years ago with author and advertising exec James Siegel, who had to cut out a bit early to take a call from then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton). And, naturally, we also discussed the change of direction she’s taken with her fiction-writing career.I really enjoyed Rose’s series featuring New York sex therapist Dr. Morgan Snow (The Halo Effect, The Venus Fix). But I was very impressed, too, to see The Washington Post celebrating the release of her newest novel, The Memorist, which is the second installment in a series focusing on reincarnation. As renowned Post columnist Patrick Anderson wrote:
Do you have memories from an earlier life? Do you remember marching with Napoleon? Bantering with Shakespeare? Making whoopee with Cleopatra? If so, you probably should rush out and buy M.J. Rose’s “The Memorist,” because Rose believes that your memories are more likely fact than fantasy. Indeed, her ambitious new novel strikes me as the “Gone With the Wind”--or, at the very least, “The Da Vinci Code”--of reincarnationist fiction.I was equally intrigued by the synopsis of The Memorist:
It probably helps to believe in reincarnation to appreciate this novel, but it isn’t essential. I don’t believe in it, but I do believe in good writing, and Rose is an unusually skillful storyteller. Her polished prose and intricate plot will grip even the most skeptical reader. Whatever your views on reincarnation, “The Memorist,” which is a sequel to [2007’s] “The Reincarnationist,” is first-rate fiction.
As a child, Meer Logan was haunted by memories of another time and place always accompanied by the faint strains of elusive music. Now the dreads are back. The past has reached out again in the form of a strange letter that sets her on a search to unlock the mystery of who she once was.I decided to call Rose recently and ask her about her new series, her passion for the book-publishing industry, and where else her workaholic nature has taken her lately.
With the help of her father--a Kabbalist, known as the Jewish Indiana Jones--Meer attempts to learn the meaning behind her hauntingly vivid memories. What they discover could reveal a frighteningly powerful secret hidden for generations by one of the greatest composers of all time.
With each step she comes closer to remembering the connections between a clandestine reincarnationist society, a lost flute linked to Ludwig van Beethoven and David Yalom, a journalist who understands all too well how the past affects the future.
David knows loss firsthand--terrorism is a reality that cost him his family. He’s seen every solution promised by security experts around the world--and he’s seen every solution fail. Now in a concert hall in Vienna, he plans to force the world to understand the cost of those failures in a single violent act. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
The Memorist is a literary page turner that races across the Austrian countryside and takes you to a Viennese tear-gas-filled auction house, dusty museums, [and] hidden passages deep within the walls of the secret Memorist Society. It’s a journey through the centuries as Meer unravels the mystery behind her own past lives.
Ali Karim: I really enjoyed the Morgan Snow series. Is that series now on hold, while you go off in this other direction?
M.J. Rose: Thank you, and yes, that series is on hold. But I yearn to return to Morgan. The problem with the series was that it did so much better in Europe and the UK than in the U.S., so we stopped to try to figure out what the problem is before I write another one. I think the books need to be repackaged; the American covers didn’t represent the tone/tenor/subject of the books nearly as well as the UK covers, which were genius. I’m hoping there’s a chance to [repackage them], so I can go back and write number four. I feel like I’ve left her in limbo, and that bothers me.
AK: You seem very fascinated with the whole topic of reincarnation. Where did that interest originate?
MJR: When I was 3 years old, I supposedly told my great-grandfather things about his childhood in Russia that there was simply no way I could have known. He became convinced I was a reincarnation of someone in his past. And over time, after more incidents, my mother--a very sane and logical woman--did a lot of research into reincarnation and became fascinated with it, and so it became something I grew up with. After my mother died, I thought of writing a novel about someone like her--a skeptic presented with proof--but it took a long time to get enough distance from her death and then even longer to do all the research.
AK: I hear you are working on a sequel to The Memorist. So, is this destined to be a trilogy?
MJR: I’ve committed to do three, but there might be more.
AK: When you published The Reincarnationist, did you foresee a series in the offing?
MJR: Yes, I pitched it that way. My idea was to write a series of standalones--each a treasure hunt--but with some aspects that tie them all together. So the books all have something to do with the Phoenix Foundation, where a group of therapists work with people in past-life crisis. And a dozen “memory tools”--objects dating back 4,000 years--which help people access past-life memories that have all been lost.
AK: I’ve noticed some big reviews of your latest novel. Were you nervous when the reviewers finally got their hands on The Memorist?
MJR: Yes, because life isn’t hard enough without giving people the opportunity to eviscerate you in public. I keep saying I won’t read them ... but I can’t help it ... so I read them kind of leaning back and away from the screen as if the distance will make it hurt less. I’m envious of authors who say they don’t care what reviewers say ... and secretly wonder if they are telling the truth.
AK: What are your thoughts about the present global economic situation, and how it’s hitting publishing hard?
MJR: Sadly, I think many of the things happening in publishing now are corrections that were inevitable. You can’t keep throwing books against the wall like spaghetti to see what sticks, without eventually winding up with a big mess on the floor. Industry insiders have been admitting that, for years,
this is how they’ve been publishing all but a small percentage of titles (admitting it only off the record, of course).People can’t and won’t buy books that they don’t know exist. Especially not with laptops, Netflix, PDAs, iPods, cell phones, social networking, and a dozen other distractions that are all advertised and all get media interest and attention. We’ve got two dozen brand names and they sell 70 percent of the books. We’ve got millions of readers with no market research on who they are, where they are, or why they buy what they buy. That’s not the way to build a robust business. We need to work at selling books, not hope we’ll sell them.
AK: As a result of these tough economic turns, have you seen renewed interest in your AuthorBuzz.com marketing as well as your work in marketing efforts at ITW with authors and publishers?
MJR: The interest hasn’t waned, so it’s not renewed but it’s busier than ever--with some parts of the service booked up through March. Simply, AuthorBuzz.com offers the biggest bang for the buck and we’ve been around long enough to be tried, tested, and trusted. We work with publishers and authors, and since we’ve worked with pretty much every major house, authors feel secure in hiring us, knowing their publishers will approve.
As far as ITW goes, we have a major commitment to get more attention for our authors and their books with readers. Next on the agenda this winter--the Thriller Readers’ Newsletter has over 10,000 readers, and in January we’re doing a promotion to try and double that number. We’re not stopping there, though. We’re continuing to look for and come up with more marketing opportunities for our members.
AK: So what’s next for M.J. Rose?
MJR: I’m writing the third book in the reincarnation series, and just because there was 15 minutes a day where I wasn’t busy, I’ve started something new--The Book Trib--with Meryl Moss. It’s still in beta, but basically we’re tying to give readers a one-stop news page for all things books.
1 comment:
Great interview.
Post a Comment