Interview With Author Roy Robson
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was born in the working class district of Walworth, southeast London, in the UK.
A varied career includes working on a market stall, working as a squash coach, toiling on a factory assembly line and doing what I could as a youth support worker, trying to get kids from a similar background as my own into decent education establishments and thereafter good jobs.
I eventually trained in the dark art of computer programming and worked for many years in the City of London, designing systems to track the flow of money around the world.
I will confess to this being an almost impossible task.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
I have just finished a trilogy – The Kenzie Marsh Chronicles. I suppose it’s a techno conspiracy theory thriller about what would happen if the general pessimism and anti-humanism prevalent in our culture went too far. If the doomsday clock of Greta really was ticking and the ‘tradwife’ belief that industrialisation had truly torn us from our natures how far would those in power go to redress the balance. For instance, would they really try and wipe out humanity?
The Kenzie Marsh books involve a detective who has hit rock bottom after the death of her son and the collapse of her marriage. She is recruited by British Intelligence on a secret mission where she discovers a conspiracy so shocking it threatens not only her life, but the lives of everybody she knows.
The three books in the series are called ‘Silent Scream’, ‘SIlent Whisper’, and ‘Silent Murder.’
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I can’t write from home. I need the background buzz of a pub or cafe so that’s where I do all my writing. I write best (I think) after a pint of London Pride – a classic British ale.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I read the Hobbit at 10 and thereafter never looked back. I’ve enjoyed most of Michael Connelly’s books and also love classic British crime such as ‘Jack’s Return Home’. For me it’s the best book of its type – gritty, seventies noir portraying a subsection of society living just under the radar, eking out a living between crime and social respectability. It was made into a film – Get Carter – which is my favourite gangster movie ever.
What are you working on now?
I’m looking to do something different and am researching 17th-century London for a series of historical drama novels. The amount of skullduggery available for authors to garner stories from is endless.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Facebook ADS
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write six days a week and take one day off. Always.
Also, there is no such thing as writer’s block. If you really are stuck just jump to another part of your story or write a character outline — anything. As soon as you start ideas and thoughts will jump from one synaptic nerve ending to another and before you know it you will be up and running.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write six days a week and take one day off. Always.
What are you reading now?
London and the 17th Century by Margarette Lincoln.
An Evil Cradling by Brian Keenan
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet
What’s next for you as a writer?
After writing my historical novel series I’m going to write a series of books for authors on how to market their books.
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 Bible (because I’ve never read it)
The Gulag Archipelago by Solzhenitsyn
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (no book has ever made me laugh so much)
Money by Martin Amis
Author Websites and Profiles
Roy Robson’s Social Media Links