Interview with
ROBERT L. SLATER
Robert L.
Slater is a teacher/writer living in Bellingham, Washington. His stories and
poetry have appeared in many small press publications. His first novel, ALL IS
SILENCE: A DESERTED LANDS NOVEL, was released in early 2014. He has a should’ve-been-a
doctorate B.A. in Theatre/Education, Spanish and History minors and a M.A. in Educational
Technology. He sing;, plays guitar; acts/directs in regional theatres; brews;
cooks; reads; practices Taekwon Do; writes plays, songs, and stories. He has
six children, ages 10 to 29 years and one grandchild. His motto is Robert
Heinlein’s “Specialization is for Insects.”
What are you reading right now?
I'm reading
local authors mostly: Noble Smith's SONS OF ZEUS, Selah J Tay-Song's DREAMS OF
A VAST BLUE CAVERN and Jesikah Sundin's LEGACY. On eBook I'm reading Platt
& Truant's WRITE. PUBLISH. REPEAT.
What first sparked your interest in
writing?
The answer seems
flippant, but reading sparked my interest. I wrote songs, poetry, and plays
from the time I could write. My focus has changed several times over my life,
but writing of some sort has always been present.
What do you love the most about writing?
The least?
The creative
spark when I fall in love with an idea and later when I'm stuck and begging out
loud for the muses to provide with answers. It's amazing how well that works.
The second,
third, through penultimate rewrites. I like the first rewrite and the last, but
the ones in between begin to drag. I'm really trying to learn to be more
conscious so that I won't have to do more than two rewrites to solve that
problem. I'm not there yet.
Tell us a little about your writing
process.
I used to be a “pantser,”
writing by the seat of my pants, but that led to a lot of character studies and
vignettes and unended pieces. Then I learned not to start a story that I didn't
know an end for. Often the end I know
is not the one I end up with, but it's like they say: if you don't head somewhere
you'll never get anywhere.
What are your passions?
Music and words.
Sensory experiences. Nature and travel. Reading myself into another world.
Eating and cooking good food. Teaching and learning. Challenging myself
physically, mentally, and emotionally. I'm pretty passionate about most of my
life. Sticking up for the little guys. Fair play. RECYCLING. That last one's
hard as a writer, so I use most paper twice. I'll print on one side and then
when I'm done I'll print on the other side. I collect DOOS [Dirty on one Side]
paper from other people to reuse.
What inspires you?
Hugh Howey.
Really. My kids. Music of almost any sort. My books have lots of little
references that connect me to something I heard playing while I was writing or
plotting.
Why speculative fiction?
Because it asks
the question, “What If?” as it’s most important component. It allows us to
escape and the good stuff makes us ask ourselves why we want to escape. It's
also what I'm most drawn to reading, though I also love history and science nonfiction,
which helps with the speculative aspects as well.
Why young adult?
I'm not even
sure ALL IS SILENCE is Young Adult fiction. I mean, it's a category that it
probably fits best in, but I would also classify it first as Science Fiction. I
worked hard to make the science realistic. I think it also borders on the
category New Adult. The next series after Lizzie's will center on a pre-teen
boy, so that one will be more of a YA book, but the story is the story and
hopefully it crosses those arbitrary borders while still helping people looking
for that genre to find it.
How was ALL IS SILENCE born?
The original
germ of the idea was a response to LORD OF THE FLIES. I was angry after reading
it, because I felt the message was that human beings would quickly devolve into
savages given a bad situation. In response I wrote a short story about a
disease that wiped out all but some prisoners in a jail who had been taking a
medication to keep them calm. But the story never satisfied me. So, many years
later when I wondered what would happen to an at-risk teen girl in a similar
apocalyptic scenario, I found the story I needed to tell.
Setting
(Bellingham and Northwest Washington specifically) play a strong role in the
book. Was this deliberate?
Yes and no. I
knew very early in the idea stage that the story would be about people trying
to reach each other across the plague-stricken country. Bellingham is about as
far away from the rest of the country as you get without leaving the lower 48.
I knew I could set a realistic novel in this area best. It was important to
establish verisimilitude and what better way than to write about where I've
lived the past 23 years.
ALL IS SILENCE has a large and varied
cast. Was any one character more fun to write?
I loved writing
about Spike, but I think I enjoyed them all, even when I didn't like what they
were doing!
Do you have any advice for aspiring
authors?
Write. Write
some more. Share it with people. Write some more. Lather, rinse, repeat. I talk
about Robert's Rules of Writing in a blog post. Robert Heinlein's rules of
writing adapted by Robert Sawyer and then adjusted for me. Each writer must
find what works for them. It's a long arduous process of trial and error.
Is there anything else you would like to
tell us about yourself?
I'm 60% finished
with the first draft of Straight Into Darkness and almost done with a novella
set in the Pacific Northwest that is also set in the DESERTED LANDS universe. I
plan to release the novella, TOILS & SNARES, as an ebook sometime this fall
and STRAIGHT INTO DARKNESS in print and ebook during the first half of 2015.
People can sign up for free fiction, newsletter updates, and more at www.DesertedLands.com.