It is my pleasure to share with you my interview with Robert P. French Author of Junkie.
How would you describe yourself and how does your description translate into the way you work?
First, thank you so much, Marilou, for your interest and
support and for doing this interview.
It’s a tough question to answer. I guess I vary between
being a driven ‘Type A’ to being a laid back procrastinator. This causes me to
write in bursts. I have a big concern about the way society is developing and
for the people who are getting left behind, so I love to show both the sublime
and evil aspects of characters from both ends of the social spectrum. For
example, in Junkie Cal Rogan’s sidekick, Roy, is a homeless alcoholic
who can be genuinely noble one moment and vicious the next.
Did you always want to be a writer?
As a kid my career choices were rock musician, actor and
writer. However, my parents were not keen on any of them and so I bowed to
their ‘common sense’ and ended up in computer science. I did write a book of
horror stories in my early twenties but had no idea how to get it published. It
wasn’t until after
the death of my father that I allowed myself to become an actor and then a
writer (I don’t have the musical talent
for my other dream).
Junkie is a wonderful book with one of my favorite
characters Cal Rogan. What was your inspiration for this book?
I was working on a software project in the downtown east
side of Vancouver and writing in the evenings and on weekends. Every day on my
way to the office, I walked past this filthy, scary-looking alley, teeming with
addicts of varying types. I started to obsess with the idea of how awful it
would be to wake up in an alley like that, not quite knowing how you got there.
At the time I had completed one novel—which, unfortunately, was just not good
enough to publish—and I was working on a second one. I had a meeting scheduled
with my editor, Lisa Rector Maass in New York, to discuss my new book but we
ended up talking about my obsession with this alley. She asked me some great
questions and in the course of a ninety minute conversation Junkie and
Cal Rogan were born.
Will there be a sequel to Junkie? I am curious to see how
Cal Rogan is doing?
I am currently closing in on the end of the first draft of Oboe. I expect
to have it published in the summer. Oboe has been a wild ride; at times
it has taken on a mind of its own and gone in all sorts of interesting
directions, with many crises for Cal to overcome.
What process do you go through to define your characters?
I use a process that I learned from the great Hallie Ephron.
It is a checklist of questions to ask about your characters and it so often
gives wonderful insights into areas of your characters that you might not
otherwise have considered. I’ll happily send a copy to anyone who wants to
email me (my address is on my website www.robertpfrench.com). Of course,
some characters are based upon people I know, so I steal their little quirks.
What type of research did you do for this book?
I did a lot of research into addiction, including taking a
course on the subject. I was also lucky enough to meet a former heroin addict,
Richard, who walked me through the streets of the downtown east side and gave
me an amazing education into the world of an addict. One scene in Junkie,
where Cal is attacked by a couple of members of a drug gang, actually happened
to Richard, except that he had a very different outcome to Cal. I also went
into an SRO—basically a flop house for people on welfare—not an experience that
I wish to repeat any time soon.
What do you hope readers will experience while reading your
books?
Primarily, I want them to be thoroughly engaged and
entertained but also I would like to help change people’s attitudes about the homeless and the addicted. They are
people whose lives have taken a wrong turn, for whatever reason, but they are
still people, some good and some not so good. I would also like readers to
think about alternatives to the ineffective ‘War on Drugs’ that we have been
waging since the 1970’s. I have blogged about that a bit.
Do book reviews have an influence on your writing?
No. I write what I want to write. Of course, reviews have a
big influence on how I feel about my writing. :-)
Are there any Authors who have given you inspiration?
Lots. John Steinbeck is my favorite author. He wrote books
that are closely interwoven with the fabric of what is happening in society, a
society that he cared about deeply. His characters are wonderful—simple and
complex at the same time—and they jump out of the page. Michael Connelly, Lee
Child and Simon Kernick have all inspired and influenced me and, like Cal, the
words of Shakespeare are never far from my thoughts.
Are you
currently working on another book?
