HARLINGEN – She’s in Jordan right now, researching and working on her second novel.
But, Emily Robbins’ first one, called “A Word for Love,” is on the shelves and available digitally right now.
Robbins, who has been in Brownsville for about a year, has lived all over the world, including places as far away as Argentina, Syria, Philadelphia, Chicago and St. Louis.
No matter where she has lived, her passion for languages and the concept of love has always been the constant.
Her love of Arabic was the fuel for her first novel, which was released earlier this year.
As she researches and starts the writing process on her second, she is quick to point out her passion for her craft.
“To me, I can’t think about a world without books and writing,” she said. “It has been a part of me for my entire life. Being a writer or thinking of yourself as a writer, you look at the world with curiosity and look at the details some people wouldn’t necessarily look for. I think that just makes the world a more exciting place for me.”
She started writing as a youth and has never stopped.
Robbins started working on the book in 2010 and turned in the final revisions in 2015. The book made it to the stores this past January.
Robbins lived in Syria from 2005 to 2008 and she studied there under a Fulbright Scholarship.
The book came from her being in Syria. There, she lives with a family who was part of the resistance against the government prior to the revolution.
“This was my first experience with the stakes of speaking out and the risks of it,” she said.
“It was very powerful at the age of 21 to see that. It left me with more questions than answers. But out of the seeds of that and my love of Arabic, I wrote this book.”
From the writing to publication has been a long process, but one she was well aware of. She first obtained an agent and then her manuscript was sent out to publishers. Her college education in the fine arts ensured she understood what could be a long process to have a book published.
But, its arrival in print was well worth the wait.
Now, she is officially a published writer and that is her job.
Robbins also understands there are no guarantees for a second successful book.
Her next novel will be set in the 1800s and is based on a true story about a lady, who at almost 50 came from England to greater Syria and fell in love with a man 25 years younger than her. Against the will of their families, the two stayed together for 30 years, until her death.
“I am interested in a story about those unusual age differences,” she said. “It is intriguing. I am interested in love stories that we hear less about. It is a story that isn’t often told.”
Through June, she will be analyzing and collecting materials about culture in the 1800s in Syria, including women’s dresses and the nomadic women in greater Syria at that time, when the women wove and made basically everything they owned.
She will be working the archives in libraries and museums. She also will talk with historians and she admits she is very at home and at peace in the Middle East.
“Right now what is exciting about this book is taking the language and allowing the cultural details to imagine this whole new world,” Robbins said.
“It is said there are 99 Arabic words for love. Bea, an American student, has learned them all. In search of deep feeling, she travels to Syria in search of ‘The Astonishing Text,’ an ancient original manuscript of a famous Arabic love story that is said to move its readers to tears. But once in this foreign country, Bea finds herself entwined in her host family’s complicated lives as the nation drifts toward explosive turmoil. Suddenly, instead of the ancient text she sought, it is her daily witness of a real-life love story that moves her, changes her and makes her weep.”
Emily Robbins loves words, sentence structure and writing. And she analyzes it – both her own and others.
When it comes to the feelings of love, she believes it’s all about the words and that’s what she enjoys portraying.
Robbins admits when she was 21, she really became passionate about the idea of love and love affairs.
“Language can have so much to do with love to such a degree and names can identify love and how we can so passionately fall in love that we lose part of ourselves,” she said.
