Bob is an editor, writer, photographer, and lover of fine coffees. His extranormal thriller THRIPZ is a great thrill ride and I enjoyed it immensely. Here is the interview he was so gracious to give me.
1. Tell us about yourself, your life, how you became a writer.
Born in Ohio, rebelled in the 60s, grew up in the 70s, started working in the 80s in the newspaper business as a reporter and photographer. Wrote a book in the 21st century when I started staying home taking care of my only son.
2. Why did you pick this particular subject to write about? What is it about Hawaii that intrigued you?
I lived in Hawaii for over three years. An island in the middle of the Pacific, it came complete with its own religion and myth history. Land of rainbows. Very different from anywhere I'd ever been before or since.
3. Is writing your full time occupation? If not, what is?
Currently I'm a part-time editor for FinancialWire.net. Look for other work now and then, since my son is six and in school.
4. What do you think about when you can’t sleep at night?
Monsters. Spiders. Earwigs. Frying pans.
5. Who is your favorite author?
Dean Koontz.
6. Where is your favorite place to write?
At my desk, staring out the glass double doors, especially when it's raining.
7. Do you outline your books?
Yes, as completely as I can for the major ideas, beginning, middle, end. Changes happen along the way, though.
8. Who has influenced your writing the most?
The core members of my critique group.
9. Where can we buy your book?
Amazon.com. Go to http://www.thripz.com for links and ways to get an autographed copy if you really must have one.
10. What about advice for aspiring authors?
Learn the basics of English (or whatever language) grammar and punctuation.
You can message Bob here about his book or his process. I told him to come around and visit :)
7 comments:
Thanks, Kim and everybody at MB4 for letting me be here. I'll be checking in throughout the day to see what's going on.
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Hi Bob, great having you here at MB4.
What would you say has been your greatest challenge with respect to writing? What have you done or plan to do to overcome it?
Marta, my biggest writing challenge is making myself use the time I have to write to greatest advantage.
It's a little like exercise, eating salad, and other things that make sense but for some reason some of us have trouble starting.
About the only thing that gets me out of the doldrums is self-control, doing what you know you need to do, not what you want to do. Sorry it's not something more exotic. Trying to teach the concept to my six-year-old son these days. But as he will tell you, he'd rather do what he wants to do.
Thanks for the question.
Robert, can you tell us a bit about your plot? We'd love to hear about it!
THRIPZ began as a small part in a bigger story, but when I got a short way into the big story, I realized it had too much stuff.
The plot is simple: Genetically modified insects terrorize island; science overcomes.
I was working on a farm in Hawaii at the time, writing Excel programs to build work orders for pesticides, fungicides, what-have-you-cides, so I was steeped in the information about how those things work against nerves and muscles and in the plant world.
Some members of the insect world have natural resistant to certain chemicals. What if someone wanted to produce a bug with resistance to everything? Why would he do that? How would he control them? How would Good overcome? Would Good overcome?
There's a ton of information on the plot on my website at http://www.thripz.com .
(The bigger story became my second book, which is finished and going through rewrites.)
Wow! Sounds like a great read, Bob. Fascinating premise. I'll hop over and check out your website! Thanks for stopping by MB4 today - it's been a pleasure!
so good to see this! I've read the book, and gave it 5 stars. It really is worth checking out.
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