Rob Hart is the associate publisher of MysteriousPress.com and the class director at LitReactor. He is the author of The Last Safe Place: A Zombie Novella, and his short stories have appeared in Thuglit, Needle, Shotgun Honey, All Due Respect, Helix Literary Magazine, and Joyland. His first novel, New Yorked, was published by Polis Books in June 2015, with the sequel, City of Rose, to follow in 2016.
- What is your writing routine?
Between MysteriousPress.com and LitReactor and a new baby, my writing routine involves sitting down whenever I’ve got a rare moment of peace and writing furiously until something else requires my attention. I tend to binge: On a free day I can write 20,000 words, and then for two weeks I won’t have the time to put pen the paper. What I’ve found helpful lately is to really lean in to research and outlining. The more I’ve got planned out, the more effective I can be when it’s time to work.
- Tell us about your current project.
I’m in between projects right now. I’m gearing up for South Village, which would be the third Ash McKenna novel, after New Yorked and City of Rose. For that one, I’m in research mode, which means I’m learning about: political philosophies of Karl Marx and Mikhail Bakunin, how to procure and transport liquid nitrogen, cam girls, what the topography is like around Jekyll Island, the process of fracking, the history of the Earth Liberation Front, and how to get a library card in Georgia. This is shaping up to be a fun story.
- Which writers, living or otherwise, would you host at a dinner party and why?
Tom Spanbauer, because he’s this generation’s great living writer. Hunter S. Thompson, because I want any party I host to be fun, and this would ensure things go off the rails very quickly. And Agatha Christie, because I just feel like she’d be fun to be around.
- What do you enjoy about your MWA membership?
Foremost, that sense of community that only comes out of groups of writers coming together over a shared passion. Writing is a very solitary process, and it’s rare that a lot of your primary, life-long friends are writers. Only one of mine is. It’s hugely satisfying to have a safe place and a circle of people who know what you’re working on and what you’re going through. Community lifts you up—and the MWA is pretty damn cool community.