Ask the Author: Robert M. Walton
Answered Questions (5)
Robert M. Walton
Many decades ago a good friend confided to my college roommates and me that he had terminal cancer. He showed us test results and letters from doctors that indicated he had less than a year to live. We rallied to him and treated him as gently and solicitously as we could, given the demands on our young lives in a turbulent time. After some months, he announced that he had been accepted into an experimental treatment program at Stanford and would leave in a week. We threw the mother of all parties for him. Then - with not a little awkwardness - he departed. Some days later, a sheriff's deputy stopped by the house we were renting to tell us that our friend was dead, killed in a car crash near Big Sur. We were shocked and the grief for which we'd been preparing came on us suddenly. While gathering his belongings to give to his parents, we discovered stationery and other items of a medical nature. We also discovered rough drafts of the letters from doctors. Our friend had faked his disease. He had no cancer. He'd created a fantasy ending for himself and built us into it. He drove off that cliff in Big Sur when he could find no way out of the trap he'd made.
Robert M. Walton
"For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."
I return to these lovers and this play for the wondrous images, images which cast light upon truths beyond our senses. The two young people love without reservation and that love takes them to a higher place, perhaps the highest place of all. I bow to them for it. That their lives ended in tragedy is not their fault or love's. It's the fault of all who did not or would not understand what they'd discovered. Love is the ultimate treasure and we should be its mentors and supporters when we find it - that's the play's lesson for us all.
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."
I return to these lovers and this play for the wondrous images, images which cast light upon truths beyond our senses. The two young people love without reservation and that love takes them to a higher place, perhaps the highest place of all. I bow to them for it. That their lives ended in tragedy is not their fault or love's. It's the fault of all who did not or would not understand what they'd discovered. Love is the ultimate treasure and we should be its mentors and supporters when we find it - that's the play's lesson for us all.
Robert M. Walton
Some great novels have been written about the American Civil War, but over the years I noted missing voices: those of slaves, former slaves and women. Also, few novelists have dealt with the traumatic and inglorious events of the spring and summer of 1864. Women (including Clara Barton), former slaves (including Harriet Tubman) and Abraham Lincoln became the principal narrators of "Dawn Drums" as they walked the roads to Richmond. I'm proud of the result.
Robert M. Walton
I took a ride with my youngest son on Christmas Day. We drove to a remote mountaintop called Williams Hill. The views were superb and an informative BLM plaque revealed some local history of which I was unaware: famed bandit Tiburcio Vasquez used the hill as a lookout. This fact became a story idea and I'm now close to finishing "Joaquin and the Bandit" in which Joaquin Murrieta meets Tiburcio and the two share an adventure.
Robert M. Walton
I've always got more to say than time to say it in. Writer's block hasn't been a problem for me - knock on wood.
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