added bonus that 'gob' means mouth, since the book character tends to say what she/he thinks, regardless of consequence.(less)

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Joe, can you give your rabid fans suggestions for lists you would imagine Making Monsters on someday?

Joe Turk Thank you for asking! I was looking at lists yesterday, trying to find something to read. I couldn't find anything geared toward humorous dystopia or …moreThank you for asking! I was looking at lists yesterday, trying to find something to read. I couldn't find anything geared toward humorous dystopia or humorous apocalypse, but I personally considered pulling a book from these two lists, so it'd be nice to find MM on there some day...
Big list full of classics: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...
Smaller list with indie titles: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4...

Recently, I've found readers who are politically active have been picking it up, so maybe it would fare better with on one of these lists...

Bigger list: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Smaller list: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8...
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Combine Editions
Joe Turk’s books

Average rating: 4.23 · 47 ratings · 36 reviews · 2 distinct works

	Making Monsters 4.25 avg rating — 40 ratings — published 2014 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Breaking the Toy 4.14 avg rating — 7 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

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Joe Turk's Blog

The agony and ecstacy of reading Self-Published books

Two years ago, I'd never read a self-published book. Honestly, I hadn’t read a book that wasn’t a bestseller or literary classic, or at the very least, had established a cult-like following. (And I considered myself an avid, open-minded reader.) There’s a very limited amount of ‘reading time’ in my life and I didn’t want to waste my precious few recreational reading hours on an unproven book.

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Published on April 27, 2016 07:45 • Tags: reading-self-published-books

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Making Connections: 4257. - MAKING MONSTERS by Joe Turk	4	19	Mar 15, 2016 02:09PM
Review Group: * Group 100B Sci-fi. Mod Emma	183	90	Jun 17, 2016 04:05PM
Review Group: * Group 103 Scifi/dystopia Mod Warren	198	94	Dec 19, 2016 12:56AM
Pro-Active Destru...: * Free Kindle Books	1177	601	Mar 11, 2017 02:18AM

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Joe’s Quotes

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”
― William Shakespeare, The Tempest

tags: inspirational

7891 likes

“The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.”
― Bertrand Russell

tags: doubt, intelligent, problems, smart, stupid, world

2303 likes

“Whoever said nothing is impossible obviously hasn't tried nailing Jell-O to a tree.”
― John Candy

tags: impossible, jell-o, tree

27 likes

“Being like everybody is the same as being nobody.”
― Rod Serling

159 likes

“I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter."

(Letter 16, 1657)”
― Blaise Pascal, The Provincial Letters

tags: brevity, conciseness, correspondence, humor, letters, pithy, wit, writing

748 likes

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