S5 EP232 | Hope, Resilience, and the Power of Story with CC Robinson

Bleeped word: Ma$$acre 

Hello My Happy People,

This week on Book Banter with Dianne Burckhardt—Book Talk Podcast, I'm joined by award-winning and Amazon bestselling author C.C. Robinson. Drawing on more than two decades of experience as a medical doctor working in post civil war nations and as an associate pastor in a multiethnic congregation, C.C. brings a unique perspective to her thought-provoking young adult dystopian fiction.

We talk about her award-winning Divided series, set in a future America divided by race, where towering walls separate four territories and a ruthless Supreme Commander rules with an iron fist. At the center of the story is eighteen-year-old Marcos, whose desperate search for freedom leads him into a secret labor camp, an unexpected rebellion, and a fight that could change the future of an entire nation. Our conversation explores the inspiration behind the series, its themes of hope, reconciliation, found family, and resistance, while also taking time to discuss C.C.'s travels, favorite international foods, and the real-life experiences that continue to inspire her hope for humanity.

Now is the perfect time to discover the Divided series. The first two books are available now, while Betrayed and United are both available for pre-order, making this the perfect opportunity to catch up before the series concludes. C.C. has even put together a special Book Banter offer for our listeners. Visit ccrobinsonauthor.com/bookbanter to sign up for her monthly newsletter and receive a free prequel novella connected to the Divided series. The newsletter is sent once a month, you can unsubscribe at any time, and C.C. does not share your information.

For more behind the interview information from this episode, read today's blog at BurckhardtBooks.com/blog, where you'll find additional details about C.C. Robinson, the Divided series, and my thoughts on our conversation.

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Transcript

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Dianne Burckhardt 0:01

You're listening to BookBanter with Diane Burkhart, your Book Talk podcast. Join me every Wednesday for real conversations with authors and publishing insiders, where you get to connect with the humans behind the books you love. Let's get on with our show today. Well, hello my happy people. Today is Wednesday, July 22nd, 2026, and have I got another amazing author for you today? My guest is an incredible woman. She has worked in finance with nonprofits and is a medical doctor and a pastor. Not only that, she's also an award-winning and best-selling author. She has created a powerful young adult Dysotopian series that explores hope, reconciliation, found family, and the resilience of the human spirit. During our conversation, we discuss the inspiration behind her books, her world travels, and so much more. But I think that's enough blather for me for right now. Let's get right to today's interview. But don't forget to stick around to the very end because we have got some amazing announcements for you before I let you go. But for now, please welcome to BookBanter with Diane Burkhard, the dynamic CeCe Robinson. Please tell everyone who you are and what you do.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

So I am Cece Robinson. I am a young adult dystopian author, and I have chosen to really focus my attention at the things that divide us as people and fracture us and could ultimately lead to a fractured society. My debut series called Divided is all about the racial hatred that is in our hearts expressing itself in our physical world. It's set 45 years after America has fought a civil war over racial issues, a dictator takes power. And because we need to behave and we can't get along, quote unquote, he separates us into our ethnicities behind walls. It's really meant to control us, right? And then 45 years later, you've got kids growing up in this society who have never met someone from another ethnicity. And that is the setting of my story. And the story is how four different teenagers from different areas met in an underground resistance movement and decided the world needed to change.

Dianne Burckhardt 2:29

The one thing that I think we really need to start off with is you didn't start out being an author. You're actually a well-traveled doctor.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

I sure am. Yes. I did not start off as an author, though I have always written stories. It's I think it's one of those unique things about us authors. I we grow up and process life through the stories we tell in our heads or on paper. So I've always done that. It's that's never changed. I just never shared them with the world. But what I saw as a medical doctor, especially in several different post-Civil War situations, broke my heart. And I knew that it was preventable, that what these people had gone through was completely preventable if on the front end of that civil war, people can lay down the guns in their hearts instead of taking up the guns in their hands. And so that is what motivated me to start writing in the, especially the dystopian space.

Dianne Burckhardt 3:29

So I would imagine a lot of these experiences really influenced the characters that you developed as well.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

Yeah, I saw, especially in Sierra Leone, I saw resiliency among the people. I mean, here they had survived some of them their entire lives in civil war, never knowing anything but civil war. And I, as someone who comes from such a privileged background in America, that was unfathomable to me. But as I got to know them, I saw that, okay, they have somehow managed to hold on to resiliency and hope in a way that I don't think we create in our very comfortable culture. But at the same time, they needed help from the outside to even have a hope of recovering. And so, yes, absolutely the characters I've created were molded in part from the people I met. I don't ever take anyone, you know, pluck them out of real world and put them in my fictional world. I never do that. Yeah. Um it's always, it's there's always like, oh, this person reminds me of someone else in this one way or this one characteristic. And I wanted my characters to have that real world feel. And because of that, you know, I borrowed from those experiences in particularly in Sierra Leone, which had the longest running civil war we worked in.

Dianne Burckhardt 4:49

Now, besides working in medicine, don't you also work as a pastor? I do, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

Yeah. So I started off life in finance. Now I can really complicate things, right? Um, and finance just I wasn't feeling it with the money, and really wanted to make a difference. So went to Vanderbilt Medical School, got my MD degree and my MPH at the same time, and wanted to start clinics in underserved areas. And so ended up starting out in Afghanistan during that war. That didn't last long, as Taliban, and then going to Columbia, South America, during their civil war, and then in South Africa during a lot of that transition, and then into Sierra Leone. And becoming a pastor, I've always I've been a Christian for a while. And the pastoral calling kind of happened after what I was doing in Africa. And we moved up to Cincinnati to plant a church, and that's how I became a pastor. But because I've run nonprofits for years and years, I mean, since 2002, I got anointed the the administrator or executive person in our new church plant. And I'm still trying to get out of that job. But anyway, I digress.

Dianne Burckhardt 6:06

I would say, well, it seems like you have a lot of jobs that you have to keep track of.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

I'm sorry, I laugh. It's a coping mechanism because I juggle all the time. I just feel like I juggle, juggle, juggle. And I am trying to work myself out of a few of them so I can really focus.

Dianne Burckhardt 6:22

Okay. Now here's a really good question that I've really started noticing with a lot of people who do so many things. Do you ever feel guilty when you relax and do nothing?

SPEAKER_00 6:33

Oh no. I used to. I used to, but let me tell you, therapy helps. It fixes that one right up. I used to feel like I can't slow down because if I slow down, one of these plates that's in the air is going to drop and shatter and everyone's going to be disappointed. And what I've realized over time is that while that may happen, they'll figure it out. And it won't break. Plates are amazingly resilient. They're not the glass or the porcelain plates that we think of. They're actually plastic. It's okay. You could melt those plates. And I really had to work on that, that ability to rest. And really, it took a major illness, which we don't have time to go into, but a major illness where I had to trim everything that wasn't necessary down and focus on only those things I could get done that day, which was I was down to like two hours, maybe three, of productive work at the height of the illness. And I thought, okay, I just can't do this. So we've got to come up with another way of living.

Dianne Burckhardt 7:33

I do like the one comment that you made though, that therapy does help. I am a firm believer in therapy.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Yep. Yep. All these patterns from the past that I had no clue I was still living in. And you're like, that's not helpful. Let's just stop that. And I maybe I'm built maybe a little differently than some people. I'm in Ennegram eight. So I'm a challenger. And I don't mind like firmly examining myself, confronting the issue and changing. Like I embrace change. I actually love change. COVID was it was all this change, and I love change. It's an opportunity to reinvent, it's an opportunity to fix things that need to get fixed and to to pivot in a way that you maybe can't do when everything's comfortable.

Dianne Burckhardt 8:18

Yeah. When everything's comfortable, I think that's when we grow the least.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

I agree completely. Yeah. Because if you're comfortable, why are you going to change anything? Exactly. Why are you going to grow? Why are you going to stretch yourself? See if everything's good, why try something new? It's all good. Exactly.

Dianne Burckhardt 8:35

Leave it alone. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

Yeah. Other other than getting bored and you need to do something new, which yes, I also have that issue. Getting bored. I get bored really easily.

Dianne Burckhardt 8:45

So now with all of these very different parts of your life, how does that come together as a writer?

SPEAKER_00 8:51

So my dystopian fiction is not overtly Christian at all. I I would like to say it's inspired by my faith in that I want young readers in particular, one, to read again. So, you know, there's a mistaken narrative that young people don't read. They read, they just don't read what we think they read. They do read. Now, I would like them to read again and be thinking. And so I don't want my faith to get in the way of that. I want to raise questions that we as a society should be asking that young people can not only be thinking about, but may actually be able to change. And so my faith is not separate, it is inspiring. And part of the reason why I started writing was because of a dream, trying to publish at least, was because of an all-night dream where I saw my books happen and it was horrifying. It was a nightmare. I would not say it's a dream, it's a nightmare. And I felt like God was definitely calling me to write this. And I knew in that moment that it would not be Christian, that it would be faith-inspired, or maybe like the underlying hope and the underlying survival and resilience that I was communicating would be inspired by my faith, but it would not have Christian overtones. So that's it's one way that they fit together, that everything fits together is one inspires the other. But yeah, it is a lot of juggling and different and different hats and different arenas.

Dianne Burckhardt 10:18

You've said that this entire series was a dream. What do you remember was the most vivid point that came through in that?

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Aside from seeing the war and being part of it, which was terrifying, the most vivid part was meeting my characters, Marcos, Rose, Harriet, and Jason, and Marcos stepping forward and asking me to free them. I was like, me? Like you want me to free you. Okay, this is gonna be interesting. What do you mean by that? And like, and then I woke up and I'm like, God, what are you trying to tell me? And it took some prayer and some discernment, but that's when I knew, okay, I need to, I need to not only tell the story, but then write them into freedom.

Dianne Burckhardt 11:09

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

No spoilers. No spoilers, but freedom, yes.

Dianne Burckhardt 11:14

Since you've started the series, have you had any recurring dreams? Have they popped back in to tell you whether you're going in the right direction or asking for something new?

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Yes. So I mentioned I had written, but not at this level, okay, not at this scope. And going from writing a, you know, a 5,000-word short story to a four-novel series is an endeavor. And it took me many bad first drafts. And sometimes I would get frustrated and give up. And that's when Marcos would appear. And he would tap his foot and poke me and say, You need to be writing because we're not free yet. And so then I get back into it. Oh, yeah. So it was so yes, it's usually Marcos or the book I'm working on, whatever that main protagonist is. So when I was writing Betrayed, I would get Harriet Dreams consistently. And she's so different from Marcos. She's much more like quiet, unassuming, but yet also persistent.

Dianne Burckhardt 12:21

That's one thing that a lot of authors and I have talked about is that the way that it works for some of us at least is that the books are just like a movie playing in your head and you're transcribing what you're experiencing. And the characters actually seem like separate people in your head. It's not you thinking about your characters, it's like separate people talking to you.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Absolutely. When I wrote book two caged, Rose would argue with me. I'd be in the middle of writing a scene and I would literally hear her saying, no, don't do that. That's not okay. And then she made it harder on herself. And I'm like, girl, what are you thinking? How are you gonna get out of it? I I I genuinely want to see how you're gonna get out of this. Because I don't know. And so I she's just like, right, I'll show you.

Dianne Burckhardt 13:12

I think it's amazing how many authors actually have this exact same experience when writing their books.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

It sounds like we belong in a loony band. I promise you. It's normal. It's normal.

Dianne Burckhardt 13:24

Your series deals with a lot of very heavy topics, like with division, authoritarianism, rebellion. There seems to be a strong sense of hope and reconciliation underneath it all. But why was it important to talk about such heavy topics in a young adult fiction?

SPEAKER_00 13:43

I think that's honestly the best uh medium for that. Young adult readers are exploring the world and trying to figure out not only their place in it, but their opinion of it. And I think it's the perfect time to not only influence a conversation, but to start a conversation and to bring up and create a world that allows for discussion and that allows for contemplation of different, oh, how is this similar to our world? How do you see this today? Do you see people like Junior today around you? And how do you respond to them? So all of these questions can be probed in a young adult manner that I think maybe adults aren't willing, open maybe to probing in that way. Although I have many adults who read my books and who love them and love the conversation.

Dianne Burckhardt 14:37

I know a lot of adults who absolutely love young adult fiction. They they usually like it because it doesn't have the gratuitous violence or intimacy in the books, they just have the story that drives the book.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

Yeah. And I that is one thing that drew me to young adult fiction because I again I really didn't want to see some of the adult content. I didn't want to write some of the adult content either. And I feel like that's kind of expected in other genres. And for young adult dystopian, you can really just make it be about the story and about the kids. And plus, I think we all are nostalgic for that age and time in our life. So there's something appealing about seeing kids do something that if you were to put yourself in that situation, you say, What what character would I have been? You know, who who would I have been in that time? And and would I want to make different choices now?

Dianne Burckhardt 15:31

So which character are you?

SPEAKER_00 15:34

All of them. When you were that age, would you have been? I would say Rose is probably the most similar to me as I was when I was in high school. I feel like I have parts of Harriet in me, but also like just Marcos's determination. I would say check Jason's empathy. I'm growing in. I'm growing in. He's probably the one I'm the least like. I admire him for like how how he esteems others and wants them to succeed and see them lifted up so much. So I I'm growing toward that, but I would say, yeah, maybe a little bit of all of them.

Dianne Burckhardt 16:19

With these stories that are so complex and so many different heavy topics, are you somebody who has to outline everything carefully, or is it more instinctual writing? Do you discover your story as you go?

SPEAKER_00 16:33

So I am probably a combination of those, and I think most authors are. I sketch out the highlights, the you know, those big moments in the story, and then I kind of like, you know, color in between the lines. I don't know, in between them. Um, and I kind of meander and feel my way. I I actually say that um I'm more editor than writer because I feel like I draft really quickly, and then it takes me forever to edit everything.

Dianne Burckhardt 17:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

And oftentimes I'm redrafting, you know, I would say about a third of the book.

Dianne Burckhardt 17:13

I have found that I tend to like write the bare bones of the book and then go back and add in the color.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

So that too, yeah, that's part of the revision process is is adding on those layers and and the Easter eggs and all those little details that readers just are delighted by. All of that comes in revision. Um, some of it gets sprinkled in the first draft as a stroke of brilliance that I cannot take credit for. It just sort of landed and happened, and I'm like, wow, okay, that's kind of cool. But most of the time that happens in revision.

Dianne Burckhardt 17:49

Now, with everything that you do in your life, how do you keep yourself on track? How do you not get bogged down with all of these different projects that you're involved in?

SPEAKER_00 17:59

Yeah, it's a great question. So that illness that I mentioned, um, really struggling with for 18 months, it forced me to prioritize and whittle down to what's very important. And so every day in the morning, I have my focus time that is that one thing that I want to get done that day. And maybe it's an hour block, maybe it's a two-hour block, but that's my focus. And then at the end of that time, I fit in kind of all the other things, all the other tasks. And maybe I'll pick one or two of those. And then the afternoon, right after lunch, I have another like deep focus time. And at the end of the day, I'm just, you know, all those pesky little to-dos, going through your email, responding, whatever it may be, posting on social media, all that happens at the end of the day. So I really focus and make sure that I get that priority done every single day. Um, and there's some days I don't because other things happen in that time frame. But then, you know, that I know the next day I can't, I can't, you know, mess around. I got to focus in that first block of time. And that's generally speaking from anywhere 9:30 or 10 to about noon is my like super productive time of the day. But I think everyone's got to find that for themselves.

Dianne Burckhardt 19:20

Yeah, for me, I may be up, but I'm not really awake until 10 in the morning. So I don't I don't plan anything important until after 10 when I know my brain has finally kicked in.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

I really admire those writers who can get up at 5 a.m. and write. I think if I wrote anything at that time, it would be nonsense.

Dianne Burckhardt 19:40

Yeah, I actually know a couple of writers that do that. They get up very early before the rest of the family gets up, and they spend their time getting in some good writing. And I'm like, I could do that at like two o'clock in the morning to four o'clock in the morning, and I would be on point for that. But having to get up at five o'clock and try and write, it would be gibberish.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Yeah, I admire those people. That is not me.

Dianne Burckhardt 20:05

What has surprised you most about becoming an author after spending so many years in medicine and the ministry? How is it different for you?

SPEAKER_00 20:13

Yeah, I think in medicine, especially, you have defined jobs. So if you're in pediatrics, you see kids. You may have your own practice, but you've got a practice manager, you've got billing people, you don't have to do all these other ancillary things. And the same in the church and in finance or in in pastoring, you have one job. There's other people to do other things. As a solopreneur, as an authorpreneur, you could say, like an author, entrepreneur, authorpreneur, I am everything. I'm the marketing manager, the finance manager, the ads manager, the writer, the producer, the publisher. I have to do it all. And some of those things I'm good at, and some of those I'm not good at. And so it's a matter of finding the things that you're good at or passable at. And then for the things that you're bad at, hiring it out or figuring out another way to do that. So it's very different. I would say it's closer to being a small business owner.

Dianne Burckhardt 21:17

Absolutely. It is. Whenever you're an author nowadays, it's like if you're somebody like Stephen King, a big publishing house will go out of their way to do marketing for him because you know that's guaranteed income. But for somebody who is unknown, may have a s a following, but still not a guaranteed bestseller every time they publish, there's just not that support there. And when you're an indie author, there's no support at all.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

So I think this is where the one redemption point of social media is that there are vibrant book communities on social media. And whether that's on Facebook in the groups, In Instagram, in Bookstagrammers, or on TikTok and BookTalk, there are vibrant communities of not only readers, but reviewers, people who just honestly love indie authors and are supportive of other authors. So I think that's where for me it can be very lonely, it can be very isolating. And that's where those online communities come in, even local author communities. So while I don't particularly enjoy most aspects of social media, I really like the aspect of connecting with readers and working with other authors on social media. So there's a balance there. And I think as an entrepreneur, recognize that you need a community and go find it.

Dianne Burckhardt 22:42

Oh, definitely. And the thing that is amazing is I think the vast majority of authors are supportive. They come together, they encourage each other, they help each other, they spread the word because every one of us knows how hard it is to get your books in front of an audience. And so we're willing to create that chain and just keep pulling people up behind us. Once we get pulled up, we pull up the next person with us. And there's very few people that I have met so far who see it as a competition. There are those people out there, but they're few and far between compared to the whole community.

SPEAKER_00 23:21

Yeah. I think that culture is changing, which is so good because honestly, not any single one of us can meet the reader's demands for books. Like it takes us so long to get a book written, edited, and into market in that same amount of time. A reader has probably read, if they're voracious, 100 to 200 books. If even if they're not voracious, they've read at one book a month, they've read at least 12 books. So like we just can't keep up with reader demand. We have to work together. There's really no other way that makes sense.

Dianne Burckhardt 23:56

Absolutely. And if you show an author, you know, hey, I write sci-fi and I have these readers, they would probably love your sci-fi books too. Let's do some kind of collaboration where we exchange our promotions. Yeah. And then you can combine your readership. It makes it so much better and makes it easier for all of us to grow when we do that.

SPEAKER_00 24:21

Absolutely. And those I send out a newsletter twice a month. And the links that I share to other authors' work and to opportunities to just even see different books that are coming out, new books coming out or books available are the most clicked links in my email.

Dianne Burckhardt 24:39

Almost every time that I have a promotions like, hey, do you know about this author? You know, I actually quit talking about my books all the time in my newsletters and things like that, and start putting in there, hey, you know, here's a new romance author, here's a new sci-fi author, here's a new Dysotopian author. And those are the links that get hit the most.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

Yeah, I agree completely. I do tell them, I think my readers know where it is, but I can't even remember the last time. Oh, maybe it was like in April when I shared the pre-order link for Betrayed. Like maybe it's probably once every four newsletters, five newsletters, that I will share a buy link. Yeah. They're available. People can find them. They're on my website.

Dianne Burckhardt 25:22

And by the way, you do have a lovely website.

SPEAKER_00 25:25

Why thank you? I just redid it. So I don't know if you saw my old old website or my new website. My new website just went live two days ago. I was just looking at it today. So it would be the new website. Okay, yeah. That's the new website. Yeah, I just redid it. I'm so tired right now. All the little things they got to get fixed and everything. I'm like, oh my gosh.

Dianne Burckhardt 25:47

I I've really been noticing websites because I I do my own, and it's obvious that I do my own. It is so overdone. I need to like really pull back on it and not have so much in there and just pare it down to the essentials. And I've been slowly working on that. So whenever I see websites like yours that are just nice and clean, and there's the information, you're done. You don't have to look through a bunch of things to find what's important. It it's just very well done.

SPEAKER_00 26:17

Well, I think my world's much simpler than yours, Diane. I have to say that you got a lot going on. So I could see where you would it would feel chaotic to you as the admin. It did, I will say on your website it made sense. Everything had a place and it was organized. Now, do you feel like you can improve? Probably, but I think we're always our own worst self-critics, right? So at the same time, it isn't a huge undertaking. But I had a deadline, natural deadline. Three days from now is when my website renewed on another service. And so moving to WordPress was I I had a deadline. It was either get it done now or wait a year. And I'm like, I'm not waiting a year. I'm getting it done now.

unknown 27:00

Yeah.

Dianne Burckhardt 27:00

That would help. I need deadlines to kind of get me motivated for things sometimes. Same. 100%. Same. So now is a good time for you to go ahead and give us the full synopsis for Divided, the first book in your series.

SPEAKER_00 27:15

So Divided is uh the story of a young man, Marcos, who's who just wants to escape his life. His father is abusive. He's trying to get Marcos to go down a career path that Marcos does not want to go down and is manipulative. So one day, Marcos just decides I've had it, I'm done. And he is the first Queenstown citizen to escape the walls. So he gets out of the city and is running through the abandoned city beyond that's not rehabilitated after the war, seeing all the destruction and realizing, oh, this is much bigger than I'd ever thought. This is a big issue and a situation. Now what am I going to do? I left my sister back there with him, with his abusive father, and I have to protect her. And so he's realizing I need to go back. So as he's trying to come back into the city, he gets caught and he ends up in a secret and illegal labor camp. And as you do when you're an 18-year-old young man, you think, well, I want to be free, so let's just free the whole labor camp. So he gets connected with an underground resistance movement, meets people for the first time in his life that don't look like him, who didn't grow up in his Havana area, and he is just blown away, realizing that there's not only something wrong in his life, there's something wrong in his nation. And we've got to fix it. We've got to bring change. And so I won't spoil it, but he meets his friends, uh, Jason first, and then Rose and Harriet, and uh they work together and do a lot of fun stuff, that first book. And it it sets off a cascade that then continues through the rest of the series. Cage book two, Betrayed, which is coming out in August, and then United, the finale in October.

Dianne Burckhardt 29:04

That is a rather tight production schedule.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

Between Betrayed and United. Yeah, so I'm I had this great idea last year that I would not recommend anyone else do. I wrote the books back to back. I sent them to my editor back to back. I sent, and then I revised them back to back, and then I sent them to my copy editor back to back, and now I've produced them back to back, and now the arcs, the arc is done for United. I'm holding it, giving readers time to read betrayed, because I'm like, they can't handle that tight schedule like I can. And part of me is I just want to be done. I want to get this done and out at the same time as I want to be able to um promote the entire series together and just finish off this chapter. But yeah, I don't recommend anyone do what I did. It was insane.

Dianne Burckhardt 29:55

Do you have another series planned for after you finish this one?

SPEAKER_00 29:59

I have a few ideas ruminating around in my head. One I'm gonna be extremely secretive about. Another involves a I'm I just I'm struggling to even know how to describe it, but it is it will end up being a commentary on how we deal with mental health. I'll put it that way. And it is dystopian, mixed with maybe a little bit of elements from lit RPG. So interesting. Yeah.

Dianne Burckhardt 30:27

So now it seems like the perfect time to do our five quick questions that never turn out to be quick, but I'm just too nosy to stop doing it. I love it. Are you ready? Fire away. Question one as we've talked about, you have already worked as a doctor in several countries and seen some pretty harrowing things. But what is one memory from those experiences that always brings a smile to your face?

SPEAKER_00 30:55

There's a lot of memories. I think one of the most encouraging things, and I would instead of a smile, I would say probably tears, is meeting two young men in Sierra Leone. They were from neighboring villages, and during the war got recruited to opposing sides of the Civil War. One ended up being part of the massacre of the other's village, including his own family, including this young man's family. And in a post-war rehabilitation and reconciliation program, they met and they both forgave each other. And they ended up both graduating in a tailoring program and becoming tailors, actual like people that sew things. So that I would not say a smile. It was always the kids that brought the smiles, just their innocence, their openness. But that is one story that will always stick with me.

Dianne Burckhardt 31:50

That would be a story to just definitely show hope. I mean, to be able to forgive somebody that was participating in something like that, that that takes a lot of it blew me away. Yeah, that's amazing. Now, question two considering all the different countries that you have visited, what country's food do you miss the most?

SPEAKER_00 32:13

Oh, that's hard because like every day is gonna change. What country's food I miss the most? I would say right now, it's the last country I was in, the Philippines. Other than that, the country's food that I routinely crave and want um to go experience, I've actually never been to Brazil. Oh wow. I love Brazilian food. The Brazilian steakhouse experience is just phenomenal and amazing. I'm always wanting to do that. I get to do it maybe once every other year. So I I love African food as well. I really like food. I have no problem traveling because I don't mind adventurous cuisine, except no balut. It's the fermented egg in in the Philippines. That that's that's I draw the line at like brains and balut.

Dianne Burckhardt 33:04

Yeah. I I don't think I would ever want to do the fermented egg. It just, I don't know. There's something about it that no. I've tried a lot of weird foods in my life traveling around the world, but I I don't want to do that one.

SPEAKER_00 33:17

Oh, same, same. I and I love fufu. It's a uniquely West African dish. It's incredibly hard to find anywhere. So there's times I miss fufu, but yeah.

Dianne Burckhardt 33:29

Now, question three. If there's one place in the world that you would love to take your kids to experience another culture, where would it be?

SPEAKER_00 33:38

Oh, it's gonna be Sierra Leone. Yeah. I would love to be able to take my kids there. And one day we'll go.

Dianne Burckhardt 33:46

Question four. As a disotopian author, what is your favorite genre to read?

SPEAKER_00 33:54

Oh, that varies. I'm a very like moody reader. Right now I'm reading a sci-fi children of time, Adrian Tchaikowski. It's very, it's otherworld, like terraforming, the spiders are sentient. It's horrifying in a lot of ways. I can only read so much of it at a time. And then there's times when I get it. Cyntien spiders just sent a chill that I was. Everybody cringe. I actually really love their characters. It's the ants that make me like horrified. Um even worse, ants. I know. Bugs, bugs. Oh, I would say I've been on a post-apocalyptic kick for a little while, but I read widely too. So there's probably not a genre I haven't read except horror. Well, I don't know, children of time, I think, may cross into horror at times.

Dianne Burckhardt 34:42

So now your last question. We're asking everyone the same question this year because we're creating a list to go in our year-in book buying guide in November so we can help people with their holiday shopping. What book to movie adaptation do you think has been the best that you have seen so far?

SPEAKER_00 34:59

Oh I would say in general, the book to movie adaptations disappoint me. But very, very few I can say. I really enjoyed the Hunger Games movies as much as I enjoyed the books. And I I think that's still the top one. I keep waiting for someone to make, and I haven't seen Project Hail Mary yet. It is as good as the book, but I haven't seen the movie yet to say that's that's gonna be the winner. I keep waiting for someone to knock off that top spot, but so far it's not happened. That the Hunger Games movies.

Dianne Burckhardt 35:39

If it gives you any hope, one author has already suggested Project Hail Mary as their best suggestion. So apparently they thought it was good. It gives me hope.

SPEAKER_00 35:50

I keep hearing this and from other authors, so I do trust other authors' opinion. I just haven't seen the movie yet.

Dianne Burckhardt 35:56

So now, what is next on your schedule? I mean, do you have any book readings coming up? Do you have any conventions that you're going to?

SPEAKER_00 36:06

I do have some events coming up in November. I'm going to be at Reader Nation in Las Vegas. Oh, nice. And I've got a few other like local Ohio events uh between now and then, but that's the big one. That is where the big draw will be at at the Horseshoe Hotel, Horseshoe Casino and Hotel. I think it's November 13th and 14th. Andy Weir is going to be there actually, talking about Project Cal Mary. Yeah. So that's the big one. But literally Monday morning, I start writing again. And I won't be talking about that project, though. That is a secret project for right now. Now, have you ever considered coming to the Frankfurter Book Mesa? I would love to come to the Frankfurt Book Fair. Have I considered it? Sure. It's cost. Yeah. You know, I was in Germany as an exchange student right after high school in the Munich area. And so I I love Southern Germany. Been to Frankfurt, hung out in that and the environs of that area. So yeah, I would definitely consider it. If I come, I'll give you a call.

Dianne Burckhardt 37:07

Definitely, because we plan to be there every year for the foreseeable future. And next year is actually, I believe their host country is Chile, and my husband's from Chile. So we're definitely hitting that one. Chilean food is good. Oh my god, it is. And my husband loves to cook, so I'm a very happy person.

SPEAKER_00 37:27

You are one blessed person.

Dianne Burckhardt 37:30

So now remind our listeners who you are and where they can find your work.

SPEAKER_00 37:34

So I'm CeC Robinson. I'm a young adult dystopian author, and they can find me at ccrobinsonauthor.com. And I have a special offer for your listeners, actually. Um, they will get my prequel novella upheaval. It's the post-apocalyptic setting for divided free when they sign up for my newsletter list. And that is at ccrobinsonauthor.com slash, I think forward slash, backslash, whichever the slash, whichever way the slash goes, book banter. And they can access that offer there.

Dianne Burckhardt 38:07

Fantastic. And we will have links to all of your social media and to this offer in the description of today's podcast. So everybody can just click and go and go get that prequel. And by the way, I love the cover art on your books. And I saw the prequel on your website. The covers are amazing.

SPEAKER_00 38:25

Thank you. I am so happy with them. And I love how good they look together. Like when you when you do a fan of the books, they look so pretty.

Dianne Burckhardt 38:34

And you can tell it's all a series. I mean, the the cover art just goes straight across on all of them. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 38:41

Yeah, it's the same designer for all four, and I'm very happy with them.

Dianne Burckhardt 38:45

Yeah. I can see why.

unknown 38:47

Yeah.

Dianne Burckhardt 38:48

Thank you so much for joining me today. This has been absolutely fabulous. Thank you, Diane. I had a lot of fun. So there you have it, folks. That was my interview with the incredible Cece Robinson. I have no idea how she keeps up with everything she does. It is quite impressive. If you have not yet discovered the Divided series, now is the perfect time to check them out. The first two books are available now, while books three and four, Betrayed and United, are currently available for pre-order and will be released later this year. You can start reading the series today and continue the saga when the final two books have been released. And don't forget to grab Cece's special book banter offer for our listeners. Just visit CeCrobinson Author.com forward slash bookbanter to sign up for her monthly newsletter and receive a free prequel novella connected to her divided series. Her newsletter is just sent out once a month. You can unsubscribe at any time. And Cece doesn't share your information. You gotta love that. You can find links to all of Cece's information and her special offer for our listeners in the description of today's podcast. Now, next week I'll be joined by Rebecca Cabrera, author of the exciting new middle grade novella in verse, Ava to the Max. The story follows 12-year-old Ava, a fearless motocross racer who is known on the racing circuit as Ava Knievel. But she keeps her passion a secret from her classmates because she fears being bullied for it. We'll talk about Rebecca's inspiration for the story and so much more. So be sure to come back next week to check out my conversation with another great author. Now before I let you go, I want to give you all a little Burkhart Books and Book Band Productions news. As always, I want to remind you to join our mailing list at burkhartbooks.com slash subscribe. You can find a link to that in the description of the podcast. This is the best way to stay up to date with everything happening on both sides of our business, including our books, podcasts, magazine, and all of the projects I'm working on. And let me tell you, there's a lot of them. I would also like to invite you to follow Burkhart Books and Bookband Productions Facebook pages if you aren't already doing that. I have been sharing behind the scenes information about all of the projects that I have in the works, and more is coming. I'm actually using these posts for a little self-accountability too, to keep me motivated, and I would appreciate any feedback I can get from you to help keep me going. If you have been following our upcoming Haunted Hearts Paranormal Romance series by Dia Stevens, you will love our weekly Spectre Sunday posts on Facebook. In case you aren't aware, Spectre is the name of the reality ghost hunting TV show that is featured in the Haunted Hearts series. We're sharing behind-the-scenes character dossiers, emails between the characters, case notes, and other behind-the-scenes information connected to the real ghost hunting adventures that inspired this series. The first novel, Lingston Watch Hotel, is currently planned for a release later this year. And lastly, I just opened the official swag shop at burkhartbooks.com. You can find the link on our main page of the website. We already have several products available with so many more on the way. You'll find merchandise connected to our book lines, Bookbanter with Diane Burkhart Podcast, and BookBanter magazine, along with general items created for authors, readers, and any book lovers who are out there. And I just want to take a moment to thank all of you. Because of everything that you do, from listening to the podcast and joining our newsletter, to following us on Facebook and shopping the swag shop, everything you do helps support Burkhart Books and all of my efforts to build this business from nothing. And allows me to do everything I am doing to help bring readers and great authors together. Well, I think that's enough for today, folks. So you know what that means. It's that time. It's time for you all to go forth and be really happy that I don't need that much sleep so I can keep doing all of this. Thank you for joining us today. Be sure to subscribe to BookBanter with Diane Burkhart on your favorite podcast streaming service. Because if you love books like we do, you do not want to miss a single episode of this podcast.