{"id":315766,"date":"2026-06-22T16:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T16:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/315766\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T16:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T16:31:09","slug":"a-life-worth-writing-timothy-schmands-incredible-journey-to-the-page","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/315766\/","title":{"rendered":"A Life Worth Writing: Timothy Schmand\u2019s Incredible Journey to the Page"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the great pleasures of hosting The Miami Book Hub podcast is discovering the stories behind the storytellers, especially when the storyteller is someone I have known and admired for years.<\/p>\n

My guest for Episode 14, Timothy Schmand, is a longtime South Florida public servant, former executive director of the Bayfront Park Management Trust, and, as I only recently learned, an accomplished, award-winning author. Tim and I once worked together in downtown Miami, but somehow, through all those years, I never knew about the extraordinary literary life he had been quietly building alongside his civic career.<\/p>\n

Tim\u2019s path to writing began in high school, when a girlfriend sat down to complete a story assignment. Watching her put words on paper sparked something in him.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom that point on,\u201d he recalled, \u201cI started thinking of myself as a writer and tried to live a life that a writer would live.\u201d<\/p>\n

And live it he did.<\/p>\n

Inspired by the likes of Henry David Thoreau and Jack Kerouac, Tim built a cabin in the woods, hitchhiked across North America, traveled from Buffalo to Key West and later worked on a wagon train program for juvenile offenders. Eventually, a cold Buffalo November helped steer him permanently toward South Florida. After discovering Coconut Grove, and its famously bohemian spirit, he joined a writers\u2019 group at the Coconut Grove Library and later began leading it.<\/p>\n

His professional journey was nearly as unexpected. A job as a weekend security guard at Miami\u2019s history museum led to an opportunity as a grant writer, even though he had never written a grant. He proved good at it, rose through the organization and eventually brought those skills to Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, the Miami Science Museum and Bayfront Park. Following Hurricane Andrew and a period of institutional upheaval, Tim ultimately found himself leading the park\u2019s management trust.<\/p>\n

Throughout it all, he kept writing.<\/p>\n

His books include The Danbury Chronicles, a rust belt magic realism tale of a snowy Thanksgiving weekend; Just Johnson: The London Delivery, a distinctly Miami story involving a delivery man, organized crime and Cold War intrigue; and The True Tales of Bad Benny Taggart, inspired partly by Tim\u2019s experiences working with troubled young people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tim also shared practical wisdom for other writers. Each morning, he writes three pages in a journal, practices yoga, returns with more coffee and then gets to work. His reason for writing every day is beautifully simple: Ideas, like wet paint, remain fluid when we keep working with them, and you have to continue working them before the ideas get baked in.<\/p>\n

His advice about publishing was equally candid: \u201cIf you\u2019re writing to get rich, get another job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Writers should instead find the places where they hope to see their work and submit it. Success may require capturing \u201clightning in a bottle,\u201d but the deeper reward comes from transforming an idea into a finished work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really painful to write,\u201d Tim admitted. \u201cIt\u2019s really annoying to write.\u201d Yet seeing what he created from nothing, he said, \u201cbrings me great joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

That tension\u2014the difficulty of the work and the thrill of having done it\u2014will resonate with every writer.\u00a0 It certainly did with me.<\/p>\n

You can find Tim\u2019s books for purchase on Amazon<\/a>, and learn more about him and his works at TimothySchmand.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Watch Episode 14 of The Miami Book Hub at YouTube.com\/@J.AdrianBetancourt<\/a> or listen on Spotify<\/a>, and please like, subscribe and share the program. Until next time, keep reading, keep writing and stay curious, Miami!<\/p>\n


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