📖Authors To Watch: Robert Charles Lee Author of Through Dangerous Doors #authorstowatch #interview #PUYB

 

Robert Charles Lee is a retired risk scientist with over twenty-five years of academic and applied risk analysis, decision analysis, and risk management experience in a wide variety of contexts. He has authored over one hundred peer-reviewed scientific works, as well as over one hundred technical reports for industry and government agencies. Prior to the professional risk work he worked in laboratories a bit, but otherwise was a manual laborer until he reckoned that he could use his brain for a living.

Robert has a BS in Botany, a BS in Science Education, an MS in Environmental Health, and a Certificate in Integrated Business Administration. He is ABD (all but dissertation) in a Toxicology PhD program. He is an ordained Minister and has an honorary Doctorate of Metaphysics from the Universal Life Church and is a Member of the Nova Scotia L’Ordre du Bon Temps, or Order of the Good Time.

He was born in North Carolina and lived there for over twenty years, but has since lived in Alaska, Oregon, Washington, and Alberta. He was also homeless for a time while a laborer in the Western United States. He currently resides in Colorado.

Robert and his wife Linda have climbed hundreds of technical and non-technical mountain, rock, ice, and canyon routes, hiked thousands of miles in several countries, and skied many miles of vertical feet at resorts and in the backcountry.

Robert is an avid amateur photographer, largely of outdoor subjects. He is a musician who plays hand, stick, and mallet percussion, and who can sing, but rarely does for unclear reasons. He is an amateur sound engineer and producer and has recorded more than a thousand written and improvisational instrumental pieces with other musicians to date. He was trying to learn to relax in retirement, but then he discovered non-technical writing. He has written a memoir and a poetry collection and is working on short stories.

Through Dangerous Doors is his latest book.

Visit his website at https://robertcharleslee.com or follow him on Goodreads.

In a life defined by risk, Robert Charles Lee experiences a poor and free-ranging childhood in the racist South of the 1960s. After his father dies, the family grows dysfunctional. As a result, teen-age Robert seeks sanity and solace by rock climbing solo and driving cars fast. He wins a scholarship and graduates from university, but still seeks to escape the South.

Moving to Alaska and the Western US, Robert works in a series of dangerous and brutal jobs. He meets and marries Linda, who enjoys climbing and skiing difficult mountains as much as he does. Simultaneously, Robert trains in the science of risk to become a respected professional risk scientist.

Robert shares his remarkable story as he guides the reader through a series of dangerous but rewarding doors, culminating in a vivid journey of adventure and risk.

Welcome to My Bookish Pleasures. We would love to get to know you and your book! When did you begin writing?

Assuming early school essays and such don’t count, I started writing scientific articles and reports in graduate school. After I started technical mountain climbing in my 30s, I wrote a few trip accounts for friends and family, but I didn’t put a lot of effort into this, and never sought to publish them. An exception was an article about a climbing trip my wife and I made to Scotland. It was a particularly entertaining story because the conditions were absolutely miserable, but we made the best of it. A climbing magazine published it, but unfortunately the editor snipped out much of the humor, which was disappointing. My memoir Through Dangerous Doors is my first major popular publication.

Describe your writing process. When and where do you write?

I’m retired from work, so I can write pretty much any time I feel like it. However, I’d say my most productive writing is in the morning. I have a home office, so I write there. I share this with my wife, who often works from home given the COVID-19 pandemic. I bought some noise cancelling headphones for times when she’s Zooming or on the phone.

Can you tell us about your most recent release?

Through Dangerous Doors is a memoir covering six decades of a life full of both involuntary and voluntary risks.

I experienced a poor and free-ranging childhood in the racist South of the early 1960s. My father died when I was eight, and my family grew dysfunctional. As a result, I sought sanity and solace through activities such as rock climbing solo and driving muscle cars. I graduated from university, but I sought to escape the South

Moving to Alaska and the Western US, I worked in a series of dangerous and brutal jobs. I discovered mountaineering. I then met and married my wife Linda, who became my main partner in climbing and skiing difficult mountains. Simultaneously, I trained in the science of risk, and became a respected professional risk scientist.

The memoir is structured as a series of dangerous but rewarding doors, all leading to a lifetime journey of adventure and risk.

 

How did you get the idea for the book?

I happened to read a couple of memoirs in succession, shortly before I retired from my career. I don’t read much nonfiction aside from articles on the Web, so this was unusual. One was Westover’s excellent memoir “Educated.” Although her childhood was weirder than mine in several ways, it made me ponder the risks associated with a poor and suboptimal upbringing, as well as the positive effect of education. I won’t name the other memoir (you never know who might review your book), because I thought it was way too long, dreadfully boring, and unworthy of the acclaim and prizes it received. It did, however, make me consider that perhaps I could do better. This book also emphasized the value of good editors, which apparently the author lacked. If nothing else, my book is tight, in large part due to a good editor.

Another influence was associated with retirement. I was asked to give a short talk on risk and how it has affected my life during my final corporate meeting. As I considered what I would say, I realized I’m one of the few risk scientists I know who has experienced a personally risky life. So, I thought a memoir focused on risk, from the perspective of somebody who has both studied and ‘lived’ risk, would be interesting to readers. It’s probably been a shock to some of my work and academic colleagues, and I would have been reluctant to publish it while I was still working (I wouldn’t have had the time to write it, regardless). Although most of my colleagues knew I was a mountain climber, they didn’t know about my risky early years. However, I’ve received positive feedback from many.

What was the most challenging aspect of writing your book?

I didn’t anticipate the large amount of work involved with editing. I wrote the first rough draft in in a couple of weeks. It took a year to edit it, with an excellent lead editor guiding me. Part of this challenge involved the pandemic (talk about risk!), which slowed and continues to slow many aspects of life.

By the way, I mention the COVID-19 pandemic in the book’s Coda as an example of the large-scale risks our society faces, and the need to think rationally about risk. The editor questioned this, as in the early days it was unclear how bad the pandemic would get, how long it would last, and so on. It turned out to be much more severe than I and most scientists anticipated, partially due to behavioral and societal reasons. It’s one of the greatest failures of risk management in recent history. I’m glad I retained the statement in my book.

Do you find it easier to write nonfiction?

I found it easy to write a memoir, because it’s all about me! I had previously written a large number of scientific articles and reports during my career, which was great training for relating ideas in a clear and concise fashion. This wasn’t what most people would consider to be “popular” literature, however. I was unaccustomed to popular prose, but my editors helped with this. I think writing a popular nonfiction book about science, or history, or any other subject would involve a huge amount of research. I’m therefore unlikely to do this, as it’s too much like work. In contrast, see below.

Do you have plans to write fiction?

I’ve written a poetry collection and a short story collection. I self-published the poetry collection, because as far as I can tell there are no rational rules or processes for getting poetry published, or for that matter what even constitutes good poetry at a particular time in our history. It’s almost worse than music in this respect. I think my poems are good, but I have no idea whether anybody else thinks so. I just wanted to get them in a permanent format.

I’m exploring different publication avenues for the short stories. I hired a couple of different editors to critique the stories, and they gave me completely different feedback, so this was of limited value. However, one editor mentioned that one story in particular could easily be expanded into a series or novel. I’m thinking about it.

Getting back to the previous question, I found it quite easy to write the poems and stories. They just sort of popped in my head, and I wrote them down. In fiction, the writer can create their own worlds. Whether their stories are good or not is a different question.

What projects are you currently working on?

I recently moved from New Mexico to Colorado, during a pandemic and a crazy housing market, so this has taken up a lot of my time. I also want to get back to playing music, which has been on hold due to the move and the pandemic. However, I would like to publish any or all of the short stories, so I need to start investigating this. I would also like to record an audio version of the memoir, but this is a long and arduous process.

What advice would you offer to new or aspiring nonfiction authors?

Write what you know, or can reasonably research, and expect a final manuscript draft to take a lot longer than you would think. I highly suggest hiring at least one editor to critique the manuscript before trying to submit it. Your friends and family can review it, but they are less likely to critique it thoroughly and fairly, compared to a paid professional. 

Publication is a lot of work. Traditional publishing is difficult to break into these days. It’s easy to self-publish, but it’s expensive if you hire good editors, proofreaders, and so on (and if you aren’t willing to spend this money, you will have problems). You will also have to market yourself. Some publishers are moving toward a hybrid model in which the author pays an upfront fee and has access to professional editorial and marketing staff. This is the model I chose, and it has worked out well for me.