Interview with Author Robert Hookey

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. Today I have a special treat for you! I’ve interviewed my great friend Robert Hookey. He’s the author of “Into the Dark.” A Sci-Fi story that’s on my TBR pile! So read on and learn about the author and check out his book!

• What inspired you to write your story?

My lovely bride could see I was bored and frustrated (brustrated) almost immediately after being laid off from my job as a Niagara Falls bellman (thanks for that, Covid-19) and she asked, “Why don’t you get off Twitter and go back and write another book before you drive me totally insane?

And so I finally indulged my lifelong dream of creating my own superhero universe while simultaneously working through some personal trauma that has been haunting me for years. Writing is wonderfully affordable therapy.

• What is your writing process like? Do you have a favorite time and place you like to write?

I try to get up at 7:30 each morning and write as much as I can get out of my addled head as I can before I get too distracted and start surfing the web. Lately I’ve been trying to stop writing around noon so I can spend time with my family before I get back to work full-time. Incidentally, as much as I love my family, I’m hoping the world gets back on track soon so I can go to sleep at night knowing I have a full-time job to pay the bills that writing can’t – which is pretty much all of them.

• How many books do you have planned for this series?

Into The Grey and Into The Light will bring my characters and their world to a satisfying conclusion – I hope. Though I’m not against continuing to explore the world of the Infinite Crossover Crisis in the future.

• How do you handle writer’s block?

I walk away and watch a television show or read a book or comic for inspiration. Sometimes a walk or spending time with my daughter or wife or even playing with the dog can free my mind up and get me back on track.

It’s important to remember that a self-published author doesn’t have to worry about deadlines, so writer’s block has no real sway over us. We can take a month off and it may actually help make the eventual finished product even better.

• I love the fact that your daughter designed your cover. What a great way for you two to strengthen your bond. Has she given you any insight into your current characters, and can you envision a project where she’ll help with the writing as well?

My daughter is incredibly “woke” as the kids say, and she constantly inspires me to consider inclusion when crafting my tales of superheroes in the real world. I’ve tried to include characters from all over the world who live their truths and love who they want to love regardless of what society thinks.

In fact, my daughter is the reason my heroes are facing more than just supernatural beings and supervillains. I want to build a world where heroes face down killer cops, corrupt politician and despicable media moguls – and I want to show my daughter a world where there is a reason people are so tempted to indulge their darkest impulses beyond just human weakness.

• Do you have any advice for other aspiring authors who may want to self-publish?

Don’t do it! It’s a lot of hard work that rarely yields immediate results and leaves you doubting your own artistic abilities.

That said, if you do decide to go the indie author route, remember to hold nothing back. Indulge your every impulse and infuse as much of yourself – good and bad – as you can. Brilliant writing comes from the author’s heart and soul.

So as loathe as I am to refer to a sports metaphor… leaving it all on the field is the only way you’ll ever be happy as a self-published author.

And don’t ever underestimate the power of social media in a writer’s success. After all, it brought us into each other’s orbit, right, Lisa?

That”s right, Robert! Where would we be without social media? Thanks for allowing me to interview you and here’s wishing you many sales on your book!

Watchmen meets The Good Place in this (relatively) original, (kind of) groundbreaking, and reasonably-priced novel of good, evil, and everything in-between, overloaded with enough pop culture references to make your grandmother’s head explode.

In an all-too-familiar world controlled by ancient beings known as The Dark, heroes of every origin must assemble (yeah, I said it, sue me) to pull humanity back from the edge of annihilation – if they don’t kill each other first.They may not be the Avengers, the Suicide Squad, hell, they may not even be the Great Lakes Avengers… but they’ve been brought together by a hero in a Green Hornet mask and leather jacket to match named Nemesis to face every form of evil imaginable. From seemingly-invincible masked killers who stalk teen camp counselors to clones of Nazi super soldiers to monsters of the human variety, Nemesis and his team of unlikely heroes will traverse the globe to dismantle The Dark’s vast power structure once and for all.If you took The Umbrella Academy, The Boys and The Cabin In The Woods and gave them a hearty stir you’d get Into The Dark: Book One of the Infinite Crossover Crisis, a clever, electrifying, genre-busting adventure that pits the most unconventional superheroes in the Multiverse against the embodiment of mankind’s capacity for evil itself.Into The Dark is the inaugural novel by indie author The Hook. He hopes you like it. (But if you don’t, feel free to keep it to yourself.)

You can find Robert’s Book on Amazon. The link is below

https://amzn.to/3wabbd6

Thanks for stopping by and reading Robert’s Interview. Leave a comment for him, he’d love to hear from you!