The following is an exclusive Whispers of the Muse interview conducted by Deborah Riley-Magnus with author, Robert Collins.

Muse: First of all, Whispers of the Muse welcomes you to the site. Tell us a little about yourself. What part of the world do you live in? Tell us about your background?
Mr. Collins: I live in Andover, Kansas, a suburb of Wichita.  Writing is my full-time job, though it’s not making full-time income.  I write fiction and nonfiction.

Muse: Who are your favorite authors?
Mr. Collins: I don’t have favorite authors, so much as I have books I like.  Right now I really like Lisa Shearin’s “Raine Benares” series.  The first three books in the “Hitch-Hiker’s Guide” series are still favorites.  My view on any form of entertainment is, if I like it, I like it; genre doesn’t matter so much as a connection.

Muse: Why do you write Science Fiction? And what other genres do you write?
Mr. Collins: I got into SF through Star Wars and Star Trek many years ago.  Then I read “Asimov on SF” and thought, “Yes, write, that’s what I want to do.  That’s what I can do with my imagination.”  I also write fantasy, although that’s often put in the same genre as SF.

Muse: What is your writing regimen? How often do you work on a novel? Do you set daily time or word goals? What keeps you meeting your deadlines?
Mr. Collins: Not much.  The daily goal is write 4 pages a day.  Since I work in both fiction and nonfiction, in short works and in books, I tend to have enough on my plate to keep me working.  So far I’m not under deadlines.

Muse: Does the way you personally look at life reflect in your writing style?
Mr. Collins: Sometimes.  Some of my characters, like Lisa Herbert, I feel are close to me in how I think and feel.  Others aren’t even close.  My view is to let the story dictate the views, what the characters say and do, and even the style.  As long as the reader is entertained, and perhaps gets a little more, I’m happy.

Muse: What are the creative jumping off points for you? Are you inspired by dreams? Music? Nature? The occasional black nightmare? What triggers your imagination?
Mr. Collins: Anything and everything.  Take Lisa’s Way, for instance.  I knew I wanted Lisa to work to bring back civilization after a collapse.  Early on the how was pretty random.

About 15 years ago I was writing a series of travel booklets.  Researching the history part of some of those booklets let me into deeper research into the Santa Fe Trail.  It was the main commercial trail on the Great Plains during much of the 19th Century.  I learned how important trade was to society.

The light went off over my head.  That’s how Lisa would work, through trade and commerce.  It would get her going places, and put her in a position to help people in other ways.  Quite a bit of my nonfiction work influences my fiction, like in this case.

Muse: Tell us about Lisa’s Way. What was your inspiration?
Mr. Collins: Whew!  It began back in high school when my friends and I had the great idea to cast ourselves as characters in a post-apocalypse SF novel.  I ended up having to write everyone’s chapters.  Soon after I fictionalized the real people.

Lisa wasn’t the main character but one of them.  Fairly quickly she rose to the top as the most interesting character.  Perhaps it also figures that I like redheads, and she was always a redhead.  It took more time to get things in focus, to move the setting into space, and to get the novel into its final form.

Muse: What is your favorite scene from the book and why?
Mr. Collins: The excerpt from Chapter 11.  I think it sums up Lisa pretty nicely.

Muse: Have you written other books?
Mr. Collins: Oh, yes.  I’ve sold two other novels, and self-published a collection of humorous fantasy stories.  I’ve also written several nonfiction books about Kansas history.

Muse: Tell us about your other books?
Mr. Collins: As to fiction, my third novel is a superhero drama called “Monitor.”  It’s in ebook form but not yet in print.  The other work is the collection “The Sagas of Surgard.”  The stories have been previously published.

Muse: How do you feel about the current publishing marketplace?
Mr. Collins: Big question!  For one thing, I think we’re still in the early stage of the move from print books to ebooks.  There’s a lots of hype about this move, and things do seem to be accelerating.  But I don’t think we’re there now or anytime soon.  The ebook reader needs to have more of the print book’s advantages to replace it.

I also think it’s becoming more acceptable to be published by the small press, and to be self-published.  Right now the major publishers offer national distribution, free editing, and access to “best-seller-dom.”  Ebooks and online retailers are chipping away at the first; it’s only a matter of time before the others are addressed.

The trick is getting the word out.  Not everyone reviews small-press or self-published novels.  Not everyone reads every book blog.  It seems like the trade-off we’re making is that it’s getting harder to get your book seen.