Indie Author Friday – Robert Mackey
Indie Author Friday – Robert Mackey
What made you want to be a writer?
I never really wanted to be a writer. It just kind of happened…(that story is told in the response to question# 3.)
Most Indie Authors have day jobs beyond their writing. Do you, and if you do, how do you balance writing, work, and life in general?
I do a little bit of real estate investing. Other than that I’m basically retired. I spend my springs, summers, and falls out of doors hiking and wandering around Central and South America. I live in NE Washington State. The winters can be long and cold, so that’s when I write. So I really don’t have the issue of balancing work and writing…more like play and writing. And life? Life is anything that is happening in any given moment. So, nothing to balance there.
In the book “The Other Side of the Wall.” What was your inspiration in writing it?
is an MG fantasy novel. It was my first work, but my last published. My inspiration? At around the age of ten or so my son and all his friends were reading The Hunger Games. After reading the first one and finding it was about kids killing kids for food and the entertainment of others, that and the fact that I couldn’t find a novel in the library that didn’t have a gun on the cover or was about the killing of one or more people, I decided to see if I could write something exciting, action packed, and free of killing. The culmination of this effort resulted in The Other Side of Wall. I continued with this mindset through my The Amazing and Ludicrous Adventures of Doctor Antonio trilogy. Regarding Wall, right down the street from our home in Northeast Washington was a cave I discovered which became my son’s and his friends favorite play place. I was pretty sure I could create something fun from that. And a trip to Costa Rica was the inspiration for the first in the hilarious Dr. Antonio series Trouble with Howlers.
Do you have any projects coming up that we should keep an eye out for?
I’m currently working on turning a play I wrote into a novel. Trail’s End is one of my profane, slightly raunchy works for the adult humor genre. It’s about the residents of a dilapidated retirement home who decide to put on a play to raise money for much needed repairs before their home is shut down. Also a YA fantasy entitled The Rise of Princess Main. I hope to have those two finished before the snow melts and it’s time to head for the hills.
Do you have any advice for writers that are just starting out?
Read everything that’s popular in the genre in which you want to write. Then read everything you can get your hands on regarding marketing. One will help you see what good writing is and what sells. The other will help you actually sell a book to someone other than your mom. I did neither of these things and although I’m happy with my works. I don’t sell a lot of books. Also write a lot of shorts and try to get them in the many anthologies that are out there. When they start getting accepted you’ll know that your writing is of the caliber needed for people to purchase read your works.
Robert’s Links:
Robertmackeywrites on Facebook
Links to Robert’s novels:
**I will also post links to Robert’s books in the Sc Fi, Fantasy, Post Apoc, and Horror Book Club