Authors At Home: Robert Dugoni, “The World Played Chess”
This week’s spotlight Q&A is with bestselling author Robert Dugoni. He is best-known for his riveting spy and legal thrillers, but he’s also won over countless hearts and minds with his literary fiction, most notably, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell. He returns to the genre with his new semi-autobiographical novel, The World Played Chess, recently published by Lake Union Publishing to high praise. Robert takes a moment to share with us what he’s doing when he’s not writing captivating and thought-provoking novels. Read on to learn more about Robert, his writing process, and what he enjoys doing when he’s working away at his computer:
What are you currently reading, watching, listening to? Anything you wholly recommend as being inspiring, uplifting or just really fun?
I’m currently reading Lisa Gardner’s book One Step Too Far, which will be out soon and will make you think twice about hiking and camping again! Don’t laugh, but for sure fun, I’m watching Merlin. It’s like a Disney ride.
Can you take us through the day in the life of Robert Dugoni? What’s your day-to-day routine like — when you’re writing a book, and when you’re not?
When I’m writing I’m up early working out. I take an online Pilates class taught by my sister, which is great. Then I’m at my desk. I’m either researching or writing. I’m at my desk from about 7 a.m. to 3 or 4 p.m., then I’m off to the golf course. When I’m not writing, I like to travel with the family. Egypt coming up and the Galapagos. Otherwise, it’s golfing or fishing.
What is your favorite food? Your go-to drink?
Favorite food still has to be a good pepperoni pizza. New York style. Drink? My buddy recently got me into Captain Morgan’s rum and coke. So I’ll go with that.
Are you working on any projects that we should look out for in the future?
Always something going on. The World Played Chess just came out. The Silent Sisters, the third book in the Charles Jenkins spy series, will be out in November. There’s also a Tracy Crosswhite short story for Amazon Shorts featuring Del Castigliano and Vic Fazzio as rookies. Then Tracy Crosswhite #9 in February 2022 — What She Found. After that, stand-alone thriller with a female defense attorney called The Final Move.
What is one big message you hope readers to take away from The World Played Chess?
Growing old is a privilege, not a right. So the next time you want to complain about one of your ailments, know that the alternative is worse.
How did your research for and the writing of this book affect your perspective of the Vietnam War?
I’ve always been fascinated by and read a lot about the war. I’ve been to the memorial in D.C. numerous times and ran my hand over the names. So sad. But writing this book, creating William’s year in Vietnam with a lot of help, was emotional and exhausting. I felt for William as if I knew him.
For young people who are learning about this time period through reading your book, what would you like them to know? What advice or recommendations would you give to them for learning more about that time?
That we can get through difficult times, whether it’s the Vietnam War, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, 9/11, Covid. Human beings not only survive, we thrive. There will always be light at the end of every dark tunnel. Read what interests you so hopefully your generation can do better.
You dedicated this book to Vietnam veterans. Have you had many veterans read the book, and what has been their response?
Many veterans won’t talk about their experiences, but I was blessed to have several talk with me and read the manuscript. In addition I recalled the stories I was told that summer when I worked alongside the two veterans. I hope I did them justice, I really do. Several reviews have been very emotional experiences for Veterans of that war and for people who lost husbands, brothers and children. Heroes. Everyone.
Book Summary:
In 1979, Vincent Bianco has just graduated high school. His only desire: collect a little beer money and enjoy his final summer before college. So he lands a job as a laborer on a construction crew. Working alongside two Vietnam vets, one suffering from PTSD, Vincent gets the education of a lifetime. Now forty years later, with his own son leaving for college, the lessons of that summer — Vincent’s last taste of innocence and first taste of real life — dramatically unfold in a novel about breaking away, shaping a life, and seeking one’s own destiny.
About Robert Dugoni:
Robert Dugoni is the critically acclaimed New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and #1 Amazon bestselling author of the Tracy Crosswhite police detective series set in Seattle, which has sold more than 7 million books worldwide. He is also the author of The Charles Jenkins espionage series, and the David Sloane legal thriller series.
His stand-alone novels include The 7th Canon, Damage Control, and a literary novel, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell — Suspense Magazine’s 2018 Book of the Year, for which Dugoni’s narration won an AudioFile Earphones Award; as well as the nonfiction exposé The Cyanide Canary, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year. Several of his novels have been optioned for movies and television series.
Dugoni is the recipient of the Nancy Pearl Award for Fiction and the two-time winner of the Friends of Mystery Spotted Owl Award for best novel set in the Pacific Northwest. He is also a two-time finalist for the International Thriller Award, the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, the Silver Falchion Award for mystery, and the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award.
Robert Dugoni’s books are sold in more than twenty-five countries and have been translated into more than two dozen languages.
