Author Interview: Aaron Rosenberg, Part Two
6.
I see that you published an extensive variety of educational books through Rosen Publishing between 2002 and 2007. The topics range from war to skateboarding to biographies of athletes and world leaders.
Yep. :)
Were you well versed in all of these topics prior to writing about them or was there extensive research involved? (I’m envisioning Aaron Rosenberg in helmet and pads doing ollies on a skateboard ramp).
There was a lot of research. I was initially supposed to do skateboarder bios that time around, and then they decided they wanted books on skateboarding tips instead. I told them I hadn’t skateboarded since I was a kid, but they assured me they had their own experts who would go over everything and make sure the tricks actually worked properly—my job was just to put it together and make it clean and readable and engaging. So I did. The biographies and histories were a lot easier—the skateboarding and razor scooter books were a bit more challenging, but it was fun to go outside my usual comfort zone!
I understand that you have a few more educational books coming out soon through both Scholastic and Zenoscope. What can you tell us about those?
Well, for Scholastic I’ve got a middle-grade series called Profiles. The first book is the Civil War and the second is World War II. Both books take six major figures from that event and not only tell about them but also explain how they and their actions were connected. It’s fun because you get to see how these people influenced each other, and the rest of the world as a result.
For Zenoscope I just wrote pieces for two books they’re doing for Discovery. The first one is Discovery Channel’s Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Predators and the second is Animal Planet's Top 10 Most Dangerous Animals. They’re graphic novels, which was great because I’ve loved comics since I was a kid but these will be the first illustrated stories I’ve actually had see print.
7.
Your first original novel, The Birth of the Dread Remora, is out now. Congratulations! You must be very excited! This is the first book in The Scattered Earth saga. You’re following up with a novella in March called Crossed Paths.
Thanks, yes, I am very excited! Much as I love doing tie-in work, it was really nice to write something that wasn’t based on anything but my own imagination. And yes, Crossed Paths was just released as well—it’s a companion novella to the novel, featuring the same characters and the same ship, and it includes the novel’s first two chapters afterward, so you can buy the novella and get a taste of the novel as well if you’d rather do it that way.
What can you tell us about the origins of this series and the universe in which the stories are set?
Well, my friends David Niall Wilson and Steve Savile and I got to talking at one point. We wanted to create something big together. What we came up with was the Scattered Earth saga. Basically the three of us came up with the universe and certain major events that kicked things off, and then an overarching storyline that can encompass everyone. Then each of us created our individual worlds and characters and stories within that larger framework.
How many books are planned for The Scattered Earth saga? Will you pen all of them or will other authors be involved?
Right now we’re estimating at least a dozen novels total in the saga. I’ll be writing all of the Dread Remora books, just as Dave will be doing all of his series and Steve will be writing all of his. We may eventually bring in additional authors—the great thing is, the way we’ve got Scattered Earth set up, we could easily accommodate other authors with their own series, as long as they tie in to the larger story down the road. We’re also going to be doing them as e-books, print books, and audiobooks, so you’ve got lots of ways to follow along!
8. At Farpoint in February, you co-hosted a panel with Howie Weinstein, Michael Jan Friedman, Bob Greenberger, Peter David, and Glen Hauman to announce the launch of Crazy 8 Press. Further announcements will be made at Shore Leave 33 in July.
Please describe the purpose of Crazy 8 Press and how it originated. Can you give us a hint about some of your initial contributions?
Basically Mike had been thinking about publishing and where it was going and what that would mean for authors and ways to avoid some of the problems and maybe find new opportunities to reach readers. He started talking to the rest of us, and then we all started talking together, and we agreed that it was now feasible to publish directly and get books straight to readers without any middlemen like publishing houses. That’s really what it’s all about, finding ways to get our books directly to our readers and also, as a result, being more responsive to their interests and requests.
My first contribution to Crazy 8, at least as things stand right now, is No Small Bills. No Small Bills is a humorous science fiction novel in the vein of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It’s about an average, ordinary guy named DuckBob Spinowitz, so named because, well, he has the head of a duck. DuckBob had a run-in with the aliens known as Grays a few years back, and he’s been this way ever since. He’s come to terms with his condition, but he’s still taken aback when two Men in Black grab him and drag him to speak to a Gray on their behalf. That conversation leads to DuckBob, the MiB he nicknames Tall, an alien tech named Ned, and a Gray-modified hot chick named Mary traveling across the galaxy in an attempt to stop an impending invasion. And yes, much wackiness ensues en route.
9.
You’re contributing to a book of short stories along with Bob Greenberger and Steve Savile. It’s due out in May. What can you tell us about it?
That would be ReDeus. A year or two ago, Bob, our buddy Paul Kupperberg, and I started talking about trying to do a project together. What we came up with was ReDeus. Paul had to bow out, so Bob and I invited Steve to join us.
ReDeus is set a few decades in the future, when the gods have returned. Literally. They all came back one day (the opening events of the 2012 Olympics, in fact) and reclaimed their former positions as rulers of the world. And each reclaimed his or her followers as well. Now the world is divided up between the warring pantheons, except for one “neutral” city: New York. It’s the only place in the world where the gods and their followers can meet and talk and trade and live without fighting over territory. Bob, Steve, and I each have our own main character, and our planned story arc—and as with Scattered Earth, those arcs are all going to converge. Eventually.
Our plan is to do short stories, which we’ll collect and sell in small packets, one story from each of us per packet. We’ll be releasing them each month, so people can start following them and expecting a new packet right on schedule. We’re hoping to generate enough interest to prove that we need to write the novels that follow.
10.
Finally, what does Aaron Rosenberg do when he isn’t writing?
I honestly don’t remember. :)
No, not really. I hang out with friends, I spend time with my family, I read, I watch movies or TV, I game, I surf the Web. Sometimes I even sleep—just to do something different. :)
You can read more about Aaron Rosenberg, including a bibliography of his written works on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_S._Rosenberg
Aaron Rosenberg on the Internet Speculative Fiction Database:
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?28068
The Birth of the Dread Remora on Crossroad Press:
http://crossroadpress.com/2011/02/09/the-birth-of-the-dread-remora-aaron-rosenberg/
Crazy 8 Press: http://www.crazy8press.com
Farpoint convention: www.farpointcon.com
Shore Leave convention: www.shore-leave.com
