Interview Rhobin Lee Courtright

by

Jeannine D. Van Eperen

1) Hello, Rhobin. I’ve been looking at your web site and saw that you won the Dream Realm award for best fantasy for 2005 with your very first book, Magic Aegis. Tell me how you felt when you learned you had won that award.

At first, nearly overwhelmed, I didn’t expect it. I learned by opening a congratulations email. Of course, I had to go to the site and check it out just to make sure it was true. There it was! Now I have the beautiful glass award featuring an etching of Pegasus sitting on a shelf. Not only is my name and my book’s title on it, but one of my favorite mythical creatures.

2) Is your new book a continuation in any way of your other books? And, please tell me a little about the story?

(Laughing) Yes. Change is my prequel to a sequel. My fantasy Acceptance, features Kissre, a character from Magic Aegis. She is a mercenary with a troubled family life. In Acceptance Kissre traveled to Cygna to save her psychically talented sister, Tyna, who she learned was living in that mountainous country known for its inhospitableness and its witches. Change is Tyna’s story. She inherits her mother’s trade caravan and then bad luck and circumstances forcer her to seek help in Cygna. Both stories deal with alienation between sisters caused by a mother who treated her children different.

3) I’m sure others, as well as I, wonder how do you get your ideas for writing a fantasy book?

Usually I start with a single character, one with special traits that are outside of our known reality. From there I try and visualize a world setting that will explain and emphasize the character’s dilemma. The hard part is coming up with a compelling situation to carry a story--at least, that is the hard part for me. I usually end up with several characters whose stories interweave through each other’s.

4) You have quite a few cats. Do you ever put one of them into your stories? Or if not the cat, itself, it’s personality?

I have not yet put one of my cats or their particular personality into a story, but I have been kicking around ideas for a character with a close cat relation. My kitties are all other people’s cast-offs. None of them likes to welcome a newbie. I think they believe their kibble ration will be cut down. Eventually they all reach tranquility or at least accommodation with each other.

5) Do you title your books before beginning, after you’ve finished or somewhere in between?

It changes with the book. I’ve never been happy with Magic Aegis, and it kept changing right up until I submitted it to Wings. Change and Acceptance were meant to be written in that order, but Kissre decided her story should go first because she was the elder sister. Rogue’s Rules, Loser’s Game and Devil’s Due also all just fit together somewhere in the middle of writing Rogue’s Rules.

6) Have you ever changed a character’s name during the writing of a book? Why or why not?

Yes, I have. It’s awful to do, because by the time I think it needs to be changed, I’m so used to thinking of that character by the first name, it is hard to make the jump to the new name. Plus going through the manuscript to make the changes! The only thing worse is going through a manuscript and finding I’ve spelled a character’s name two different ways. Ugh! Usually I decide to make the change for clarity in the story, as when different characters have names too similar. I had to do this with my multi-personality character in Rogue’s Rules. Each personality needed a name more in line with the personality’s character than the names I originally gave them. It turned into a manuscript nightmare. Hope I caught them all.

7) Have you another book in the works and if so is it also a fantasy?

I have several books in the works. One is a historical, that if it ever gets written will be several volumes. One is a contemporary romance (much harder than I thought it would be). I also have a short story collection from the Magic Aegis world, and plot lines for several other stories.

8) Is there any part of writing that you dislike?

The sit-yourself-down-and-write-when-things-aren’t-progressing-well syndrome.

9) Rhobin, have you always wanted to be a writer? When did you first realize you have writing talent?

No, never even thought about becoming a writer until I was in my thirties. I’m not sure I have a writing talent, just lots of patience and perseverance.

10) Is there any one person who has influenced you in your life and especially in your writing?

My father. He was hardworking and an innately honest person who set a good example for his kids. He wrote poetry when I was a child. He owned a service station and wrote risqué poems full of double entendres a child couldn’t comprehend. He had a large audience among some of his customers. The poems would be posted on the door into the work bays. Sadly he died before I was ever published or even admitted to anyone I was writing.

11) And finally, have you ever had a complete “writer’s block”?

No, I haven’t. I expect because I am always writing out little scenarios whenever I have pen and paper, or while riding in the car, or taking a walk. So if I am stuck in one story, I just work on filling out those little scenarios to full-fledged plots. That’s probably why I’ll never be a pantser, my imagination has been playing with characters, worlds and situations for a long time before I actually start putting words together.

Thanks, Rhobin. It’s been interesting getting to know you and a little bit about your work.