Ask the Author: Terry Roberts
Answered Questions (8)
Terry Roberts
Good news: Turner Publishing has already signed a contract with Blackstone to produce the audio version of That Bright Land. Thank you for asking!
Terry Roberts
The inspiration for That Bright Land (due out in June of this year) came from reading the pension / disability interviews of my great-great grandfather from the decades following the Civil War. Because he was such a story teller and his life so dramatic, those records opened up a rich vein.
Terry Roberts
I think the characters are the inspiration. If you listen, they will talk to you.
Terry Roberts
A novel set in the the 1920s (i.e. Prohibition) in the rural South in which the main character is both an evangelist and a bootlegger.
Terry Roberts
Find the territory and the characters that mean the most to you and, perhaps, to you alone. And explore that territory and those characters as deeply and you can. That exploration will mean a great deal to you personally, and, with luck, some success may follow.
Terry Roberts
John Ehle once said that the best thing about being a writer is that you never had to take a day off. Assuming that you love the work (as he was implying), that's a wonderful thing. I do love the work of being a writer, and so my answer is the same as his.
Terry Roberts
I rarely experience it when I'm writing fiction, but when I do, I ask myself what the characters would do next, what they need or want, and then I let their answers drive the story forward.
Terry Roberts
It is possible. My publisher, Turner Publishing out of Nashville, is exploring various translation options.
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