Robina Williams, Author of Jerome & Angelos

I live in the UK and used to be a journalist, writing feature columns for newspapers and magazines. I have also been a schoolteacher, a college lecturer and a secretary. I have an M.A. in Modern Languages from Oxford University and an M.Phil. in English Literature from Liverpool University. While I was writing my postgraduate thesis, I came across the concept of Schrödinger's Cat - a cat that is both alive and dead at the same time - and thought that would be a very useful character for a fantasy novel. So began my Quantum Cat series. Jerome and the Seraph was published in paperback in 2004 and Angelos was released in paperback in May, 2006. Both books are available on Amazon.com. I am now writing the third book in the series. My two novels to date feature paintings in their plots, and there are illustrated articles on my web site www.robinawilliams.com.

Q: When did you first decide you might like to become a writer?

A: Quite a long time ago: I was a journalist before I became a novelist. I was a freelance writer for magazines and newspapers. I wrote weekly and monthly property columns - I've always been interested in real estate - and feature articles on whatever topics my editors wanted articles written about: places, events and people in the news. I learned to write crisply, concisely and to deadline. It was good training. It also got me used to writing for the public - an excellent preparation for a novelist, as, like articles, one's books are out in the marketplace and have to appeal to readers - otherwise they will look elsewhere for something entertaining to read.

Q:What made you decide to write this book? Where did you get your inspirations?

A: I was researching material for a chapter on "Perception" in my M.Phil. thesis on the English nineteenth-century writer Wilkie Collins. Collins had started out as a painter - exhibiting at London's Royal Academy - and his descriptions in his novels and short stories (and his one travel book, Rambles Beyond Railways) are very painterly: he continued to look at scenery, and people, through a painter's eyes. I found this very interesting, and also admired the way he could describe an event from several different viewpoints. While I was researching the topic of perception, I came across Schrödinger's Cat. The hypothetical cat in a closed box, with scientific equipment in there, is potentially both dead and not-dead, the outcome only being determined when an observer opens the box and looks in. It struck me at the time that a dead-and-alive cat would be a most useful character for a fantasy story.

In fact I am now writing a series called "The Quantum Cat." Jerome and the Seraph was published in print in 2004 by Twilight Times Books, and Angelos was published in 2006. I owe my quantum cat fantasies to both a Victorian novelist and a Nobel laureate physicist.

Q: When you write, are you more a planner - outline, notes - or "stream-of-conciousness" (write as it comes to you)?

A: Yes, I do plan my books, though not very successfully. I plan a definite route for my story - beginning, middle and end - but my characters tend to wander off along a path of their own. The story begins and ends as I had planned, but the road from A to B might not be quite as direct as I had intended. There may be diversions and side roads to be explored, and maybe additional characters will put in an appearance and travel for part of the way.

So, yes, I am a planner, but the only parts of my plan that definitely hold are the beginning and the end.

Q: What role do you think religion should play in writing fiction? Do you favor more of an indirect role, or direct role in your style?

A: I write directly about religious characters: friars living in a small community in the countryside. The friary, with its occupants, its surroundings and its way of life, gives my stories a present-day setting. But behind the "life today" lies another layer of time, with the friars, on their demise, passing on, not away. Death means a new posting for them, to the ethereal friary where "life" continues in some - but only some - respects pretty much as before. The deceased friars find themselves in the welcome company of their beloved brothers in the Order, but they also find in the afterworld characters they never expected to meet. My books are explicitly religious, in that they feature, among other characters, an order of friars. But they implicitly carry the religious message: the Lord's house has many rooms. "In My Father's house there are many mansions." The Lord Jesus is Lord of All, but His kingdom is wider than we think.

Q: What marketing ideas are you working on? Do you have a website or a blog?

A: I have a website, www.robinawilliams.com. It contains illustrated articles about my books (for paintings are featured in the plots of both Jerome and the Seraph and Angelos), plus some background information about the books, and a brief bio.

As to marketing: I seek book reviews - Kevin very kindly reviewed Angelos - and list my books on online literary sites, with, where possible, cover graphics and brief descriptions. I am always glad to do online interviews - I should like to thank Kevin for offering me this interview. I take advertisements for my books on appropriate sites, and I occasionally offer signed copies for prizes in literary contests. I also announce publication of, or news about, a book on a few Yahoo literary sites, making sure that I have clearly labeled the posting as promotional. One or two sites have been a bit sniffy about publicity material being posted, but frankly I can't see why; I have unsubscribed from these groups.

Q: What's your next project?

A: I am halfway through writing the third book in my "Quantum Cat" series. It will be a longer book than the first two. As well as the cat and the friars, it features the goddess Gaea (Gaia) and some of her relatives. Like Jerome and the Seraph and Angelos, it contains many mythological elements, for I think that characters, episodes and scenes from legend fit well into the fantasy genre - at least they do if the writer is exploring quantum ideas of time.

Q: Who are some of your favorite authors/writers? Which one would you say has been your biggest influence?

A: I have two favorite authors: Wilkie Collins and Terry Pratchett. They have both influenced me very much. I greatly admire Collins' detailed, painterly (almost Pre-Raphaelite) descriptions of scenes, and his sharply drawn characters. I also admire his cleverly dovetailed plotting, with not a feather out of place. His plotting is meticulous. I don't try to emulate it, because I know I can't. I don't have his kind of orderly mind.

I love reading Terry Pratchett's books. His characters are a delight, and are always so recognizably, and comically, human, for all that they live on Discworld. His plots lose me occasionally - I don't think he's a great plotter; but having said that, I find his stories always interesting. I think he is great at "episodes." In fact I see his books more as a series of linked episodes, rather than plots as such. His books are a joy to read, full of humor and wonderful characters. I think Terry Pratchett has influenced me the most: I try to write with his lightness of touch.

Q: What's the best thing aspiring writers can do to hone their craft?

A: I think that the best thing a writer can to is to read. Read and analyze. Look at how sentences and paragraphs flow; note punctuation; study how concisely and forcefully an idea is conveyed. It doesn't matter whether books or articles are in electronic or print form. From the point of view of improving one's own writing skills, it isn't sufficient, to my mind, to listen to an audio book being read. One needs to be able to see the actual text and to study how the author handles the material so as to convey the message - the storyline - effectively.

I am greatly in favor of précis-writing: it sharpens one's writing, for it forces one to sift the text and distinguish between the important and the unimportant; what is crucial to the passage and what can be jettisoned without affecting the sense?

May I also add that I think it is valuable for a writer to read dialogue aloud? Conversation in novels, or drama, needs to sound realistic. Occasionally one comes across dialogue that just doesn't sound right: it's stilted, artificial, with no natural flow to it. Read out the dialogue you've written, and you'll instantly hear whether it sounds true-to-life or not.

Q : What one thing would you say to aspiring writers to encourage them in their own writing?

A: Keep writing. Write about anything. If you've gotten yourself stuck, put your book to one side and, instead, write about the room you're in: describe the furniture around you, or the ornaments on your mantelpiece; what are your curtains like -- what fabric are they made of, what color are they, what shape are they? Look through your window and describe your garden, or the street scene. It will get you writing again, and who knows - you may even get the idea for another story!

Visit www.robinawilliams.com.