Ask the Author: Robin Tompkins
Answered Questions (12)
Robin Tompkins
Hi Henry, no, I haven't read it. To my shame, I thought it sounded like a book about an exceptionally gifted bartender, until I Googled it.
Sadly, I think you may have mistaken me for a person of intelligence. A controversial, surreal satire once banned by the Soviet authorities and translated from the original Russian, is not, generally speaking, the sort of thing you will find on my bookshelf. The 'Beano Summer Special' is much more likely. :-)
Thank you for the question and so sorry to be a disappointment to you. :-)
Sadly, I think you may have mistaken me for a person of intelligence. A controversial, surreal satire once banned by the Soviet authorities and translated from the original Russian, is not, generally speaking, the sort of thing you will find on my bookshelf. The 'Beano Summer Special' is much more likely. :-)
Thank you for the question and so sorry to be a disappointment to you. :-)
Robin Tompkins
Hmm, OK... Did you wish really, really hard and the spam fairy made them all go away?
Robin Tompkins
Oh dear, oh dear, sadly not the right question for me. I am the world's least mysterious guy. If I was being tailed by mysterious agents, they would be so bored... With the state of the world I don't even go to the pub. They would tail me to the supermarket, the post box, the local park, to get my haircut and visit my sister. They would ask for a transfer.
The only literary mystery I'm involved in, is why can't I persuade more people to buy and review my books? :-)
Of course, if this was the plot for a book, that would be exactly what I would want you to think, eh? :-)
The only literary mystery I'm involved in, is why can't I persuade more people to buy and review my books? :-)
Of course, if this was the plot for a book, that would be exactly what I would want you to think, eh? :-)
Robin Tompkins
Well, not counting the one I’m still working on, my most recent book would be, ‘The Road to Bell Hill.’ It’s the second part of my ‘Bell Hill,’ trilogy. I finished it during the first lockdown last year and launched it last August. At its roots, the ‘Bell Hill,’ trilogy, comes from wanting to write about, extremism, intolerance and persecution. I wanted to be very free to write about those things though, so it needed to be set in a fictional world. To be honest, as always, I also wanted to entertain. I don’t do, ‘relentlessly grim,’ it’s not in my nature. A fantasy setting helps with that too. The ‘Bell Hill’ world, largely stems from me thinking about past persecutions, thinking about witch trials, persecution of witches, the deaths of hundreds of innocents, mainly women, because of twisted ideology and dogmatic thinking. That was the jumping off point and I built the world from there.
Robin Tompkins
Be sure that you really want to do it. Do it only if you have to, if it’s a compulsion. You do read news articles about people taking up writing on a whim, scribbling their life story in an exercise book and getting a movie deal, yeah! Dog bites man, not a news story, man bites dog and it’s news, to steal a phrase. The reason you read about overnight successes in the news, is because they hardly ever happen. The reality is very different.
Robin Tompkins
I was interviewed once about my first book, (short fiction collection Omar the Teller of Tales). The interviewer asked me, ‘Why do you write? Is it for validation?’ The answer is no. I write because I’m happy when I’m writing and unhappy when I’m not. If you were really asking a variation on the old ‘where do you get your ideas from’ question, well, the short answer is, ‘Haven’t got a clue, they just arrive.’ The long answer though, might make a blog at some point. 😊
Robin Tompkins
I’m glad you asked that. It’s quite a story, one I will probably do a blog piece on later. I am currently collaborating with my sister Maddie (Madeleine Purslow) on an idea we have been tinkering with for over twenty years. It’s a project we keep coming back too and then for one reason or another, usually life getting in the way, it goes on a back burner. However, we are just on the last pither and faff, the last huff and puff, of getting a book out there. It will be part one of a series, it will be out soon and for now at least, anything else is ‘spoilers.’
Robin Tompkins
It’s an invisible superpower. 😊
Robin Tompkins
I am lucky, in that I don’t suffer too much from that affliction. I tend to find though, that if I do get blocked, it’s caused by impatience more than anything. Trying to ‘take the story out of the oven before it’s cooked,’ will absolutely cause you to stall. If it happens, I just have to tell myself that that is the problem. Don’t panic, you haven’t suddenly lost the ability to write. Step back, do other stuff. Put the Laptop away and don’t pick it up again until the story is talking to you.
Robin Tompkins
With his back to the icy wind, he saw the long, dark spindling shadows of the trees stretched out before him like the legs of some vast spider. Suddenly, his breath caught in his throat, his heart raced, as he remembered with horror, how flat the moor was, how barren, that there were no trees…
Robin Tompkins
That’s a tricky question. Most of the fictional places I engage with, tend to be great to read about but probably not the best places to actually visit. It’s a bit obvious of me but I would perhaps say Narnia? Not White Witch era Narnia though. Perhaps they are running Dawn Treader cruises now? Nice, comfy, all inclusive ones, with a good buffet and a nice bar? I’d probably do that.
Robin Tompkins
I haven’t had chance to think about summer reading just yet. I’m in the final stages of launching a new book. Once that’s out there I will be looking for recommendations.
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