EB: That leads me to a kind of related question. How do you block out your time? Do you write in the morning or the evening? I read that you write about five finished pages a day. Is that still true?
RBP: It’s ten now. It used to be five. You are not misinformed – you’re just not updated.
EB: Glad to be.
RBP: Well, “block out” makes it out to be more formal than it is. This is all I do. I don’t have any other job, so I get up in the morning and feed Pearl the Wonder Dog. I have coffee and read the Globe, do a little business, make a few phone calls. Somewhere in the 9:00 range I start writing… Pearl the Wonder Dog arises early.
EB: So Pearl the Wonder Dog does indeed exist?
RBP: Oh yeah. Pearl III. This is the third Pearl. And it’s the one on the back of the book.
So nine, ten I’m writing and I persist into the 3:00 range, or until whenever I get ten pages done. When I’m finished with my ten pages, I stop, I usually have a nap, I go to the gym, I workout, I come home, and that’s my day. I do that five days a week.
EB: Do you block out your stories ahead of time?
RBP: No.
EB: For Spenser novels particularly, how do you take him to a new place and take him through a new story?
RBP: I just start out and see where it goes. In Cold Service, I thought – just because it felt so – that it was time for Hawk to have a larger part again. So I thought, ‘Well, what if Hawk got hurt?’ So I started with the premise that Hawk was being somebody’s bodyguard and got shot. And that’s all I knew. So, that’s the first chapter. And the first chapter leads to the second, and the second leads to the third, and it evolves.
The current Spenser that I’m working on now, which is called Dream Girl, and will be out a year from now, I think. I’m five books ahead, so I get confused. I’m on Page 215 of that, and I don’t know who “did it.”
Article comments
1 - Temple Stark
Very very nice. I'll read it fully, later.
So were you talking to him while he signed books or had you scheduled something ahead? In either case, I'll have to pay more attention to authors coming through Phoenix.
2 - Knittgirl
It's Spenser - not Spencer.
3 - Eric Berlin
Temple, I talked to him for 40 minutes, so I had it all set up ahead, worked out through the publisher. Look out for installments II and III on the interview later this week!
Knittgirl - Thanks, change now reflected.
4 - Scott Butki
I'm so jealous you got to interview Parker.
5 - Eric Berlin
Thanks Scott. It was a thrill to meet him in person.
6 - Phillip Winn
Wow. I remember this interview. And I'm sure that you, Eric, remember why I remember this interview. :-)
7 - Eric Berlin
Yes, it was indeed some of my finest work...
(heh.)
8 - Scott Butki
Hmm, now you've piqued my curiousity. Why was it memorable for Phillip?
9 - Eric Berlin
On a bright spring morning, I broke the site for a while. Robert B. Parker was unwittingly involved. Long story...
10 - s. Wahrenbrock
I just discovered Robert Baker. He is remarkable. Very spare and witty. Can't wait to read ALL of his stuff. Didn't know until this interview reading that he has a Ph.d, but as an English major,It was very logical that this guy knows his stuff. Keep up the good work, Mr. Parker.