Pump Up Chats with John Rosenman

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John Rosenman recently retired as an English professor at Norfolk State University where he designed and taught a course in how to write Science fiction and Fantasy. He is a former Chairman of the Board of the Horror Writers Association and has published approximately 350 stories in places such as Weird Tales, Whitley Strieber’s Aliens, Fangoria, Galaxy, The Age of Wonders, and the Hot Blood anthology series. John has published twenty books, including SF action/romantic adventure novels such as Beyond Those Distant Stars and Speaker of the Shakk (Mundania Press), A Senseless Act of Beauty (Crossroad Press), and Alien Dreams (Drollerie Press and Crossroad Press). Shorter books include A Mingling of Souls and Music Man (XoXo Publishing), Here Be Dragons (Eternal Press), The Voice of Many Waters (Blue Leaf Publications), Green in Our Souls (Damnation Books), and Bagonoun’s Wonderful Songbird and Childhood’s Day (Gypsy Shadow Publishing). Recent developments: MuseItUp Publishing published two novels, Dark Wizard and Dax Rigby, War Correspondent. Another SF novel, Inspector of the Cross, will appear in February. MuseItUp Publishing also published More Stately Mansions and The Blue of Her Hair, the Gold of Her Eyes, and it will release Steam Heat, a tale of erotic horror in December.

Readers can visit John at his website, www.johnrosenman.com, and other sites:
http://www.myspace.com/291520102\
https://twitter.com/#!/Writerman1,
https://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1164323809 and . . .
http://s631.photobucket.com/albums/uu31/jrosenman/.

Two of his interviews are at
Working Writers http://workingwritersandbloggers.com/2009/08/18/interview-john-b-rosenman/
MILSCFI.com
http://tinyurl.com/d7f5vfa

Thank you for this interview, John. Do you remember writing stories as a child or did the writing bug come later? Do you remember your first published piece?

A: I used to lie in bed in the dark and listen to “The Shadow” and other programs on the radio. This led me to make up stories even when I was a small kid. I can remember writing stories as cartoon strips with crayons. A little later, I lay in bed and made up baseball stories, always with me as the hero. My first published piece was a short story, “The Patriot,” about a resistance fighter in Germany during World War II. It was published waaaayyyyy back in 1960, in Hiram College’s literary magazine. Boy, was I thrilled.

What do you consider as the most frustrating side of becoming a published author and what has been the most rewarding?

A: There are a lot of frustrating things. Getting published in the best markets or by the best publishers is one of them, especially when you think your story or novel is really good. The most rewarding is having editors and readers not only like what you write but understand and respond to it fully.

Are you married or single and how do you combine the writing life with home life? Do you have support?

A: I’ve been married for 44 years. My writing life is largely separate from my home life, although my wife Jane has lent support over the years. Recently she read and copy-edited my novel, Dax Rigby, War Correspondent. She has been a big help on others as well.

Can you tell us about your latest book and why you wrote it?

A: Dax Rigby, War Correspondent is one of my latest. Several of my novels have a similar theme I find irresistible: a hero goes to a distant planet and has strange, mind-blowing adventures. Within those parameters there is endless opportunity for experimentation and creative freedom, to imagine and create anything you like. So, in Dax Rigby, I created not one but two alien races. I also created a mystery or detective story. Some of my SF action/adventure novels involve mysteries, which are obviously another interest of mine. Also, I have the freedom to portray strange sex practices, especially among aliens, and to create a new religion with Dax a divine embodiment of its essence.

Remember the fifties SF classic movie Forbidden Planet? Take your character or characters to a new world, and fictional opportunities expand into areas limited only by your imagination. The same thing applies to Dax Rigby, War Correspondent, which is the main reason I wrote it.

Can you share an excerpt?

A: Sure. Dax and Casey Frank have just crashed in a copter (it was sabotaged), and when Dax wakes up, he finds the smashed craft is surrounded by fierce members of two alien species.

The monsters were all around him. Looking up at them, he felt he stood at the bottom of a dark well about to collapse on top of him.

Dax took a cautious half step and glanced around.

The copter’s nose had gouged a deep groove in the dirt, and its rear section tilted upward even more steeply than he’d thought. On the copter’s other side, giant Flyers flapped crimson wings and stared at him with bulging green eyes. It was the Hoppers, though, that riveted his attention.

Close by, one of them started toward him on armored hind legs. The six-legged creature must be at least four meters tall.

Dax raised his mallet in trembling fingers and gazed up at the behemoth. It watched him with hungry, multi-prismed eyes. Ice froze his spine.

The Hopper opened its huge maw and puffed out a breath. It reeked of carrion. Dax staggered back against the copter. Holy shit, he thought. Look at the size of its mouth! It could eat me in a single bite.

Where’s your favorite place to write at home?

A: Usually in my office or man cave, right in front of my computer. Before I got a computer, I wrote anywhere, using a pen and a yellow legal pad. But all that’s changed. I don’t use pens or pencils anymore except to edit.

What is one thing about your book that makes it different from other books on the market?

A: Good question! Characterization is very important, and I think Dax is an original. Complex and likeable, he has a cosmic identity he first debunks and then has to come to terms with. I also think Dax Rigby, War Correspondent has a lot going on. It’s not just about an alien planet; there’s a mystery story as well with the reader invited to be a detective. Plus a romance and an improbable seduction that is at times touching and humorous. Does it make sense for a passionate man to remain faithful to a girlfriend who’s nine hundred light-years away?

Tables are turned…what is one thing you’d like to say to your audience who might buy your book one day?

A: Thanks for being readers! And please give my book a chance. Oops, that’s two things.

Thank you for this interview, John. Good luck on your virtual book tour!

A: Thank you, Pump Up Your Book. And thank you for hosting me.

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Aiken Brown, SON OF A SOLDIER

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Miri Leshem-Pelly, SCRIBBLE & AUTHOR

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Shami Stovall, KNIGHTMARE ARCANIST

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Bacon Press Books

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Mary Lawlor, FIGHTER PILOT'S DAUGHTER

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Karen-Anne Stewart, ASH TO STEELE

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Question of the Day

How do you make sales happen for you?

A lot of hard work! I sponsor a lot of on line parties, festivals and contests. Book sales don’t magically happen, believe me. An author has to work hard to earn her readers. And then she has to work hard to keep them by giving them something they’ll enjoy reading. I try hard to make my books worth a reader’s time.

-- Sheila Roberts, Author of Winter at the Beach