WGI Mentor Emily Robinson has recently released her novel “Consumed,” available now for pre-order! Check out her interview and pre-order links below.
- Tell us about your book Consumed.
Consumed is a surreal and experimental look into the ways trauma lives in the body even when left ignored. It’s gritty, subversive tale of love, loss and psychoses, set in the digital age. The novel follows Amber, a New York native, as she flees overwhelming betrayal by escaping to Italy for the summer. Working on a vineyard, she meets the enigmatic Natalia. Bound together in youthful carnality, they find themselves pulled into a pit, or pot, of despair.
- What was the inspiration for the book?
I began writing Consumed when I, myself, was working on a vineyard in Italy. I had no internet connection, and was processing some intimate violations that I couldn’t dare name. Fiction has always been a safe way for me to explore ideas swirling around my mind from a safe distance. For example, in high school, I wrote and directed a short film about having sex for the first time before I ever had sex myself. Writing this allegorical novel was the way I made sense of the trauma I was processing knowingly and unknowingly. I’m very grateful it has resonated with other people.
- Tell us about the journey from idea to finished book.
The novel began as a screenplay that wasn’t quite working. The plot points were all there, and have mostly remained unchanged, but so much of the story was internal, I needed to switch mediums to effectively communicate the heart and guts of Amber’s journey. From there, I wrote and workshopped the novel for nearly two years before it was time to find a publisher—and time to adapt it into a screenplay once more, now that I knew the emotional beats I had to hit and the language I wanted to use to communicate the internal arc.
It was COVID times, so everything was shut down and confusing, and yet somehow, despite that, I found my wonderful publishers, Jordan and Priscilla, over at Grey Borders. I’ve been fortunate to be able to collaborate with them so openly about all aspects of the release, including the cover design, which is a rare treat for a debut novelist!
- Where can people purchase the book?
Consumed is available for pre-order online: https://greybordersbooks.jigsy.com/emily-robinson-consumed, and it will eventually be available at select bookstores.
On October 12th we will be doing a virtual event with Blue Cypress Books (New Orleans): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EluLdANuyEE
If you’re in Los Angeles, we will be having book events at Junior High (October 28 co-hosted by Gillian Jacobs), Skylight Books (November 8 co-hosted by Amanda Montell), and Barnes and Noble at the Grove (January 18 co-hosted by Susanna Fogel). Hope to see some of you there!
- What are you working on next?
I’m working on my next novel, which also revolves largely around the body—but this time in a more euphoric kind of way. I’ll keep you posted!
- Any advice, tips, resources or guidance you’d like to share for someone who wants to write?
Read every book about writing you can find. Then throw it all away. It’s about learning the fundamentals so you can choose to ignore them and/or use them to your advantage and get funky with it.
If you write professionally, my advice is to also keep a writing practice that is just for fun, and just for you.
Whether you’re newer to writing or have been doing it your whole life, Wayne Koestenbaum’s Figure It Out has a chapter with a number of writing exercises that will dare you to get out of your comfort zone. I recommend it wholeheartedly.
