Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Robin Maderich. Thanks for being here today Robin, welcome to FAR!

How had publishing changed your life, if at all?

Well, I am not yet leading the lifestyle of the rich and famous. Not that I would, really, even if...ahem, I mean when I have a bestseller. Being published has done several things for me, to be honest. It has given me something to talk about, something else to be proud of, and has granted me a whole new circle of friends and acquaintances in other writers, readers, reviewers, editors, and so on. Since I’ve not yet gotten rid of that pesky day job, it’s also made my life very busy (this has been going on for quite some time, so I’m getting used to it).

Any advice for aspiring authors?

I’ve said this before, as I think a lot of authors have. Write what you feel. Write what you know. Additionally, be diligent in your research. The most research I do is, as one might expect, for my historical novels. I may fill an entire spiral notebook with notes, and yet only use a fraction when I actually write the story. Still, it helps me with the tone of the tale, the understanding of the time in which the characters lived. The same holds true for contemporary, fantasy, paranormal, futuristic. Research it until you feel and know your subject. Write what you feel. Write what you know.

What would you like to accomplish with your writing career?

Hmm. This goes back to the first question. Write a bestseller? Be able to earn a living entirely by writing? Both of those, and so much more. I find I am most gratified about my choice of career (as opposed to the pesky day job) when readers write to me and tell me how much they’ve enjoyed something I’ve written, how it has moved them, made them think. Call me a sap or a sadist, perhaps, but I particularly like when a reader says that a certain scene has made her or him cry. I also would like to write and illustrate children’s books (in my spare time, natch).

Do you have any special rituals to help you get in the mood to write?

I like to be comfortable, so I get into my baggiest shirt and my loosest pants. I don’t do anything like pace in a circle ten times backwards or anything like that, although I often start by playing three games of spider solitaire on the computer (can’t go any more than three or obsession takes over and I don’t stop, and I am distracted from my goal, which is to write). I then put some classical music on, and always the same cd throughout the entirety of a particular story. I think this is addressed in another question, so I’ll reserve the remainder of my explanation for that one.

Emerald Twilight is now out through Inara Press, as a 12 week Seron Serial. Could you tell us more about this story?

Emerald Twilight is a sci-fi romance, romance, naturally, being a strong element in a setting on a foreign world. Nearly the entirety of the first season takes place in the prison facility on Zebulon, a planet also known as The Emerald, where the reader is introduced to unique characters from various locales. To give some idea of the background for the story, Hallandra Irese of the Clan Ser Irese was promised as bond-wife to Arad Sterne when she was a child and wed him as soon as she attained marriageable age. Sterne is an ambitious man who eventually becomes Revered, one of the most powerful men on Talia. Once attaining status of Revered, he no longer requires Hallie’s family name to give him credibility. Desiring to maintain his power, but to be rid of the bond-wife he has grown to despise, Sterne devises a cruel plan with far-reaching consequences. In order to right the wrong her former mate has caused, Hallie places her faith and her life in the hands of Burke Conlan, a Drifter she has as much reason to distrust as the husband who imprisoned her.

I have found that some authors listen to music while they write. Do you listen to music or is it something that is distracting to you?

I use music as a way to return to the world I’ve created without painful re-entry. I love classical music, so I’ll pick a cd that evokes in some fashion the mood I am trying to create in my story. I will then play the cd every time I sit down to work on that particular story so that I am transported immediately back to the state of mind where I need to be. Once this is accomplished, I will sometimes let the music lapse while I work, and write in silence, as somewhere inside of me that music is still playing. I also use certain movie scores for this purpose. I recently wrote a 22,000-word novella in three days, inspired and propelled by the musical soundtrack for the movie Glory.

Who are your favorite authors? Who inspires you?

At this point in time my response might seem cliché, as I know her work is very popular, but I adore Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. Jamie Fraser sums up my ideal of a flawed but irresistible hero. I enjoy the works of Luanne Rice and Anne Rivers Siddons, most particularly Peachtree Road. That book inspired me. There was a certain darkness that curled throughout, quite deliberately, though the writing was luminous. My earliest inspirations, however, came from Mary Stewart. I love her writing voice. I first read The Crystal Cave when I was ten or twelve years old, and although I had wanted to be "a writer" from the time I was about seven, it was at that point I knew I had to write.

You currently have Sixth Day of the Moon in the Relic anthology, written under your pseudonym Celia Ashley. Can you tell us more about this anthology and your story?

The Relic anthology (released by New Concepts Publishing this past January) is a group of four novellas that have as a common denominator a relic out of the past. The blurb for the anthology pretty clearly sums it up: Myths, legends or terrifying curses? Relics—four mysterious and powerful remnants of history that impact four lives and take love to the outer limits of the imagination... The stories in this anthology range from spicy to erotic, and are definitely entertaining. In Sixth Day of the Moon my heroine, Moira Delaney, is on an archeological dig in Ireland and finds herself transported 1200 years into the past after being struck by lightning. Moira has a strong survival instinct and is willing to do whatever is necessary to maintain her existence. The story takes the reader back and forth from the past to the present day, revealing plot twists and parallels between the two tales as it draws the reader toward the conclusion.

How do you keep your ideas fresh and imaginative?

So far, I have been blessed by an acrobatic imagination that won’t give me any rest from ideas. In fact, the problem seems to be in trying to get them down onto paper. If I had twenty-four hours a day in which to write, I might accomplish it, but as it is I can only hope that when I turn around to look for that idea I had yesterday, I will find it is still residing where I set it down and not that it has hopped off beyond some boundary from which it cannot be retrieved.

Can you tell us something about you that makes you unique?

Uh, let’s see. I have had psychic experiences, have seen ghosts and have had visions of the past. Still, none of those things makes me unique, as there are countless others who have experienced the same or similar occurrences. I have gone spelunking with claustrophobia; have stood on the edge of cliffs with a fear of heights, so I guess I'm fairly fearless about facing my fears. I rarely turn down a challenge, am willing to learn anything, have made my own soap and candles and clothes and sided my own house, have laid shingles and brick and men who---never mind that one---I have survived more than my share of near-death experiences and found life reaffirmed in the process, and yet none of those things makes me unique, either. However, to my three grown and wonderful sons I am unique, as I am their only mother and mother only to them. And that is the most perfect uniqueness of all.

How many books have you published to date?

Three print books, two e-books and an e-serial. (Just as an aside, one of the print books, Once and Always, which was written under another pen name, Alyssa Deane, has done quite well in France. I guess this makes me internationally published. Something else for me to talk about! At least I know I won’t be entirely boring at the dinner table—unless I spend too much time talking about such things, that is...)

What can your fans look forward to in the next twelve months from you?

Well, future seasons of Emerald Twilight from Inara Press, for one. I have also received a contract from New Concepts for another contemporary paranormal entitled Dark Tides. There is no release date set, yet, but I will post it on my website as soon as I am informed of the same. The aforementioned three-day novella might also be popping up around October in an anthology. I will let readers know when I know!

Thank you, Tammy, for your time, and your forbearance, in interviewing me.

Thank you for taking time to speak with me today Robin. Readers, be sure to visit Robin’s website.

Interviewed by: Tammy