Billy Taylor Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Author Billy Taylor has worked many jobs in his lifetime, besides writing novels. He worked on a show called “Good Sex with Dr. Ruth” as an electrician. He would go on to work in front of the camera, as a dolly grip, and worked on both movies and television shows over the next decade. Some of these movies and shows include: “My Cousin Vinny”, “Longtime Companion”, and “Pee Wee’s Playhouse”. He would later injure his back, which ended his grip career, which made him take a job at a boutique at a Wall Street consulting firm. After getting sick of this job, he moved himself and his wife to South Central Texas (in San Antonio); it was here that his writing career began. He has written one novel for young adults (which is called “Thieving Weasels”), and another that is for a more mature audience (his debut novel, which is called “Based on the Movie”). “Based on the Movie” is actually based on Billy Taylor’s real experiences in making movies. It gives readers an in depth look at what happens to the little people who work on a movie. Billy Taylor writes in a small corner of his garage, with a whole bunch of books surrounding him. He has a wife, a lovely woman who is named Anne, and two kids (they has one son and one daughter).

His favorite movie is “Bull Durham” and favorite television show is “The Deadliest Catch”. His favorite job is writing, of course, and his birthday is December the eighth. He graduated from the SUNY Purchase Film Program and New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. He has guest lectured and taught at places like SUNY Purchase, Gemini Ink, New York University and Trinity University.

Note to readers: this is not the Billy Taylor from England that wrote the novel called “Just Friends”.

“Thieving Weasels” was a BookExpo America Buzz Panel Selection and was nominated for an Edgar Award.

“Based on the Movie” is the first novel that Billy Taylor wrote and was released in the year 2008. How are you able to tell that a movie producer is telling a lie? Nine months ago, Bobby Conlon’s wife (Natalie) dumped him for a young and hot film director, and he is doing great. He may break into Natalie’s apartment and cries to her Carole King albums. That is only when he has run out of his medication, and he is better now. So that he can prove it, he is finally throwing out the year old Christmas tree that he has, and all of the empty Vicodin bottles that he has. All five hundred of them. He heads out to Texas to do a movie that stars Ralph the swimming pig. This is the most dysfunctional movie that he has ever worked on, he finds once he is Texas. The pig gets pneumonia, the director is incapable of directing; just when things do not seem able to get worse, Natalie and her boyfriend get the job to take over the project. Both Bobby’s professional life and personal life are combine, no matter where he turns, he is in trouble and flirting with disaster. With everything that has happened, Bobby thinks that a happy ending may be possible. It is the movie business, right?

Fans of the novel found this to be an interesting read, and something with a good main character. Not to mention, a good amount of humor, that may not be for everyone. This novel is full of authenticity, broken hearted dreamers and the misfits that populate the lower tiers of the movie making world. Fans felt that they enjoyed reading this novel, that made them interested in more work that this author had to offer. They were kept up while reading this novel and laughed the whole way through the novel. Some found that they learned something about working on a movie while reading this book; like some people learned what a best boy and a gaffer does and other tricks that come with making a movie. Some liked that it poked fun at the industry of making movies.

“Thieving Weasels” is the second novel that Billy Taylor wrote and was released in the year 2016. His lips are moving. Cameron Smith goes to a great boarding school and has been accepted to Princeton University; as has his girlfriend Claire (who is a beautiful woman). It would be a perfect life for him, except that he is really Skip O’Rourke and he ran away from his family of grifters four years ago; when he left, he took a hundred thousand dollars of their money (their so called “earnings”). This is due to the fact that starting a new life is far from cheap. Skip also left because he no longer liked the life that he had, and wanted to go straight, finally; he was a good student and wanted to focus on that and not taking people for a ride. His uncle Wonderful comes and finds him, telling him that he has two options: he can help them to pull off one last con, or be outed as Skip O’Rourke and have to say goodbye to the great life that he has had with the name Cameron Smith. Everyone around him is lying, making this last con a little tougher than originally thought to be; they are also without mercy and still just as manipulative. There is one thing that he has always remembered in his time as a crook, and that is to always know your mark. If you don’t know who the mark is, then it is probably you.

Fans of the novel found that this is a read with a fast pace, a lot of action, and a great cast of characters who are able to keep things interesting. They were spirited and hilarious; they are also neither black nor white, but had shades of gray to them that gave them depth and made them like real people. This novel, with its twisting and turning plot, keeps you guessing as to what will happen next in the book. This novel kept some glued to the pages, and that they flew through the book. Not at all what some readers were expecting when they first started reading this book.