{"id":176400,"date":"2026-02-23T13:01:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T03:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/?p=176400"},"modified":"2026-03-30T07:20:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T21:20:04","slug":"ten-terrifying-questions-with-rob-leigh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2026\/02\/23\/ten-terrifying-questions-with-rob-leigh\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Terrifying Questions with Rob Leigh"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rob has always been a lover of fantastical stories and wrote his own variations on Greek myths at a young age. These stories expanded into what is now the ongoing Pathlighter Trilogy. His main inspiration are that of Mythology and Heavy Metal, and he writes stories that feature a heavy dose of both!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1. To begin with, why don\u2019t you tell us a little bit about yourself \u2013 where were you born? Raised? Schooled?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was born, raised, and schooled in Fort Dodge, Iowa, USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At twelve, I wanted to be a Zookeeper, at eighteen, I wanted to be an event organizer for concerts. I turned twenty-nine last month, so I\u2019ll have to check in with myself next year!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you do not have now?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was eighteen, I held a lot of distaste for romantic stories and movies. They seemed all popcorn, no substance to me. But as you grow older, you get an understanding that you can have rounded, fleshed-out characters with complicated emotions and a compelling romance in a story without orcs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. What were three works of art \u2013 book or painting or piece of music, etc \u2013 you can now say had a great effect on you and influenced your own development as a writer?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first would be Percy Jackson & the Olympians<\/em>. I devoured that series as a kid and it grew my love of Mythology. The second was Lord of the Rings<\/em>. The found family of the Fellowship and the massive battles were high points for me. I would also say that Mary Shelley\u2019s Frankenstein<\/em> had a huge impact on me when I first read it. I still try to reread it every couple of years. The character dynamic between Victor and his creation set the standard for character writing for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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5. Considering the innumerable artistic avenues open to you, why did you choose to write a novel?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve enjoyed reading since I was very young. Even though I enjoyed a lot of the books I read, I would still imagine how the book would turn out if the story took a different direction. At some point, I realized the only way to make it happen would be to write it myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Please tell us about your novel, Pathlighter.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pathlighter<\/em> is my debut epic fantasy novel that takes heavy inspiration from Greek Mythology and Clash of the Titans<\/em>. It centers around a wildly dysfunctional group of demigods, all of whom must reckon with their past traumas and mistakes in order to be worthy of their power. Their powers attract conflict and consequence, and they must work together to keep the world out of the clutches of terrifying elder titans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The book features costly elemental magic, dynamic action, found family, unique monsters, despair, and hope. It\u2019s been likened to X-men \u201897, Mistborn, and an older version of Percy Jackson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. What do you hope people take away with them after reading your work?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope that people take away that growth is always possible, but that it shouldn\u2019t come at the cost of being yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. Whom do you most admire in the realm of writing and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I really admire the community of Indie authors that I\u2019ve met during my publishing journey. None of them let any obstacle stand in front of them and their goal of putting a story out into the world. It\u2019s a hard thing to do, and anyone who\u2019s done it has my respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to finishing the Pathlighter Trilogy<\/em>, I also really want to dabble with different genres in future projects like Sci-Fi and Horror. I think it\u2019ll be the best way to keep challenging myself and break new ground! Other projects are in the beginning stages, and it feels like there\u2019s a new idea every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10. What advice do you give aspiring writers?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enjoy every milestone that you reach in the process. Each achievement on the author journey is worthy of celebration, and it\u2019s important to recognize your hard work. Writing, editing, formatting, marketing, it\u2019s very easy to get caught up in the grind and keep moving, but take a moment to say \u201cI did that, and I\u2019m proud.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rob has always been a lover of fantastical stories and wrote his own variations on Greek myths at a young age. These stories expanded into what is now the ongoing Pathlighter Trilogy. His main inspiration are that of Mythology and Heavy Metal, and he writes stories that feature a heavy dose of both! 1. To begin with, why don\u2019t you tell us a little bit about yourself \u2013 where were you born? Raised? Schooled? I was born, raised, and schooled in Fort Dodge, Iowa, USA. 2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why? At twelve, I wanted to be a Zookeeper, at eighteen, I wanted to be an event organizer for concerts. I turned twenty-nine last month, so I\u2019ll have to check in with myself next year! 3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you do not have now? When I was eighteen, I held a lot of distaste for romantic stories and movies. They seemed all popcorn, no substance to me. But as you grow older, you get an understanding that you can have rounded, fleshed-out characters with complicated emotions and a compelling romance in a story…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[111,6676,15695,73],"tags":[15736,15737,5184],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176400"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/72"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176400"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176412,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176400\/revisions\/176412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}