(607NewsNow) — 607NewsNow People features those in the community who you may want to know more about and deserve some recognition. Today, we feature Joel Robinson, a local author from Groton.

Name: Joel Robinson

Occupation: Local author

Where did you grow up: “I’m a small-town person. Grew up in Groton and now live in Danby, New York.”

Where did you develop your writing skills: “I was always a big reader of different genres. After high school, I enrolled at TC3 in creative writing and then went onto SUNY Cortland for professional writing.”

How did you get published: “At Cortland, one of my classes had a great assignment to take a classic fairy tale and rewrite it from a different perspective. I loved the assignment and later had an internship doing editing and web work, which led me to turn that college assignment into a publication.  That came out as a book called Guerrier! The Perfect Imperfection. It’s loosely based on Gaston from ‘Beauty and Beast’, written in a diary format.”

Where is your book available: “Online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble, physical copies locally at Robinson’s Family Jewelers in Cortland.”

What are some challenges of being a writer: “If I get stuck, I like to migrate to other tasks and projects. Part of that is because of my attention span and part of it is how I handle the occasional writer’s block. Time management is always an issue with writing. There are a lot of other things daily that compete for our time and mind.”

What do you have in the works: “I have a work in progress that’s going to be called Jack Being Stalked, a reimagined fairy tale of the classic. I enjoy trying to combine real life history with fairy tales. It’ll come out this spring. I would categorize my writing as fantasy, and even alternative history, but certainly fiction.”

What writers influence you: “Jeremy Robinson (no relation) is a great science fiction writer. Rick Riordan, best known from the Percy Jackson series, is another inspiration of mine.”

What role does AI play for writers: “Great question. I feel strongly that human writers should focus on the human component of a story. Why would we want to replace hopes and dreams and turn that over to anything else? Although, I do admit that sometimes throwing a prompt to AI might yield a good response… no different than bouncing an idea off family or friends.”

Advice for aspiring authors: “Take a chance. If you don’t, the only thing you will have is regret.”