Dragon Soul Press had the chance to interview Robert Wenson, an author featured in the Pirate Legends anthology.

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1. Introduce yourself.
   • My name is Robert Wenson. I’m a retired software designer; retired to take up writing full-time.
2. What prompted you to begin writing?
   • That takes a little answering, because I write in several different genres and each one
     has a different genesis.
     A. Light verse. I started writing that for the heck of it and discovered I had a talent
     for it.
     B. Children’s stories. I wrote one (again, for the heck of it) and my children liked it. I
     wrote a few more and sent them to a friend who also had children; they liked
     them too. For no particular reason I’d started with an alphabetical theme
     (Alexandra and the Argumentative Alligator; Bartholomew and the Banana
     Blizzard, and so on), so I kept on until I reached Z, at which point I put them
     together into a book and published it.
     C. Mysteries. The friend I mentioned in above had a daughter who liked the Poirot
     stories (the TV adaptions). I thought I’d try my hand at a short story for her. This
     grew into a novel, then into what I hope will be a series.
     D. SF/Fantasy. The editor of one of a series of anthologies (the Planetary
     Anthologies, originally published by Superversive Press, later by Tuscany Bay
     Press) happened to see some of the verse I’d written and put up on my blog, and
     contacted me out of the blue to ask if I could contribute some pieces to the
     Jupiter volume. I did so, then decided to try writing stories for some of the other
     volumes. One was accepted and I began writing stories in response to other
     anthology calls.
     I’d like to add a supplemental Q & A:
     Q: Having started, what keeps you writing?
     A: (i) The knowledge that, since God has given me the talent, He expects me to use
     it. (ii) The fun of creation. (iii) After finishing a story, the satisfaction of having
     crafted something worthwhile.
3. Do you have a favorite story or poem you’ve written? What’s it about?
   • I can’t say that I have a favorite; I like all of them, published, unpublished, and about-to-
     be-published.
4. How many projects do you have planned over the next few years? Tell us about one.
   • At this point, I’m going to be concentrating on my mystery series; I’ve published Book 1,
     Book 2 is almost ready, and I’m working on Book 3. The books are set in Fenshire, a
     fictional English county, in the late 1920s. The central character is a young woman.
     Edwina Hackett, who paints portraits for her living and finds herself involuntarily drawn
     into one murder after another. Her foil is Detective-Inspector Mallow of the Fenshire
     Police. (These aren’t amateur-runs-rings-around-the-bumbling-bobbies stories; the two,
     after a little initial friction, get along quite well.)
5. What is your writing process like?
   • I’m something of a pantser. I work out the basic plot ahead of time, partly in my head
     and partly by making notes. Details come out when actually writing the story. When it’s
     done, I use a read-aloud app to check for typos and continuity.
     With the mystery novels the plotting and note-making continue pretty much throughout.
     Sometimes I realize I have to go back and revise something. Sometimes I find that a
     throwaway thought early in the story turns out to be exactly what I need for the plot later
     on, or suddenly becomes of great importance. Then there’s a read-through; the story
     goes to beta readers; then more revisions and at least one more read-through.
6. Where do you draw inspiration from?
   • My Muse. I really think there’s something apart from me that comes up with the ideas. Of
     course, I have to do all the work.
7. Who is your favorite author / what is your favorite book?
   • I don’t have a single favorite author or book. Ones I like: Agatha Christie, Dorothy
     Sayers, Ngaio Marsh; J. R. R. Tolkien, Jack Vance, Larry Niven, Charles Sheffield; Jane
     Austen, Dean Koontz, Angela Thirkell, Patrick O’Brian, Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft;
     the Iliad and Odyssey; the Divine Comedy. Nonfiction: mostly military history, especially
     the Civil War.
8. What is one goal you have for your writing future?
   • To keep writing as long as I can (I’m 68).
9. What do you hope readers enjoy most from your work?
   • The story.
10. Where can readers learn more about you?
    • On my website and blog.