An interview with Bob Sennett

Join as for a chat with one of our most recently signed authors, Bob Sennett, author of Aurélie & Max, as we discuss writing routines, the journey to publication and drinking whiskey with the author Jamie O'Neill.

Bob Sennett, author of Aurélie & Max

Spectrum Books:

Can you tell us a little about yourself and your journey to becoming a writer?

Bob Sennett:

I was born in Brooklyn, New York, in the middle of the twentieth century, and I grew

up there. My adult life was lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts where I worked as an

art librarian at Harvard University. I retired in 2015 to concentrate on my writing.

My father was a writer (he wrote about Hollywood) so I had the inspiration and the

aspiration in front of me right from my birth. It only took me fifty years to get started.

Spectrum Books:

What inspired you to write your latest book, and what do you hope readers take

away from it?

Bob Sennett:

Many of my books are about the experiences of gay men at war -- I don’t know why

this is so, as I have never actively served. I guess writers look for life and death

experiences to heighten the stakes and war is about as high a stake as you can get.

Aurélie & Max is about the aftermath of love and war. I chose Paris in the late teens

of the twentieth century to show how newly found freedoms can be a blessing and a

curse. I hope my readers find the story chimes in some way with their lives in the

present.

Spectrum Books:

What genres do you enjoy writing the most, and why?

Bob Sennett:

I write historical fiction because I like the idea of being a fly on the wall to great

historical events, but every now and then a real good contemporary thriller or

romance story occurs to me and I chase it down.

Spectrum Books:

What does your writing routine look like? Do you have any rituals or habits that help

you stay focused?

Bob Sennett:

I rarely write at home: too many distractions. Prague (like most cities in the world)

has a great café culture so I can visit as many as five different coffee shops in the

course of a week. I’m also a morning person for the same reason. Two thousand

words a day and I’m golden. I can stop and spend the rest of the time cooking,

playing with my pet cockatiel, reading, or watching TV with my husband.

"Prague has a great café culture so I can visit as many as five different coffee shops in a week."

Spectrum Books:

Where do you find inspiration for your stories and characters?

Bob Sennett:

Again, they all exist in a very specific time and place in history, often in the middle of

a huge, newsworthy event: the Christmas Truce of WWI, the Blitz in WWII, an

assassination in Paris, a Fellini film in Rome, and so on. My fictional characters

wander on to the set, so to speak, and I take it from there.

Spectrum Books:

What was the most challenging part of writing this book, and how did you overcome

it?

Bob Sennett:

The research always comes first and often takes as much time as the writing of the

first draft. It’s a challenge because each place and each time have require different

sources -- old newspapers and telephone directories, memoires, historical maps. I’ve

done it enough to know where to look, but you still never know what you will find or

what you can use. After that, re-writing is a piece of cake.

"The research always comes first and often takes as much time as the writing of the first draft."

Spectrum Books:

How did it feel to get your book published, and what has been the most exciting part

of the process so far?

Bob Sennett:

I have been published before, but it is always exciting to see my work ‘out there’ and

shareable. I love doing publicity as much as I can, although being an English-

speaking novelist in a Czech-speaking country does have its challenges.

Spectrum Books:

What advice would you give to aspiring authors who are looking to get published?

Bob Sennett:

We are all aspiring authors, published or not. Just keep writing and send queries.

One first, then the other, day after day. You’ll hit the right target sooner or later.

Spectrum Books:

If you could have dinner with any three authors, living or dead, who would they be

and why?

Bob Sennett:

James Joyce, because I find his work the most challenging, fascinating, and

beautiful of all.

James Baldwin, because I admire his style and his courage, and I think ‘Giovanni’s

Room’ is a perfect book.

And Jamie O’Neill, who wrote ‘At Swim, Two Boys’. And I’m cheating here, because I

did have dinner with Jamie, over a decade ago. We drank a lot of whiskey.

Spectrum Books:

What’s next for you? Are you working on any new projects that readers should look

forward to?

Bob Sennett:

I am always working on a new project. Aurélie & Max is the middle novel in a trilogy

about gay men at war in France -- it’s preceded by Michael Ashmore set in 1870

and it’s followed by Adam Kaminski set in 1940. Both have made it to final drafts.

Then there are the books I am working on with gay Jewish heroes -- another

favourite topic of mine to write about: An Atonement in Flatbush set in Brooklyn at

the end of the Dodgers era and Paterson, set in the titular city in New Jersey in

1950, about a young aspiring artist and his suffocating family life.

Thank you, Bob, for sharing with us!

Find out how to follow Bob on his author page here, and find out more about his novel Aurélie & Max here!