Home | About David L. Robbins | Contact David L. Robbins

PLUS: Watch a video interview with David
AND: David Gives Advice to Aspiring Writers
AND: Listen to a Writer's Voice interview with David

The Writerly Life

Read Episode 1 | Read Episode 2
Read Episode 3 | Read Episode 4 | Read Episode 5 | Read Espisode 6 | Read Espisode 7

Episode 8

Let’s discuss the value of travel research in the development of a novel.

My new book will be set in and around the Horn of Africa. The principal location of the action will be an immense ocean-going commercial freighter.

So, I did the natural thing. I booked passage on a cargo ship sailing through the Gulf of Aden off the Horn of Africa. The math seems simple, yes?

But, couldn’t I have attempted writing the book with other research methods available, like Google Earth, National Geo, maybe visit a container ship anchored in nearby Norfolk and poke around? Talk to some folks, use some imagination?

The answer is yes, of course I could have.

The second part to that answer is, I could also be a very different sort of writer.

When I sit to the keys to construct my books, one of the most important components I need is a comfortable sense of place. I fill all the towns, houses, seas, deserts, jungles and snowy peaks in my head with my characters’ deeds and lives. The locales form a parameter, the outer limits of the creation that is the tale, like the encompassing walls of a fishbowl. Composing a novel is a big enough thing to try to pull off without the added burden of guessing about the physical world where it’s going to happen. I like very much the scenes I conjure as I lay them down on the page, I enjoy the certitude of knowing the real colors of a winter sunset over a specific valley, gray morning mist on a blue water horizon, the true feel of an island’s sand underfoot, the emptying of a city at the end of the business day, the honest tang of a local beer, the gold medallion of a sunflower field.

If you are there in the real world before you are there in the book, you will write with confidence, at least about the locale. Writing with confidence is not to be sneered at; any and every way that you, as the artist, can add verve and boldness to your work, you must reach for it. Every method at your disposal should be used to help you craft your work with an authoritative air. Readers want to give their writers credence; they want to trust, to relax into the armchair of the book. You have to earn this trust. Depicting a local detail only an actual visit reveals (pillars of water when waves strike the Malecon in Havana, the names of back alleys in Manila, the aroma of apples in Normandy, echoes on the cobblestones of a concentration camp in Ukraine) is a great way to tell your reader: “It’s cool, I got this. Sit back and take a trip with me.”

Okay. In February and March, I traveled to Rome, then on to Malta. I spent a few days on the island of Gozo looking at Templar castles until my ship, the CMA-CGM Hydra, departed from Malta, headed for Khor Fakkan in the UAE 4,800 watery miles away. We passed through the eastern Med, then Suez, the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, into the Indian Ocean, finally the Gulf of Oman. After a few days in Nairobi (as a guest of Delta Airlines after a cancelled flight), I made it to Djibouti. There, I visited with an extraordinary group of airmen in today’s U.S. Air Force. Let me assure you, folks, some of the best young American men and women wear the uniforms of our Marines, Navy, Air Force, and Army. I was and will remain awed. Really, not just lip service.

At every step of the trip, folks bent over backward to answer my questions and tolerate my intrusions into their important work. I returned home (after 4 weeks on the road, then 44 straight hours of travel and, exhaustedly, leaving my passport on a desk in Detroit – thank you for returning it, Homeland Security) to a massive cold and pollen attack. I slept weird amounts and hours for a solid week. Finally, I’m raring to get started.

The new book is to be called The Devil’s Waters. Quickly put, it will be the story of the Somali pirate who hijacks the wrong ship. He finds things and people onboard a massive container ship he would have been better off watching sail past. The novel will be part David L. Robbins action adventure, part Michael Crichton science-gone-crazy, part today’s newspaper, part Mary Shelley meets WEB Griffin. It’s going to be a rollicking, fast-paced, no holds barred swashbuckler with a thriller fantasy twist. Or, that’s what I’m going to try to make it.

On the professional front, I have taken on a new agency, replacing my longstanding relationship with the William Morris Agency with Luke Janklow of Janklow & Nesbit. I felt it was time to move to a smaller, more boutique and agile approach to my career. Nothing against WMA, they served me well and long, but Luke brings to the table a more personal style. I like that, I missed it, and the time was now.

Also, after publishing Broken Jewel, I will not be going back to Simon & Schuster with The Devil’s Waters. Despite the fact that I have a great deal of respect for my editor there, S&S did not prove themselves to be an effective advocate of my work with the public. Luke contends, and I trust him in this, that we will do well for me to complete The Devil's Waters, then we’ll search for a new publisher. As you can imagine, this is a little disconcerting, for I haven’t lacked a contract for a book in a dozen years. But, in this economic climate, the publishing houses are doing the best they can to survive. It seems to make sense to hand them a finished product and not a concept, if the goal is to enlist ourselves with the best fit for me and the book. So, that’s where things stand.

I will be writing the initial pages of The Devil’s Waters very soon. At the moment, I’m collecting the last bits of research, from a brilliant geneticist here in Richmond at VCU, and my cousin Bobby Whose Employer I Cannot Mention. Then, give me six more months and I’ll have a book for you.

On the personal level, the Podium Foundation is about to publish its second annual literary journal for the high schools in my city, Richmond, Virginia. I couldn’t be more proud of our organization (check us out at PodiumFoundation.com) and the work we’re doing. My sailboat is in the water, everything works so far. Spring is here on the middle East Coast, and that means planting for summer flowers. Health is good, as soon as the pollen subsides. All in all, I’m still here, and still think I have something to add.

A few bits of housekeeping, if you don’t mind. If you read or listen to one of my books, such as Broken Jewel, and you enjoyed it, please consider putting a positive review on Amazon.com or BN.com. Sad to say, these things do help and influence sales. If you are of a mind to learn more about Podium and our groundbreaking work with city high school kids, please consider supporting us with your time or a donation.

Lastly, remember to take care of yourself and your community. Wherever you live, I’m going to bet that each of you has the ability to give to someone in need. Honor your own good luck by sharing it. Beyond that, like a good friend if mine says, follow your art.

Be well, and peace.

David R.

—Posted 4.20.10