About the author

---

R.K. Roberts is an American politico, journalist, and former United States diplomat. His passion for writing and years of working in politics, media, and government in Washington, DC, offer excellent material for storytelling. He is a University of Wisconsin-Whitewater graduate in broadcast journalism. During his senior year of college was offered internships at all three major network stations in Milwaukee. He chose Today's TMJ 4 (NBC) and worked closely with evening anchors. Roberts worked for the campus radio station, cable station, and as a reporter at the campus newspaper. This early experience started his long public relations, media, and political career. He later became Vice President of Government Relations at a sizeable DC-based broadcast organization and a political appointee/United States Diplomat. 

Roberts' family lived on the great Prairie Lands of Wisconsin, where like one of his main characters Kinnard Breen, he had many adventures in the hills and woods around his home. Roberts combined his experiences in politics, broadcasting, and rural living to write his first novel in 2013 and his soon-to-come exciting series Aristocratic Lies Vol. 1 and 2; Chaos in Manhattan & Murder in Mountain View. 

He has traveled extensively during his career, including all over the United States and on official diplomatic business for the United States Government to Paris, Tokyo, Seoul, and Saudi Arabia (well, virtually on this one, due to the pandemic). Roberts' great journeys include numerous adventure trips, including a 27-mile trek in Glacier Park, hiking Machu Picchu in Peru, climbing Half-Dome at Yosemite, whitewater-rafting the Nile in Uganda, and a 5-day trip down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon.

Roberts lives in Arlington, VA. He is presently working on publishing the latest novel series, Aristocratic Lies, which he promises will be coming to bookshelves all over the United States very soon. 

Hi – RK Roberts here. Nice to meet you. If there is one thing you should know about me, I despise formality if you come to my home for a visit. So,  please have a seat wherever you like, grab somethin' from the fridge, whatever you want, and let's get to know each other. This is a perfect example of a great upbringing in the Upper Midwest. Wisconsin, to be precise. 

I went to the same school, K-12, in one of the smallest towns imaginable. Our house was 8 miles away, up on a hill with a bird's eye view of many a neighbor's acreages. But, like many things we discover as adults, that ol' hill doesn't look so big anymore. 

At home on the "prairie," "Good Ole County Road O," it was there that I met some of the most amazing friends and characters. At one time, we had a loose Bull in our front yard and couldn't go outside. Another time I recall pretty vividly had to help coral a horse, and Kenny told me to stand my ground at ten years old even if that old horse came straight for me. Ha. And, of course, too many times to count having to help neighbors with their cows. My Fondest neighbor of all was old Mr. Engles. He was an old farmer, working at the lumber yard in town yet in his 70s, and required my services to help bail hay and shovel heavy snow off their trailer home, so the roof didn't cave in; set close to the bard on the farmstead. His childhood home stood yet but was too old to live in anymore. All these folks became like family, especially after our father died a short time after moving to that country home on a hill.

 The simple truth is I write for them. I want to tell the story of all these wonderful people in fiction. Characters resembling those I knew, some only for a moment, but their impressions lasted a lifetime. The landscapes, sights, sounds, and smells, all their memories, are locked in photographic memory, helpful in painting a picture with words in my novels, adding local color to characters I create whether in London, New York City, or at home on a farm in the south. It doesn't much matter. Of course, nothin' in my writing will get too close to home with any one person. None will be left self-conscience; it's more of a sense of being. 

Here the #1 goal is creating books that people genuinely love to read. My #2 is ensuring each novel is a welcome home to you. So, when you get one of my books to read, pull up next to the fire, sit on the pier on a beautiful lake, or at a coffee shop in New York City, Chicago, or wherever you are, I hope my stories transport you to an even better place. A place to meet new people and maybe even wish you could be sucked into the book and enjoy life with them. Of course, that's not impossible. Remember, your imagination and childlike faith can take you to any place you want to go. 

 I am not sure this even has meaning anymore, but it’s important to say that I write in a Classic Americana style. That should invoke Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway; John Grisham’s a Time to Kill, or any Stephen King book. King is a master storyteller and a great teacher, whether or not you like his genre.

The brilliant novel embraces the good and evil in society and recalls and retells the day’s narratives. They also give historical context based on the periods written, a glimpse into the people of those ages. It is those people or characters we all fall in love with, hate, or have no view as readers. But they help us feel the pain, emotions, and thrill, almost as if we are there, wherever that is in the story. Writing in this way is a commitment that I have made to myself and the reader.  

In my heritage, we have several tales told by my grandparents and their grandparents going back well into the 1800s. Civil wars, ships to America, horse and buggy, tragedies unimaginable and triumphs so thrilling. My parent’s old Jewish friends sat me on the couch, looked me straight into my eyes, and told me never to forget the holocaust! Much of my American historical knowledge is fueled by the great wars, American victory, and recovery. These are the stories I grew up hearing about and the war heroes I saw at many a small American town parade during my adolescent years. Oh, how I wish I could thank or hug all those WWI and WWII vets again, but sadly all the ones my family knew are long gone. We have many heroes yet with us today, and we can’t ever forget their stories.

But so, too, are the many plights and great regrets. The dust bowl, racial injustice like slavery, treatment of Native Americans, or the Japanese American internment camps during WWII, voting rights, all of that. Somethings we wish we could erase, but we can’t. This is classic Americana, as well. Stories must be told and retold. 

Fiction is a great retelling. In it, we can dig into the emotions and feelings and paint pictures of what it was like, with clarity.

Storytelling matters significantly to me and all of us. When I write, I focus on the good, on what makes America genuinely remarkable. There are many narratives right now, but I am going to draw deep sharing the great America I remember, that I still see today. I do so with passion, creating characters the reader will love. Or so I hope, I shall not presume what one likes or dislikes, it is only a stated goal. 

I am a person of great faith in God. If it weren’t for his glorious grace and goodness, the gift of His son Jesus, none of us would even be here. This affects my style of fiction. Great ancient storytellers tell us there is no original story but what is found in the pages of the bible. We are simply retelling it in many different forms. 

A few more authors have influenced my style. They are perhaps a bit more modern than the first listed. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski and The Shack by William Paul Young, are brilliant on both accounts. These novels are full of passion and genuinely show us America. 

If allowed to cross the sea, my number one influence, and the lady honored in the photo above, is Agatha Christie. She wrote profoundly and addictingly. Her stories linger. After reading a few works by modern novelists, I have found it difficult to keep the characters and storyline straight, only reading a few pages. When I get overly wordy in my own writing, I recall the simplicity and brilliance of great authors like Agatha Christie. She wrote wonderfully. Brilliant! I wish I could take a Master Class by Agatha Christie, but that isn't possible.  I have Margaret Atwood, and I would suggest her to all. 

Lastly, I would be thrilled to have even a smidgen of these great authors' styles in my writing. I wish to write as imaginative as they and create entirely new worlds none have done before. Here I am thinking of the greats: Charles Dickens, J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis. 

The above-and-beyond mission in each novel is to create characters you will love to meet and welcome into your home.