An interview by a lady book reviewer from Kentucky!
CA: This is a first for me, I just finished reviewing Bobby’s western novel Mercer’s Manor. I have never actually sat down and read a full blown shoot ‘em up kind of western as Bobby calls it but I have watched them on TV when I was smaller. I much rather prefer the books. So here ya go world, put your hands together for Western author Bobby Robert Woodall.
CA: What genre(s) do you write?
BRW: I write westerns
CA: Why do you write the stories that you write?
BRW: I’m from Oklahoma originally but live in Indiana for the last 37 years I used to be a cowboy. In fact when I met my wife I was shoeing horses and mules at a dude ranch (Stupid Charley’s). The name of the ranch is funny as my wife and her college roommate had a lab mouse from college named “Stupid Charley. Anyway, this mouse was all the time running backwards so they just named him Stupid Charley. The two girls wanted to have an adventure and summer was coming up at college, so they decided to look in magazines for dude ranches in Colorado. In the meantime, a buddy of mine and I decided to go to California to become gigolos (we figured we were good lucking dudes) and women would be falling over each other to get at us. ROTFLMAO! As luck would have it, we 2 Romeos were in a bar, got in a brawl and finally deposited at the gutter in front of the bar. The brawl started when my friend Robert, who had a firecracker called a screamer in his back pocket (it was around the 4th of July). One of the patrons at the bar was a drunken Indian who decided to walk around us. In the process of going around us, he spied the firecracker sticking out of Roberts butt pocket. Grinning to himself, the drunk applied the lit end of his cigar to the fuse of the screamer. I was at the far end of the bar trying to put the make on a lovely Indian maiden. I say lovely, because she had at least thee teeth in her mouth; two stained with berry juice and one yellowed and broken plus her hair looked as if it was due an oil change any minute.
All of a sudden, Robert let out a hoop and hollers. Seems as the firecracker was burning its fuse he was being burnt in the butt. He quickly reached behind him to remove the offending screamer, but got burnt; therefore he threw his hand up in the air and hollered. I thought he was making fun of the Indians by doing an impromptu war dance. It looked as if the battle was on. I looked around and hit the first person I saw (a big Indian). My Paw had told me to always get in the first punch. He in return hit me back (it was only right as I had hit him first). After slowing having my facial features rearranged by Hiawatha and moving my nose to where my right ear was, I backed up to a juke box that was blaring out, Honky-tonk Angels! Raising my fists to ward off more blows I looked out of the corner of my eye that was not already closed and saw Robert take on two more of the noble breed. To make a long story even longer, we were thrashed royally or to put it in plain English beaten almost to a pulp and thrown into the gutter. We crawled to our car and the next morning there was a tap on the side window. Bleary eyed I looked out the window and could of sworn it was Wyatt Earp or maybe Wild Bill Hitchcock. This apparition starring back at me was dressed up in full cowboy regalia; chaps, boots, Levis, etc., etc. He even had a handlebar moustache that was stained with tobacco juice. His dishwater hair peeked out from under the biggest Stetson I ever had seen. Rolling down my window a smidge, I asked what he wanted. "You boys shoe horses?" I was raised on a farm so I stated that we did, although I knew Robert was scared of horse. That meant that yours truly would be doing all the work. We worked at the dude ranch I met my wife. I knew her 30 minutes and asked her to marry me. I'll be the 1st to admit I was a tad slow, but I had to know her name first. One has to set his priorities right. We eloped and then started the long saga of the adventures of BobbyRobert!
CA: Who or what was your inspiration for writing?
BRW: Always wanted to be a write, but I had an English teacher in high school tell me, Woodall, you could not put 10 words together to make a proper sentence! Well, Madame, I put over 187,000 words together to make two novels. I find that I can make sense though others may not like it, but I tell them, Eat your heart out! As I mentioned before, hopefully I am not being too redundant, but I like reading. One day I told my wife, Babe, that’s what I call her. All other women are doll! I think I can write as good as these guys.She told me to do it and see. She is my inspiration for without her I would be lost! So I wrote one novel and it got published. I wrote another to prove I was not a flash in the pan and it got published. Hey, I thought to myself. I’m on a roll. Therefore I’m busy writing more; a murder mystery, another western, a children’s book, a horror story and a scary story.
What’s the difference between a horror story and a scary story? In a horror story there’s a lot of fantasy. In a scary story, it is a case of it might or might not happen. I’ve been compared to Louis Lamoure but there are 2 important things about that. First and the most obvious, I’m alive and he isn’t. God rest his soul! Secondly, he takes 3 chapters to describe a blade of grass. To me, a blade of grass is a blade of grass, I describe people. I want people to walk a mile in my boots or at least look at my characters through my one-eye
CA: What is your work schedule like when you're writing?
BRW: I don’t have a schedule as I don’t believe in work. That’s a nasty four letter word I detest. If the mood strikes me I write. Lately the mood has eluded me. Although tomorrow is another day, maybe it’ll return. If it doesn’t, then I’m a realist. I got two novels now; I am satisfied with just having a contented mind.
CA: Your book is about to be sent into the reader world, what is one word that describes how you feel?
BRW: Satisfied and accomplished! You see, I had a horrible auto accident 35 years ago that left me with brain damage (No I’m not a babbling idiot, although my wife would disagree with me sometimes). My car hit two mail boxes, one telephone poll, and rolled end over end five times. I was declared legally “dead” three times. I was in a coma for 47 days. Funny thing though. I did not break a bone in the accident, but after two weeks in the hospitals neurotically unit, I was dropped out of bed and broke my hip socket. Let me tell you the hospital wasn’t safe at all! The doctors told me wife if I survived I would be a vegetable. This carrot not only survived but authored and got published 2 novels. My novels have neither profanity nor graphic sex scenes. The English language is too full of proper words to have to resort to profanity. Also I am not the world’s mommy and daddy. People should learn about sex from their parents.
CA: What do you like to do when you're not writing?
BRW: Eating, sleeping and thinking of what if that happens or what if that over there happens. Life is too short to wallow in self-pity. Of course I did my fair share of holding pity parties for ole Bobby, but then I remembered. Back home in Oklahoma there was a sign that said, I felt sorry because I had no shoes until I met a man with no feet! Sure, I wear a patch, but I’m not blind. I limp somewhat especially when I’m tired, but I am not confined to a wheel-chair. I talk in a slurred tone but at least I’m not mute, although there have been times when my kids and wife wished it to be so. I am considered by Social Security to have Cerebral Palsy and am classified as totally disabled not handicapped. Anytime your cerebrum is damaged the Social Security puts a large umbrella over it and calls the condition Cerebral Palsy.
CA: How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?
BRW: I have authored two so far. As far as favorite it’s hard to say, depends on the mood I’m in at the present. CLEARWATER is about a serial killer”of the old west whereas MERCER’S MANOR is a post Civil War epic! I like CLEARWATER when I’m feeling hungry for adventure. On the other hand I like MERCER’S MANOR when I feel in a nostalgic or history type mode. I have a sequel to MERCER’S MANOR in the back of my mind. Bringing it forward is another matter altogether.
CA: Do you tend to base your characters on real people or are they totally from your imagination?
BRW: They are from my imagination plus real life experiences! I ask my friends if I can use their name in a story and they say yes, they even go so far as to tell me what character they want to be. Writing is a form of therapy. One can vent out his anger, relive a fantasy or get rid of frustrations. It's wonderful to be alive at this time and in this very moment! My wife says, Bobby, you’re full of it as a Christmas turkey. Maybe so, but I’m writing it all down and getting paid for it!
CA: How can a reader contact you or purchase your books?
BRW: They are not only in print but electronically too. They can be purchased at the following web sites:
AVAILABLE TODAY 2012!
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