Interview with Simon Rose

My guest today is Simon Rose, an author of science fiction and fantasy novels for children and young adults, with a recent novel, Future Imperfect that will thrill your socks off. I met Simon some time ago through his awesome show, Fantasy Fiction, when we discussed science fiction, ecology and why we write.

I recently had a chance to invite Simon aboard my intelligent ship, Vinny, orbiting the Earth. An SF veteran, he didn’t blink an eye when I suggested the crystal-beam transporting device to get us aboard (it makes even me a bit squeamish). After settling in the aft lounge with some pockta juice, and a gorgeous view of Earth, we began the interview:

SFgirl: Tell us about your latest novel.

Simon: Future Imperfect is an exciting technology-driven adventure featuring teenage geniuses, corporate espionage, and mysterious messages. In the novel, we’re introduced to Andrew Mitchell, who was one of the leading experts in highly advanced technology in Silicon Valley, until he vanished following a car accident, which also injured his son, Alex. When a mysterious app later appears on Alex’s phone, he and his friend Stephanie embark on a terrifying journey involving secret technology, corporate espionage, kidnapping, and murder in a desperate bid to save the future from the sinister Veronica Castlewood.

The story will appeal to all young readers for whom technology plays such a large role in their lives, whether it’s cell phones, laptops, tablets, gaming, or the online world, but it’s also a very compelling adventure story, with lots of cliffhangers, twists, and turns.

SFgirl: I think it’ll be more than young readers enjoying it, Simon. Where can people buy Future Imperfect?

Simon: Future Imperfect is available at local bookstores, online at Amazon Canada, Amazon USA, Indigo/Chapters, Barnes and Noble, Amazon UK, and other locations, and autographed copies can also be purchased directly from me via my website.

SFgirl: You called me prolific once, but after seeing your collection, I think you’re the prolificest … Is that a word? Anyway, tell us about your other novels for young adults.

Simon: Future Imperfect is my tenth novel for young adults. The other novels include The Alchemist's Portrait, The Sorcerer's Letterbox, The Clone Conspiracy, The Emerald Curse, The Heretic's Tomb, The Doomsday Mask, The Time Camera, The Sphere of Septimus, and Flashback. I’ve also written more than 80 nonfiction books for children and young adults, but have also written books for adults. These include The Children's Writer's Guide, The Working Writer's Guide, The Social Media Writer's Guide, School and Library Visits for Authors and Illustrators, Exploring the Fantasy Realm, and Where Do Ideas Come From?

SFgirl: What are you working on now?

Simon: My previous novel, Flashback, is a paranormal adventure involving psychic phenomena, ghosts, imaginary friends, mind control experiments, secrets, conspiracies, and time travel with a difference. Flashback has two sequels coming out in 2017, one in the spring and the third installment in the summer. These are already completed but there will be revisions and editing along the way later this year. I’m developing plans for some sequels to The Sphere of Septimus and Future imperfect may generate more adventures too. I’ve also recently completed a parallel universe trilogy, which I’m currently exploring publication options for.

SFgirl: What kind of marketing and promotion do you do?

Simon: I’m in all the usual places online and on social media but I’m also active in the local writing community and conduct book signings at local bookstores on a regular basis. In the spring I was at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo and also connected with readers at schools and libraries in Montreal and Quebec City during Children's Book Week. In August I’ll also be appearing at When Words Collide in Calgary.

SFgirl: I’ll see you then; I’m going too! So, what do you do besides write?

Simon: I work as an instructor for adults at Mount Royal University and the University of Calgary. These classes and courses focus on writing for children and young adults or preparing your work for publication. I also offer coaching and editing services for writers in all genres and conduct online writing courses, such as Writing for Children and Young Adults and Writing Historical Fiction. I write screenplays, articles for magazines, and offer copywriting services for websites, blogs, social media, and businesses.

SFgirl: Simon, do you have any advice for new authors?

Simon Rose

Simon: Writing is in some ways the easy part. It can be a very long process not only to write a book, but also to get it published. Most authors go through many revisions before their work reaches its final format. Remember too that your book will never be to everyone’s taste, so don’t be discouraged. A firm belief in your own success is often what’s necessary. After all, if you don’t believe in your book, how can you expect other people to?

Read as much as you can and write as often as you can. Keep an ideas file, even if it’s only a name, title, sentence or an entire outline for a novel. You never know when you might get another piece of the puzzle, perhaps years later. You also mustn’t forget the marketing. You may produce the greatest book ever written. However, no one else is going to see it if your book doesn’t become known to potential readers. Be visible as an author. Do as many readings, signings and personal appearances as you can. Get your name out there and hopefully the rest will follow. Especially for newly published authors, books don’t sell themselves and need a lot of help.

SFgirl: Excellent advice! Where can people learn more about you and your work?

You can visit my website at www.simon-rose.com or subscribe to my newsletter, which goes out once a month and has details of my current projects and upcoming events.

SFgirl: Thanks so much for joining me on Vinny, Simon.

Simon: My pleasure, Nina.

SFgirl: You didn’t finish your pockta nectar…

Simon: It was … interesting … but I’m on a cleanse right now.

Well done, Simon! You can find Simon on the following Social Media links:

Facebook 

Twitter 

LinkedIn 

YouTube 

Google + 

Pinterest



Nina Munteanu is an ecologist and internationally published author of award-nominated speculative novels, short stories and non-fiction. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s recent book is the bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” (Mincione Edizioni, Rome). Her latest “Water Is…” is currently an Amazon Bestseller and NY Times ‘year in reading’ choice of Margaret Atwood.

The Adventures of Sammy the Wonder Cat—Part 4

Here's the 4th and final installation of my story. If you missed the previous parts of the story, you can read them here: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3.--Sammy

~~~~

Okay! Okay! Go ahead. Roll the script...I’m a big cat. I can handle a little embarrassment…

“Yeah,” I said, suspiciously. “I sort of remember it. What’s that got to do with you?”

“Everything!” Krapper said. “Your mistake was that you sent one of your own secret agents to jail because he smelled guilty, remember? You mistook him for Vinny, the musical pharmacist, who’d created a plague to make everyone tone deaf. But he was really Agent Bob with a sore throat.”

“What?” Kevin and I cried.

“You did that?” Kevin asked me and I saw the start of a crazy grin on his face. “How could you mistake one of your own agents for a criminal?”

“They’re both dogs.” I shrugged. “All dogs look alike,” I explained. Then I turned back to Krapper. “What’s that got to do with your warning?”

“Well,” Krapper said, “You made the same mistake with me. I’m really Agent Norm, not Krapper.”

I stared at him and my jaw dropped. I’m sure my cute little pink tongue hung out of my mouth.

Kevin snorted. “Let me guess: all rats look alike.”

I shrugged. Then it hit me. “That means that both Vinny and Krapper, his side-kick, are still out there!”

Krapper ― that is Norm ― nodded. “You got the picture. And Galaxy police reported them heading this way, to Earth!”

“Wait,” Kevin said. “So what’s the big problem? So this dog and this rat develop some plague that’ll make everyone tone deaf. My parents are already tone deaf. They don’t appreciate ‘Our Lady Peace’ or ‘Avril Lavigne’. . .”

Norm and I clutched each other in panic. “You don’t understand,” I said. “That’ll be the end of Rock & Roll, Hip Hop, Blues and Jazz forever! That leaves Rap and Country music! Imagine hearing that everywhere you go?”

Kevin shrugged. “So? I like rap music.”

I shivered. “Okay, let me put it this way. You want to listen to Mark Chestnut right after Emenem?”

Kevin blanched. “What can we do?”

“Scream!”

You would too if you had to listen to Mark Chestnut all day. As for what Sammy and the Pixl did to save Earth from turning into a bad CD, you’ll just have to wait for the next installment of “Sammy, the Wonder Cat: The Plague of the Singing Pharmacist.”

The End…or is it?

The Adventures of Sammy the Wonder Cat—Part 3

Hi! Me again ... Here's Part 3 of my story. If you haven't read the earlier parts you can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.--Sammy.

~~~~

We crept down the hallway and peeked around the corner into the office. Kevin turned to me and shrugged. We saw nothing unusual. Then, out of the corner of my eye I caught a slight movement close to the computer screen on the desk. I tapped Kevin’s shoulder with my paw and pointed. He saw it too. A shadowy figure.

“You go that way,” Kevin whispered to me, pointing to the left. “I’ll go that way.” He pointed to the right. “We’ll ambush it.”

I nodded, trying to look brave and majestic.

“Sure, easy for you to say, you’re ten times my size,” I said under my breath as I crept forward to the left of the shadow. It was then that I saw the string of action figures on the floor. So, this was where they’d ended up!

I saw Kevin move forward. We were so close, I started to feel my fur stand up on end. Then I leapt and Kevin lunged forward.

BONK! We hit heads!

“Hey!” I yelled.

“Where’d it go?” Kevin said. “We lost it!”

“Yeah,” I countered. “But at least you found your action figures.”

“Yeah,” a little voice said. “They don’t taste good. Especially Boba Fett.”

I could have told him that ― Wait! “Who said that?” Kevin and I exchanged glances. This was spooky!

“Look!” Kevin pointed to the top of the deep freeze. And there he was. The last person I’d expected to see: Krapper. With a lightsaber!

My fur really stood up then! My worst enemy. How’d he get out of jail? Flush was supposed to be foolproof. No one ever got off that jail planet.

Krapper let out a nasty giggle. “I thought I’d never find you,” he said.

Was he here to get revenge? I’d put him in jail, after all. You see I discovered that Krapper was the ring-leader of an evil smuggling and drug organization called the “City Dudes”. When I exposed them, I sent Krapper to Flush, a penal planet totally isolated from the rest of the galaxy. Krapper insisted right to the end that he was innocent. But I could tell he smelled guilty. My nose never lies. Well, almost never. You see there was that mistake I made ― but it’s too embarrassing to tell you.

Kevin waved madly at me and pointed in several directions. I finally got what he meant and nodded.

“What do you want, Krapper?” I asked. In the meantime, while I kept Krapper listening to me, I saw Kevin sneak up behind him. “Are you here to get your revenge? Finish me off? Nibble on my feet?”

In a flash, Kevin whipped Krapper in his hand. “Gotcha!”

“Ulp!” Krapper squeaked in Kevin’s hand. He made some more pathetic sounds. Even I almost felt sorry for him. Kevin finally put him down again with a warning that he’d shmoosh him if he moved even a centimeter.

He gulped than said, “I didn’t come for revenge. I came to warn you!”

“What?” we both said. Kevin glanced at me, puzzled.

“What d’you mean?” I asked. “Why would you want to warn me, Someone who sent you to Flush, the toilet seat of the galaxy?”

“Actually, it’s ‘the toilet bowl of the galaxy’,” he corrected me.

“Okay. So?”

“Because I work for your boss too.”

“What?” Kevin and I said.

“Remember that little mistake you made on Gamma 9?” he asked me―

OKAY! CUT SCENE! I don’t remember this in the script. Time for a little pause with a pretty picture. This is me when I first came to Earth. Aren’t I the cutest thing you ever laid eyes on?…


(Part 4 next post…maybe)

The Adventures of Sammy the Wonder Cat—Part 2

Here's the second part of my story. If you haven't yet and want to read Part 1 first, you should go here. Or you can just scroll down too.--Sammy.

~~~~~

I was just settling in to read my favourite Star Wars comic book, Mara Jade, when Kevin stormed into the room. At first I thought he was mad at me for drinking his milk but he looked worried too.

“Did you hide Boba Fett, Sammy?” he said, eyeing me suspiciously, like he usually does when I’ve just been exercising. He obviously meant his action figure toy.

“Why would I take Boba Fett?” I huffed. “What am I, a pack rat?” I turned back to Mara Jade, but, speaking of pack rats, my mind couldn’t help wandering to Krapper, the criminal rodent I’d sent to jail on the planet Flush. It was my last mission before . . . well, before that accident I can’t tell you about. I went back to the comic, remembering that Boba Fett didn’t taste that good anyway from the last time I’d tried to bite his head off.

“But that’s the third action figure missing today!” Kevin insisted.

“As if you cared about Xizor or Greedo!” I sniffed. Then I ignored him, like a good tabby cat does, and he finally calmed down to play with his other action figures.

I was just getting to a neat scene in the comic ― Mara Jade was creaming those lousy pirates using her blaster, light saber and her foot ― when Kevin shrieked in his highest pitched voice, “You pig! You ate my veeshy pie!”

He wiggled Nomi Sunrider in his left hand. Then wiggling Darth Maul in his other hand, he bellowed in a low, but still squeaky voice (he’s a kid, after all), “But it was good! Make another!” Darth Maul used to be an evil Sith, but he turned into a Rebel . . . and a gourmet.

“But I made the pie for Boba Fett,” Kevin made Nomi say. “He’s my hero―”

I couldn’t stand it any longer and pounced!

All mayhem broke loose. Kevin fell back, accidentally kicking one of his ships. Action figures flew in all directions. He screamed, “Get off, Sammy! You’re wrecking the set!” Next thing I knew, I was flying across the room, wondering if I’d just become part of the script.
Not one to sulk, I sauntered back to see the damage I’d helped create and maybe even to help Kevin clean up. Kevin flashed me a look of concern. “Shhh!” he whispered, putting his fingers to his lips. “I think I heard something in the office.”

“But no one’s there,” I objected.

“Burglars,” we both said at the same time. I was on Kevin’s shoulder in a flash. But my intrepid friend decided to check it out. Fool! Didn’t he know that’s how you can get creamed?

Okay, I decided. If the Pixl could be that brave, I could at least help out. So I scurried to my hiding place and donned my cape. Kevin changed into his Pixl suit. It was time for Sammy, the Wonder Cat, and the Pixl!

(Part 3 next post)

The Adventures of Sammy the Wonder Cat--Part 1

I’d like to introduce you to my guest blogger, Ishmael, who’s come from very far to post this week while I’m holidaying on Helsig 2, a moon off HD168443b in the HD168443 system (staying away from tax collectors). Ishmael has a story for you. It comes in four parts, with Part 1 to start today. Please be nice to him and post comments for him to read. This will encourage him to post more of his story. Well, gotta go. I leave you to him and…good luck.

Book One: Revenge of the Repulsive Rat

Hi. That good-looking dude is me. I’m Sammy and that goofy-looking guy next to me is Kevin, my pet. Hey, but don’t break the news to him. He thinks I’m his pet! Actually, the truth is we work together and he’s my friend. It seems he’s pretty good-looking for a human kid too! That’s what I’ve heard the girls say, anyway . . . if you can trust them.

So, you think we’re just an ordinary kid and his pet cat, eh? Well, think again! But I’m getting ahead of myself. Here’s how the boring story of an ordinary kid and his cat became the exciting tale of two super-heroes who had to fight an evil pack-rat from space who ate STAR WARS action figures. But I’m getting ahead of myself again . . . .

It started in a quiet little community called Delta, British Columbia. That’s in Canada, by the way, for those of you who are spatially challenged. That’s where Kevin and his parents live. Little did Kevin know when he chose me at the animal shelter that he was getting no ordinary cat. You see, my real name is Ishmael Jakheem Borrogrove Peetaky Sammiloo (Sammy, for short) and I’m a space traveler from Mangoleeky, the third planet circling IT-501, a tiny red dwarf star in the Araki System. That’s another galaxy, by the way, so don’t even bother to look for it. You don’t believe me? Well, take a look at my retractable antennae. Told you!

I’m Agent Sam, a galactic secret agent ― well, I used to be. I ran important missions for the Inter-Galactic Secret Police. Top Secret stuff, which is why I’m telling you all this. You see, I made a big mistake, as in GIANT. Mega HUGE. Well, you get the picture. I can’t tell you what I did, because it’s too embarrassing. Anyway, because of it, they gave me this routine mission on Earth. And if I do okay, they might give me my old job back. The mission was to keep any of our galaxy’s criminals from messing up this planet.
I was instructed to lay low as an ordinary tabby kitten. “Just act like you usually do and they won’t know the difference,” my boss told me. So I did. But what no one told me was that, while I was a normal feline on Mangoleeky, I had super powers on Earth! I found out one day when I was chasing a bird in Kevin’s backyard. I crept up to it like I normally do and just as I pounced it took flight, like they always do. The only difference was I flew after it! I COULD FLY! WEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

Of course, I had a few things to learn about landing . . . . Anyway, I thought to myself, how can I lay low when I have all these neat powers? Especially flying! I just had to do something to help these poor technologically-challenged humans. So, having read the best human stories on Earth (“Superman Comics”), I made a super-hero outfit to disguise me ― well, actually Kevin’s aunt did ― and I gave myself a super-hero name: Sammy, the Wonder Cat. Of course I had to let Kevin in on the secret, because we’re buddies. Well, being my sidekick, Kevin figured that he should have a name too, so we came up with “Pixl”, which is what his mom calls him when she gets mad at him for being such a smarty-pants.

That’s how “Sammy the Wonder Cat” and “Kevin the Pixl” came to be. Now you know too. But don’t tell anyone, because it’s a secret.

~~~~

My first mission as the Wonder Cat came more quickly than I imagined. It was a normal day in Kevin’s house.

For exercise, I’d already tipped over a vase of flowers in the kitchen, coaxed an entire roll of toilet paper down to the floor, batted Kevin’s dad’s watch under the couch and drank Kevin’s milk from his glass on the dining room table. It was promising to be a very good day…

(Part 2 next post)