10 Questions with Armand Rosamilia
1. How much of your novel Chelsea Avenue is based on real life events?
The Haunted House pier fire was a real event from my teen years. I still remember the commercials for it. I was 17 when it burned down. Murphy’s Law was also a real club but it had nothing to do with the fire in real life. It closed years later. Many of the settings are real fixtures in Long Branch.
2. Is there an overall theme to your writing?
If there is I don’t see it. I am just trying to tell a fun story. I’m not interested in subtle meanings and making the reader do anything other than enjoy a good story. If it means something more to someone, that’s very cool. But not intentional. I want to be a pulp writer and not a literary author.
3. Out of these three things, rank them in order of how they define you as a person: horror, heavy metal, zombies?
heavy metal
Heavy Metal would be first. Not a day goes by I’m not listening to music and usually metal. It is the driving force behind my day. Second is zombies but that is just a slight notch above horror. When I’m writing anything not a thriller lately it is usually zombies, like my Dying Days series. Otherwise I’m getting into more of the crime thriller, suspense thriller, paranormal thriller… writing thrillers.
4. What advice do you have for beginning writers?
I always say to read a lot. Not just your genre you love but anything else to get an idea and appreciation for different style of writing and to understand the structure of how certain genres work. Writing a romance is different from writing a mystery at times, and you need to read and understand the differences. A good writer wants to dabble in every genre to see what happens.
5. Although you live in Florida, how much of New Jersey is still in you?
You can take the boy outta Jersey… I still say you’s guys. I still eat pork roll, egg and cheese sandwiches. I still curse way too much. I love living in Florida but I’ll always be a Jersey Boy.
6. Is there any subject that is off limits for you as a writer?
I’ve mellowed out over the five years I’ve been writing full-time. I no longer think shocking the reader is so important. Gripping them to turn the page is more important for a good story. I’ve slowly changed my writing to stop with the over the top graphic violence and/or sex and write what could be called more mainstream but still holding onto the edge. I don’t like writing about children being brutalized. I’m not going to write bizarre fiction because it isn’t my thing.
7. Where do you see your writing career five years from now?
I hope the career path continues to shoot up. 2015 was the best year ever for me. In fact, December 2015 was the best month ever with sales, an Audible deal, winning a Kindle Scout contract and selling a few books for 2016. I don’t aspire to be rich (although I won’t give it back) but I just want to be comfortable in my life and write every day. So far, so good…
8. What is your best quality as a writer?
My focus and the ability to write a decently clean first draft. I’m not a guy who does 57 drafts of a book. I do one edit through, hand it to beta readers who get me to do a third edit, and it’s off to the editor for the final draft. 95% of the book is done with the first draft. I’m writing 400,000 words in a year, so they need to be good from the beginning.
9. How did you develop the mythos behind Chelsea Avenue including Wiy of the Water?
The four elemental ‘gods’ were actually created in my head when I was in high school for a Dungeons & Dragons game I wanted to DM. Yeah, I’m the heavy metal and D&D geek with the mullet you went to high school with in the late 80’s. I never used them until I wrote Tool Shed, a horror novella currently out of print. I used the earth elemental as the main bad guy. While I was writing that book I put the four elementals on an index card and when it was time to really write Chelsea Avenue (which had been kicking around about a dozen years) I knew Wiy was the boss bad guy for it.
10. If Hollywood was making a film adaptation of Chelsea Avenue, and the director asked you to cast the role of Manny Santiago, who would you choose?
What’s really weird is when I was writing the second half of the book and Manny is older I had Kirk Acevedo in my head as the lead. I guess because of the Latino and he’s a great actor to me. But Hollywood will attach Tom Cruise to the role and pay me a huge chunk of cash and it won’t matter anyway. Tammy Kelly is based on an actual Tammy Kelly, a woman I grew up with in New Jersey. I’ve known her since kindergarten or thereabouts. There are many real people I grew up with in the book and I got to kill most of them. Always wonderful as an author.
The Haunted House pier fire was a real event from my teen years. I still remember the commercials for it. I was 17 when it burned down. Murphy’s Law was also a real club but it had nothing to do with the fire in real life. It closed years later. Many of the settings are real fixtures in Long Branch.
2. Is there an overall theme to your writing?
If there is I don’t see it. I am just trying to tell a fun story. I’m not interested in subtle meanings and making the reader do anything other than enjoy a good story. If it means something more to someone, that’s very cool. But not intentional. I want to be a pulp writer and not a literary author.
3. Out of these three things, rank them in order of how they define you as a person: horror, heavy metal, zombies?
heavy metal
Heavy Metal would be first. Not a day goes by I’m not listening to music and usually metal. It is the driving force behind my day. Second is zombies but that is just a slight notch above horror. When I’m writing anything not a thriller lately it is usually zombies, like my Dying Days series. Otherwise I’m getting into more of the crime thriller, suspense thriller, paranormal thriller… writing thrillers.
4. What advice do you have for beginning writers?
I always say to read a lot. Not just your genre you love but anything else to get an idea and appreciation for different style of writing and to understand the structure of how certain genres work. Writing a romance is different from writing a mystery at times, and you need to read and understand the differences. A good writer wants to dabble in every genre to see what happens.
5. Although you live in Florida, how much of New Jersey is still in you?
You can take the boy outta Jersey… I still say you’s guys. I still eat pork roll, egg and cheese sandwiches. I still curse way too much. I love living in Florida but I’ll always be a Jersey Boy.
6. Is there any subject that is off limits for you as a writer?
I’ve mellowed out over the five years I’ve been writing full-time. I no longer think shocking the reader is so important. Gripping them to turn the page is more important for a good story. I’ve slowly changed my writing to stop with the over the top graphic violence and/or sex and write what could be called more mainstream but still holding onto the edge. I don’t like writing about children being brutalized. I’m not going to write bizarre fiction because it isn’t my thing.
7. Where do you see your writing career five years from now?
I hope the career path continues to shoot up. 2015 was the best year ever for me. In fact, December 2015 was the best month ever with sales, an Audible deal, winning a Kindle Scout contract and selling a few books for 2016. I don’t aspire to be rich (although I won’t give it back) but I just want to be comfortable in my life and write every day. So far, so good…
8. What is your best quality as a writer?
My focus and the ability to write a decently clean first draft. I’m not a guy who does 57 drafts of a book. I do one edit through, hand it to beta readers who get me to do a third edit, and it’s off to the editor for the final draft. 95% of the book is done with the first draft. I’m writing 400,000 words in a year, so they need to be good from the beginning.
9. How did you develop the mythos behind Chelsea Avenue including Wiy of the Water?
The four elemental ‘gods’ were actually created in my head when I was in high school for a Dungeons & Dragons game I wanted to DM. Yeah, I’m the heavy metal and D&D geek with the mullet you went to high school with in the late 80’s. I never used them until I wrote Tool Shed, a horror novella currently out of print. I used the earth elemental as the main bad guy. While I was writing that book I put the four elementals on an index card and when it was time to really write Chelsea Avenue (which had been kicking around about a dozen years) I knew Wiy was the boss bad guy for it.
10. If Hollywood was making a film adaptation of Chelsea Avenue, and the director asked you to cast the role of Manny Santiago, who would you choose?
What’s really weird is when I was writing the second half of the book and Manny is older I had Kirk Acevedo in my head as the lead. I guess because of the Latino and he’s a great actor to me. But Hollywood will attach Tom Cruise to the role and pay me a huge chunk of cash and it won’t matter anyway. Tammy Kelly is based on an actual Tammy Kelly, a woman I grew up with in New Jersey. I’ve known her since kindergarten or thereabouts. There are many real people I grew up with in the book and I got to kill most of them. Always wonderful as an author.
No comments have been added yet.
