John Robinson Interview

Q: Let me start with asking you to tell us a little bit about yourself.  

A. I’ve been married forty years to the finest woman on the planet, my wife Barb. The father of two grown sons and grandfather of two, I’m also the retired owner of a successful financial planning firm. I hope to go into full-time writing someday, and as the author of six popular suspense novels, I hope I’m well on his way. I’ve made some good friends in the publishing world, including writers Cec Murphey, Karen Ball, Brandilyn Collins, Alton Gansky, and Christy-award winner James Scott Bell. All of them greatly—and graciously—have shared their talents in helping me hone my craft. In addition to my writing, I’ve done of lot of speaking and teaching, having taught fiction tracks at the Glorieta Christian Writers conference just outside Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Q: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

A. When I was in seventh grade, and my English teacher had us write a one-page story each week. It was like a new world had opened

Q: Could you give us the highlights of your professional writing career including how you got your first writing break?  

A. I’ve always liked to write, even from my early teen years, and when I was in college I was student affairs editor for the school paper. Years passed though, and that love seemed to fade. But a little over a decade ago it came roaring back, and in an unexpected way. It was New Years Day, 1999, and I was watching one of the bowl games on TV when suddenly I started seeing something different on the screen. Don’t laugh, but it was almost like watching a movie. During that I was unaware of the passing of time. When I roused myself I found only a few minutes had passed, but amazingly I had the entire plot of Last Call completely lined up in my head; it was then just a matter of writing it down and editing it. That process took about a year. Finding a house that would take such a controversial novel proved to be a challenge, though, and it wasn’t until 2008 that it was sold to Sheaf House Publishers, which published under the title Heading Home. A year or so ago the rights were returned to me, and I completely revised and re-edited it, putting it up on Kindle as Last Call. Because of its rough theme and unconventional main character, Until the Last Dog Dies was, like its brother Last Call, a booger to get published. For months my agent shopped it tirelessly, but kept coming to me back with stuff like “they love your writing, John, but the character of Joe Box scares them to death; they’re afraid women won’t buy it.” To which I would respond, “jeeze Louise, it’s not written for women!”  More months passed, and at last my agent said they’d done all they could, but couldn’t place it with anybody. That was in December of 2002.

Flash forward to July of 2003. The CBA trade show was in Orlando that year, and my agent was attending, hoping for a miracle. And it happened. As the story was told to me, one night the head buyer of one of the largest Christian bookstore chains was speaking with one of the marketing directors for Cook Communications, which owns RiverOak Publishing. They were talking about this and that, and the buyer said in an off-hand way, “Say, I heard you’ve bought a novel featuring a Christian private investigator; that sounds intriguing.” The Cook guy frowned and said no, he’d heard wrong, they took a pass on it. To which the buyer said, “that’s too bad; we could probably move a lot of units of that.” Not needing a board upside his head—as we crackers say—the Cook guy took that info to his people, and they told him, “okay, see if it’s still available.” The Cook guy found my agent and asked if Until the Last Dog Dies was still on the table. Stunned, my agent said yes, and they proceeded to verbally cut the deal on the floor of the CBA. True story!

Q: Would you tell us about your current book release, LAST CALL?  

 A. I guess the easiest way to describe it is to just quote the back cover copy:

The Bible makes it clear no one knows the day or the hour of Christ’s return. But it doesn’t say we won’t know the month.

Or the week.

When every Christian simultaneously receives a message that Christ will return sometime in the coming week, the world is thrown into stark panic. Two old friends, hardened combat veterans from the closing days of the Vietnam War, set out on a suspenseful quest to redeem that time.

What they don’t know is they and their entire church have been targeted for satanic annihilation.

So far the reviews have been good, and no one’s called me a heretic (yet).

Q: Where did you get your inspiration for LAST CALL?

A: Years ago I heard a man on the radio (it might have been Bill Bright from Campus Crusade for Christ) say something startling. He was talking about the rapture when he said, paraphrased, “The Bible states no man knows the day or the hour of Jesus’ return. But oddly, it doesn’t say we won’t know the month, or the week. Now I’m not saying we will or we won’t, but … what would you do if you knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, He was going to rapture His kids sometime in the next 168 hours? How would you live those hours? Who would you witness to if you had absolutely no fear?” That planted the seed.

Q: What is the main thing you hope readers remember from this story?

A: That it’s never too late to offer the saving grace of Jesus to those who need Him the most.

Q: What is your favorite scene/chapter from the book?

A: I’d say it’s the scene where Nick and CT, the protagonists, are witnessing to their friend Dooley, who’d been horribly burned on their last mission in Vietnam. It was very intense, and I won’t give it away, but people have told me it made them break down sobbing in joy.

Q: What inspires you to write?  

A. I suppose it’s simply how I’m wired. I’m not overly bright, and certainly not handsome, but doggone it, I can tell stories.

Q: How has being a published novelist differed from your expectations of the profession?  

A: Like most fledgling writers, I thought once my first novel was in print, from there on it would be easy sailing. Hah, and hah again.

Q: What advice or tips do you have for writers who are just getting started?

A: Stay teachable, write anything whenever you get a chance, and READ, especially outside your genre. I’ve never yet met a successful writer who doesn’t like to read.

Q: Would you share with us what you are working on now?  

A. Chip MacGregor, my agent, right now is pitching Pitfall, the first of a new series, to general market houses (new territory for me). So in hopes he’s strikes gold, I’ve begun work on the sequel, Burning River. The series  features a modern day soldier-of-fortune, John Brenner. John’s a spiritually and physically wounded Army Ranger captain who’s trying to atone for a disastrous mistake that wiped out his entire command in Iraq by performing extraordinary deeds for hopeless people, gratis. With John I wanted to take a man who was a little like my previous series MC Joe Box, but give him a darker past and take him in different direction. The result is the Christian spirituality is still there, but much more subtle; think the movie Signs, or Dean Koontz’s later works. I like it!

Q: When you’re not writing what do you like to do?  

A. I putter around in my workshop, and my wife and I like to take drives to out-of-the-way places.

Q: Where can readers find you on the internet? 

A. I’m a moderator on ChristianWriters, and I hang around way too much on sites like AbsoluteWrite, Worthy Christian Forums, and Facebook.

Q: Anything else you’d like to tell or share with us?  

A. Sure! I’ve been married forty years to my lovely and longsuffering wife Barb. We have two grown sons, one of them married, a missionary with a family of his own. We also have a little daughter, Sarah, waiting for us in heaven, and probably driving Saint Peter to distraction.

My favorite movie is Open Range, my favorite musical is Les Miserables, my favorite band is Yes, my favorite color is blue, and my favorite meal is country ham, greens beans with fatback, cathead biscuits with clover honey, spoonbread, chocolate pie, and good, but not great, coffee. Due to a brain injury when I was nine I’m dyslexic, and can only type with my thumbs and index fingers. I also have syndactyly, giving me webbed toes.

Now, aren’t you glad you’ve read this far? I know I am! *G* Thanks so much for having me, Susan!