M.J. Rose | Q&A

There's a cliché that authors love cats? Do you?

Nope, never have I loved a cat. But I do love dogs -- especially dogs under ten pounds that can sit on my chair with me when I type and then take me on long long walks in the park.

What kind of arts do you like, apart from writing?

I could live in a museum and be very happy. And I doubt that I could live very happily without music.

Do you like to travel? What is your favorite place to visit?

I do like to travel but I must say I'm not very adventurous. I find places I like and then want to go back again and again. I've been to France a dozen times and very much want to live in Paris at some point. (I have a novel planned that takes place partially in Paris -- so I have a good excuse.) After France, comes Italy (Venice and Capri) and then Vienna, Austria.

My dream would be to live in Paris in the winter and by the sea in the summer.

Do you like to cook?

I like to cook occasionally. When I am deep in a book I don't want to do anything but write. But between books I've been known to spend hours in the kitchen trying out recipes -- only half of which turn out right.

Do you have a motto?

I have a Franz Kafka quote that I adore:

"You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait, be quite still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet."

What's the strangest thing you've ever read about yourself or your work?

Well, the funniest thing was when I got one of those online translations of a French review of In Fidelity. In France, I'm published as Melisse J. Rose. The online translator translated my name to "Melisse J. Pink."

What's your favorite color?

Green.

What's your least favorite color?

Red, if you can believe it.

ABOUT WRITING

When did you realize you were going to be an author?

I was eight years old, sitting at my grandfather's typewriter pecking out a short story about a man who wore five hats and very large green shoes. My mother asked me what I was doing and I told her I was practicing writing for when I grew up.

She loved that and at dinner that night announced to the family that I had decided to be a writer.

I took a detour away from writing when I was 17 and studied art in college. But I didn't stay away long and was back to writing fiction by the time I was 25.

When you start writing a novel, do you know how it will end?

Yes, I believe a book is a journey and I have to know where it it ends before I can begin to put pen to paper ... or fingers to keyboard as the case may be.

When you write, do you like to listen to music?

It's impossible for me to write without music. My tastes are eclectic but tend toward the classical and the music of Doug Scofield, who is my significant other. (His music can be heard in the movie "Trifling with Fate" and on www.MP3.com/dougscofiled.com)

Do you know some of your fans?

I answer all the email that I get and in the process have met quite a number of my fans ‚ and have gotten friendly with several of them. That's one of the amazing things the Internet makes possible.

Were you inspired by other authors?

I am still. Whenever I read something I like, it inspires me to push myself further.

Are your writings pure fictions or does inspiration come from real facts?

I think I am inspired by life but what comes out on the page has gone through many permutations and changes and winds up very much pure fiction.

It seems your theory on gender is based on Jungian psychology. Did you do some research about it?

I do a lot of research for all of my novels. But psychology is a subject that continues to fascinate me and I have been a student of psychology for years. My novels all have themes that matter to me -- they are all adventures, often of a psychological nature, that my main characters take and in the process each winds up taking a journey of self discovery.

ABOUT SELF-PUBLISHING

What was your first reaction when the publishers refused your manuscript for Lip Service?

It wasn't the rejections that bothered me, it was the reasons they rejected the book. The editors loved it. But the marketing people just weren't sure how to sell it and that's why they ultimately passed on it. I couldn't quite understand when they said it was a little too sexy and a little too intelligent. I thought those were good things.

So I decided to self-publish it, build a website and market the book myself, online.

Were you familiar with the Internet before you created the site?

Yes, I had been doing research online for another book I wanted to write and it was while I was doing that work that I really came to understand the web and what a difference it was going to make in the world of book publishing. This was in 1997.

How did you go about creating that site?

I hired a graphic designer and worked with her for several weeks. My background as the creative director at an NYC ad agency helped me enormously, both to supervise the design of the site and in marketing Lip Service on line.

Did you expect so many readers would buy your book?

Actually, yes. I had gotten so much interest from the publishing community via my agent when she first tried to sell Lip Service that I felt fairly certain if I could find the right audience and tell them about the book, it would sell.

Do you think the Internet is a new medium?

Yes but I prefer to describe it as a new delivery system. A book is still a book. A news story is still a news story, but the net gives us an alternative in how we obtain these things. As a communications vehicle, the net continues to evolve and excite me. I love the ability to meet people and work with people all over the world whom I otherwise would never have gotten to know.

Some people say self-publishing will do harm to literature. What would you answer to this?

Self-publishing has been around for hundreds of years and has not done harm to literature. There will always be a few authors who deserve to be published that get passed over for one reason or another, yet who believe in their work enough to persist and publish it themselves. Mark Twain, D.H. Lawrence, e.e.cummings are among the hundreds of authors who have self-published their books at one time or another.

I don't see how it can do any harm, but I do think the Internet will become flooded with self-published books and it will overwhelm readers. It won't do any harm to anyone, but I doubt many of them will be discovered. It's just too much for anyone to wade through in the hopes of finding one of those hidden gems.

What would you say to young authors who want to publish themselves on the Internet?

I don't suggest they do. I believe self-publishing should be a last resort. I think authors should try to get agents and get published traditionally. They need editors to help them grow and improve. Self-publishing is very arduous and very speculative and a difficult journey.