Review Fix chats with author, C. Robert Cales, who discusses his new book, “The Bookseller.†breaking down his creative process, love for horror and goals for the future, Cales gives us an inside look at what makes him an intriguing new author.
For more on the book, click here.
Review Fix: What was the inspiration for The Bookseller?
C. Robert Cales: I don’t think of it in terms of inspiration. Let me explain. As a result of a malfunction at the cosmic pre-birth brain programming center, all of my strengths were downloaded to my imagination file. My imagination makes up these amazing, complex stories that sometimes leave me stunned. As a writer, I’ve become very comfortable in the passenger seat while it does the driving. The Bookseller was the story it decided to tell me, so I really had no choice in the matter.
Review Fix: What did you read as a kid? How did it influence this book?
Cales: The first book I bought myself with my hard earned money was Dracula by Bram Stoker, but that book was just a reflection of my addiction to horror that began when I was ten and has never faded. The movie was The Horror of Dracula starring Christopher Lee and it left me with an unquenchable thirst for the darker side. I was sixteen when my imagination started demanding an outlet and I turned to writing. Dracula was the first story to begin defining me as a writer.
Review Fix: Who do you think will enjoy The Bookseller the most?
Cales: I think the story will be particularly enjoyable to the readers of Stephen King, Anne Rice and Dean Koontz, but I wouldn’t want to eliminate anyone looking for a love story.
Review Fix: How do you want this book to affect people?
Cales: I want readers to fall in love with my characters, most of them anyway. I want my horror to slip inside the reader almost unnoticed and then slowly gnaw its way out. I want readers to remember my story long after the last page is turned.
Review Fix: What did you learn about yourself through writing this book?
Cales: I have come to believe that my imagination has already written the entire story when it starts metering it out to me in the form of short movie clips. I have learned that as a writer I can take a misstep in the story which threatens the master plan. When it happens I get shut down cold with writer’s block. I’ve learned to look for the misstep. When the mistake is corrected the creative flow returns and the world is right again.
Review Fix: What are your goals for The Bookseller?
Cales: I want The Bookseller to be my introduction to the readers of the world, but the ten-year-old horror addict wants something else. He wants to see the movie.
Review Fix: What’s next for C. Robert Cales?
Cales: Reincarnology is the title of my third novel and the slang term attached to an alien process discovered circa 1610; a high-speed cloning process that maintains donor memory. They have been rebirthing themselves into young adults every twenty years, but keeping the secret has become difficult and complex. There’s a contingency plan in which they kill the rest of humanity and end forever the need for secrecy.
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