Monday, February 02, 2009

Interview with John Rosenman, author of Alien Dreams


Today, I'm interviewing another Drollerie Press author--John Rosenman. John has published eight books: Alien Dreams; Beyond Those Distant Stars; Dax Rigby, War Correspondent; and Speaker of the Shakk. His short fiction has appeared in Weird Tales, Whitley Strieber’s Aliens, Starshore, Hot Blood, The Age of Wonders, etc.

1. Tell us about Alien Dreams, published by Drollerie Press.

It’s my most cosmic novel, with dark, evil, and angelically beautiful aliens. Captain Eric Latimore leads a mission to a distant world where he is transformed into a giant alien in order to save his crew. After he makes love to their lovely queen for 10,000 subjective years, he travels across space to do battle with a godlike Gatekeeper who rules this universe.

2. What’s your most recent publication?

Dax Rigby, War Correspondent (Lyrical Press), is about a young reporter who travels to Arcadia to investigate two warring alien species. There, he falls in love with a beautiful pilot and discovers a deadly conspiracy. He also learns he’s the incarnation of a god, and only he can save billions of lives back on Earth.

3. Tell us about a favorite minor character.

Thaddeus Burke, in Dax Rigby, is a dissolute drunk heavily into pornography who becomes spiritually reborn when the hero brings someone back from the dead. However, he still writes bad poetry, which is unintentionally humorous.

4. What inspires you most to write your novels?

I love to write about people who go to distant worlds and have amazing adventures, especially with bizarre, fantastic aliens. I like to find the humanity in aliens who seem completely different from us. I also write about people transforming into weird or marvelous new forms, or about a messiah who saves humanity.

5. What is your favorite thing about writing?

Getting turned on by doing it. Nothing beats having the words flow and feeling inspired. I also like selling a story, and having readers say they liked it.

6. How do you get ideas?

Sometimes they come from almost NOTHING. One novel came from a single word: Dreamfarer. One time my wife put three bulbs of garlic in my suitcase and I wrote a crazy tale called “Three Pounds of Garlic in a Dead Man’s Hand.” Once I took my son trick or treating and he disappeared briefly behind a trellis, so I wrote a story about a man whose son disappears on Halloween and enters another universe.

7. What are you working on now?

Dark Wizard occurs in San Luis Obispo, CA. The city has strange sights, including Bubblegum Alley with decades of gum on its walls. The main character “woke up” two months ago and doesn’t know who he is, but he can read minds and bring dead people back to life. Then he discovers an alien monster inhabiting his mind and meets a beautiful girl with a dark secret.

8. When did you realize you were a story teller?

It goes back to early childhood when I lay in bed in the dark and listened to scary radio programs like “Lights Out.” Then I’d write stories in crayon.

9. What is the best part of world building for you?

Making it interesting! In A Senseless Act of Beauty, due out from Blade Publishing, I create an African-like world with a vast, underground alien complex. The fun was creating endless new sights and vast rooms with mind-stretching wonders.

10. What is the biggest mistake new writers make?

Quitting because of rejection or flagging motivation. You know, a lot of folks get ideas. The writer is the one who grabs onto them and makes something grow, even if it involves sweat and hard work. Not reading enough good stuff is another problem. It’s hard to make a flower grow in a mental vacuum. Science fiction, for example, is largely a genre of ideas. You need to read it to see which ones have been used before.

You can learn more about John Rosenman at his website: http://www.johnrosenman.com/ and he writes a monthly blog at http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/.

Thank you, John, for sharing your strange new worlds with us. They all sound fascinating and "out of this world". :) ~Cheryl Kaye Tardif, bestselling author of The River

No comments: