July 2025 Group Read #2 with Guest Author, Robert Essig > Likes and Comments
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This one doesn’t seem to be available in the UK unfortunately. 😕
Katherine wrote: "This one doesn’t seem to be available in the UK unfortunately. 😕"Try this link:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Traveling-Mo...
Katherine wrote: "This one doesn’t seem to be available in the UK unfortunately. 😕"Yes it is, also in Kindle Unlimited :)
Woot! Excellent choices, Ken! So glad to see this feature being revived!
Less than a week before this group reads hits. I just downloaded my copy today!
Robert, you’ve been writing for a while now. At what point did you know you wanted to be an author and can you tell us a little of the process it took before you became published?
Hello, and thank you so much for the opportunity to have a group read of The Traveling Movie Show! So far reviews have been great, so I hope everyone who joins in enjoys it.I knew I wanted to be a writer in highschool when one of my teachers was excited about a short story I wrote. It was a decade later that I began to seriously pursue getting published. I started with short stories and loads of rejection letters. I just kept at it, writing story after story until I started selling some of them. Eventually I wrote longer stories and have worked with a number of small press publishers over the years, though these days I also self publish.
Robert wrote: "Hello, and thank you so much for the opportunity to have a group read of The Traveling Movie Show! So far reviews have been great, so I hope everyone who joins in enjoys it.I knew I wanted to be ..."
What authors influenced your writing?
Today’s the day! I jumped into this one with both feet and I’m already 1/3 of the way through. This is turning into some schlocky good fun. Robert - Can you share a little about what inspired TMS and how it came about?
Kenneth wrote: "Robert wrote: "Hello, and thank you so much for the opportunity to have a group read of The Traveling Movie Show! So far reviews have been great, so I hope everyone who joins in enjoys it.I knew ..."
My influences started with King, Lovecraft, and Barker for the most part. These days I figure if I could get the character and world building of Michael McDowell with the economy of prose and plot-forwardness of Robert Bloch, that would be perfect.
Kenneth wrote: "Today’s the day! I jumped into this one with both feet and I’m already 1/3 of the way through. This is turning into some schlocky good fun. Robert - Can you share a little about what inspired TMS..."
Absolutely! I used to want to make movies. It didn't take long for me to realize that was a total pipe dream. I thought it would be cool to record a feature on actual film and take it across the country to various drive-ins and screenings to build buzz for the film. I also figured the film itself would get some wear and tear to make it look a little beat up like an old B-movie that wasn't restored before getting a VHS or DVD release. That idea became the catalyst for this book.
Add to that a murder mystery and a twist I don't think readers will see coming--because I love a good twist--and you have The Traveling Movie Show.
Great read, @Robert Essig. As someone from NJ (where the first drive in EVER was!), I found it to be a very fun read. Def didn’t see the ending coming! Hoping to read more of your works!
Finished this one today. What a great grindhouse feel!This story was easy for me to visualize. I live near one of the drive-ins that is still in business. I swear all the snack bars are the same no matter what drive-in you go to. The description felt like ours.
Jessica wrote: "Great read, @Robert Essig. As someone from NJ (where the first drive in EVER was!), I found it to be a very fun read. Def didn’t see the ending coming! Hoping to read more of your works!"Thank you, Jessica! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Kenneth wrote: "Finished this one today. What a great grindhouse feel!This story was easy for me to visualize. I live near one of the drive-ins thats still in business. I swear all the snack bars are the same no..."
I described the snack bar from the drive-in I went to the most when I was growing up. There were four in Sand Diego County back then. There might be one left. And I swear the snack bars really were very similar. There's a drive-in near me (the one in the story in Tennessee). I haven't seen a movie there yet, but they pull in good business. Hopefully they keep it going!
For those that don’t know, Robert is an avid collector of vintage horror paperbacks. What got you into collecting?
Kenneth wrote: "For those that don’t know, Robert is an avid collector of vintage horror paperbacks. What got you into collecting?"I love the idea of having a library in my house with thousands of books to choose from. Also, the vintage horror paperbacks have such great cover art. In addition to having access to so much reading material, it's an archive. Most of those old books are reprinted these days from various publishers like Crossroads and Valancourt but the original paperbacks are becoming a bit of a rarity. No one thought they'd be collectable back when they were originally published!
Robert, do you have a favorite book in your collection? For example, if something awful were to happen (in my state it would be a hurricane), is there a book you would want to rescue first?
Robert, can you tell us what else you have coming down the pike in 2025 and beyond?
https://www.amazon.com/Traveling-Movi...