Robin Kristoff's Blog

Today through Thursday, both STAR THIEF and THE EMPIRE’S ORPHANS are available for free on Kindle! Please read and enjoy!

In my debut, STAR THIEF (now #5 in Kindle Sword & Sorcery Fantasy for teens!), one wish stops the tides, darkens the night sky, and freezes whole worlds in a jar.

THE EMPIRE’S ORPHANS, told from the voices of a conqueror’s son and a conquered lord’s daughter, follows two young people in a country simmering with national, racial, and class tension.

Happy reading!

“Fear is a powerful emotion, and it’s driving current trends in YA publishing.” This is the leading line of a recent Publishers Weekly article, “Spotlight on YA.” Books highlighted here touch on timely topics ranging from illegal immigration to Islamophobia. The article also notes that teen thrillers are on the rise, saying that “today’s audiences crave dark, suspenseful storytelling and hairpin plot turns.”

I have absolutely no issue with books that take on current topics, and/or shed light...

In my last post on writing, “Tips on Writing 3-Dimensional Characters, Part 1,” I talked about thinking through character motivations and what they want. I left off with the question of why they want what they want. Why do they want to control the galaxy? Why do they want to solve murders? Why do they want that mortgage loan to come through? If we really want to start wading into things, why do they want a turkey sandwich more than a hot dog or a salad?

Only you as the writer can know the ans...

My reading at the Davies Memorial Library in Waterford, VT this past Tuesday was great fun! I read from the first chapter of The Empire’s Orphans, doing my best to channel the wonderful authors who’ve come before me. After the first chapter was read, the night then moved into a Q&A session with my audience, who had thoughtful, truly terrific questions. In case you missed it, a sample of these questions are below!

Q: If you were to pick a time from our history of when The Empire’s Orphans take...

My debut author reading is coming up in just a couple of weeks! Readers and writers of all ages are invited to the Davies Memorial Library in Waterford on April 3rd at 6:30pm for a reading and Q&A. The night will start with a reading from my YA fantasy novel THE EMPIRE’S ORPHANS, and then shift into a discussion with readers and aspiring writers on the process of creating the novel and advice for writers working on their own projects. I’ll also be offering refreshments made with my own two ha...

I’m always fascinated to see how often common themes are shared across literature and through history, back to Greek tragic plays. I don’t often read true “literature” for pleasure, (my favorite class in high school was history, and my patience for James Joyce is limited), but I was still very struck by this recent article at the Literary Hub, “10 Books To Read By Living Women (Instead Of These 10 By Dead Men)” by Emily Temple. I don’t have any problem with reading books by dead authors, some...

I’m running a Kindle Giveaway today for my YA Fantasy THE EMPIRE’S ORPHANS! Told through the voices of a conqueror’s son and a conquered lord’s daughter, THE EMPIRE’S ORPHANS tells the story of two young people desperately separating truth from lies in a country simmering with national tension. Read more on THE EMPIRE’S ORPHANS‘ page on my site, or download the Kindle version for free!

What makes a character feel like a person? This is a question I’ve heard from many beginning writers. It’s not easy to make up a whole human being for a story. People are complicated. We’re multilayered, we have emotions, we have quirks and bits of ourselves that might not always seem consistent. We don’t always speak in grammatically correct sentences.

While I’ve taken some terrific writing classes, where I learned the most about developing characters was in an acting class. In this class I...

My author interview with BookGoodies is live on their site, chatting about writing inspirations, processes, and suggestions. Take a look! https://bookgoodies.com/

I read my first Tamora Pierce book, Wild Magic, about 20 years ago. From that point on, I was hooked. I read through The Immortals series, the Song of the Lioness (I know, I know, I read them out of order), and then moved on through my teens and beyond to the Circle of Magic, Protector of the Small, The Circle Opens, Daughter of the Lioness, and finally Beka Cooper. All were wonderful, though if I’m truly pressed I’d say that The Protector of the Small are my all-time favorites. I love Kel’s...