Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a retired professor of physics but I’ve maintained a passion for the outdoor life and the chasing of birds in particular. My wife and I have a small farm in south Texas and stay busy with gardening and our vineyard. We have about 36 gallons of (hopefully) good red wine fermenting right now. It should be ready by Christmas.
Even though I’m a physicist, my career was spent making and analyzing sound recordings of birds and other wild animals in their natural habitats. I founded the Center for Bioacoustics at Texas A&M University back in the 1980s.
I did a great deal of technical writing over my career, but my novel “The Scarlet Kingfisher” is my first attempt at fiction. It took me just about one year to write it and it was great fun. I’m proud of how it turned out and I hope many people find it entertaining. It may be the first time that birding and murder has been combined to create a suspense novel. So far, my readers seem to agree that it is different, at least.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
There is no real Scarlet Kingfisher, the species that forms the name for my book. I’ve always daydreamed about the excitement of discovering a species of bird previously unknown to science. I would trade just about all of my accomplishments to have done that, but it didn’t happen for me. So – I made it up. I’ve set the novel in rural south Texas, a place I know well. It is a place with all manner of characters from which to draw and I’ve done that liberally. I hope my writing will transport readers to the thorn brush land of Texas and have them living among scientists and villains as the chase to discover and possess the Scarlet Kingfisher proceeds.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t think my writing habits are particularly unusual. I get up very early in the mornings and almost all my writing is done before daybreak. My biggest struggle is that I have mild dyslexia and me ability to see misspellings and typos is almost zero. I can hear the mistakes, but not see them. I have a beautiful electronic British female voice (Audrey) that reads back to me every sentence I write. I could not allow one paragraph to become public without Audrey’s approval.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I have read very little fiction over my life. Only in the last few years have I begun to sample some of the classic American literature. Although I read some of Fitzgerald in college as a requirement for a course, I recently re-read The Great Gatsby again and found it profoundly wonderful. His prose is pure poetry for me. If only I could write like that. Here is a passage where Gatsby kisses Daisy. Could anything be more beautiful?
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They stopped here and turned toward each other. Now it was a cool night with the mysterious excitement in it which comes at the two changes of the year. The quiet lights in the houses were humming out into the darkness and there was a stir and bustle among the stars. Out of the corner of his eye Gatsby saw that the blocks of the sidewalk really formed a ladder and mounted to a secret place above the trees — he could climb to it, if he climbed alone, and once there he could suck on the pap of life, gulp down the incomparable milk of wonder.
His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy’s white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips’ touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete.
What are you working on now?
I have ideas for my next book, but have not started writing yet. I have chosen to spend a month or two attempting to market the Scarlet Kingfisher. If I can’t sell this one, maybe I should not attempt a second. If I do write another book, it will be my effort to create a literary novel and not a commercial story like The Scarlet Kingfisher.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m just learning this now. Stay tuned.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Enjoy the writing part, because the marketing part is really hard.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Strive to be in the smallest peer group possible.
What are you reading now?
Writing Journal: A Year in the Life of a Self-Published Author by Scott Haworth
What’s next for you as a writer?
Attempting to break The Scarlet Kingfisher through the fog of a new volumes on Amazon.com every five minutes of every day of every year. I checked its sales ranking while I write this sentence and it is at #196,437. Pretty depressing. I’m not going to give up. My book is worth reading.
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 Great Gatsby, The Norton Anthology of the English Literature, and On the Shoulders of Giants by Stephen Hawking.
Author Websites and Profiles
Robert Benson Website
Robert Benson’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile