If You Love Neo-Noir, Meet Your Next Favorite Author

By Hannah Mc

Author Robin Yocum grew up in the Ohio Valley village of Brilliant, and in the past years has lived in the Columbus area. He got his start writing two non-fiction books, but his writing has shifted to Fiction with a focus on suspense & crime.
Robin has his own public relations and marketing consulting business, and when he isn’t writing, he is doing client work. Since he doesn’t have a set schedule for writing, he takes advantage of doing so whenever he has time between client obligations and traveling on the road to Michigan, Tennessee, and Virginia to visit his children. In fact, he wrote the first draft of The Sacrifice of Lester Yates on his phone using a voice-to-text app, which is a wonderful way to take advantage of the seven-hour car ride. Proving you can cruise down a highway, converse with the voice in your head, and create an electrifying story.

All authors face challenges and obstacles, one that Robin believes that any writer must learn to face, is hearing the word NO, and learning to face it a lot. “You have to keep grinding. When I’m working on a book, I do a minimum of 500 words a day. Sometimes, they’re terrible words. However, I can go back the next day and edit terrible words. I can’t edit a blank sheet of paper. (Or a blank computer screen.) I was teaching a class once and a student said, “That’s not the way the creative process is supposed to work.” I said, “Maybe not, but there are days when the inspiration fairy skips over my house, and I don’t get my allotment of magic writer’s dust. Meanwhile, I still have a deadline to meet.” Admittedly, it was a wise-guy answer, but the point remains.”

But with challenges come highlights, milestones, and personal moments that all authors are proud of. One in particular for Robin was when he was able to have his parents in the room when the Columbus Metropolitan Library hosted him for an author event. Being a West Virginia steelworker, his father always encouraged him to get an education and stay out of the mill. “When I was growing up, probably the last thing he could have foreseen me becoming was a writer. That was a big night for both of us. I try to keep moving forward, always looking at the next project. With that said, signing the contract for the first novel, Favorite Sons, was a big day.”

His novels are primarily set in the Ohio Valley in the in the stretch between Steubenville, Ohio, and Wheeling, West Virginia. In many ways, his work is a romanticization of the Ohio Valley of his youth, especially when the steel mills were booming. He refers to it as the “grit and the grind of the valley. It’s a day long past, but one that I strive to keep alive in my novels.” Something interesting that fans of Yocum might like to learn, is that he writes in first-person. The reason for this is so that “my protagonist is always looking at the world through my eyes. Therefore, there is a lot of me in my narrators. It’s easier for me to find my character’s voice when I’m behind the steering wheel.”

His advice to other writers, illustrators, or anyone just starting out. Sit down write and grind it out. “A hundred editors may say no, but only one needs to say yes. I’ve run into many people over the years who are in love with the idea of writing a book, but they don’t want to do the heavy lifting. One of my favorite novel passages is in QB VII by Leon Uris. His protagonist is to give a talk at a writer’s conference. He opens his remarks by asking the attendees, “Who here wants to be a writer?” Of course, everyone raises their hand. He then says, “Why the hell aren’t you home writing?” and walks off the stage. Admittedly, that’s a little harsh, but the point is valid.”