Richmond Magazine: Shelf Life

My feature article on local author David Robbins -- and the growing brouhaha over his deal with Amazon.com's new publishing division -- is now online at Richmond Magazine's website.

David Robbins spent two years working on his forthcoming novel, The Devil’s Waters. The Sandston native traveled the world on military vessels and freighters to research the modern-day espionage adventure involving an elite team of rescuers, Somali pirates and a ship full of valuable U.S. contraband.

But his book’s most interesting clashes may be occurring off the page. “Battle lines are being drawn,”Robbins sighs, echoing a Stephen Stills lyric.

After publishing his first nine books with traditional publishers such as Random House, the co-founder of the James River Writers group will be releasing his 10th in November through a newly formed imprint called Thomas & Mercer, which is owned by leading e-retailer Amazon.com.

Click here to read the rest of "Shelf Life."

I'm all over Rich Mag this month. In addition to the David Robbins article, I also wrote a large piece on Virginia's single-sex colleges for the magazine's College Guide... and Chris Dovi and I got a nice shoutout from Kate Andrews about the new Open Source RVA radio show on WRIR. Thanks Kate!