David Myles Robinson was a trial attorney in Honolulu, HI for 38
years before retiring to the mountains of New Mexico, where he lives
with his wife, a former Honolulu trial judge. In the days of yore,
before becoming a lawyer, he was a freelance journalist and a staff
reporter for a minority newspaper in Pasadena, CA. He is an
award-winning author of six novels, three of which are Pancho McMartin
legal thrillers set in Honolulu.Having traveled to all seven continents, he has also published a travel memoir entitled CONGA LINE ON THE AMAZON, which includes two Solas Traveler’s Tales award winners.
He says he includes his middle name, Myles, in his authorial appellation because there are far too many other David Robinson’s running around.
WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:
Website: davidmylesrobinson.comTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/DNRobinsonWrite
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DavidMylesRobinson/
As a book bloggin’ and book luvin’ Princess, I’m always curious to find out how authors got the ideas for their books. Can you tell us how you got the idea to write your book?
Tropical Doubts is a legal thriller, so I tend to
draw inspiration from real life cases when I can. In this instance, the
protagonist, Pancho McMartin, is a criminal law attorney who is cajoled into
representing an old family friend in a medical malpractice case. But when his
client is charged with murdering one of the doctors he sued, Pancho is suddenly
handling both a medical malpractice and a murder case for the same client. The
medical malpractice case is based on a very tragic case I handled back when I
was still practicing law in Honolulu.
Luckily, there was no murder involved.
Can you tell us a little about the main
characters of your book?
Pancho McMartin is the recurring principal character in my
Tropical legal thriller series. He was born in Taos,
New Mexico, where his parents had gone to
live in a commune after dropping out of college in the late 60s. His parents
claimed they named him Pancho so that he would get along better once he started
school in the mostly Hispanic community. Pancho’s theory is that his parents
dropped acid after he was born to celebrate and named him while stoned.
Pancho’s private investigator and best friend is Drew Tulafono,
a large Samoan man who had played for the San Diego Chargers in the NFL before
moving to Hawaii to become a PI.
When Pancho and Drew aren’t working, they grab their surfboards and hit the
waves.
Pancho’s current love interest is Padma Dasari, an American
of Indian descent who was the chief medical examiner for the city and county
of Honolulu. Now retired and
working as a medical expert consultant, she proves to be instrumental in
helping Pancho on both the medical malpractice and murder case.
The client in Tropical Doubts is Manny Delacruz, who
is an old family friend. Manny’s beloved wife falls into a permanent vegetative
state following what should have been a routine surgery, and Manny is later
arrested for the murder of one of the doctors involved in the surgery.
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what
would that be?
Avail yourself of the many excellent books on fiction
writing. Read lots of books in the genre that interests you. And just write,
write, and write.
What would you say is one of your interesting writing
quirks?
I’m very undisciplined and do not have a set schedule to
write. I don’t use an outline, so when I get an idea in my head, I start
writing and can write all day if it is flowing well. I don’t mind writing
myself into a corner and having to backtrack. It’s a fun part of the process.
Do you hear from your readers? What do they say?
The most common comments are that I am very good at dialog.
Luckily, most of the comments have been excellent. I was especially pleased to
hear from one reviewer who is an attorney and who felt the legal depictions
were very realistic.
What is the toughest criticism given to you as an author?
In my first novel, a golf related suspense story (Unplayable
Lie), some readers felt that the descriptions of the golf games were boring
to them, although all liked the overall story. That was to be expected. I also
received some similar criticism from a few readers of one of my legal thrillers
who felt I was too detailed in some of the legal maneuverings.
What has been your best accomplishment?
I assume you are talking about accomplishments in writing.
Every time I complete a novel I feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment.
Do you Google yourself?
I have, but rarely.
How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
I have another Pancho McMartin legal thriller, Tropical
Deceptions, coming out this fall or winter and another completed manuscript,
Tropical Scandal, which I’ve just sent off to my independent editor. And
I have a mostly completed novel which I’ve been working on for the last several
years which is not a legal thriller. Its story lines, which touch on racism,
love, friendship, and historical events spanning five decades has suddenly
become highly relevant, so I’m excited about finishing it.
Fun question – if you were princess or prince,
what’s one thing you would do to make your kingdom a better place?
Encourage interracial and interethnic marriages so as to
blur the lines people use to hate and discriminate.
Do you have anything specific that you would like to say to
your readers?
Thank you for reading my books and, if you can, please post
a review at whatever site you want. It is reviews and blogs by people like the
book bloggin’ and book luvin’ Princess which help those of us lesser known
authors find an audience.
When Honolulu’s flamboyant and quirky attorney, Pancho McMartin, agrees
to step out of his normal role as a criminal defense lawyer, he thinks
it will be a challenging but welcome change from his daily dose of
criminal clients. His old friend and father-figure, Manny Delacruz, has
beseeched Pancho to handle a medical malpractice claim against the
physicians who botched what should have been a routine surgery, but
which resulted in Manny’s beloved wife being in a permanent vegetative
state. The case looks good, the damages enormous, but when Manny is
arrested for the murder of one of the doctors, Pancho finds himself back
in his old role. If Manny is convicted, it means he won’t be able to be
at his wife’s bedside to hold her hand, caress her face, and read his
poems to her. He will have lost his reason to live. The pressure on
Pancho is enormous. While he and his team try to make sense out of one
of the most sinister and complicated murder schemes he’s ever seen, the
medical malpractice case chugs forward, in jeopardy of being worthless
should Manny be convicted.
