Today’s interview is with William Joseph Roberts, a design engineer, and writer living in West Virginia.
LQ: Tell me a little bit about yourself.
WR: I was born and raised in the hills of southern West Virginia, joining the Air Force shortly after graduation I started my short career as an F-15 Mechanic. Over the years I have also had a pirate radio station, become a Design Engineer, Father, and eclectic writer with way too many interests to list. The shortlist, however, includes motorcycles, gardening, fishing, and blacksmithing.
LQ: What does your writing process look like?
WR: Honestly, it has taken a major left turn from the way it was last year. Previously I would sit down and handwrite scenes and chapters, adding in the missing bits as I typed it in. I found this process excessively slow in getting good words to paper. Now I have managed to keep everything on the document file that I’m working in with the exception of a few notes here and there. When putting words to paper, I generally shoot for 1,200-3000 words a day, and that’s good words that need minimal editing.
LQ: What was your favorite book to write so far?
WR: Hands down, fLUX Runners, my first novel. It’s a space opera that centers around the crew of the Betty, who are like one big dysfunctional family. They find themselves in a mess of hurt after stealing a prototype frigate from the Martian Reich.
LQ: Who is your favorite character to write about?
WR: See, that’s a hard choice. I’ve been building up one hell of a list of characters and stories that it’s really getting hard to pick a favorite. Trae and Fergus from fLUX Runners are always getting themselves into trouble and its fun to see where they end up.
My biker character Braxton Hicks is at the top of my favorite list. I’ve only wrote him into a short story so far, (“When Vulcan’s Cry / Sha’Daa: Toys anthology) but that story is also what really kicked me into gear, striving to become a full-time writer. I based him around myself, so instead of trying to come up with what the character would do, I just did what I would do.
Then there’s my latest character, Leander Calloway Toler, from Wildcat: Foreclosure of a Dream. The story is set in southern West Virginia, (go figure), three years after the bombs fall in Christopher Wood’s Fallen World series. He’s currently reviewing it before turning it over to Chris Kennedy and CKP for publication. I had a lot of fun with this character because I got to write him as if I were back home in the hills. Lots of Hillbilly tropes and mentalities that I got to explore in this one, not to mention the character is named after my maternal grandfather, who unfortunately I never had the opportunity to meet.
LQ: Who are your favorite authors? Have any of them influenced your work?
WR: Hands down, Robert E. Howard, Douglas Adams, Robert Jordan, H.P. Lovecraft, which tends to get me into trouble when folks are bleeding on my work because I put a good bit of description and fluff in my works.
LQ: How are you doing during the current pandemic?
WR: Besides the fact that folks are getting sick and dying, I’m loving it and thriving. I was lucky enough that the company I work for sent everyone in engineering home to work remotely and I have found that I am more productive across the board. Between work, chores, projects around the house, and writing/publishing. Even with helping out homeschooling our three kids, I’ve still been getting more done than normal. I’m honestly keeping my fingers crossed that after the bans are lifted that I can continue to work from home.
LQ: What are you currently working on?
WR: Since I’m waiting on a green light from Chris Kennedy publishing on whether or not I’ll be able to do a follow-up novel to Wildcat, I have been knocking out a number of short stories that I needed to finish along with catching up on my publishing duties with Three Ravens Publishing. I just published a poetry collection, a Corner Scribblers flash fiction collection and a few of my own short stories for public consumption.
LQ: Anything else you would like to share?
WR: One thing that matters most to upcoming authors like myself is reviews. Whether on Amazon, Goodreads, or where ever. If you read something and liked it, leave a review. In the end, it helps our bottom line by helping new readers decide if they would like to try out our work.
Great guy! Knows how to tell a story! Rare!