Interview With Author Robert Weaver
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve written about ten stand-alone novels out of which I have published six. Mostly some form of mystery or crime / speculative fiction. I try to write in different genres. My hobby is writing and reading and being alive. I like most forms of entertainment media but I don’t invest too heavily in any. I’ll go wherever there is a good story (good being subjective, but something novel, stylish, or emotional). I have affection for the Romantic period for its subjective outlook at the world, and I’m grateful for classic Gothic fiction which I view as a darker sibling to Romance. Writing styles have changed, so I try to incorporate that change in my work.
I like cool things so I try to write about cool things.
Genre fiction has been too harshly criticised and I’m fairly upset that fantasy has been rejected as a literary genre for too long. Ahem, Homer…
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is Five Suns Over Somerset (releasing June 15th 2023). It’s a sci-fi novel about a father looking for his kidnapped daughter. It takes place in Somerset county, England, and talks about human hubris and interdimensional beings and retro-technology (since it’s set in the 1970s).
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I wouldn’t know what was unusual.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Most of the classics, but also Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Poe, Lovecraft, Ian Fleming, James Lee Burke, Cormac McCarthy, Tolkien, Daniel Woodrell, Laird Barron, Aphra Behn, Barry Hannah, Robert E. Howard, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Dennis Etchison, Richard Matheson, Stephen King, Simon Strantzas, Richard Gavin, Michael Connelly, the Bronte Sisters, Mary Shelley, Jonathan Carroll. The list goes on.
What are you working on now?
I’m editing Five Suns Over Somerset and drafting the final thematic occult book to complete the Alchemy Collection / Occult Britain (four stand-alone novels connected via their relation to a classic element: water, earth, air, fire). It’s possible it will be an illustrated novel but we will see how it unfolds.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Not really sure. I try a bit of everything.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Do it if you’ve got to do it. No one else can convince you otherwise.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
You put one foot before the other.
What are you reading now?
Moby Dick by Herman Melville.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Writing, I guess.
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?
Good question. I’ll get back to you on that.
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