Why Did Carol Roberts Decide to Write?

My pen-name is Carol Roberts, and writing is the outcome of a long journey. When I left school I was interested in psychology, and I would have studied that, had I not decided to travel first. As was, I left my birth place of Vienna at the age of 18 and never returned to live there.
 
I travelled through South America and Asia, indulging my interest in culture and tradition, whenI met my husband-to-be in India. He was a photographer from New Zealand who was working for an agency, and his idea of travelling was a lot more intrepid than mine. We ended up in places that were so distant and remote, that I can still remember the feeling of eternal timelessness that took ahold of me in such locations. I was completely fascinated; what were those people’s stories, what did they preserve in terms of their mythology? I took a lot of notes about places and people, and by the time I settled in New Zealand, I had a firm plan of compiling a non-fiction book about stories and myths from all around the world.
 
What kinds of classes helped you learn the craft of writing? And tell us about your first break into print experience.
 
I took classes in Basic writing and Composition, Article writing and Creative writing, and started to experiment with freelance articles about our travels. Some of my work was picked up by a couple of magazines, but since my husband had allowed me to use some of his excellent photography, it’s shared credit. Writing articles satisfied my interest in non-fiction, the book about mythology was never written, and I was ready to move on to fiction.
 
What genre(s) do you write and what made you choose it(them)?
 
I dabbled with poetry, then with short stories, and when I finally decided to write my first full length novel, I was drawn to write a mystery. I chose Atlantis as a setting, because it perfectly fitted the type of speculative story I wanted to tell. Myth is often based on a real event that is important enough to have survived the ages, yet it transcends the event itself as symbolic and meaningful. Translated into genre, it’s fantasy/mystery.
 
What’s one tip you’d share with other writers?
 
Being a new author, I am still getting my head around the concept of self-promotion. It’s one thing to compile non-fiction articles, but it’s an entirely different thing to share and stimulate interest in one’s own creativity. So my tip (to myself as well) is that if you have written that first story, don’t be shy to connect with it.
 
Please share your most recent book title and the opening lines.
 
ATLANTIS by Carol Roberts
 
“And that is all I can tell you.”
The big, leather-bound book closed with an air of finality, as if to never again disturb the dust particles that resettled on the ancient, worn cover.
 
You can find the book on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0777J2MC8/.
 
Bio
 
Carol Roberts is a freelance writer with particular interest in cultural myth. Originally from Vienna, she has spent all of her adult life in the Far North of New Zealand. Her passion for stories that tell of origins took her to several different countries, where she researched oral traditions of the oldest creation myths. Atlantis is her first full length novel, and her second novel Tower of Babel is also complete.
 
Newsletter: https://www.smore.com/app/pages/preview/jb2ug
 
Twitter link: https://twitter.com/authorRobertsC

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