#WriterWednesday Interview with Robert F. Lowell
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I’d like to welcome Robert F. Lowell to the blog for #WriterWednesday!
Hardest thing about being a writer: The soul-crushing emptiness of the blank page. Slightly worse than the soul-crushing emptiness of marketing.
Easiest thing about being a writer: Coming up with bad ideas. Bad ideas are essential to any creative endeavor. Researchers who study innovation and creativity all agree that the best way to have a few good ideas is to have lots of bad ones. Make sure you write them down.
Words that describe you: Grateful, reliable, respectful, affectionate, committed, disciplined, curious, tenacious, introspective.
Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: Predictable, cautious, dad-bodded.
Last best thing you ate: Shakshuka at the Blue Barbikan, a Polish restaurant in York, England.
Last thing you regret eating: The Sunday roast beef at a pub in York that will not be named. I almost asked the waiter for an axe.
Favorite music or song: Classic rock and hot country. If Eric Clapton and Chris Stapleton ever tour together I'll ask if Ticketmaster accepts payment in blood.
Music that drives you crazy: Heavy metal. No, Led Zeppelin was not heavy metal. Neither was Steppenwolf.
The last thing you ordered online: An excessive amount of artisan roast coffee.
The last thing you regret buying: Loafers. I swear my feet must have variable geometry.
Things you always put in your books: Dialog between two or more people who don't trust each other.
Things you never put in your books: Open-door sex scenes. Sorry, ladies.
Things to say to an author: "Your last book changed my life." "Can I pre-order your next book?"
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: "I've always wanted to write but I've never had the time."
Favorite places you’ve been: Florence, Cornwall, Lake Tahoe. In my imagination Heaven looks just like Tahoe, but everybody's naked.
Places you never want to go to again: Zheleznogorsk, Siberia. The people were very friendly, even the Russian secret service guy who was tailing me, but dang it was cold.
Favorite things to do: Travel, eat fine food, drink wine, whisky, or beer, watch movies, snuggle with my wife. All the above at once.
Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Changing diapers, home repair, packing to move to a new house. If you've never eaten chapulines (Mexican-style grasshoppers), give them a try.
The coolest person you’ve ever met: D. J. Butler, pirate-hatted science fiction and fantasy author/publisher.
The celebrity who didn’t look like he/she did in pictures/video: Clint Eastwood. Saw him in Carmel one night and thought he was the ghost of Arnold Palmer.
The nicest thing a reader said to you: "[Your story "Ghost Wolf" is] something that today’s survivors of Iraq and Afghanistan would understand completely."
The craziest thing a reader said to you: "Wait, your name is Robert?"
My favorite book as a child: Charlie Brown's All-Stars by the great Charles Schulz. I loved the Peanuts gang as a kid, and they'll always hold a place in the sandlot of my heart. Snoopy is my spirit animal. According to one strip, I'm the same age as Charlie Brown. He's aged better.
A book I’ve read more than once: The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. If you ever get a chance to see Max McLean's stage adaptation, do it. Your soul will thank you.
About Robert:
Robert F. Lowell is a Writers of the Future winner and Baen Fantasy Adventure Award finalist. His complicated relationship with reality began when he was born between two movie studios in Burbank, California. In previous professional lives he researched and wrote about international relations, weapons of mass destruction, and terrorism. He taught at universities in the US, Costa Rica, and Switzerland and was kissed by a dancing horse in Siberia. Now he expands the universe of online learning as an instructional systems designer and writes about swords, sorcery, robots, aliens, and magic rabbits as a member of the Wulf Pack Writers. He, his wife, and at least one dog live in a town with very expensive weather on California’s Central Coast and travel in search of enchantment.
Let’s Be Social:
Website: https://www.robertflowell.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robertflowellauthor/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fwehling
