Author Interview: Robert Shields

Diminishing Paige by Robert Shields

Released: June 15th 2012
Publisher: Fruitbat Books
Find At: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBookstore
Follow on Twitter: Robert Shields

Goodreads Synopsis:

She leaned over and kissed him on the mouth totally catching him by surprise. Her warm lips erased any symptoms of being cold on the bridge, yet she froze him in place. It was wonderful, but it was over in a flash and he thought, "I never kissed her back."

A fool knows the price of everything and the value of nothing is the romantic theme between Paige Wheeler and Storm Lancaster. The intelligent high school expellees serendipitously meet at a garage sale and end up approaching sex in an awkward text book fashion. They start viewing the relationship through the lens of economics as if sex was a commodity. As they grow closer together, Paige’s promiscuous past comes to light that haunts her, which leads to complications in their relationship. Storm’s ineptness in handling the pressures of a relationship from previously attending an all-boys school causes problems while Paige finds some amusement in his immaturity. Her sterilized view of sex creates consternation for Storm over their rapport. At their new school, they make a mutual friend in Jamal. The trio engages in pranks as their friendship with him develops. Storm’s proclivity as an adolescent male leads to poor decisions with Paige as Jamal, often the voice of reason and conscience is ignored to the detriment of the couple. Emotions spin out of control after a frolicking camping trip with Paige’s old high-school buddies and the sexual economics experiment explodes.

I'm really excited to have author Robert Shields  drop by Chocolate Chunky Munkie and answer some questions for me.

Author Interview:  Robert Shields

What inspired you to become a writer? 
I started writing at an early age. I give the credit to my seventh grade teacher, Mrs. Gowen, because she made us write all the time. The first thing that I ever wrote was a fan fiction piece on Star Wars where the rebels actually stop the Empire from boarding their ship in the opening scene and they kill Darth Vader. I also started my own sports newspaper that had a whopping circulation of one when I was ten. I have since been writing a weekly syndicated sports column in Arkansas for over fifteen years on the side.

Please tell us in one sentence only, why we should read your book? 
Because we have all been in love with a person that we thought was greater than us, but in the end you find out their only human.

Your favorite authors? 
As a child I loved S.E. Hinton and all her books being the Outsiders, That was then this is now, Rumble Fish, Tex etc... I did not realize until later that the “S” stood for Sue and the “E” for Eloise. If I had known the author was a woman from the beginning, I may have never read the books. I do believe although it is contrary that women can write great men characters and men can write great women characters.

 Thank you Robert for taking time to answer my questions, some great answers  :)