Featured Interview With Denis Scott writing as E.D. Robson
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I spent my (very) early life travelling as my father was an English flight engineer (no two members of my immediate family were born in the same country) before settling in the English East Midlands around the area where Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire meet. I still live in that general area. My main hobby over my working life has been studying part time at under and post-graduate level, from mathematics to history and the social sciences finishing up with a general honours degree, a degree in psychology and a M’Ed in training and development. i also obtained teaching qualifications and since going into earlyish semi-retirement have taught occasionally in schools and a college. I have now added my lifelong ambition of writing
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I have been fascinated by books since I was 7 years old when, as a new pupil at a village school having missed most of my schooling before then because of travelling and childhood illnesses (plus an intense dislike of what education I had been given up to then), my classroom teacher called me stupid and slapped me across the face for struggling with reading. When I told my mother, as well as storming down to the school made me spend the entire summer holiday learning how to read while my friends played outside. This led to an addiction to the Narnia stories and books such as War and Peace by my teens. However, with the usual cliches of life getting in the way etc. I have only begun to write my own stuff this year.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I have mainly followed a fantasy and science fiction route, although I will read most types of fiction. I don’t like to discount anything because you never know what you might be missing. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis are my long standing nostalgic favourites but as a young man I read most of what would be considered science fiction and fantasy classics today. I also read a wider range then I tend to nowadays, from my mother’s Agatha Christie to cowboy western paperbacks (Louis L’Amour) as well my early favourite, Dostoevsky’s ‘The Idiot’ which should have taught me how people can manipulate other’s emotions, intentionally or otherwise, but unfortunately didn’t. Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion series was a particular favourite. I have also had a guilty secret of being a superhero comic book fan from my teens, particularly D.C. but also Marvel long before the films came out.
Currently, Ian Sainsbury, another fairly new author has caught my eye and I have read both his initial series of science fiction books, ‘The Halfhero’ and ‘The Worldwalker’. His road to working as a full time author has inspired me to persevere with self publishing.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
I have actually published three books in quick succession. They are a light hearted series under the title of the Irrelevant One Saga. The first, The Drunken Weed explains how a mediocre unhappily married call centre worker escapes an assassination bid while driving home from work. The would be killer is a woman he subsequently discovers is his sister-in-law and from a species treated as gods by early civilisations. He and this woman (Gesh the drunken weed) then flee across the multiverse in a series of adventures which continue in the following two books.
I got the idea for this when driving home from work myself in torrential rain one day. I was generally feeling sorry for myself and my mind began to drift into one of my imaginary worlds. I wrote the first page and then left it for perhaps two years or so, until circumstances allowed me to follow my dream (drat another cliche). Once I started writing the ideas just seemed to flow, but I have to work quickly before the enthusiasm dims. I have always worked in fits and starts which has sometimes made me a very difficult employee. I remember one ‘staff assessment where my line manager commented that it had taken him six months to realise that I actually work quite hard. Rather belatedly I have discovered that self-employment is my best path.
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Denis Scott writing as E.D. Robson’s Website