My final post of 2022 is a Q&A sit-down (virtually, of course) with Robert Wilkins. Robert is a fantasy, horror, and science fiction author living in the Blade Runner post-apocalyptic cyber-punk city of Las Vegas. He’s also soon to be a dual citizen of the UK and the US. Congrats, Robert! Also, apologies…? I dunno. Robert is a software engineer by day and a writer by night. His stories are taking over the world! (Word around the NSA is his engineered software is too, but which will dominate first is still anyone’s guess.) You can find his stories across many publishing venues, including Stupefying Stories, The Colored Lens, PodCastle, and Kaleidotrope. You can read more about Robert and follow links to his stories on his website at robertlukewilkins.com.
Let’s do this!
Morgan: Your stories have either appeared in or will appear in Stupefying Stories, Acidic Fiction, The Colored Lens, On Spec, PodCastle, and Abyss & Apex. You also regularly submit stories to Writers of the Future. What goals do you have for yourself as a writer, and where do you see yourself ten years from now?
Robert: I sold a couple of stories this year to Kaleidotrope and The Dark Door as well! But for writing goals, first and foremost I want to finish a novel draft that I’m happy enough with to edit and submit. I’ve finished three novel drafts before, but never to a standard where I felt the core of the novel was worthy of the effort of editing it. Other writing goals could be to win Writers of the Future and to crack a few of my dream short-fiction markets. And ten years from now? Well, still writing, I hope, and getting better at it! For specifics, though, I’m almost always wrong about where I think I’ll end up, but I always seem to be happy about wherever that is. I’ll take whatever comes.
M: In addition to writing, a little birdie says your cats love to hear you play the flute. When and how did you pick up that musical talent?
R: It’s a school thing! State schools in England will — or at least, I hope they still do — fund a couple of kids each year to learn and play a musical instrument. My brother, sister, and I all got to learn an instrument, though they are both better than I am!
M: Your website says you love cheese. What are some of your favorites?
R: English Cheddar, Gouda, Blue Stilton, Gruyere, Edam, and…honestly, loads more besides. Brie at the proper maturity, Muenster…eh, I just like cheese, man.
M: You’ll soon be a dual-citizen of both the United States and the UK. Congrats! How would you contrast life in the US compared with life in the UK?
R: Well, the light-switches are all upside down, which is weird. It would take a long time to really compare the two properly, but I’d say life in the US is more individual. What’s difficult for me to discern is how much of that is the country and how much is just moving here away from my support network of family and friends. When you choose to do that, individual is pretty much what you are left with.
M: What inspired you to start writing, and what motivates you to keep going?
R: I’ve been writing this or that since I was about four years old. I’ve loved books since before I could read them. Four-year-old me once took his favourite book into pre-school and read it to the other kids at book time. I wanted to write a book pretty much as soon as I figured out it was something a person could do. I don’t think that ever really left me.
M: You’re a software engineer by day. When’s the best time for you to get your writing done? Do you have a favorite routine for helping you get “in the zone”?
R: The evening and the night. I have a night-owl tendency, which I have to fight against because I also have to get up and work like a normal human being, damnit. I tried mornings before work, because I’d heard other writers had luck with it, but I’m just not at my most productive then. Mornings are good for me to prepare ideas or stoke the fires, though — maybe reading something inspiring or thinking about the story I’m currently working on. That way, by the evening, the ideas have fermented and I’m ready to write.
M: Who are some of your favorite authors, and what do you enjoy most about their work?
R: I could talk about this forever, so I’ll pick three that come to mind first, all of whom are writers I was particularly fixated on at one time or another. David Gemmell is pure fantasy escapism. His writing has a fantastic sword-and-sorcery pace, with characters that stand out as larger than life while still feeling realistically human. Terry Pratchett’s books are great, with moral stories and ideas buried beneath madcap wit, and some sophisticated storytelling that you can miss if you think he’s all about the jokes. He’s only half about the jokes, and they’re all the stronger for being layered into this much deeper writing. There’s a huge shift in his Discworld novels, when he goes from The Color of Magic/The Light Fantastic, which I loved as a teenager, to Equal Rites, which adult me thinks is a genuinely spectacular book. Lastly, I have fond memories of spending Sunday afternoons devouring my Dad’s old copies of Michael Moorcock novels. His stuff is a kind of science fantasy sword and sorcery, but amped up a step beyond reality — the characters don’t feel real, but you honestly don’t care. Everything is just full of colour. Oh, and you know what? Robert Rankin too. I’m not always in the mood for what he does, but he’s made me lose my breath from laughing before. It’s like mental illness tried to pass a creative writing class.
M: What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever heard?
R: Don’t feel you have to rigidly follow any rules about writing, even if they come from a writer you admire. Every writer is different.
M: What advice would you give someone just starting out?
R: Don’t take rejections to heart. Many great writers earned stacks of them.
M: What did it feel like to get your first sale?
R: Excitement, but also relief! Now and then, it’s easy to doubt if anything will take. I wasn’t expecting it at all when it happened, it certainly wasn’t the story I expected to be my first sale. I got paid about $50 for it, then spent $80 on a meal to celebrate.
Robert Wilkins is a published author with serious street cred. He’s also a regular contributor to the quarterly L Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest, where his stories have earned Finalist, Semi-Finalist, Silver Honorable Mention, and Honorable Mention certifications. Go check out his website! I command you!
Great interview 😊