IndieView with Robert Eggleton, author of Rarity from the Hollow

It feels like I’ve been writing Rarity from the Hollow all my life. I’m sixty-five, so that’s a long time.

Robert Eggleton – 20 June 2016

The Back Flap

Lacy Dawn’s father relives the Gulf War, her mother’s teeth are rotting out, and her best friend is murdered by the meanest daddy on Earth. Life in The Hollow isn’t great. But Lacy has one advantage — she’s been befriended by a semi-organic, semi-robot who works with her to cure her parents. He wants something in exchange, though. It’s up to her to save the Universe.

To prepare Lacy for her coming task, she is being schooled daily via direct downloads into her brain. Some of these courses tell her how to apply magic to resolve everyday problems much more pressing to her than a universe in big trouble, like those at home and at school. She doesn’t mind saving the universe, but her own family and friends come first.

Will Lacy Dawn’s predisposition, education, and magic be enough for her to save the Universe, Earth, and, most importantly, protect her own family?

Rarity from the Hollow is adult literary science fiction filled with tragedy, comedy and satire. It is a children’s story for adults, not for the prudish, faint of heart, or easily offended.

About the book

What is the book about?

Rarity from the Hollow is an adult literary science fiction novel filled with tragedy, comedy and satire. The content addresses social issues, such as child abuse, poverty, and mental illness. Lacy Dawn occupies the body of an eleven year old and sounds like one, but she has evolved under the supervision of Universal Management for hundreds of thousand of years. She is not a typical little girl, and if you think of her as such, you may be shocked.

She lives in a hollow with her worn-out mom, her Iraq War disabled dad, and her mutt Brownie, a dog who’s becoming very skilled at laying fiber optic cable. Lacy Dawn’s android boyfriend, for when she’s old enough to have one, has come to the hollow with a mission. He was sent by the Manager of the Mall on planet Shptiludrp (Shop ’till You Drop) to recruit Lacy Dawn to save the universe from an imminent threat to its economic structure. In exchange, if the team that Lacy Dawn recruits is successful in saving the universe, Earth would be designated as a planet that is eligible for continued existence – granted immunity. Will Lacy Dawn’s magic enables her to save the universe, Earth, and, most importantly, her own family?

Rarity from the Hollow is a children’s story for adults, not for the prudish, faint of heart, or easily offended. 

When did you start writing the book?

It feels like I’ve been writing Rarity from the Hollow all my life. I’m sixty-five, so that’s a long time. The first edition of the story was started in 2006 and published by a short-lived, traditional eBook publisher a year later. I rewrote it on and off for the next six years as I looked for a traditional publisher to accept the project. It was republished in 2012 by Dog Horn Publishing, a traditional small press in Leeds, and it is currently in the process to be republished in 2016.

How long did it take you to write it?

Today, I’m a retired psychotherapist. At the time that the first edition of Rarity from the Hollow was written, I was working full-time in an emotionally draining intensive children’s day program. It took about six months writing after work and on weekends to complete the first manuscript. Of course, my involvement with editors took much longer.

Where did you get the idea from?

I’ve mentioned that I’m a retired psychotherapist. In 2002, I took a job as a children’s therapist in an intensive day program at our local mental health center. Part of my job was the facilitation of group therapy sessions for participants, many of whom had been abused, some sexually. One day in 2006 during a group therapy session, I was sitting around a table used for written therapeutic exercises, and a little girl with stringy, brown hair sat a few feet away. Instead of just disclosing the horrors of her abuse at the hands of the meanest daddy on Earth, she also spoke of her hopes and dreams for the future: finding a loving family who would protect her.

This girl was inspiring. She got me thinking again about my own hopes and dreams of writing fiction, something that I’d placed on a back burner. The protagonist for Rarity from the Hollow was born that day – an empowered victim who takes on the evils of the Universe, Lacy Dawn.

Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?

Yes, I struggle, every time that something that I write rises to an issue of morality. Should I tone down to fit into what I perceive to be a relatively conservative, cookie-cutter marketplace, or should I write from the heart? I’ve told you about how Rarity from the Hollow has been a decade-long process. I would tone it down, bring it back up….

What came easily?

Writing, itself, is fast and easy for me. It’s magic.

Are your characters entirely fictitious or have you borrowed from real world people you know?

All of my characters have a real-life counterpart. I accentuate attributes. During over forty years serving as a child advocate, I have met more characters – rich and poor, strong and weak…. I will run out of life long before I run out of great characters for anything that I write.

We all know how important it is for writers to read. Are there any particular authors that have influenced how you write and, if so, how have they influenced you?

I’m not sure that you have enough bandwidth for me to make a complete list of inspirations, so here’s a few. Of course, Heinlein’s determination as an aspiring author after having been rejected so many times inspired my own persistence. Also, the way he progressively treated racial and gender issues in his fiction at a time when science fiction was regarded a pulp for kids inspired me to consider incorporating social commentary into my fiction.

Ferlinghetti, the poet of the Beat Generation, showed me how to enjoy my anger about political and societal issues. Similarly, Vonnegut’s anger in Breakfast of Champions helped me stay strong as a children’s advocate and as a writer, and how to continue to have fun experimenting with my writing style outside of commonly accepted structures and formats. One book critic found that the writing style of Rarity from the Hollow was a quarter-turn beyond Vonnegut.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Harry Potter series reinforced my faith in the potential of adolescent morality and the future of the world, which was comforting. The protagonist in Rarity from the Hollow just had to be a kid. Watership Down by R. Adams was such a sweet adventure that some of this element just is a necessary ingredient of even the scariest or saddest story. I want my writing to be as hopeful regardless of barriers. I incorporated sweetness into the character of the android and the dog in Rarity from the Hollow. The versatility in cross-genre and the use of humor by Bradbury – I have enjoyed everything that he’s written. It taught me that people finish what they read because they are experiencing enjoyment. Recreational reading is not like a homework assignment. I kept this lesson in mind to ensure that Rarity from the Hollow would be a fun read despite introductory tragedy.

Dean Koontz has been masterful and can give me enjoyable nightmares. I’m one of those people who learned how to enjoy having the crap scared out of me. The worker roaches coming after Tom when he accidentally squished a couple of their friends, that was kind of scary, except it was also kind of outrageous. Nora Roberts knows how to get me in a romantic mood. Both of these elements were incorporated into my writing, except, for me, romance has to be based on true love, real or imagined. Lacy Dawn lets the android kiss her on the cheek, once, period, and there has never been a stronger love.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by D. Adams and Another Roadside Attraction by Robbins pushed me into the wilder side of writing regardless of censorship, as did the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers comics. It’s a place that I really like to visit, but would not necessarily want to live there full-time. I was influenced to speak the truth as the characters saw it in Rarity from the Hollow, regardless of whether the story fit within a preconceived formula to increase sales.

Stephen King’s use of everyday horror convinced me that alarming scenes can be created by using almost anything as a prop. I’ve already talked about the third scene in Rarity from the Hollow. On Goodreads, that scene stopped a nineteen year old woman in her tracks. She posted a book review which stated she still watched Disney movies and that my novel was in the horror genre and that people who read Stephen King would probably enjoy it because my novel was well written.

Do you have a target reader?

Man, this is a hard question – targeted readers for Rarity from the Hollow. For the last few months, since I’ve retired and have had time to self-promote this novel, I’ve tried, not successfully, to define a targeted audience in the negative – who this novel was not written for – the prudish, faint of heart, or easily offended. When Awesome Indies awarded the novel a Gold Medal, it declared that it was a “…funny book that most sci-fi fans will thoroughly enjoy..”

About Writing

Do you have a writing process? If so can you please describe it?

I write a general outline and then deviate. Since I’ve retired, I write a lot, either self-promotion pieces or actual fiction – ain’t it the same? I’m trying to improve the process because some of my best thoughts come when I’m not present to record them, such as when lost in semi consciousness.

Do you outline? If so, do you do so extensively or just chapter headings and a couple of sentences?

Yes, I outline before I write. I can’t imagine getting someplace without knowing where you want to go. However, I do make side-stops along the interstate of the trip. I don’t believe that a road map should confine. That takes all the fun out of a vacation like creative writing.

Do you edit as you go or wait until you’ve finished?

I edit the next morning after I’ve “slept on” a scene. My editing is harsh – I’ve trashed entire scenes that, looking back, I probably should have put on my hard drive for another story. Of course, nothing can substitute for independent editing – I’m an advocate of nothing to be publicly released without it.

Do you listen to music while you write? If yes, what gets the fingers tapping?

I collect obscure psychedelic rock LPs. My neurons firing, not my fingers tapping, were what helped me close a few scenes in Rarity from the Hollow.

About Publishing

Did you submit your work to Agents?

I’ve sent queries about Rarity from the Hollow to a few agents. It’s been years ago, and I only received one reply: Robert Stephenson from Australia, a long way from West Virginia. He thought that he might be able to interest TOR, but then his emails just stopped. He may have died, or something. I hope not, cool dude.

What made you decide to go Indie, whether self-publishing or with an indie publisher? Was it a particular event or a gradual process?

I didn’t realize it when writing Rarity from the Hollow – maybe I thought that Elvis could still be discovered while singing on the porch stoop of a low income apartment – but the doors to traditional mainstream publishers have been chained shut for decades. Self-publishing was new. I checked it out but didn’t have the money or knowledge to move forward. During my career, my jobs had great titles, but paid little. As a bottom line, I think that I just got lucky in interesting Dog Horn Publishing in my work. I met Adam Lowe, the owner, on a chat room or something similar – luck.

Did you get your book cover professionally done or did you do it yourself?

There have been three covers for Rarity from the Hollow. I’m not sure who came up with the first one as it was handled by the short-lived eBook publisher that I mentioned before. Jag Lall, an English comic book artist did the second, and the most recent, slight modification to it a month ago, was don’t by Dog Horn Publishing. I think that it was done by Adam Lowe, owner, personally. Since the novel is a genre bender, cover design has proven especially problematic – it’s hard to depict tragedy treated with satire and comedy using an adult science fiction backdrop.

Do you have a marketing plan for the book or are you just winging it?

So far, I’ve not spent a cent on having Rarity from the Hollow published or promoted. This was a marketing plan by default – work hard to get as much free exposure for the novel as possible. I don’t object to investing money in it. I just don’t have any money to invest. I’ve paid into the U.S. Social Security fund for over fifty-two years and retired from the child welfare field. That’s not a career that one goes into for the money. It was one great sounding job after another that involved low pay. In retirement, we live on a low, fixed income. Small presses, as most are aware, while there are no upfront costs, have next to no advertising budgets – so my marketing plan remains to look for opportunities that provide free exposure, such as by writing guest posts for blogs.

So far, something about Rarity from the Hollow has appeared on over ninety blogs in twenty different countries, including all over the U.S. and the U.K., Finland, Mexico, Bulgaria, Belgium, South Africa, Croatia, Uruguay, India, Taiwan, Australia, Nigeria, Egypt, Malaysia, Canada, Vietnam, Portugal, the Netherlands, and Sweden. The project has grown into a world-wide movement to sensitize people about child maltreatment through a satiric and comical science fiction adventure. Author proceeds have been donated to a child abuse prevention program.

Any advice that you would like to give to other newbies considering becoming Indie authors?

There are so many books, so much competition, and I feel insecure about giving advice to anybody about how to best participate in the literary marketplace. Strictly based on my personal experience, I will offer advice to others who are passionate about any project or cause: temper with common sense. For example, it’s okay to rant to a loved one about a critical book review written by someone who obviously had not even read the first page of your book, and that’s happened to me, but it is not okay to do so in public – self-control.

About You

Where did you grow up?

I grew up and still live in West Virginia, a small, impoverished state in the U.S.

What are you working on now?

The next full-length Lacy Dawn Adventure is Ivy and asks, “how far will a child go to save a parent from addiction?” Actually, it’s been ready for professional editing for a while, but I’ve been so consumed with self-promotion of Rarity from the Hollow that it has taken a back seat. I’ve learned a lot from book reviewers, so I’m glad that it has been on hold as I revise it. I recently won first place in an international poetry competition and another of my poems will come out in the spring edition of a magazine any day. One of my stories just got turned down by a young adult science fiction magazine (my classification), so I’ll work on it and submit to another. I always have a lot of irons in the fire at the same time, but, again, self-promotion has been so time consuming that my writing has suffered.

End of Interview:

Get your copy of Rarity from the Hollow from Amazon US or Amazon UK.