The
(nearly) Naughty Nine with Jo Robinson
This
week our naughty nine have a sci-fi twist
Welcome
Jo to Raven's Nine for the Week.
I
realize just how busy you are, so I'm really glad you could drop by.
Thanks for having me on your delicious site Raven! What a fun way
to start my week.
Q We'll get this one over first, tell us a
little bit about yourself.
A I live in the wilds of Zimbabwe with my
husband Angus, a dog with an odd sense of humour, four birds, and two
turkeys. One of the birds spends most of
her time on my head, weaving my hair into dreadlocks that have to be cut out,
so every day’s a bad hair day for me.
I’m into karma yoga, don’t eat meat, and plot constantly about how to
bring about world peace, but I make up for all that holiness by drinking a lot
of wine, often using excessively foul language, and eating too much chocolate
and cheese. I also eat loads of garlic,
which is apparently deeply offensive on the spiritual plane. I spend most of my time hunched over my
computer. This is a good thing
though. Strange things happen in the
real world. I have two novels being
given their final polishes, Shadow People to be published in two weeks, and
African Me & Satellite TV not too long after that. I have two short stories on Amazon at the
moment, Fly Birdie and The Visitation.
Q
Thanks, now we can probe a bit
more. How do you relax?
A Probing is good. I like to watch funny movies and read really
silly books.
Q
What is your favorite genre to
read, and why?
A I am fickle with my favourites, and tend to go crazy over
one genre or another at different times, but I like humour and sci-fi/fantasy the
best. If the two are combined that’s
even better. Reading about mad wizards
on a flat world, balancing on the backs of four elephants in turn standing on a spacegoing turtle is my idea
of fun. I think that this is because
totally forgetting about the world around you, and immersing yourself in
laughter is better than a day at a spa.
Although… That would really
depend on how good the masseuse was, wouldn’t it?
Q and
of course to write, and why?
A My writing leans to the dark and heavy,
although I mostly like to have happy endings.
Not always. I actually haven’t
been writing for very long. I suddenly had
a story pop into my head a couple of years ago, and out it came. My lack of skill at the actual writing
process has meant that the edit on this has taken far too long, and it will
only be published after the sci-fi/fantasy novel which I wrote for the
NaNoWriMo event. This book started as a
tongue in cheek joke, because I never thought that I was capable of writing sci-fi. It turned out so well, and I enjoyed it so
much that I never intend to stop. This
book, Shadow People, will be published in the next two weeks. I write mainstream fiction as Jo Robinson and
sci-fi as Jo Cavell, so as not to incur the wrath of readers who could be made to feel
that they have been duped into reading the wrong genre. My next challenge will be writing something
very steamy while still being funny for a science fiction collaborative novel. I know, I know, I’m a genre slut.
Q Where do you prefer to read? (or write)
What do you wear? And eat? (OK, I know this is cheating as well, but we need
all the gen in our naughty nine)
A I generally hang around on the
couch. This is comfy, cool and quiet,
and big enough for my feathered family to busy themselves with chewing the
cushions, and leave me to read in peace.
There’s not often reason to dress up here so I generally wear jeans or
shorts. When the occasion does arise, I
like very high heels, particularly on boots, and what I tend to think of as
stylish outfits. Having said that, my sister
always insisted that I have the dress sense of a high class hooker. At least she said high class. Ninety percent of my diet consists of cheese
and chocolate. I’m not very adventurous
in the food department, mainly to avoid excessive cooking. I cook meat for Angus, but I don’t eat it and
I’m way too lazy to cook multiple meals.
I generally just have yoghurt for breakfast, salads and cheese related
things for lunch, and then just snack on chocolates and corn chips in the
afternoon. I don’t eat supper unless I
go out, or have people over. Am I
talking too much now?
Q So three things you love
A
I love to watch people. I love people in general, apart from the
truly evil ones. The sweet and funny
people in my life make living great. I
love my cyber friends. I love all
animals, especially birds. I suppose
that my incredible affection for chocolate and pink champagne is big enough to
call love. I would have that for
breakfast if I could, preferably in bed.
Q Three you don't
A Only three? I don’t like cruelty, pettiness,
nastiness. I really could go one
here. People overly full of
self-importance generally just make me laugh, but I really hate those beings on
this planet that hurt, abuse and torture whether they do it because they like
to, or because they just don’t care.
Leave me alone for a while with people like that, and the planet would
quickly have less of them to worry about.
Q Three things you would like to happen in
the next three years? Feel free to add to the three things you don't,
A On a planetary scale, I really wish
that nations would try harder to get along.
I wish that governments would start doing something real to combat
climate change, instead of just chatting about it, and on a personal level, I
would really like to have people like the books that I write. In three years I hope to write a few. Oh…and I would like abs of steel without
having to work hard at getting them. Three
things I don’t want. I don’t want people
to hate my books. I don’t want some
foolish twit to launch a nuke, and bring on the zombie apocalypse. I
don’t want my abs to get any squishier.
Q
lastly the quick fire round...
Favorite Color- Blue
Favorite book The Road Less Travelled by M. Scott Peck. It’s quite old, and probably best called a
“self help book”. I picked it up one day
years ago, and read it only because I was bored, but it was such an eye opener,
that I would say that it’s the one book that I wouldn’t like not to have read
in my life.
Piece of music Anything by UB40 – Love those guys.
That's
it painless eh? Thanks
for dropping by and giving us a peek into your life. Feel free to add any links
to blogs websites etc so we can all find out what you are up to.
That
was great! Thanks very much for having
me.
My
blog is at: http://africolonialstories.wordpress.com/
I’m
on a Google+ community to encourage readers to interact with writers:
I
have two Facebook pages:
J
C Robinson for my mainstream writing: http://www.facebook.com/pages/J-C-Robinson/405248799532723
Jo
Cavell for sci-fi/fantasy: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jo-Cavell/516068521750171?ref=hl
Fly
Birdie on Amazon
The
Visitation on Amazon
Thank you Raven, for including me here on your fantastic site. I am really VERY naughty - promise. ;)
ReplyDeleteGreat POst!
ReplyDeleteA fellow dark writer! Muah-ha-haaa. It's nice to meet you :)
ReplyDeleteNice to meet you, Jo, and a great interview, ladies :-)
ReplyDelete