Ask the Author: Robert Rees
Answered Questions (7)
Robert Rees
It would have to be Narnia I think. Talking animals, mythical creatures, and beauty. What's not to like!
Robert Rees
There is a dark unconscious part of the brain where ideas go to rest for a while, making unsuitable friends and ridiculous connections. Then they will suddenly re-emerge into the light, changed and fitted out in new clothes. God knows how it works, but usually there is a fuse lit by some event or experience that sets the mind racing.
In my case, for "A Season in the Sun" it was a cricket match. We were holidaying in the Seychelles (I have loved it ever since our honeymoon there and returned several times) and had hired a car to drive around the island. As we approached one tiny little village, hardly more than a clearing in the jungle, I noticed a team dressed in whites on a small patch of green. they were playing cricket, a sport which I also love, but had never seen in these islands before.
There is something nostalgic about cricket played in a village (for anyone who doubts this, read "Memoirs of a Fox Hunting Man" by Seigfried Sassoon) and I immediately wondered as to what level the sport had risen. At that time the answer was, not very far.
I wondered how one would start a league. Who would play, could a small village underdog make a championship winning team? Would powerful vested interests become involved?
I had recently retired from the city, and so my hero, Henry, has this as a background. And I think some of the impetus for the novel was to see how Henry develops as a person, when pitted against rather more primitive problems than those found in the City. Can he adapt to cope with what his new life life throws at him?
And for the answer to that, you will of course have to read the book...!
In my case, for "A Season in the Sun" it was a cricket match. We were holidaying in the Seychelles (I have loved it ever since our honeymoon there and returned several times) and had hired a car to drive around the island. As we approached one tiny little village, hardly more than a clearing in the jungle, I noticed a team dressed in whites on a small patch of green. they were playing cricket, a sport which I also love, but had never seen in these islands before.
There is something nostalgic about cricket played in a village (for anyone who doubts this, read "Memoirs of a Fox Hunting Man" by Seigfried Sassoon) and I immediately wondered as to what level the sport had risen. At that time the answer was, not very far.
I wondered how one would start a league. Who would play, could a small village underdog make a championship winning team? Would powerful vested interests become involved?
I had recently retired from the city, and so my hero, Henry, has this as a background. And I think some of the impetus for the novel was to see how Henry develops as a person, when pitted against rather more primitive problems than those found in the City. Can he adapt to cope with what his new life life throws at him?
And for the answer to that, you will of course have to read the book...!
Robert Rees
I have always thought that "Aspiring" is such a nebulous word. Don't aspire, start.
And don't get put off if you think that it's rubbish. Or if other people say it's rubbish. Or if it really is rubbish! Just keep plugging away. Its not easy, but it is immensely satisfying.
And don't get put off if you think that it's rubbish. Or if other people say it's rubbish. Or if it really is rubbish! Just keep plugging away. Its not easy, but it is immensely satisfying.
Robert Rees
I think the best way is just to start writing and see what happens - one tip is, if you are suffering from block because you cannot think where the story is going, then move to a different section and start on that - it is easy enough nowadays to stitch things together later. I have a large file of old stuff which got removed from "A season in the sun" but which may be resurrected later.
Failing that, a gin and tonic sometimes helps..
Failing that, a gin and tonic sometimes helps..
Robert Rees
I am in the lucky position of doing this purely because I enjoy it so much. Creation is always fun, whatever form it takes, and there is a wonderful sense of release and achievement when one has added the last full stop to the last page (prior usually to months of proof reading and editing...).
So I would say the joy of having created a new world in which things happen only because you wish them to, and the satisfaction (hopefully!) of finding out that one or two others agree with you!
I should add that I also write pantomime, and there is simply nothing as good as thinking up a gag and then listening to an audience laugh at it.
So I would say the joy of having created a new world in which things happen only because you wish them to, and the satisfaction (hopefully!) of finding out that one or two others agree with you!
I should add that I also write pantomime, and there is simply nothing as good as thinking up a gag and then listening to an audience laugh at it.
Robert Rees
I have a number of projects on the go. I write music and songs, so there is always a bit of a dilemma as to which area to concentrate on at any one time. Songs and music are quicker, so when I am at home I usually spend time on those. For longer works like novels, and plays, I tend to wait until I have a longer period, when I can up sticks from the UK and spend time in Provence without the usual daily interruptions. This summer it's going to be a joint novel with an extremely talented partner, and a play, the plot of which has been running around my head for at least a year.
Robert Rees
I tend to go blind into a bookshop and pick out the titles that appeal to me - but there will always be certain genres I like to take. A couple of science based books - I am currently reading "The Invention of Science", a history of the Scientific Revolution by David Wootton (excellent). Some science fiction - I particularly the classic SF series. Usually something on music. At the moment I am wading through a heavy but enjoyable study of Mozart, Haydn and Early Beethoven by Daniel Heartz. And then a few current novels. I also always try to take one classic book - this year it will be either Bleak House or Proust. Last year it was the Illiad - brilliant. Sometimes I get through it, sometimes I don't. Like my character, Henry Fanshawe, I have bookshelves of books that I have read, and bookshelves of books that I have not read, but feel I ought to.
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