Robert Busby Writes Characters Who Make the Worst Choices for the Best Possible Reasons

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rooted.substack.comLast week, Talamieka Brice and I had a fabulous book club chat with Addie Citchens about her novel Dominion. BUT before I send that out, I must share this delightful conversation that Shira Muroff and I had with author Robert Busby waaaayy back in October about Robert’s debut story collection Bodock. Robert talked about his job as a satellite TV technician and the story it inspired, growing up in Pontotoc, Mississippi, and fictionalizing traumatic rites of passage. I’ll share some clips below, but I hope you can listen (or watch) the whole book club session!You can listen to these book club recordings in the Substack app, in your web browser, or on Spotify . Subscribe to the show on Spotify to get notifications when new episodes are released. Recorded book club conversations are only available to paid subscribers, but the live book club sessions will continue to be free and open to all readers.Thank you Chistopher Norment, Elizabeth Robinson, and many others for tuning into the live video with Shira and Robert Busby! I hope you enjoy the replay of this fun and thought-provoking conversation.Robert on creating a sympathetic character who makes terrible life choices:How many boys have accidentally killed animals with a BB gun???On the devastation of the Mid-South Ice Storm of 1994:Bottom Reader Book club is continuing in 2026…Read along with us!January: Biography of X by Catherine Lacey with Leslie Barker and Talamieka BriceFebruary: When It’s Darkness on the Delta with author W. Ralph Eubanks