By Kayla Curry
I met Robert Zimmermann online on twitter. He’s a great poet, a great friend to all writers and a great blogger. His blog, A Life Among The Pages is filled with posts on all different books and writers. He is a favorite among many authors, including me. He’s my favorite blogger and now one of my favorite poets.
[FFQ] Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
[RZ] I’m a poet, but you’ll occasionally (almost never) see me try my hand at a short story or two. I’ve been writing and refining my craft for a good amount of my life, but I keep finding areas to strengthen. I keep learning and striving to better myself. I want to make sure I get the most out of my creative writing degree.
I also run the blog A Life Among the Pages, where I review books, help promote all types of writers, as well as, talk about any aspect of books or writing comes up.
I love books. I love writing. This is who I am!
[FFQ] Can you share a little of your current work with us?
[RZ] My current, and debut book, is called From Where I Stand. I was finally able to finish and publish it in November after years of writing it. It’s poetry. Though I’ve been told it’s very accessible to non-poetry readers, as well.
In it I explore my past, growing-up, the struggles with family life, lose of a loved one; there is a part of me is in every line, in every word on the page.
[FFQ] Can you tell us about your challenges in getting your first book published?
[RZ] One of the biggest challenges was actually writing a collection in order to publish it. The publishing part wasn’t terribly hard. Formatting isn’t pleasant at all, but it’s manageable because I learned the basics over the last few months.
I had a majority of From Where I Stand written by the time I finished college in the spring of 2011. At the time it was a smaller collection that I wrote for my final writing course. Once I dove into the world of Indie publishing, I knew that this was where I wanted to display my work. What I didn’t have was the attention span to learn the business, manage my blog for reviewing/promoting other’s work, and write at the same time. I put writing on the backburner. But once I took time for myself, the challenge of writing and editing my pieces became a little more manageable.
[FFQ] Can you tell us about your upcoming book?
[RZ] I don’t have anything plans just yet for a follow-up to From Where I Stand. I’m the type of guy to write when something comes to me, but I can’t really put an idea of a book out there then fill in the empty parts. At least, I’m not at that point in tapping my creativity yet.
I hope that I’ll continue to produce material and see what comes of it. I’d like to get another book, even a mini collection out some time in the first half of 2013. We’ll see what happens...for all I know I could surprise everyone with a collection of stories. I’d even surprise myself if that happened.
[FFQ] Who designed the cover?
[RZ] The cover of From Where I Stand was a collaboration between Rebecca Hamilton and me. I also got input from a few people whose opinions I valued before finalizing it.
I took the picture, in black and white actually, one day standing on the shore of the lake near my house. I had planned on making it a bit simpler than it is by just adding a little tint and text. But then I realized I knew people who had Photoshop and have helped make covers before.
This is when Hamilton took my basic concept and worked her magic into what you see now. After a few tweaks with fonts and coloring, we ended up with what I feel is a great, but not over-the-top cover.
[FFQ] Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
[RZ] I would just like to thank everyone who has read or plans to read From Where I Stand. I hope you enjoy it and I hope that you stick around for more of my work as it comes out. I’d be nowhere without my readers.
Find Rob on Twitter and Facebook.
You can get From Where I Stand at these links:
Amazon
Smashwords
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