Robert Dugoni
Hold Strong
From Robert Dugoni, Jeff Langholz, and Chris Crabtree comes an epic and inspiring novel―based on true events―about love, heroism, and resilience during the darkest chapters of World War II.
The Writer’s Dossier 10/22/2024 – The big Robert Dugoni interview
DOSSIER: Your Tracy Crosswhite police novels are wildly popular, but your Charles Jenkins really struck a big chord with The Dossier for your seemingly perfect transition from writing solid police novels into crafting realistic-feeling espionage novels with excellent tradecraft. Please tell us you’re considering the possibility of more Jenkins stories or at least something else along that same vein.
DUGONI: Boy, I would love to write more espionage, and my hope is I will get that opportunity. There are many factors at play here I’d never considered. One, the Russian-Ukraine war hit just as the third novel, The Silent Sisters, was coming out. My publisher didn’t want it to look as though I was trying to capitalize on a horrific situation and delayed publication, which didn’t help sales. Second, I have two successful series going with Tracy Crosswhite and Keera Duggan, and they come out about every 9 months. So adding a third series would mean 27 months between the next books in each series, which is just too long. I’m not complaining. I’m thrilled I have this dilemma, and I’ll keep writing different kinds of novels.
“A cunning master class in why you should always trust your lawyer, and what it’ll cost you if you do.” —Kirkus
Teaching with Steven James
DOSSIER: How did you get linked up with fellow Dossier-member Steven James for the intensive writing workshops you offer? You two provide amazing advice to writers, but do you ever wonder if you’re giving away too many trade secrets on how you do such an amazing job on your own novels?
DUGONI: Steven found me. He must have been desperate for help because he was doing The Novel Intensive as a one-man show. We were both teaching at a seminar in Falmouth, Massachusetts and he sat in on a class I was teaching and thought our two styles meshed together well. He asked if I was interested in working with new writers. It has been an absolute blast. In 10 years I think I’ve had one difficult student I couldn’t help and yes, she was a lawyer. Go figure. There is a craft to writing a novel. That is what we teach. The art comes from the individual crafting the characters and the prose. We can’t teach that. That is innate in the voice of the author. We can help them find their voice, but the beauty is within each writer.
That glorious hair
DOSSIER: You’re known for a wide variety of stunning writing accomplishments: you’re the author of several different very successful series and stand alones, you generously teach the craft of writing, and you’ve won many, many prestigious awards. In our typical hard-hitting style of interviewing legendary authors, The Dossier needs to know if you’re still avoiding the use of hair shampoo. Did you lose a bet? What’s the deal there?
DUGONI: Ha! My father had a great head of hair when he passed away, even though he’d had extensive cancer treatments. When we were growing up, he couldn’t get into the bathroom with 10 kids, so he didn’t shampoo his hair often. He said it removed all the natural color and chemicals. He washed his hair once a month and when he did it was like an explosion on his head. We would all laugh. So I gave it a try. I went three days before I had to wash it. Then a week. Then two weeks. Now I wash it maybe once a month, the way he did, and it doesn’t get oily, and I don’t have dandruff. So maybe there was something to what my dad said all those years ago. I’d like to go public with this, but I worry the shampoo cartel might hunt me down.
DOSSIER: Yeah, those people are wild.
“Dugoni is one of the best in the legal thriller world, and he finds compelling ways to tell stories that involve injustice.” —firstCLUE
Just start writing
DOSSIER: When and where do you like to write and what environment works best? Is there a Seattle coffee house involved, the use of artificial sunlight somehow, or is there a preparatory walk in the rain before you sit down?
DUGONI: My wife and I built a beautiful office with a lot of natural light. It’s important to me because I’m a guy who deals with low levels of anxiety, so I like things to be bright and airy and optimistic. I’ll listen to music some days and other days enjoy the silence. The most important thing is just starting. That’s the hardest. Just sit down and go to work and don’t worry about page numbers or word count.
Yukon Gold vs Russet
DOSSIER: How did you go from being born in Idaho to attending Stanford? Did some of that Idaho background give you ideas about writing, or was it the UCLA law degree that showed you something about coming up with good fiction? More importantly, are you a Classic Russet or a Yukon Gold guy?
DUGONI: : I love the Yukon Gold with a lot of butter and cheese. Throw on a little chili and man, you have a gourmet meal in my house. I was born in Pocatello, Idaho because my dad was in pharmacy school at Idaho State. He had six kids before he graduated. Talk about stress. I didn’t really get the writing itch until I got the reading itch. I was a shit in grammar school because I had older siblings and I got in a lot of trouble, but a wonderful nun named Sister Mary Williams thought it was boredom, not juvenile delinquency. So she and my mom concocted a plan to get me reading, and by the time I was 14, I had read all the classics out there and had fallen in love with stories. Who knows what would have happened had they not stuck The Great Gatsby in my hands. I could be at Walla Walla.
Dugoni movies inbound?!
DOSSIER: Do you have any breaking news or special announcement you’d like to disclose in your Dossier?
DUGONI: I’ve now sold every book I’ve written to Hollywood so keep your fingers crossed. They’re very excited about the Charles Jenkins series so you might get your wish and get to see more Charlie soon.
DOSSIER: YES!!!
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