Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve published seven, with number eight due out in the fall. I wanted to be a writer when I was a teenager, but when I got kicked out of high school, that was pretty much that. I spent a lifetime doing just about everything else, until one strange day it was time to write “Once upon a Time”. I haven’t looked back.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The latest, due out this month, is “Deep Cherry Red”. It’s LA noir, classic detective pulp, but it’s definitely romance driven. I’m in love with my femme fatale heroine, and I don’t think there’s any inspiration needed, other than a need to be near her. In any event, inspiration always seems to me to be too important, and all about the author. I’m only in business to tell stories.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I like to write when I’m punchy from lack of sleep. Getting up in the middle of the night (and the middle of a dream) is just about perfect.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I like writers who disappear behind their stories. I like writing that’s so beautiful it becomes invisible. I love authors who love telling stories enough to learn magic, not the ones who are in love with “being authors”. John D. Macdonald comes to mind. Zelda Fitzgerald, whose voice is loud and clear in Gatsby, but was willing to let Scott take the credit as long as the story got told. Robert B. Parker, whose writing is so flawless it might as well be written in invisible ink.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on a fairy tale called “A Blueberry Moon for Corah”. It’s about a couple of senior citizens who reunite to finish an adventure they started when they were kids. Their survival will depend on learning to believe again in the things they’ve learned as adults to disbelieve. Like all good fairy tales (and real life), it’s got a huge dollop of horror. It will also make a case for ‘true love’.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I like anyplace where readers go…Facebook, bars, waiting rooms. I prefer the company of readers over writers. The best marketing for the next book is your last book, which is fair. You get one shot to become someone’s favorite author. If you do that, it’s all the marketing you need.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Forget about “being an author”. Be so fascinated and in love with telling stories, want so desperately to make people laugh and cry and get scared and fall in love, that the only thing you want to learn is complete invisibility, so you don’t cast your own shadow over the story.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Stephen King, paraphrased: Never use an adverb.
What are you reading now?
“The Long Goodbye”, by Raymond Chandler.
What’s next for you as a writer?
The next story, and the next, until I can’t.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I’m going to sneak a fifth.
“The Great Gatsby”, F.Scott Fitzgerald
“Double Play”, Robert B. Parker
“The Quick Red Fox”, John D. Macdonald
“The Shining”, Stephen King
“The Ocean at the End of the Lane”, Neil Gaiman
Author Websites and Profiles
Bob Bickford Website
Bob Bickford Amazon Profile
Bob Bickford Author Profile on Smashwords
Bob Bickford’s Social Media Links
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