Ask the Author: Robert Reid
Answered Questions (9)
Robert Reid
What an appropriate question at this time.
It is a mystery to me that after a stroke ( that I had in January) and after getting more increased mobility since the stroke over 8 months - in the past month when I have been doing more exercise so my ability to walk any significant distance has reduced and my walking has become much more of a stumble.
It certainly is a mystery - not sure it would be a plot for a book unless my stumbling caused some other event to happen.
It is a mystery to me that after a stroke ( that I had in January) and after getting more increased mobility since the stroke over 8 months - in the past month when I have been doing more exercise so my ability to walk any significant distance has reduced and my walking has become much more of a stumble.
It certainly is a mystery - not sure it would be a plot for a book unless my stumbling caused some other event to happen.
Robert Reid
The mirror was black as night, no sign of my reflection. Was someone there lurking in the shadows?
Robert Reid
I think I would travel to Bag End and have a long chat with Bilbo Baggins
Robert Reid
I am currently reading Tower of the Arkein by Chase Blackwood. It is very good. I don't have other books on my reading list currently as most of my time is currently focused on the follow on novel to "White Light Red Fire".
Robert Reid
Firstly I think you need to believe you can do it. Secondly you need to feel you have a story to tell be it fiction or non-fiction. Thirdly and maybe most importantly you need to have the time or make the time to write it. I started White Light Red Fire over 15 years ago and could never find (or make) the time to write. Work and life sort of took over. As I note in the biography in the book it was only semi retirement that gave the time to properly focus on the book. I think you also need encouragement - I got it from family and friends who read the book in stages as it was being written. Finally when you have got the book complete or well underway get input from an editor. The final version of White Light Red Fire is the same story as I started with but it is crafted much better after professional editing. Good Luck.
Robert Reid
Well I suppose I have always been writing - too often related to business plans and company strategy. Poetry in my 20s changed to song writing later and maybe a novel was the natural progression. I think inspiration comes from having a story you feel is worth telling and then being brave enough to write it. Let family and friends check it out but make sure they critique the work rather than praise something that is not good enough out of politeness. Bottom line I guess is if you have a story to tell then you don't need inspiration you just need to get on and write it.
Robert Reid
I have only completed one novel so I am no expert but when I got stuck on writing White Light Red Fire it was helpful to have family and a small number of friends who had read the early versions. They were a great source of encouragement to work through the blocks as was input from Chris Newton my editor. Interestingly the first time I have really felt a block is in writing the sequel - I have bits of the story in my head but not the whole thing so in this instance I find I am writing first some of the middle chapters where I know what has to happen and I am hoping the rest will take care of itself.
Robert Reid
"White Light Red Fire" was an initial germ of an idea many years ago. The initial idea was to base the fiction around the Scottish wars of independence in the 1300s. Placed in a different fictional country the story almost developed itself - a strange experience.
Robert Reid
My first novel "White Light Red Fire" has just been published. Having created an imaginary world in this novel my next work is placed in the same world 200 hundred years later where the power of othium may again threaten the world.
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