Robin Spano is the author of
Dead Politician Society: A Clare Vengel Undercover Novel. She grew up in Toronto, studied physics in New Brunswick, then dropped out to travel North America on her motorcycle. She met her husband, Keith, while working as a waitress, and helped him run his Toronto pool room until they moved to Vancouver. She unwinds by snowboarding, boating, or arguing about politics.

1. Do you have a writing routine?

Yes. I open some poker tables (real money, small stakes) then I open my manuscript. I work on them simultaneously. The poker tables pop up when I have to make a decision (bet/fold etc.), and I return to the story once I've made the play. For some reason, this makes me better at both tasks—playing poker keeps me at the computer, and writing keeps me from playing too many hands out of boredom.

2. What book do you wish you’d written?

Strangely, none—I think I have my own stories to tell, and that they'll come out in time. I wish I wrote as well as some writers I admire (see question 5), and I'd love to learn how to harness their strengths and incorporate them into my own writing, but I don't wish I'd told their stories.

3. Has the Internet helped or hurt your craft?

Helped. In addition to keeping me at my computer, Internet poker pays me a small wage each month, so I get to starve a little less as a writer.


4.What is your favourite form of procrastination?

Facebook.

5. Who are your literary heroes?

John le Carre, for the psychological depth of his characters, and for the way he reveals it, detail by detail, with absolutely no telling. If I could do that, I'd think I'd made it as a writer.
John Irving, for the emotional complexity of his characters. (His are the closest I've seen to resembling real humans without crossing the line into sloppy—or boring—overexposure.)
Kim Moritsugu, for the emotional immediacy, and the fact that when I'm reading one of her books, they follow me around even when I'm off doing something else.
Jonathan Kellerman, for his plotting, pacing, and general skill with language.
Elizabeth George, for her warm, varied stories, and for the depth of her secondary POV characters.
Stieg Larsson, for his original heroine.
Dan Brown, for his sales figures (okay, and his plotting). I know he gets slagged a lot, but he's clearly doing something right; I'd like to figure out what, so I can learn from it.

6. What stimulates the writer in you?

Morning. Coffee. Ideas. Emotions. Writing makes me feel good about myself and my place in the world. It gives me clarity about who I am. I write because I like to feel that way.

7. Who wouldn’t you mind being stuck in an elevator with?

Gordon Ramsay. He can talk dirty to me anytime he likes.

8. What do you think of ebooks?

It's great to save trees, and I hope that they don't end up taking the revenue out of writing/publishing.

9. Is there a famous book you haven’t read that you tell people you have? Or one you have that you wish you hadn’t?

Ha ha. No, I'm fairly candid about the gaps in my cultural education. And the only books I wish I hadn't read are the ones that are too forgettable to remember their names. (i.e., waste of time)

Share a list of 5 favourite books or 5 books that have influenced you, and explain why.

1. I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance when I was 17, and it made me desperate to buy a motorcycle. After a year of dreaming about it, I bought one when I was 18.
2. Babe Ruth: Baseball Boy is a YA book (probably out of print for years now) about, go figure, Babe Ruth's childhood and youth. I first read it when I was three or four, and I've read it a million times since. It sparked a passion for baseball and the New York Yankees, I started collecting baseball cards and going to games, and I continued to read biographies of famous Yankees until I was around 15 (and the interest faded).
3. I read The Manticore, by Robertson Davies, when I was 15. It was my first direct exposure to the concept of the collective unconscious. I started analysing my dreams (I've since stopped), and for years thereafter, I wanted to be a Jungian analyst.
4. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. I read it in high school (maybe age 16?), when a friend of my parents loaned it to me. It fueled my passion for the open road (probably why I felt perfectly safe hitchhiking all over the Maritimes a few years later), and strengthened my resolve not to try to think like anyone but myself.
5. Rage of Angels, by Sidney Sheldon. I read it when I was 8 and felt ridiculously grown-up. The sex scenes flew right over my head, but the book made me want to be a lawyer—probably right up until the time I read The Manticore.

Make a list of 5-10 songs or a few albums that you think complement your book.

1. “Games Without Frontiers” by Peter Gabriel
2. “Run This Town” by Jay-Z
3. “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen
4. “Maxwell's Silver Hammer” by The Beatles
5. “Keeps Getting Better” by Christina Aguilera
6. “Watching the Detectives” by Elvis Costello
7. “Paparazzi” by Lady Gaga
8. “My Life” by Billy Joel
9. “First We'll Take Manhattan” by Leonard Cohen
10. “The Living Years” by Mike and the Mechanics

i wouldn't have come up with "Run This Town" as a Dead Politician Society song but you are totally right. great "soundtrack" choice. (and now it's stuck in my head.) excellent interview!

Thanks Crissy! It's the Rihanna lines in "Run This Town" that make me think of DPS.

Want to hear more about Robin? Check out her interview with Erisian at FNORDincorporated:
http://www.fnordinc.com/2010/07-27/qa-wr...

Want to interview her on your blog? Leave a comment and let us know!