Philip Chen: "Falling Star"

Hi Philip, could you please describe yourself in five words?

Engineer, Lawyer, Banker, Cartoonist, Author

What can you tell us about "Falling Star"?

Written to resolve my own innermost angst over a series of horrific nightmares in 1990, Falling Star is a realistic thriller about the discovery of mysterious objects buried deep in the ocean and what happens when they wake up and start sending signals to outer space.  In my nightmares, I saw what seemed to be ordinary Americans wreaking apocalyptic horror.  Buildings were set ablaze, skyscrapers came crashing down, and people died gruesome deaths. 

I was travelling to Europe regularly and carrying one of the first lightweight laptops at the time.  To try to settle my fears, I started writing Falling Star on the long flights, in lonely London hotel rooms, and at home on weekends.  In about one and one-half months I had a 560 page manuscript that described the discovery of the objects, the investment banker pulled back into a clandestine agency to help decipher the messages, attacks by gangs of ordinary citizens determined to kill him, and the death of a revered friend.  I copyrighted the original manuscript in 1991.

For twenty years, literary agents and publishers scoffed at this story, especially the theme that foreign agents have been hiding in plain view for decades in America.  I could just hear them ridiculing the notion that foreign moles could marry innocent Americans, raise children, buy homes, hold down ordinary jobs, and steal the identities of dead babies.  After all this is America; things like that just don't happen here!  Until, of course, they do as in June 2010 when Russian spies were found to have been doing exactly what my fictional spies had been doing for twenty years.  The only difference between the Russians and my fictional spies is that my spies didn't grow Hydrangeas.  One of my spies was even a gorgeous female posing as a financial consultant.

When the story broke in June, I realized that I could no longer wait for agents or publishers to come find me.  I decided to self-published and released Falling Star on August 4, 2010.  My concern stemmed from a morbid fear that more parts of my story would be played out on prime-time news.  I am mindful that the above comments might appear to be mere boasting.  My response is if you doubt me, please go to my Scribd account and read the excerpts I started posting in May 2009 about my novel and accounts of the foreign spies.  http://scribd.com/PhilC68

Falling Star is a fast-paced novel that has been compared to the best works of Tom Clancy, and the "idea" stories of Arthur C. Clarke.  The major comment received in reviews is that the story is so real that people wonder if it is really fiction.  One commenter, Author Brendan Carroll, summed up this concern by saying that Falling Star "makes the reader wonder if this story might not be fiction at all, but something very real and very disturbing."

Falling Star has received thirty-nine reviews since its release: 20 – Five Star, 15 – Four Star, 1 – Three Star, 1 – Two and One Half Star, 1 – Two Star, and 1-One Star.

Finally, noted book critic Alan Caruba, a charter member of the prestigious National Book Critics Circle had this to say about Falling Star:

"It is rare when a novelist makes his debut with as powerful a novel as Philip Chen's Falling Star ($15.25, available from Amazon.com, soft cover and on Kindle). It begins in 1967 and concludes in the Oval Office in 1993. In between Chen introduces you to an array of characters, all of whom have unique talents, some of whom are U.S. Navy officers, some with the FBI, all devoted to the protection of their nation. They are a handful of people who know about mysterious entities far beneath the surface of the waters surrounding the U.S. Others are members of a rogue KGB unit, moles who lived among us, but whose mission ended when the former Soviet Union collapsed. This novel stands out for the way you are introduced not just to the characters, but the physical reality in which they live, the sights and even the smells. Slowly and then with increasing intensity, the mysteries are unraveled, the enemies identified, as life and death often hangs in the balance. Drawing on his own life as an ocean research engineer, attorney and banker, Chen brings an authenticity to the novel that provides a heart-pounding reality that forces you to ask "What if?" What if Earth was under observation by those from another planet that is circling a dying sun? What if they intended to colonize it? What if the year for this was 2013? If you read just one novel in 2011, make it Falling Star."

Who's your favourite author?

This is the toughest question ever, because it is impossible to say one.  My list includes Hemingway, Poe, Socrates, Clancy, Clarke, Verne, Wells, etc., to name a few.

Do you have tips for budding writers?

Do not ever let go of your dreams or be dissuaded by naysayers.

What are you working on now?

I am in the process of releasing my first collection of cartoons from There is Strangeness in the Universe ™.  The collection is from a cartoon blog that I have had for a few years based a real astronomical theory that a parallel universe full of strange matter must exist to give cosmic balance to our own fragile space continuum.  I started cartooning at age 63.

I am also working on the sequel to Falling Star, in which the saga of Mike and the mysterious objects takes a dramatic turn.

Finally, I am being urged by my daughter (who is probably one of the best writers I know, but has no interest in being an author or editor) to finalize my book about growing up as an Asian in 1950s and 1960s America.  The novel, Home to the Middle Kingdom, has been completed, but needs some serious editing.

Where can we find you online?

My website for Falling Star can be found at http://fallingstar1970.wordpress.com

I also host a forum for independent authors called The Independent Authors Forum (interestingly enough) at my community website site, The Eclectic Mind at Puget Sound Speaks, at http://pugetsoundspeaks.com

My cartoon site can be found at http://strangenessinuniverse.blogspot.com