Ask the Author: Robert Lane
Answered Questions (4)
Robert Lane
The genesis of The Elizabeth Walker Affair originated from an English professor I had in college. As a young woman, she lost both her father and her fiancé in a car accident. She never married. She went on to earn a PhD in English and to become chair of the English department. Not many Shakespearean tragedies could hold a candle to her life, yet her exquisite sense of propriety and professionalism never once betrayed her tragic past. But what if?
I altered that story and added a man who is hopelessly lost in a love affair that ended twenty years ago. This man had been swirling in my head for some time, but I hadn’t a clue what his story was.
The Elizabeth Walker Affair is a continuum of two lovers, and how the inextinguishable flame of the heart trembles the world.
Here’s the nucleus for a few of the other Jake Travis novels:
The Second Letter
Not far from my house stands a small museum that’s history goes like this: It was a church, then a house and then a museum. The Gulf Beaches Historical Museum. Visiting it one day, I found myself staring at the picture Joan Haley, the woman who bought the old church in the 1950’s and transformed it into her home. Who was this independent socialite from Washington D.C.? And what was she doing on this spit of sand no more than a hundred feet from the Gulf of Mexico? Joan Haley became Dorothy Harrison in the opening chapter of The Second Letter. There is far more fact than fiction in that first chapter, even down to the radio station and the cover of the magazine. Everything about her husband is true as well, including him being credited with saving the life of the First Lady of the United Sates. Joan Haley/Dorothy Harrison is a fascinating character. Truth always trumps fiction.
The Cardinal’s Sin
A guest editorial in the Wall Street Journal, written by a woman in her fifties, incubated in my mind for years. It hurt to read it. It hurts to recall it.
The Catholic Church was (and is) being sued relentlessly for covering up felonies. Sexual child abuse. The guest editorial writer, a catholic, lost her best friend and playmate to cancer when they were both ten years old. After the funeral, a nun pulled her aside and told her, as her friend was not a catholic (she was methodist or something) that her friend would burn in hell for eternity.
The women spent years and incalculable dollars coping. Who was this God her parents had indoctrinated into her? Who would condemn a ten-year-old girl to hell? We know about physical abuse from the church and financial restitution in some cases, she posed in her article, but what about those who suffered mental abuse? What about us? For the pen is more powerful than the sword.
I wrote a book on how words, and a broken heart, hurt more than the sword.
The Gail Force
Central to this book is the story of a pet goat that was raised by children in their home—bathed, brushed, hand fed, dressed-up and loved—only to be gored to death by a male goat before their eyes the day they freed it. I heard the story sitting around a fire pit at the Ritz Carlton in Key Biscayne, Florida on a warm March night, the crashing waves of the Atlantic competing with a nearby singer. It is a true story brought up from the Caribbean islands. The novel grew from there. As a nod to its origins, I put the Ritz, and the goat, in the book. The central theme of the book draws from the short, happy life of the goat. An animal that likely did not know death as it charged across the field.
I altered that story and added a man who is hopelessly lost in a love affair that ended twenty years ago. This man had been swirling in my head for some time, but I hadn’t a clue what his story was.
The Elizabeth Walker Affair is a continuum of two lovers, and how the inextinguishable flame of the heart trembles the world.
Here’s the nucleus for a few of the other Jake Travis novels:
The Second Letter
Not far from my house stands a small museum that’s history goes like this: It was a church, then a house and then a museum. The Gulf Beaches Historical Museum. Visiting it one day, I found myself staring at the picture Joan Haley, the woman who bought the old church in the 1950’s and transformed it into her home. Who was this independent socialite from Washington D.C.? And what was she doing on this spit of sand no more than a hundred feet from the Gulf of Mexico? Joan Haley became Dorothy Harrison in the opening chapter of The Second Letter. There is far more fact than fiction in that first chapter, even down to the radio station and the cover of the magazine. Everything about her husband is true as well, including him being credited with saving the life of the First Lady of the United Sates. Joan Haley/Dorothy Harrison is a fascinating character. Truth always trumps fiction.
The Cardinal’s Sin
A guest editorial in the Wall Street Journal, written by a woman in her fifties, incubated in my mind for years. It hurt to read it. It hurts to recall it.
The Catholic Church was (and is) being sued relentlessly for covering up felonies. Sexual child abuse. The guest editorial writer, a catholic, lost her best friend and playmate to cancer when they were both ten years old. After the funeral, a nun pulled her aside and told her, as her friend was not a catholic (she was methodist or something) that her friend would burn in hell for eternity.
The women spent years and incalculable dollars coping. Who was this God her parents had indoctrinated into her? Who would condemn a ten-year-old girl to hell? We know about physical abuse from the church and financial restitution in some cases, she posed in her article, but what about those who suffered mental abuse? What about us? For the pen is more powerful than the sword.
I wrote a book on how words, and a broken heart, hurt more than the sword.
The Gail Force
Central to this book is the story of a pet goat that was raised by children in their home—bathed, brushed, hand fed, dressed-up and loved—only to be gored to death by a male goat before their eyes the day they freed it. I heard the story sitting around a fire pit at the Ritz Carlton in Key Biscayne, Florida on a warm March night, the crashing waves of the Atlantic competing with a nearby singer. It is a true story brought up from the Caribbean islands. The novel grew from there. As a nod to its origins, I put the Ritz, and the goat, in the book. The central theme of the book draws from the short, happy life of the goat. An animal that likely did not know death as it charged across the field.
Robert Lane
Nathaniel Hawthorne said, “Easy reading is damn hard writing.” Stephen King said never take the page lightly. Here’s the best I can do on being inspired: Plant yourself in the chair and stare at that blank page. What are you going to do with that page? How will you move a reader, move the world? Move yourself?
Just imagine.
Just imagine.
Robert Lane
It rarely happens. The greater issue is stemming the flow of ideas and limiting myself to those characters and plots that work together. Occasionally when writing the first draft—a truly ugly piece of work—I do get stuck. What is next? Where does Jake go? Who does he see? Meet? In those instances, I’ve learned not to be afraid to leave the worn path, for creativity rarely accompanies organization.
Here is what that looks like in practice.
Somewhere around word 28,000 of The Cardinal’s Sin, I did get stuck. Hit the wall. As a character writer—the characters create the plot based on loose ideas, or a feeling I have—I hadn’t a clue what came next, because, well, they weren’t talking to me. Having just completed my morning swim, and sitting on a rooftop table at a Florida hotel, I let Jake take over. He boarded a plane to London. (What the heck, man! Who do we know in London?) I followed him. What else could I do? The story finished itself in a rush after that. Not only are his London scenes central to the novel—they created the theme and expanded the plot—but they are some of my favorite amongst all the books.
Here is what that looks like in practice.
Somewhere around word 28,000 of The Cardinal’s Sin, I did get stuck. Hit the wall. As a character writer—the characters create the plot based on loose ideas, or a feeling I have—I hadn’t a clue what came next, because, well, they weren’t talking to me. Having just completed my morning swim, and sitting on a rooftop table at a Florida hotel, I let Jake take over. He boarded a plane to London. (What the heck, man! Who do we know in London?) I followed him. What else could I do? The story finished itself in a rush after that. Not only are his London scenes central to the novel—they created the theme and expanded the plot—but they are some of my favorite amongst all the books.
Robert Lane
I am not sure I have a favorable fictional couple; perhaps, in part, that's why I came up with Jake and Kathleen. In the mystery genre, it is common for the leading men to leave a trail of failed relationships. The next book brings a new romance, or bittersweet memories of the one that got away. While I am sure there are good fictional couples out there that are true to each other, none has ever hit a strong chord with me.
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