Who is Robyn Bradley?
Robyn is a copy bitch by day
and novelist by night.
She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University, and she won a short story award in 2007 for “A Touch of Charlotte.” Her work has appeared in FictionWeekly.com, The Breakwater Review, and Writer’s Digest (under the pen name E.T. Robbins), among other places.
When she’s not writing, Robyn enjoys hanging out with Mister Word Nerd, reading, watching Grace & Frankie and Schitt’s Creek for the umpteenth times, and dreaming up new ways to kill off people. (For her FICTION, duh!)
She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University, and she won a short story award in 2007 for “A Touch of Charlotte.” Her work has appeared in FictionWeekly.com, The Breakwater Review, and Writer’s Digest (under the pen name E.T. Robbins), among other places.
When she’s not writing, Robyn enjoys hanging out with Mister Word Nerd, reading, watching Grace & Frankie and Schitt’s Creek for the umpteenth times, and dreaming up new ways to kill off people. (For her FICTION, duh!).
Okay, so that’s the “official” third-person bio.
But it feels weird talking about myself in the third person, so I’ll now transition to first. What would you like to know?
How ’bout a list? I love lists.
Vitals
Born in ’73 to a very large family in a town that’s now a city. I graduated high school in 1991, and I have the big-hair picture to prove it.
Where I currently dwell
A Boston ‘burb.
Undergrad
Stonehill College, Class of 95. BA in Communication.
Grad school
Lesley University, Class of 2008. MFA in Creative Writing.
Favorites
Elizabeth Strout (Olive Kitteridge is my all-time favorite book, as of right now). Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. 11/22/63 by Stephen King. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Tana French, Susan Orlean, Anne Lamott, David Sedaris. (There are too many to name, really.)
What I loved to read as a kid
Anything by Judy Blume, especially Tiger Eyes. Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators series. The Hardy Boys. Sweet Valley High Series (don’t judge). Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. Night by Elie Wiesel. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (even though in seventh grade Dan C. told me whodunit before I got to the end).
“To Build a Fire” by Jack London. “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury (which made me want to write short stories). The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. Seventeen magazine (which I started reading when I was around thirteen).
When I knew I wanted to be a writer
Ms. Shea’s fourth-grade class. We had to write short stories, and I loved sitting at my desk and writing mine—in pen. Which I’d never do now.
My first adult job out of college
Actually, I got my first adult job while I was still in college. I was lucky enough to land a paid summer position at Boston’s Magic 106.7 back in 1994 when I was going into my senior year. I stayed with Magic full-time for the next six years and returned part-time until 2007. And believe it or not, I honed my writing skills while I worked in radio. That’s me in the green dress. From left to right: Tony Randall (Google him, kids) along with morning show co-hosts Moneen Daley Hart and Gary Dickson.
Life after radio
I launched my copywriting business, E.T. Robbins Productions, in August of 2002. Copywriting pays the bills and gives me buckets of time to work on my creative stuff. For a short stretch, I was also an adjunct professor at Massachusetts School of Law and Stonehill College. In 2010, my creative writing—short stories and novels—began hitting virtual shelves.
Favorite movies
The Shawshank Redemption, Apollo 13, Casablanca, Remember the Titans.
Favorite food
All things Italian.
Favorite sport
Football. Go Pats!
Favorite vacation spot
Cape Cod
Random
I’d gone skydiving, rock rappelling, hot air ballooning, and white water rafting by the time I was twenty-one. Three of those activities I did while I lived in Australia during my junior year of college. I also did stand-up comedy in my early twenties. Now, as I enter mid-life, most of the excitement happens in my head, which I’m perfectly OK with.