'Well, Imagine That'

 

“If the novelist isn't surprised by where his book ends up, he or she probably hasn't written anything worth remembering.” – Tom Robbins

 

Born in Blowing Rock, NC in July of 1932, Robbins went to school in Virginia and after a stint in the military started his writing as a journalist.  His creative writing career started in the mid-1960s when he rejected an opportunity to write a book about art but told the publisher that he had an idea for a novel.  The publisher gave him a chance and the result was the bestseller, Another Roadside Attraction.

 

Robbins, who died in 2025, wrote 8 bestselling novels, many dozens of short stories and essays, and 2 nonfiction books, including the self-declared “un-memoir” Tibetan Peach Pie: A True Account of an Imaginative Life.  Heading up the list of his many successes is his irreverent novel Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, also made into a popular movie.  Ultimately, Writer’s Digest named him one of the 100 Best Writers of the 20^th Century.

 

“The one thing emphasized in any creative writing course is 'write what you know,' and that automatically drives a wooden stake through the heart of imagination,” Robbins said.  “If they really understood the mysterious process of creating fiction, they would say, 'You can write about anything you can imagine.'”