Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I grew up with a healthy hatred of needles. I was diagnosed as a diabetic at age five, at a time when the treatment options were minimal at best. For better or worse I was surrounded by a family whose job seemed to be to watchdog me in case I collapsed. At school I was the skinny kid with glasses. I wasn’t interested in sports, which made me a frequent target for bullying.
Frequent moves were a part of my early years. My escape was comic books and old radio dramas. I always seemed to have some artistic ability–it ran in the family–and that naturally led to dabbling in both art and writing. I have always worked, but I had a short career in local journalism in the 80’s before dedicating myself to writing.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is entitled Butterfly and Serpent and deals with the teenage years of a young African girl, Jamai Dlamini. She is gifted in ways she can’t understand, isolated and bullied by her own people. Moreover she is an innocent, a young adult with the mindset of a child who can’t understand the foolish choices people make. She has few friends but among them is Youssou Hadebe, a young man who owes Jamai for a gift she gave to his family that she can barely recall.
I’m finding myself looking for solutions in the Third Way. Most dramas in mass media focus on simplistic resolutions–fight-or-flight, hero-or-coward, kill-or-be-killed. Jamai faces that option and rejects it, choosing her own path. I’m very proud of her for that.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Work. I always find mundane tasks put me in the zone where ideas can percolate. Not that my mind wanders so much I’ll put an axe in my shin–! Sitting at a table at a crowded restaurant or fast-food joint is also oddly conducive to the creative process.You really have to take the opportunity to write wherever you are, even if its on the loo.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
As I said I was a comic book freak, and through them I was led to the works of Robert E. Howard. He had a way of painting a vivid action scene in broad strokes that somehow still put you at the center of conflict. Douglas Adams is still a favorite, god rest his irreverent soul, both he and the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, if only because they were both complete and utter smart-arses. Most recently I’ve been drawn to Jacques Tardi’s graphic novel It Was The War Of The Trenches, a brutal, honest retelling of life in the First World War.
What are you working on now?
The follow-up to Butterfly And Serpent is in progress. At this point I’m calling it Sanity’s Edge. Jamai will be moving out into the world, discovering new experiences and beginning to see that she is not alone in the world after all. First her conflict with enemies old and new will come to a terrifying conclusion, while Youssou will make sacrifices and confront a nemesis he never thought to meet again.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Find a writer’s group that is NOT going to simply pat you on the back and tell you what you want to hear. That won’t help you at all. You need people who share your interests, and are quite willing to tear your beloved works to shreds. Be willing to recognize the flaws they will point out to you and be willing to correct, revise, whatever it takes to make that book shine in the dark.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
A long time ago a children’s author described her writing process to our group: stick a piece of paper in the typewriter and stare at it until blood drips on it. Yes, it’s that hard.
What are you reading now?
What’s next for you as a writer?
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?
-The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes & The Return of Sherlock Holmes, both by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
-The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
-just to have something Beatles, I Me Mine by George Harrison
Author Websites and Profiles
Michael Robbins Website
Michael Robbins Amazon Profile
Michael Robbins’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile