J. David Robbins

J. David Robbins was born in Chicago when most trains were still steam operated and Harry Truman was president. You do the math. He has lived most of his life in Los Angeles despite the fact that he likes almost everywhere else he has ever been much better (this excludes Gila Bend, Arizona, and the entire state of Florida). He has a BA in History (specializing in the American West) from UCLA and an MA in education (with a specialty in administration) from CSULA. He taught for 36 years, six more than Frank McCourt, which should be worth something. Additionally, he worked as an educational coordinator and school counselor in magnet schools, has done professional photography and prize-winning pen and ink fine line art. He has been writing since the time that such activity was accomplished with pen and paper. In addition to The Layout, he has written three as yet unpublished novels: To Them That See the Sun, Corpo's Delinquent and Heartfelt Lies. And, he loves the trains that feature prominently in The Layout.

Robbins' latest novel is Open Carry. It is currently available for Kindle readers. He describes it as follows:

Aging Yochi Benish, an outspoken liberal former professor, and his artist wife Verna have a secret that has haunted them through the years. The secret is revived by the reappearance of a covert childhood friend with his collection of aliases, and who just may be an unwitting soldier in organized crime, and Margie, the lonely woman for whom he would reform his life. Meanwhile, Yochi's political beliefs are put to the test by the rants of Hale Wright, a virulent right wing talk radio host, who is joined by Gabriel Prosser, a young intern and a true believer who would kill for Christ.

The witnesses of, and commentators on, America's dissent into divisiveness, are spotlighted in this story about the paranoid, the victimized, the thinkers and the thoughtless, the followers and the followed, who are drawn into an examination of America's gun culture, and the seemingly unresolvable issue of gun violence. Open Carry is a dark, often comic, ultimately dystopian novel about our failure to listen, to discuss, or to compromise on, let alone resolve, issues that threaten to irrevocably divide the American nation.