ISBN: 0977627691

The following interview was conducted by:  NORM GOLDMAN:  Editor of Bookpleasures. CLICK TO VIEW  Norm Goldman's Reviews       

To read Norm's review of Baby Shark CLICK HERE

Today, Norm Goldman, Editor of Bookpleasures.com is pleased to have as our guest, Robert Fate, author of Baby Shark.

Good day Robert and thank you for agreeing to participate in our interview.

Norm:

Robert, please tell our readers a little bit about your personal and professional background.

Robert:

You know, Norm, setting my stories in an around Fort Worth was no accident. I was born in Oklahoma and had kin in Texas. After graduating high school, it was the Marine Corps, and then all over the place while I was using up my G.I. Bill. I’d work a while, then go to school wherever I was—California, Oklahoma, France, New York, Mexico, Greece. So, I had many different jobs during my early years of travel and adventure. I was always writing, of course, and some of that ended up on TV and in movie theaters. I also worked in motion picture special effects and was fortunate enough to have been rewarded with an Academy Award for technical achievement. But it’s writing novels that has created the most interest for me—I believe I’ve found my passion.

Norm:

How did you come up with the ideas for Baby Shark? What methods do you use to flesh out your story to determine if it would be salable?

Robert:

 In the 1950s—and still today in some places—a girl hesitated to admit being raped out of fear that she would be made responsible for what happened to her. “What were you doing there? Look at the way you were dressed. You were just asking for it.” All women know that what I’m saying is true. My idea was straightforward. I thought there should be a young woman who goes from being a victim to taking charge of her life at a time in history when it wasn’t all that common.

As far as being salable—I felt that if I did not allow the story to slide either into comic book fiction or melodramatic theatrics women would not be fearful of identifying with the heroine—even if she were doing rather atypical things.

Norm:

Can you tell us how you found representation for your book? Did you pitch it to an agent, or query publishers who would most likely publish this type of book? Any rejections?

Robert:

 Well, I went the regular way, I think. I mean I sent letters and chapters and sometimes a full manuscript to agents and I got back what I called good, bad, and indifferent rejections. Bad is bad. Indifferent was no response. But good rejections were letters from agents that I will never throw away. These agents actually told me what they liked and disliked and why. I heavily edited my novel before sending it out again and the suggestions offered by the “good” rejections played into the new version.

Also, by the time I was ready for a second attempt at representation, I’d had the opportunity to speak to a number of smaller presses. I found that I liked what they were offering—not everyone’s cup of tea, perhaps. But I liked what I heard. When I spoke to Capital Crime Press in particular, I felt confident that if they would have me, I wanted them. They offered me a deal, I took it, and I haven’t been sorry.

Norm:

What challenges or obstacles did you encounter while writing your book? How did you overcome these challenges?

Robert:

Challenges and obstacles? Kristin, the protagonist in Baby Shark, goes from age 17 to age 19. I am not a woman and I am not in my late teens. The advantage I had was that not all young women speak the same way, have the same interests, or have been exposed to the same life-changing events and influences. In other words, it was really a matter of establishing who she was in a truthful and believable way and the rest would take care of itself. “She’s seventeen going on thirty,” Kristin’s dad says. “You look nineteen, all right,” Otis says later in the story. “But you talk older. You carry yourself like an older woman, too.” So, the characters in the book helped me out with that challenge, too.

Norm:

Do you recommend other authors find a niche or specialty? What have been the rewards for you?

Robert:

 I think having a voice you’re comfortable using is very important. Not all, but many of the opinions of my main characters are my opinions, as well. Perhaps the rewards would be that when your protagonist wins, the author wins a little, too.

Norm:

How much real-life do you put into your fiction? Is there much “you” in there?

Robert:

 Oh, there are places I remember as a boy and as a young man—places my characters get to visit again for me. Weather patterns that may sound fictitious, but are skies that I recall or wind moving over fields of grass or the activity of wild animals that were so plentiful across the prairies of Texas and Oklahoma. Sounds and scents that are as real to me today as they ever were when I first experienced them. I’m sorry, Norm. Did I get carried away there?

Norm:

How did you approach writing Kristin, Henry and Otis? Did you plan them out or did they evolve as you wrote the book?

Robert:

 Great question. Well, I wanted an unlikely trio. A young, inexperienced woman who has lots of room to grow. A middle-aged Chinese immigrant who has lost much and has decided to lose no more, and a world-weary ex-cop-turned-P.I. who is more concerned with justice than law. There were no tight plans in reference to these three—they have taught me more than I will ever be able to teach them. I over-wrote and then cut, cut, cut.

Norm:

You include some very detailed dialogues in the book. Philip Gerard in Writing a Book that Makes a Difference states that it is not simply sufficient to record the way people actually talk. It is important to construct dialogue that is concentrated, shaped, and dramatically moving, in a manner that we rarely hear in a real-life conversation. Do you agree with this and how did you apply this principle in your novel?

Robert:

 Philip Gerard knows what he’s talking about. Shaping dialogue cannot be overemphasized. Reading aloud and listening to what you have written are important, too. Each of us, writers and non-writers, are capable of wonderful moments in conversation. A child opening and closing her little hands and saying, “I want something. I want something for my hands.” How can that be improved? Listen, listen, listen.

Norm:

What would you say are Kristin’s greatest strengths and weaknesses?

Robert:

Kristin is nineteen at the end of Baby Shark and twenty-one at the beginning of Baby Shark’s Beaumont Blues. Knowing who she has become after a couple of years may be a surprise and will certainly interest the readers of this crime series. Her strengths and weaknesses are built into her associations, her loyalties, her friendships, her connections to her past—all elements of danger to a woman with one foot in the world of crime ... oh, oh. I hope I haven't given anything away.

Norm:

What is next for Robert Fate?

Robert:

 Let’s see—Beaumont will be out in the spring of 2007 and by then I should have the major work completed or be finished with Baby Shark’s Sooner Weekends. So, it’s writing and getting about to signings, shows, expos—and checking in with you, of course. It’s so nice to have you interested in my work. I thank you for that.

Norm:

Is there anything else you wish to add that we have not covered?

Robert:

 I hope to meet some of your readers—and my readers—as I get around reading and signing.

Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors.