Robin Trent interview

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

A little introduction:

I love books.  You could plop me down in the middle of a bookstore and I would be content for hours.  I love a new book, the crisp pages and the smell of ink wafting from them; the promise of possibilities.  I’ve been reading all my life and it was this love of reading that prompted me to want to become an author.  That and the fact that I have always done art in some form and I really came to appreciate the fact that art makes me feel whole.  When I finish a project I have a sense of completeness I can get nowhere else.  

I chose software development as a career when I was young and I was told to be realistic about my career choices.  Even though, as a child, I was into all kinds of art forms from drawing, to wood burning, to sand painting, you would think it would have been obvious that I was a right-brained individual.  But art, in any form, was not a way to make a living, or so I was told.  And as happens to many people who reach their forties and realize that they chose this career path before they even knew themselves, I decided I wanted to pursue writing and live my creative life.  I chose fantasy as my genre, because everything that I want to read or see, whether it’s movies or books, is fantasy.  I get excited for anything that has a vampire, witch, magic, wizard, faery, werewolf, ghost, etc.  and that leaves me open to write a whole slew of books.  If I had to pick one, I would say a ghost story is my favorite.  I really want to write my version of a ghost story and someday I will.  I write for myself first because if I don’t enjoy it, why should my reader?  My influences would be Stephen King, Anne Rice and Kurt Vonnegut.  I read every one of Kurt Vonnegut’s books when I was sixteen.

When did your love of books begin?

I came from a family where reading was important.  I had four sisters and all five of us read to this day.  My mother loved to read and she was a huge influence in my life. Growing up,  we had a book case in our living room that was built by my grandfather.  My mother asked him to build it and it took up one whole wall, broken in half by a nook in the center where the television sat.  He made it out of maple and it was beautiful.  So even while watching T.V. books were present, lingering there in your peripheral vision, sitting on the gleaming shelves made by my grandfather.  I used to stare up at the books on the very top and wonder what secrets they held because we weren’t allowed to read those books.

When did you start to have the wish to become an author?

I was born in a small town in Ohio and grew up during the 70s.  I was a very shy kid and had a hard time expressing myself verbally.  However, when I sat down to write I felt a kind of freedom where I could express myself without limits.  I used to keep a diary, one of those small, pink, girlie diaries with the little gold lock.  I could write how I truly felt without getting into trouble.  That was my first experience with writing and I have been journaling ever since.  I have stacks of journals which I now consider reference material. WhenI was about twelve, I wrote my first short story.  Coming up with story ideas has never been an issue for me and I kept a tickler file of all those ideas.  But I don’t think I had the confidence to write a full novel until my fifties.  My sister went to college and got a Masters in Creative Writing.  I think I harbored the belief that since I didn’t have one of those I couldn’t write a novel.  I wasn’t qualified.  What really helped me get over that foolish belief was my husband. He encouraged me, no actually he hounded me, because he knew what I really wanted to do.

How have you found the process for becoming an author?

I think the hardest part for me was deciding whether I wanted to be traditionally published or indie.  It used to be that to be taken seriously, you had to be traditionally published.  But, the world has changed and that isn’t necessarily true anymore.  I thought about it long and hard and decided to make the leap and self-publish.  I wanted to get my story out there and reach as many people as I can.  Learning about self-publishing was daunting at first.  I’ve always had the ability to teach myself and I know there is good and bad information out there. So, I started watching YouTube videos, reading magazine articles and getting books about the subject.  I had a little bit of an advantage in that I already owned a business with my husband, a restaurant.  So I knew how to set up a business.  When covering so much information, the tricky part is sorting out what is helpful advice and what is just opinion.  Like all authors, I wish I could just write but that is not the world we live in.  Now you have a business side you have to pay attention to, self-published or traditional published, it doesn’t matter.

What would you say to those wanting to become an author?

My sister Laura actually gave me the best piece of advice about writing.  Get the material down, write the story and don’t censor yourself.  That comes later.  The first thing you have to do is get some raw material to work with.  It’s like clay, you have to mold it and shape it.  Don’t worry about misspelled words or grammatical errors.  You will fix them later.  Some of it you will cut away, some of it you will rearrange or even rewrite completely, and that’s okay.  It’s called word-smithing for a reason.  But if you don’t have anything to work with, you’ll get nowhere.  I think censoring ourselves is the easiest thing in the world to do and it’s the worst.  We worry about what people will think and that strangles us creatively.  Throw all that out the window and write whatever comes to mind.  If no one ever sees it fine, but you might surprise yourself and come up with some real jewels.

Dream big, don’t take no for an answer, and keep moving forward.  That may sound cheesy but it’s true.  I made a mistake by putting my dreams off and being “realistic”.  Whatever their passion is, I don’t want anyone else to do that.  No one can take that away from you, but you.  Be true to yourself.  When you find that thing that makes you feel complete, that gives you a sense of wholeness that is hard to describe, living life without it dulls the colors of your everyday world.  Live In technicolor by finding your bliss and go for it!  

Tell us about your book/books:

Moonshine is the first book in a series about a woman and her family in the Victorian Era.  Elizabeth, the main character is a woman in a time where women were considered high-strung and overly imaginative.  So imagine the problem she faces when she discovers that the faeries she saw as a child are real and they invade her home, kidnap one of her children and leave a changeling in its place.  She tries to convince the rest of her family about what has happened but to no avail.  So, Elizabeth has to take matters into her own hands.

This is book one in a five book series.  There is a lot more going on than is revealed in the first book and a faery war is brewing.  I have read several books on Faery, including The Faery Faith in Celtic Countries by W. Y. Evans-Wentz and I try to incorporate as much folklore as I can by interweaving it into the story.  I’m trying to remain as true as I can to the folklore, while taking poetic license with the fantasy part.  It’s been a lot of fun to write.

I’m currently working on the second novel titled Earthshine and I hope to have it out by the end of the year.

What do you love about the writing/reading community?

Writing is a very solitary thing, so it’s great to be part of a group.  I’m so glad Twitter has a reading/writing community.  It makes it so you don’t feel like you’re alone.  They are very welcoming and supportive and it’s fun to see what others are working on and the discussions they are having. It’s also great to belong to a group with a common interest, books!  It spurs me on and inspires me to keep going.

If you could say anything to your readers what would it be?

I really appreciate you because without you I am nothing.  What is a storyteller without their audience? I hope you enjoy the book and that you go on an adventure for awhile.  That I get to take you on a journey and you can see things through my stories even for just a little bit, means I got to share something with you and that means a lot to me.

Where can people connect with you?

I have website, https://darkmusepress.org and a contact page where people can leave me messages.  I also have a Facebook page @darkmusepress and I try to post there too as well as Twitter @darkmusepress.