After completing his bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from Auburn University he went on to graduate school at Auburn and completed his first doctorate degree in Pharmaceutics. He began his scientific career as a pharmacokinetic reviewer for the Food and Drug Administration and later joined a leading pharmaceutical company as a pharmacokineticist, which is a scientist who analyzes how the human body affects drugs after they have been administered (i.e, absorbed, distributed, metabolized, and excreted).
Through the years, he has worked on potential medicines within several disease areas, including cardiovascular, fibrosis, and immunoscience to seek and develop new and novel medicines in these therapy areas.
He has also had his attention on the academic study of the Bible. He earned a second doctorate in Biblical Prophecy from Louisiana Baptist University after receiving a master’s degree in Jewish Studies from the Internet Bible Institute under the tutelage of Dr. Robert Congdon.
Randy has recently retired from his pharmaceutical career and is spending even more time on his writing efforts. He has written several books that span dystopian, end-time prophecy, science fiction, and uniquely told Bible stories. All his books, while fun to read, are futuristic, filled with science to give them an authentic feel, have a science fiction feel to them, and allows one to learn some aspect of Biblical truth one may not have thought about before. This is all done in a fast-paced action format that is both entertaining and provides a fun read for his readers.
He has also written some nonfiction books as well. One is to show how all humans are connected from God’s viewpoint by looking at biblical prophecy. This book shows how all scripture is connected and inclusive of everyone. In addition, he and his editor have written a book about writing. This book not only addresses the techniques of writing, but what makes writing unique to each author. It conveys not only how to better hone one’s craft of writing but also the brand an author wants to portray. This helps an author make their writing unique as well as captivating for his/her audience. A companion book to this one regarding self-editing techniques will also soon be available.
You can visit Randy’s website at www.randydockens.com. Connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads and Instagram.
In 2005 he chose publishing and went to Standard Publishing (Cincinnati) where he worked with authors from across the nation and internationally on youth ministry materials for the former Christian-based publisher, which had a rich history serving American and Canadian churches dating to 1869. In 2011, Robert went independent. He helped develop a homeschool curriculum site for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine during a two-year period in which he worked for this trailblazing homeschool organization. He does the majority of his work with Christian Book Services. He has ghostwritten long portions of books for authors and entire books for a World War II veteran’s memoirs (written 2013-2015 at age 89-91!) and a former NFL quarterback’s story of mentoring his high school football star son.
Robert has edited virtually every type of book, from business to novels to theology to sports to memoirs to abuse survival stories, and much more. His credits include scores of books. He has spoken at or served as faculty at various writing conferences.
He enjoys family, running, the outdoors, bad golf (like many, he has the bug, which just won’t go away), a heated game of Scrabble, virtually any sport, and reading any book that even remotely interests him.
Robert has a BA from Ohio State University in Journalism. He and wife Joan have four children. Reach Bob at bobirvin642@gmail.com.
Visit him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/bobjoan.irvin/ and LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobirvin31/.
🏰As a book bloggin’ and book luvin’ Princess, I’m always curious to find out how authors got the ideas for their books. How did you come up with the idea for your book, Mastering the ABCs of Excellent Writing?
The impetus for the book was that early in my writing endeavors I (Randy) read all that I could so that I could become a “good” writer. I tried to implement everything that I read. Yet, I found that some articles of advice for beginning writers began to contradict others. I soon discovered that these posts by other authors, editors, and agents that were supposed to provide writing advice were not necessarily giving advice but providing their pet peeves about certain aspects of writing. This led me to learn that it was not their pet peeve that was the issue but the overuse of their pet peeve in one’s writing that was the culprit. Whether a writer does or does not do these things is not the determining factor of good writing, but how the writer uses these elements in their writing. Words are a writer’s toolkit and color palette. Just because an artist has a million colors to choose from does not make them able to be a good artist. It is how the artist uses and blends these colors together that makes all the difference. So true is this concept for writing as well.
Both Bob (editor) and I (author) want to help new writers understand that all things are possible, but all things are not necessarily prudent. How quickly one learns how to make those decisions is the critical step in learning how to become a “good” writer as early as possible.
More from Bob: anyone who has seriously undertaken writing knows this game can be a daunting task. It can be lonely; it can be arduous. In this book and the companion book releasing in May 2024, Mastering the ABCs of Excellent Self-Editing, we show you that any writer has to work at the craft, yes, but also celebrate the little successes. With the idea for these two books, we desired to highlight simply having your own passion for telling your story, believing in yourself, making manageable goals, and hitting them.
🏰What was the hardest part about writing your book?
There are so many aspects to good writing, that it was hard to choose
which aspects to focus on. The next challenge was in what order to put
them so that their presentation would not only be cohesive but make
sense to the reader. I think this is a text that will sincerely help new
writers learn how to focus on what are the important elements to master
early on in their writing career.
The format of this book follows the alphabet. Each chapter title and then each summary sentence at the end of each chapter starts with the same letter of the alphabet. The purpose was to show how diverse the English language is and how one can wield our words to our will to make them produce for us what we wish to say. That did work out well for most letters of the alphabet, but I have to say, doing that with the letter X was, while successful, rather challenging!
Any book with more than one author has inherent challenges. But Randy and I (Bob) work very well together and passed the working manuscripts back in good timing and respect for each other. That said, it’s still a challenge. I’d reiterate what Randy wrote above: choosing what to focus on and using the alphabet model—which we thought would be challenging, but quite unique—also were challenges.
🏰How long have you been writing or when did you start?
I guess I (Randy) have been publishing books for about eight years,
but the writing started much, much earlier. It took a while to learn
what new writers need to know so that I could write works that people
would want to read. The desire to write probably started as early as
high school where my creative side allowed me to write short stories and
poems. Yet, when I went to college, I focused more on science and the
creative side went dormant for a number of years. After graduating and
working for a number of years, the creative bug did return and so I
combined my creative side with my scientific knowledge to provide books
that are not only creative in design and storyline but have a science
fiction flair to them as well.
I (Bob) have been working with words all my adult life. I started out in newspapers as the proverbial cub reporter, worked up to increasingly responsible coverage beats, then transitioned to newsroom editing and chief newsroom editor. In the mid-2000s I went into publishing and have been helping make great writers even better authors since. I love doing the needed things to improve a manuscript. I’ve written three books and ghostwritten other entire books or long portions of manuscripts.
🏰Do you hear from your readers? What do they say?
Most of the feedback I have received is from reviewer comments. Many say that the way I write helps them to feel like they are truly there with the characters in the novel. For the science fiction trilogy (Erabon Prophecy Trilogy) one reader described the experience of reading the second book of that series, Sharab, as “like Star Trek and Jurassic Park coming together as one.” I got a chuckle out of that but could totally understand how they felt that way. Other readers have felt that my books are creative, original, and engaging.
I can’t say that all reviews are that positive. Yet, those that have been negative were more so because there are some Christian-themed elements to many of the books. I get that some people may not like that, but if a story is engaging and exciting in its own right, I’m not sure that should be a reason to discredit an entire book because of that. Yet, to each his own, as they say. Overall, however, most responses have been very positive.
I (Bob) am not a regular author like Randy, and am just starting to get feedback on the two books in this current series about writing and self-editing. So far, feedback has proven to be very positive.
🏰What has been the best accomplishment in your writing career?
I (Randy) think the best reward has been hearing from people who
really enjoyed the books I have written. When an author is told, “As I
read your book, I just couldn’t put it down,” there are no better words
to hear. I am also proud that I have several different types of series
(dystopian mystery, end-time prophecy, science fiction, Bible-based
fiction stories) yet they all fall under a theme of powerful fiction
with a science fiction feel and a Christian perspective. I am also happy
to produce this guide to new writers so that I can share important
elements that can help shorten other budding writers' journey to
success.
I (Bob) have written for newspapers, magazines, an online curriculum, books, and ghost written for others. With respect to the question, I don’t know that I’d call anything, necessarily, a best accomplishment. I like to write, I love to read, I love to edit (help others improve). For me, that is enough. Maybe in another blog spot I’ll mention some books, though, I’ve felt some pride or honor to be part of.
🏰Do you have anything that you would like to say to your readers?
I (Randy) would just like to say that my writing has something for
everyone: novels containing dystopian mystery, end-time prophecy,
science fiction, and Bible-based fiction, and nonfiction books about how
everyone is connected together and good solid tips on how to be a
better writer. While an individual may have a worldview that guides them
in principle, their life is about a myriad of things that brings joy
and all of life’s emotions. Therefore, I feel my writing follows the
same philosophy. While I write from a Christian viewpoint, the stories
themselves are versatile with mystery, intrigue, love, danger, and even
off-world adventures—all told in a dynamic, fast-paced way that is
captivating yet can help the reader learn something they may not have
known at the same time. Life is a journey. Reading helps us enjoy that
journey.
I (Bob) would reiterate Randy’s thoughts, especially those last two sentences (well stated, Randy). But also I’ll add one of my favorite lines from great writing author William Zinsser (paraphrased, but all credit here goes to Zinsser): only you can say what you have to say. It’s easy to say or think, “No one really wants to hear what I have to say.” Not true. If you have even a remotely original idea, and care about it to write with passion, and (this is my favorite part) use interesting words and interesting ways to say them, they will care. Write with passion and interest, and they will care.
About Mastering the ABCs of Excellent Writing
The authors of this book (one a writer/author; one an editor) explain what they wished they had known when they began their writing journeys. This book will speed up your writing proficiency and aid your goal of being published with excellent material your readers will enjoy.
Why this book on writing? There are two things we learned the hard way and want you to gather the easy way. One, rules are made to be broken—but you want to break them only with intentional purpose. And two, you, not the rules, are what make your stories, your writing, unique from all others.
We cover various writing techniques and how to make your writing something readers will keep enjoying, but we also help you with the artistic side of writing, meaning what’s inside you, your writing technique, and your brand.
This easy-to-enjoy manual is written in a unique alphabetical style, filled with tips and extra-information boxes at the end of each chapter, and has a number of helpful additions following the final chapter.
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