Q & A with author Robert Gilberg and Susan J. Farese of SJF Communications
SJF: In a nutshell, tell us about your book or written piece.
RG: I’ve written and published four books in the four-year period of 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. I’m taking this year off!
My first was my memoir, The Last Road Rebel and Other Lost Stories, which was primarily about growing up in a small town in Ohio in the ’50s and ’60s. The story describes a motor-head teenage kid who stumbled out of high school — clueless, broke, with mediocre grades, and without a girlfriend because they were all going off to college or getting ready for marriage. A major US depression was going on and I’d been laid off from my part-time job that I’d hoped would turn into my after-graduation career. Luckily, some “aha” moments would come to my rescue and I forced myself to attend college for a BSEE degree, which led to a wonderful career in micro-electronics and my eventually landing here in the high-tech world in San Diego. This book was a finalist in the 2016 San Diego Book Awards and has received very good reviews by Kirkus, Readers Favorite (5 stars), and Publishers Weekly. The Publishers Weekly reviewer said it “beautifully evokes ’50s small town America.”
My other books over the past three years are all novels:
Alice Chang, a romantic thriller set in the San Diego high-tech world that has a real San Diego back story and takes place in and around dozens of San Diego city and county locations. It also received outstanding reviews from Kirkus and Readers Favorite (5 stars). Kirkus compared it to a James Bond thriller: “A fast-paced technology tale with enough international intrigue and luxurious details to rival a James Bond adventure.”
Twists of Fate: A Folk-Rock Odyssey is the love story of a middle-aged man, now living a lonely life after the death of his wife and scattering of his children, who upon listening to some old folk-rock music begins to think about the girl who left him in Ohio to go to California in the ’60s. He becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to her after her promises to stay in touch, which didn’t happen. He finds enough clues about her that, although scant, are enough to send him on his journey of discovery — and the unexpected meeting with a woman, also on her own personal search, that takes him on a side trip into San Diego. Twists has very good reviews by Kirkus and Readers Favorite (4 stars)
Starvation Mountain – a motorcycle thriller that begins and ends on Starvation Mountain in San Diego County (near Lake Hodges, for those who are not familiar). A middle-aged man taking early retirement from his high-tech job in the Sorrento Valley area meets a slightly younger, single forty-something woman, Penny Lane, on his avocado grove on Starvation Mountain. They are both avid motorcycle riders and decide to take a few rides together in the local area, which lead to a longer ride to a mystical place for Jim Schmidt; the site where James Dean was killed in a road accident on his way to a race near Monterey, California. Dean is a spiritual mystery of sorts for Schmidt due to the proximity of his birth and Dean’s death: same hour, same day, but years apart, and born a few miles apart in the same county in Indiana. The ride to Cholame, California, is very successful for the two and they agree to ride together on an after-retirement dream of a lifetime for Jim: retracing the Easy Rider route from LA to New Orleans. The trip starts out perfectly with the ride being all they hoped for, until they begin to learn disturbing things connected to a new job Penny had started just before meeting Jim. The ride becomes one of mystery, danger and death. An apparition resembling James Dean’s ghost makes fortuitous appearances at key points in the adventure . . . Starvation Mountain received outstanding reviews from Kirkus and Readers Favorite (5 Stars) with one reviewer describing it as a “panoramic masterpiece…”
SJF: What has your experience been as a writer in San Diego?
RG: As a writer it has been very good due to the outstanding support infrastructure for new writers like me: San Diego Writers, Ink; San Diego Writers and Editors Guild; our downtown library and its Local Author Showcase; the recent San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of Books; and now this new event. However, as a launch pad for new books and writers, it is a very different story: see below. As a self-published writer, I see San Diego as a good place to get help writing books, but not a good place to get the attention a self-published writer needs.
SJF: How has storytelling influenced your life?
RG: As a relatively quiet individual not used to talking about myself or holding center stage in conversations, it has been a wonderful way for me to express myself: to show old friends from my school days and working career who I am, where I’ve been, and what I’ve done and learned, and above all, to show another side of myself no one knew existed. It has also introduced me to a completely new social world of writers and other creative people — it’s a long way from engineering!
SJF: If you had a magic wand, what kind of opportunities would be available to writers in San Diego?
RG: Better support from the local media. I’ve dropped off too many book samples, sent too much email, answered too many queries, all with little-to-no response for a writer with very good, professional reviews by highly regarded reviewers to be completely ignored for four, going on five years. I’ve had too many “we don’t do fiction” or “we only do current topical material” or “we prefer material with local content . . . ” What? Look at my books!
What SDWI, SDWEG, San Diego Book Awards Association, San Diego Memoir Writers Association, and others are doing is great, but why doesn’t San Diego media take the national lead in promoting local self-published authors? How about weekly or monthly features on new books and writers in the Union-Tribune and various small newspapers and on TV and KPBS?
SJF: What are you excited about when it comes to participating in the inaugural San Diego Writers Festival?
RG: All of it! I want to talk about my work. I want to have people appreciate my insights, background, and experiences in San Diego and around the world.
SJF: What advice would you give to a new writer in San Diego?
RG: Join one or more of the writing support groups in the area, network with other writers, push into new areas where you have special knowledge or experiences that little has been written about.
SJF: Many thanks, Robert!
Learn More about Robert Gilberg
Visit him on facebook, or check him out on ReadersFavorite, KirkusReviews, PublishersWeekly
Learn More about Susan J. Farese of SJF Communications
