Ask the Author: Jarrod Robbins
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Jarrod Robbins
I relocated from Los Angeles to the town of Madison, TN (a suburb of Nashville,) at the beginning of 2019. I'd never listened to a podcast before that journey. But, after only a couple hours of shuffling music, I was already bored. It was somewhere between Racho Cucamonga and Barstow, I remembered that my buddy had sent me the podcast Serial a couple years prior. It was hibernating in some dark cave deep within my phone. What the hell. I shit you not, I listened to the ENTIRE season that first day of driving. I actually had 20 minutes when I got into my hotel room that night. I checked in and sprinted upstairs to see how it ended. I was hooked.
The second leg of my trip I listened to two audio books! You have to understand, this was ALL new to me. I NEVER listened to talk radio. Ever. I'm a country boy, so I LOVE sitting around shootin' the shit for hours at a time. That's different. There's a personal connection there. But listening to a couple blowhards drown me in their one-sided opinions for an hour? Nah. One-sided talking bores me to tears. But THIS stuff? This wasn't opinions. This was equal parts education and entertainment, and I was hooked.
The third day of my trip I listened to S Town. It was at this point that my creative brain started imagining what it would be like to be a true crime podcast journalist. I started considering how a person even begins to tackle a case of this scope. It wasn't long before my imagination took off!
I ended up talking into the voice recorder of my phone for about 7-8 minutes just hypothesizing and spitballing. Those 7-8 minutes of interstate rambling would eventually become the foundation for my first novel, Truth in Madison.
The second leg of my trip I listened to two audio books! You have to understand, this was ALL new to me. I NEVER listened to talk radio. Ever. I'm a country boy, so I LOVE sitting around shootin' the shit for hours at a time. That's different. There's a personal connection there. But listening to a couple blowhards drown me in their one-sided opinions for an hour? Nah. One-sided talking bores me to tears. But THIS stuff? This wasn't opinions. This was equal parts education and entertainment, and I was hooked.
The third day of my trip I listened to S Town. It was at this point that my creative brain started imagining what it would be like to be a true crime podcast journalist. I started considering how a person even begins to tackle a case of this scope. It wasn't long before my imagination took off!
I ended up talking into the voice recorder of my phone for about 7-8 minutes just hypothesizing and spitballing. Those 7-8 minutes of interstate rambling would eventually become the foundation for my first novel, Truth in Madison.
Jarrod Robbins
I'm stoked about reading Harry Dolan's newest novel, "The Good Killer." I read his first novel, "Bad Things Happen," years ago and LOVED it. I also picked up an old copy of Elmore Leonard's "Freaky Deaky" that I've been curious about.
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