READER'S ROCK LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE VOL 2 ISSUE 4 NOVEMBER 2014 Vol. 1 Issue 5 November 2013 | Page 10

that year would never be
topped, never be achieved
again. But then I brought
Ruin Mist to audio in 2005.
The books catapulted to #1
on Audible for FOURTEEN
consecutive weeks and then
stayed on the Kids & YA Top
10 for 180 consecutive
weeks.
By 2011 I thought for sure
the ride was over. That this
was it for Ruin Mist, but it
wasn't so. Today, more than
1 million people have read
the Ruin Mist books.
Independent publishing also
gave me a chance to finally
bring my children’s books to
the world and my children
are the ones who urged him
to get the Bugville Critters
books published. I brought
the books to audio first and
then to print and digital
ebook.
To bring the books to audio, I
began working with voice
artists in 2005 and it took
four years of work with
multiple voice artists to get to
the release of all 28 original

Bugville Critters books in
audio. Once the original
Bugville Critters books were
released in audio, print and
digital ebook, I started
releasing the Bugville Jr
books and Bugville Learning
books I had created.
Now there are over 100
Bugville Criters, Bugville Jr,
and Bugville Learning books
available and those books
have been read by more than
1 million people.
Where do you see your
career in the next five
years? Do you have any
specific goals?
Robert: If all the years of
writing have taught me
anything, it’s patience. I’m
not in a hurry to publish
anything. I release my books
on my schedule, not anyone
else’s. I have so many
finished books because I’ve
been writing for 30
years—and nearly 20 of
those years as a full time
writer.
What has been published so

far is only part of what I’ve
written. Thus, a key part of
my goal for the next five
years is to get my expansive
back catalog into print or at
least moving toward
publication.
I know that you are a full
time author, but do you
also work another job at
the same time?
Robert: My day job is as a
technology journalist and
writer. I’ve been a published
technology journalist and
writer since 1995.
Technology books are very
different from works of fiction.
The average work of fiction is
about 400 pages and about
90,000 words. The average
tech book I write is about 650
pages and about 300,000
words. I’ve also written more
than a few 1200- to 1500page books, with the longest
being about 654,000 words.
Everything else I write is my
second job and I write these
books out of necessity as
much as out of love of the
craft. Technology writing for