With three older brothers and a younger sister,
Christopher Cobb often felt like the lost child, so he started writing stories.
“My mom said she always heard the tapping of a typewriter coming from my room,”
he recalls. While he began writing for himself, he eventually discovered that
he had a knack for it and is now the author of two highly entertaining science
fiction novels that combine imaginative plots with his unique brand of quirky
humor.
Cobb, a native Floridian, earned an associate degree from
Florida School of the Arts and went to New York City to pursue an acting
career. While he scored some off-Broadway roles, he decided to leave the hustle
of the Big Apple for the tranquility of the Appalachian Mountains in northern
Georgia. He spent four years decompressing before returning to Florida to go
back to school. Cobb received his Bachelor’s degree in Social Science from
Florida Atlantic University and now works as a producer and marketing specialist
with the Palm Beach County Film and TV Commission. His favorite part of the job
is working on the Student Showcase of Films, a juried competition for Florida
high school and college students pursuing careers in the film industry.
But Cobb never lost his desire to write. “In high
school, I had English teachers who encouraged my writing, and this had a profound
effect on me,” he said. “Writing was a creative outlet that I wanted to explore.”
So Cobb decided to attempt a novel. He chose science fiction because of the
influence of authors like Piers Anthony, Kurt Vonnegut, H.G. Wells, Robert
Heinlein and Ray Bradbury. “I always
loved the literature, TV shows and movies, so the eventual progression into
creating my own sci fi/fantasy universe was natural,” he says.
His first novel, A Moon Called Sun, combines
history, romance and time travel in a story that shows how something with good
intentions can be twisted and perverted for evil. “The collection of characters
from different worlds, so diverse and unique, all have something in common – ”
he says, “the need to belong, to be loved and most importantly, to be
validated.” Piers Anthony, a writer who was a major influence on Cobb, described
the book as “…interesting and well told, with a considerable range of
imagination.”
For his latest novel, Cobb decided to try something
different. “I got the idea from the 1971 Stephen Spielberg movie, “Duel,” the
story of a traveling salesman terrorized by an old Peterbilt semi,” he says. “I
thought it would be fun to set this story in outer space.” The result was Slant Six, a story that merges "Duel" with Arthur Miller’s Death of a
Salesman. Set in 2252, Slant Six is
the tale of Loman Phin, a burnt out spaceship racer inspired by Miller’s Willie
Loman. When Phin agrees to deliver a mysterious woman to Pluto’s moon, he becomes
embroiled in a hazardous series of misadventures. “I like to take pop-culture references and
twist them into something futuristic,” Cobb explains. “When I got the idea to
model all the spaceships after classic cars, it opened the floodgates. I knew I
could do a lot of wordplay and have a lot of fun with it. I wanted readers to
feel like they’re on the right side of an inside joke.” The book was praised by
Sci-Fi and Scary as “…an exercise in naughty, punny action fun…entertaining
from start to finish.”
Cobb has already started on a sequel to Slant Six.
Titled The Wicked Split, the story will center on a vampire and android that
team up to look for revenge. “These books were so much fun to write,” he says.
“I hope readers will finish them and say, ‘That was a helluva lot of fun, and I
want to read more.'"
For more information, visit the author’s website at
www.chrisfcobb.com.
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