Member Spotlight: Robert O. Harder

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? I have been writing all my life; seriously last 20 years. My people are naturally artistic, musical, and literary. The disease runs in the family.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? Never get it.

What is your favorite time to write? Evenings, with Pandora music playing softly.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? “Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time…” William Knowlton Zinsser, 1922-2015.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? In spite of the Internet bringing in so many self-publishers who are flooding the marketplace, it has also brought the world to my private desk. Mostly, time-consuming and expensive trips to distant libraries, etc. are no longer necessary.

Robert O. Harder’s First Crossing: The 1919 Trans-Atlantic Flight of Alcock and Brown is out now with Sunbury Press.