Author Interview: Rob Shackleford

About the author:
An English-born Australian, Rob Shackleford has lived in New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and has travelled extensively internationally.
His varied careers have included Customs Officer, SCUBA instructor, college teacher, and management roles in too many places.
With degrees in the Arts and Business, he is mad keen on travel, SCUBA diving, family history, astronomy and playing the djembe and congas.
Rob is father of two and lives with his partner on Queensland’s Gold Coast.

What inspires you to write romantic fiction?
Why do I write?
Traveller Inceptio is not solely romantic fiction, but is a story where, like life, romance becomes an essential part of the story. Essentially the story has to be told, like a vomiting forth of what I hope will be entertaining to others. I find the most encouragement when others are entertained and amused, where they feel their time spent in reading my work has been time well spent. Yes – that is the greatest thrill and motivation.
I do like books that have me engrossed in the world the author creates so that is the world I seek to share. As I am a lover of History and Science Fiction, it perhaps was logical that I would find joy in blending those genres.
But I don't have a calculated, premeditated romantic style, but love and the complexity of personal relationships is as essential to the human condition as the very air we breathe. .

Tell us about how you write.
I generally write in the morning. If I have a flash of inspiration, that means I can get up as early as 4am. After a few hours we go for a walk and a coffee. By midday I gym and then sometimes play the Play Station while I think about my research or seek inspiration while I am killing zombies or whatever.
I do research a lot! With Traveller Inceptio I lacked the confidence to write so I thoroughly researched for about a year before I dared write anything. I live in terror of having wrong information, of a historian saying – "Oh, this is rubbish because xyz!" My local library banned me at one stage as I had a really good book on Saxon history out for 6 months.
The most unusual thing is how sometimes I can write and it doesn't feel like I am writing, where the story develops in ways I had not anticipated, where I go, "Wow! I didn't know that was going to happen!"
Once the story is written and refined, then my partner Deb reads it and tells me where I have place the word 'beautiful' into a paragraph four times – and similar gaffs.
Then it is a rewrite and polish before visiting an editor.

Do you listen to or talk to to your characters?
No, my characters are in another world to me, though I am constantly working at getting into their heads, in making them human rather than a shallow, 2 dimensional cartoon. I try to understand their thoughts and dreams, their fears and hopes, what they like to eat, what annoys them.
Insights can pop into my head in the most inopportune times, which means scribbling notes, jotting key words onto my phone notepad, or jumping up from bed to jot down my ideas.

What advice would you give other romance writers?
1. Persist. I heard a cheesy saying from an author I can't recall, which goes: "The successful Author is the one who persisted." Take some hope in that most authors have had to scarper naked through the valley of death.

2. Being an author is about being commercially viable. Modern publishers want to make money off you, web sites want to make money off you, the various nebulous publishing services do too. Be judicious about where you spend your money and understand this is a business like the music industry. In the end you will have to watch out!

3. Be true to yourself. You work is your work, but also accept that sometimes a suggestion might be good for you. The first time I had Traveller Inceptio edited it was by a grumpy old bastard of an Englishman who tore off my arm and beat me over the head with it. Thanks to his bemoaning of my abilities I was compelled to re-look at what was written, removed some chapters, cut the length of my manuscript, and essentially was forced to concede that I had a lot to learn. He also hated one of my characters as it reminded him of a kid who bullied him when he was at school, which was brilliant! It meant my character development touched a chord in him, even though it might have been negative.

4. Each literary masterpiece started with the first written word. Start your work and don't be too hard on yourself. Let the work emerge when it will, but write something! It is easier to edit than to make the first utterance. Good luck and have fun!!

How did you decide how to publish your books?
Before I made the choice to publish, my manuscript was read by a few friends and then passed on to a grumpy old bastard of an English editor for his evaluation. It was the best and worst thing that could happen to me as he pretty well tore off my arm and beat me over the head with it. After extensively rewriting, deleting chapters and making the manuscript tighter, it was again passed on to another editor.
In the end I had to believe in myself, which is the most difficult leg of the journey.

What do you think about the future of book publishing?
Being an author is about being commercially viable. Modern publishers want to make money off you, web sites want to make money off you, the various nebulous publishing services do too. Be judicious about where you spend your money and understand this is a business like the music industry. In the end you will have to watch out!

Which romance sub-genere(s) fit your stories best?
Historical Fiction

My books are available in the following formats:
eBook, Print