Dr Rob Magnuson Smith - Authorial Visit to Falmouth

Written by Dan Ball

On March 7th, the Lighthouse had the pleasure of hosting Dr Rob Magnuson Smith - Author of Scorper (2015), The Grave Digger (2010) and the new Lovecraftian, eco-gothic and dark romance novel, Seaweed Rising. Rob has won the Elizabeth Jolley Award and been longlisted for the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award.

Rob read from his new book, following the character of Manfred, a novice seaweed collector obsessed with the concept that algae are going to take over humanity. Spanning from a small fishing village in Cornwall to the landscape of the Artic, Seaweed Rising revealed the true face of extinction, the reading left his listeners in the room wanting more.

I was given the opportunity to speak with Rob after the he had finished his reading.

 Dan Ball: Within your books, Scorper, The Grave Digger and now Seaweed Rising, your use of small, isolated towns creates a sense of unsettling and eeriness. Could you talk a little bit about why you include these themes?

RMS: It’s how I feel inside, It’s a projection of oneself.

DB: With your dual citizenship, the places you must’ve seen are a lot more than most. What place is next for your writing?

RMS: Places? My favourite place to write, right now is writing where I actually am. I’m pretty connected to Falmouth and Penryn, places nearby that are easy for me to write about and write in. I do a lot of my writing in the places that I’m writing about, so pubs, waterfronts, boats and hilltops.

DB: From my experience of fiction writing, the environment is usually painted with themes of beauty and purity. In Seaweed Rising, this to me felt like the opposite, a darker representation. Why did you decide to do this?

RMS: It’s creating a mood. Every scene has its purpose. Most of the scenes of my novels or short stories are designed to evoke an effect. If there’s a description around the characters, it’s there to heighten a type of effect, while sometimes it’s there to offset it. A lot of the scenes in Spain, Nora is falling for someone who’s troubled, it’s a setting that is menacing. Nora knows what’s coming and the environment parallels that.

 DB: What advice would you like to give to inspiring writers, wanting to follow in your footsteps by creating something wonderfully different.

RMS: I think it’s important to be unbothered by the critical context, while being aware of it. The most important advice of course it to read as much as you can, and draw from those books the things you like and write against the things you don’t. Read against or beyond the genre, if you’re writing poetry read prose, if you’re writing prose read poetry. Read nonfiction, read science books, and incorporate compelling aspects of those books into your writing.

Seaweed Rising is available at The Falmouth Booksellers, Waterstones, Amazon online and wherever books are sold.