Author Interview: Robin Densmore Fuson

  • Do you have any suggestions to help me become a better writer? If so, what are they?

Learn. Go to classes and seminars to sharpen your knowledge and skills. Also, critique groups are essential. I’m in three and each meets once a month. Readers are also key. They see it from the consumer’s perspective.

  • Do you play music while you write — and, if so, what’s your favorite?

Yes! I listen to Spotify on my computer in the genre I’m currently writing. I recently finished a Christmas novella and I’ve listened to Christmas music for months. I also intermixed it with romantic music for those scenes. When I wrote Interruption, I played angel music which is instrumental and or choral without words. It’s a soothing, ethereal entrancing, and rapturous sound.

  • Do you prefer ebooks, printed books, or audiobooks most of the time?

I love the feel and smell of paper. I do read ebooks and listen to audio on occasion.

  • Does writing energize or exhaust you? Or both?

I love writing the story and creating the characters. They talk to me and I’m energized. Editing exhausts me.

  • Have you ever traveled as research for your book?

I’m lucky to have been to many places. Wherever I am, I take in as much as possible and we go to museums and historical sites. The historical places are a little more problematic for what they looked like back in the day. I rely on information and pictures from the era. The settings for my books, for the most part, are places I’m familiar with. I have lived in five different states and traveled around the forty-eight and Alaska. I’ve been to Cayman, and may set one of my books there, who knows? 

  • Have you ever tried to write a novel for a genre you rarely or never read?

I had never written and only read a few speculative and allegory genres when I tackled, Interruption which is about a guardian angel Faphick and his perspective of the life of his ward, Jackie. The two perspectives create the arc of her life in tragedy and triumph.

  • How do you come up with character names for your stories?

Sometimes I’ll hear or see a name that I love and incorporate it into a story. Most of the time, I take the year they were born and do a search for popular names. Then I pick the top five and ask my readers to vote.

  • How do you use social media as an author?

I make memes of my books and post them on seven sites. I also make my own trailers and shorts that are on my YouTube channel and I post them on other social media sites. I interact with others on those sites and help other people promote their content.

  • What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

As I stated earlier, I love to listen to music. Right now, I’m listening to 80’s love songs. I may stop and sing for a while. I am an odd one. Most writers are introverts. I’m not an extreme extrovert but I do need people around. My office is in the most central room, which most people would refer to as the living room. My desk is the first thing you see when you enter our home. It’s not so good when I’m in the throes of research or have multiple projects going. In my space, I see out the front and back of the house, the master suite, dining room, and family room. My Belgian Malinois is at my feet and my husband is close at hand around the bend. He is my first reader and I bounce things off him. He is very patient.

  • When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

Almost two decades ago, in a desperate prayer for my future, the Lord flooded Rosie’s story in my head. Rosita Valdez and The Giant Sea Turtle was my first book. A children’s chapter book set on an island in the Pacific in the 1950’s. She goes on an adventure with a giant sea turtle and in the midst, she learns the value of speaking the truth. There are three in the series: Rosita Valdez and The Attic’s Secret, Rosita Valdez and The Spanish Doll. Each one has an arc of learning a character trait. My second published book was The Dress Shop which won an award and is a historical romance set in New York City in the early 1900’s. At the writing of this interview, I have fifteen published and one about to be born, Christmas Muddle, a romantic Christmas novella.   

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