Aleksei Petrenko

Aleksei Petrenko is the head of the Russian group in the Rock Star. The initial question you might ask is why is there a Russian group running around Monterey, California? And my answer would be, because I went to Monterey on a number of occasions with buddies of mine and every time we went over there we ran into Russian women, which we all thought was weird at the time. So when I started putting this novel together, and I was thinking about all the people that would inhabit my vast universe characters in Monterey I thought I just had to include some Russians because of my own experiences there. But then I thought what would I do with them? I think as you read the book you'll find I made their activities...interesting. But as you read about the Russians you should understand that in many cases they are just taking advantage of the opportunities in front of them, and in doing that they are acting more American than many of us who were born here. You see in my mind a lot of the people who were born outside the US, who had the opportunity to come to this country, find that they really appreciate all the things that this country can offer to them, and they take hold of everything in front of them with the enthusiasm we should all have. And while the extremes of the book are an exaggeration for entertainments purposes, the underlying principle of taking hold of, and advantage of, the opportunities presented, should be a basic philosophy for all of us, and I think the Russians in the book are just pointing out something we should already know.