Robert Poulin was born and raised in the New England state of Connecticut. After spending his late teenage years in Boca Raton Florida, Robert moved to upstate New York where he lived with his uncle Wilbrod Poulin and attended the State University of New York at Plattsburgh.
After earning a Bachelor's in Political Science and a Master's in Teaching, Robert went back to Florida where he taught Social Studies for a few years. After returning to Northern New York, Robert took a job with the North Country Center for Independence: a disability rights and advocacy organizations.
Robert has worked for NCCI for thirteen years and is now the Executive Director.
Wail of the Banshees is Robert's first novel; he has been a huge fan of fantasy and science fiction since second grade when he discovered The Hobbit. Urban fantasy in particular has become Robert's favored genre in the past decade.
Robert has been legally blind since infancy, but thanks to a mom that encouraged independence, hard work, and a healthy dose of dreaming, the disability has mostly just been an inconvenience. Robert is currently in the editorial process with his second novel, Death Toll, and is writing Echoes of Madness the third novel in the Veronika Kane saga.
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https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7161226.Robert_Poulin
Q) What inspired you to write this story?
"Getting your throat slit in a dark alley really sucks" is the opening line in my book, and it is where my journey with this story begins. I came up with the line before I had a story. I was sitting around one day pondering the difficulty of writing the first chapter in a book when the line came to me out of nowhere. I was immediately intrigued with the idea of killing the protagonists in the first chapter of the book. This screamed urban fantasy ghost story to me, and from there it had legs of its own. The choosing of Philadelphia as the setting also inspired me. Penn's Curse was an urban legend that screamed for attention. Philly gave me so many cool locations to tell my story; its history and architecture are amazing fodder for a writer. I'm also a huge fan of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files. He has so many fantastic and unforgettable action scenes, he's the author I'd most like to emulate. As I wrote Wail of the Banshees, The Dresden Files and The Matrix were always on my mind. This book has a great story, but more important to me is that it's fun, sometimes over the top, and hopefully very cool. I want readers to feel like they do after watching a good popcorn and soda summer action movie.
Q) How long did it take you to write?
Wail of the Banshees took me eight months to write and another six months of revision work with my editor, Jaimee Finnegan.
Q) What is your favorite thing about writing?
I love world building and the research that goes with it. I also love building the various scenes. I use the three act method in developing and telling my stories, but before I do any of that, I create a number of encounters or scenes that I want in the story. These scenes are the action scenes and I visualize them as if I were creating a movie. Really, its all fun to me until I reach the revision, then its all work.
Q) What is your least favorite thing about writing?
The revision phase is the hardest part of being an author for me. Reading the story over and over again drives me nuts. It's amazing how many fixes need to be made even after the fourth pass. The only part of revision that I don't dislike is the content revision; this can be challenging but it is kind of fun to try to figure out how to finesse things. It's kind of like putting a puzzle together.
Q) If you could be any famous person for one day, who would you be and why?
Benjamin Franklin. This guy did almost everything. He traveled to Europe as a diplomat. He was an inventor, a politician, and a writer. He was a city planner, the creator of the modern postal service and the first fire department in the US. He helped write the Declaration of Independence, and he started the first public hospital. This list only scratches the surface of his accomplishments and adventures. He was truly an amazing individual.
Q) What is the oldest thing in your fridge and how old is it?
Since I just moved a month ago, there isn't anything in the fridge that's more than two weeks old. I'm pretty good about making sure that everything gets eaten or used, I dislike wasting food. Somehow though, I always forget about the poor celery.
Q) What can readers expect from you in the future?
Book two of the Ghost Wars Saga is in revision right now, and I've started writing Echoes of Madness, book three of the series. I have five books planned for the Ghost Wars Saga so far and I'm planning a paranormal-steampunk on Mars series for the future. Readers can get a peak at book two, Death Toll, in the back of both the print and eBook editions of Wail of the Banshees.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to introduce myself and my book Wail of the Banshees. The first three chapters of Wail of the Banshees is available at my website http://ghostwatchpublishing.com/. I hope everyone has a wonderful summer.
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Benjamin Franklin. This guy did almost everything. He traveled to Europe as a diplomat. He was an inventor, a politician, and a writer. He was a city planner, the creator of the modern postal service and the first fire department in the US. He helped write the Declaration of Independence, and he started the first public hospital. This list only scratches the surface of his accomplishments and adventures. He was truly an amazing individual.
Q) What is the oldest thing in your fridge and how old is it?
Since I just moved a month ago, there isn't anything in the fridge that's more than two weeks old. I'm pretty good about making sure that everything gets eaten or used, I dislike wasting food. Somehow though, I always forget about the poor celery.
Q) What can readers expect from you in the future?
Book two of the Ghost Wars Saga is in revision right now, and I've started writing Echoes of Madness, book three of the series. I have five books planned for the Ghost Wars Saga so far and I'm planning a paranormal-steampunk on Mars series for the future. Readers can get a peak at book two, Death Toll, in the back of both the print and eBook editions of Wail of the Banshees.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to introduce myself and my book Wail of the Banshees. The first three chapters of Wail of the Banshees is available at my website http://ghostwatchpublishing.com/. I hope everyone has a wonderful summer.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
