Ask the Author: Robert Fishell
Answered Questions (8)
Robert Fishell
Larry Niven's Ringworld. The sight of the horizons and the "arch" would be overwhelming.
Robert Fishell
Aside from my daughter's algebra textbook, I'm open to suggestions
Robert Fishell
Inspiration always comes from within. A memory, a feeling, an impression of something that's happened in the course of my day. I don't always know exactly where the impetus to write comes from, but if it gives me something to put on paper or my computer screen, I don't waste time on introspection. I'll know where I got the idea once I get into the work.
Robert Fishell
Before I wrote the original Spike Bike series, I wrote another series of satirical short stories about three irresponsible young men who lay waste to the suburbs of the mid-1980s in a beat-up Pontiac Trans Am. I don't have the manuscripts any more, and I can only find one of them on the web. For some time now, I've wanted to bring these characters back, and I've begun a project to do just that.
Robert Fishell
Just write. Don't worry about pleasing anyone. Your work will come out better that way. In the digital age, we have so many options for getting our work in front of people that we don't have to think in terms of writing in any particular genre, for any particular age or interest group. If you have an idea for a story, just write it. If you can read it back to yourself and you're pleased with it for yourself, you've written a good story.
Robert Fishell
We'll come back to this. I'm just getting my feet wet again after 30 years in the wilderness.
Robert Fishell
I fix something. A light fixture, a cabinet hinge, a shirt that's popped a button. It doesn't matter what it is, so long as it gets my mind off what I was trying to work on. When you can get your mind off your project, often times the answer to a question you've been struggling with will just pop into your head.
Robert Fishell
The idea came from reading the sardonic coming-of-age books by James Patterson and Jeff Kinney with my daughter a few years back. I liked the books, but I also thought the genre would make good fodder for satire. I started to write a series of short stories about a 12-year-old boy who gets himself into ridiculous situations, but as I developed my characters, they started pulling me in a different, more serious direction.
I stitched the stories together, adding material for cohesiveness, and wrote an ending to wrap up the various story threads I'd started. The result was the first draft of my novel Joshua.
I stitched the stories together, adding material for cohesiveness, and wrote an ending to wrap up the various story threads I'd started. The result was the first draft of my novel Joshua.
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