2004 News Archive

Questions and Answers with Robert Lamb

How long have you been writing?

I have been writing for more than 50 years.

Is this your first published endeavor?

Not at all. I was a reporter for several newspapers, including The Atlanta-Journal Constitution, The New York Times, Dallas Times-Herald, Postcards and The Augusta Chronicle. I am still a part-time writer for The New York Times. In addition, I am the author of the novel Striking Out.

What led you to writing?

When I was about 10 years old, I saw a movie, Gentleman’s Agreement, about a magazine writer exposing anti-Semitism in America. I went home and wrote my first serious article. You could say I’ve been writing ever since.

What is your writing schedule?

When I’m at work on a book, I write about four hours a day, trying to average 1,000 words a day. Now, I do this all on a computer. I wrote my first novel in long hand and then typed it, using carbon paper on an Underwood portable typewriter.

Who do you see as the typical reader of Atlanta Blues?

The reader who wants to know what it’s really like to work day in and day out in the trenches of urban life. Most of us see sanitized or romanticized versions, on TV and in newspaper stories, of what it’s like to be, say, a coroner, a medic, a news reporter, a homicide detective — a killer. Atlanta Blues is a great opportunity to see all that, vicariously at least, rendered realistically.

Who is your favorite author?

A: There are too many to pick just one favorite. Some of my preferences include Ernest Hemingway, for his prose style; Somerset Mangham, for his sheer story-telling ability; Sherwood Anderson, for his uncanny ability to write about life’s ineffable emotions and thoughts; Jane Austen, for her endearing intelligence; Willa Cather and Stephen Crane, for their magical descriptive powers; Margaret Mitchell, for writing what is truly the Great American Novel; and Pat Conroy, for his courage as a writer.

Why did you choose to write this book?

When I was a reporter at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a truly fine newspaper, I did lots of “street stories” — stories about urban down-and-outers, the misbegotten, the disenfranchised, the thrown-away, the abandoned, the forgotten. These are the people who come out only, or mainly, at night — cabbies, cops, gamblers, burglars, prowlers, night-clubbers, prostitutes and pimps (of both sexes), drifters, runaways, the homeless, night-lifers of all stripes. I always knew it was good material for a novel about a city’s mean streets. You can get lost in plain view, lost in more ways than one, in downtown America. Lots of the lost are out there tonight.

Are any of your characters based on real people you might have known?

I pick and choose characteristics from those who have crossed my path in life. As a rule, the story I have in mind calls for certain kinds of characters — so I start reflecting on people I’ve known from whom I might fashion a composite character.

For more information, please contact Carrie McCullough, associate publisher, at carriemccullough@bellsouth.net or (706) 738-0354.