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MEMBER AUTHOR -JAMES ROLLINS-Q/A- NEW ADDITION OF JAMES' REPLIES
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Thank you for creating the link for me VanWalker. Looking forward to participating with everyone in the James Mason Community.All the best,
Jim Rollins
Rick wrote: "Hi James- how did you get the initial idea for the Sigma Force series and is it difficult to come up with new plots?"How did I come up with it. Hmmm. I have to think about that now LOL. I seem to recall this was something I was toying with in my mind circa Excavation. It wasn't until Ice Hunt that I present the concept to my publisher and they loved it.
Is it tough to come up with new plots. Absolutely. In fact, The Devil Colony took me the longest to write, about 4 years. 2 years of research and 2 years of writing.
Jim
Mod
How did I come up with it. Hmmm. I have to think about that now ..."
amazing! 4 years!! your books do seem as well researched as they are thrilling- so not shocked!
How has the transformation into writing YA books been?
Rick
Mod
Hi Rick,
Enjoy and thank you for contacting me.
All the best,
Jim Rollins
1. At what age did you know you wanted to be a writer?
I can’t say for sure…only that I was young. For that, I blame my mother. She read while I was growing up, so I read. And that’s where all the insanity started. Sure I was interested in animals and science and knew since third grade that I would be a veterinarian—but I also loved to read. And reading was like throwing gasoline on the fire of an overactive imagination. Growing up with three brothers and three sisters, I became the “storyteller” of the family (what my mother called “The Liar”). So fiction writing was in my blood from a very young age.
But I never considered writing as a real career. I thought you had to have some literary pedigree to be a successful author, the son of Hemingway or Fitzgerald. So instead I turned to my other passion for a career: veterinary medicine. But I made one mistake. I continued to read—and that little twisted corner of my imagination never fully died away. Eventually I began to write. My clients would ask me at the time, “So Dr. Jim why aren’t you writing something like James Herriott, something like All Creatures and Great and Small?” My answer was simple: not enough people die in those James Herriott novels. I wanted adventures and thrills. I was working fourteen hours a day as a vet. I didn’t want to go home and write about a vet. So instead I wrote about historical mysteries, scientific intrigue, and adventures set in exotic locales. I basically let that twisted corner of my imagination loose on the world. Sorry about that.
2. How have you life experiences influenced your writing?
All my passions creep into my writing eventually. I’m an avid caver, so my first novel (Subterranean) took place almost entirely underground. I also love to scuba dive, so my third novel (Deep Fathom) took place mostly underwater. But my career as a veterinarian continues to influence my writing the most. I’ve populated my books with all sorts of animals—an orphaned jaguar cub, a wolf-mix rescue dog, an old German Shepherd, along with a slew of others. It’s been so much fun to merge my love of veterinary medicine with the joy of storytelling.
3. How did you come up with the name of your main character Gray Pierce?
It came about because of an early description I wrote about this new Sigma recruit. Here is what I wrote about Gray when I pitched the series to my publishing house:
He is a walking contradiction: a Welshman in Texas, a student of Taoism who carries a rosary, a scientist and a soldier. But it is his very uniqueness of mind that most intrigues those in charge of Sigma: his ability to merge extremes, to truly think outside the box. His personal belief is one of ying and yang. “All chemistry, biology, mathematics is about the positive and the negative, the zero and the one, the light and the dark.”
And because of that mix of “light and dark,” I named him Gray.
4. When you write a novel- do you sketch an outline first or do you develop the plot as you write?
Before starting to write, I generally construct a crude outline. I definitely know the beginning and end very well. Even down to opening and ending lines. And I certainly know many of the stepping stones in between. But other than that, I don’t necessarily know now A connects to B connects to C. I’d rather discover that as I write.
5. What are your thoughts on your books being made into films?
The Sigma books were recently optioned for film and a screenplay is currently under development. I sometimes get asked “What if Hollywood ruins your books?” My answer is to point to my bookshelf: “They can’t ruin the books…they’re sitting right there.”
6. Has the transition into writing YA books been difficult and why have you decided to expand your genres?
I’ve dabbled in fantasy writing in the past, but the constraints of writing a novel a year limit how much I can “dabble.” Then one day, I dreamed up a story of a boy archaeologist thrust into a prehistoric landscape and having to fight to survive amid lost civilizations. And once that idea began to grow, it was hard to let go. So I had to write it.
7. How long does it typically take to complete a book?
Generally I take 90 days to research and construct the backbone to the story. Then it takes about 7-8 months to write it, and another month to edit it. So just shy of a year.
8. What writers have influenced you most, both personally and professionally?
Probably the authors who most influenced my writing are ALL the early pulp writers of the thirties and forties. I had a large collection of reprints while growing up: Doc Savage, The Shadow, The Spider, The Avenger. From adolescence through college, I was absolutely in love with these old “scientific adventure” novels. On some unconscious level, I think I’ve been trying to bring back those old dime adventure stories, recast into the present, adapted to modern technologies, and given a polish.
Other influences include Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and H. Rider Haggard. But for more current influences, I would definitely have to include the mainstays of thriller fiction: Crichton, King, and Cussler.
9. Can we expect more Sigma Force books in the future!!!
Definitely. I’m already deep into the next book…Sigma never sleeps (and sometimes the author, too).
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THE JAMES MASON COMMUNITY BOOK CLUB
Books mentioned in this topic
Black Order (other topics)The Last Oracle (other topics)
The Judas Strain (other topics)
The Doomsday Key (other topics)
Map of Bones (other topics)
James Rollins is the author of six thrillers in the bestselling Sigma Force series (Sandstorm, Map of Bones, Black Order, The Judas Strain, The Last Oracle, and The Doomsday Key); the blockbuster movie novelization, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; and six individual adventure thrillers. Rollins is also writing the Jake Ransom series for kids and adults. The first volume, Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow, is in bookstores now, and the next release, Jake Ransom and the Howling Sphinx, is due in 3 May 2011. Publication date for his seventh sigma adventure, The Devil Colony, is 21 June 2011.
http://www.jamesrollins.com/