N.L. talks shop with New York Times best-selling author Steve Alten about creepy novel, Resurrection - By N.L. Belardes
I’m still wondering if New York Times best-selling author Steve Alten took me seriously when I asked him if the leading evil character in his novel, Resurrection was modeled after an ex-girlfriend.
My latest review... 2nd book in the Domain series
The character of Lilith is just not a good person. She’s a psycho babe who could rip your head off a million years into the future. That’s a long reach for a girl who has no problem with obsessions. Problem is, she’s really hot and seems like the kind of character a novelist might base on a troublesome beauty from the past. Reality? No, she’s really based on an abuse victim gone out of control.
Steve Alten and his dog. No, that's not Lilith with him...
After my little write-up on Cynthia Langston, the self-proclaimed Bicoastal Babe of the East and West Coast, Blanco & Peace, a PR firm out of Chicago contacted me about reading another one of the many books, authors, film, and TV shows they create publicity for. The latest on my plate? Resurrection by Steve Alten, author of the 2004 hardback just released into paperback.
And why not review another book? Artists need reviews, whether from fans, fellow novelists, professional book reviewers, or… now where do I fit in? Blogger? Controversial novelist? Citizen journalist on the prowl who covers anything from immigration protests, house fires, Bakersfield punk rock, touring novelists, radio shows, and even hometown rock and roll megastars?
Maybe all of the above and more.
I called Steve Alten on the phone and began to pick his brain. He’s a prolific novelist, has written many books, three more of which I got in the mail today: Goliath, The Loch, and Domain. Resurrection is book two in the Domain series.
A prehistoric fish tale? Looks good.
Got this title in the mail today...
Why did I start with book two?
That’s what I was asked to read. I really didn’t mind. The story was easy enough to follow and complicated enough to catch my interest. And once I started reading, I wanted to see Lilith turn into the bane of mankind, so I just had to follow through. Besides, she was an abused girl like the character in my novel, Lords: Part One.
Now I have to read Domain. I’ll fill you in… What’s the Domain series about? Or more specifically: Resurrection?
Spirituality without being religious? Science and nature without the Discovery and Weather Channel? You bet. Resurrection explains a scientific view of mankind’s purpose on planet earth. All you have to do is digest a story about a time loop and an extra-terrestrial civilization that is unexplainable—and intended to be such. Why write a book that explains the universe—that would be like mankind unraveling the bible for a perfect understanding of godly intentions and the spirit world. Did you ever stop to think life might get boring when you’re 'in the know' about the meaning of life? Definitely, Resurrection is about occurrences in the near future written about in a 'current event' style that fills the reader with technology and jargon that purposely teeters on how readers digest current events and fictional thrillers.
If you like fictional thrillers, then you can digest the quick pace of Resurrection. The novel follows Domain, which is set more in the immediate future with an apocalyptic bent that features the Mayan prophecies of 2012.
There are some creepy big-headed surprises in Resurrection
Alten is a reachable author. Send him an email and he will answer your questions, or try to get his books into your community classrooms. Why not? 8,000 teachers have signed up for his Adopt-an-Author program that gets students to read. He even does conference calls to some classes. Students reading his novels help create a buzz about books like Resurrection, Domain, The Loch, and MEG, which is being turned into a movie. It’s like Jaws, only about a prehistoric shark. So think REALLY big fish.
Steve Alten and the former PREZ...
So I asked Steve Alten if Lilith from Resurrection was based on an ex-girlfriend. “You’re definitely not targeting the young girls who attended all those Lilith Fairs,” I said.
“I think some fan reviews were negative because I have a big teen following. Readers were upset because Lilith was such a wild character. She was abused. It’s upsetting for some readers to read about abuse victims sometimes. I have responded to emails where some women were upset because they themselves were abused. My point of Lilith is that people are products of environments and childhood years. Often we read about priests, and family abusing their loved ones. Affects of such abuse occur long after abuse has stopped.
"There are shadows of society we don’t like to probe, but its there. I always do the research. I’ve spoken to victims and read abuse victims letters. Yet Lilith is not just a victim. She has DNA powers that pull her into the dark side of the force if you will.”
“I was hoping she was an ex-girlfriend from a troubled past…”
“What she turns into came to me in a dream one night. It was a nightmare… I got out of bed and drew her. She wasn’t a girlfriend but did come to me in that nightmare vision…
Ahh figures, those nightmare chicks are the worst. Might as well dream of the Devil. Or did he? Alten paints a devilish picture of Lilith that gave me a few late night freaky moments thinking Satan was scratching on the wall. It was just a mouse, right? I moved on. I dug the sports scenes from Resurrection and knew Alten has a background in sports medicine—a dead giveaway for his penchant for intricate Clancyesque details in his prose. Must have been all those anatomy and science classes he was tortured with in college at Temple. “Who did you model Sam the GFL football star after? Those scenes remind me of when Kerouac wrote about his own football days; good sports writing.”
“I played basketball… The character of Sam isn’t modeled after anyone in particular. I just made him as realistic as possible.”
“Do you include sports writing in all of your works?”
“No—but a lot of times the heroes have some kind of physical background in athletics.”
Alten was open to any question I threw his way. I like that kind of a challenge. And writing some of the end-of-the-world prose he puts to ink, I’m thinking he may be a little deep into the adventure of not just 2012, but of even the current war going on. It makes his demeanor a little dry. And I didn’t really want to talk war stories even though he has a military fanbase. So I asked about his other books and writing style. “Because I haven’t read any of your other works, would you say Resurrection characterizes your style and your books?”
“Resurrection is not as mainstream as my other series: MEG, The Loch, The Shell Game that I just finished. They’re all fast paced, well-researched novels…Domain fans were a little bit different type of story… Resurrection takes place from birth to later adolescent years. Although it goes along at a good pace some fans couldn’t follow along. You didn’t have a problem. You were able to follow along. Yet it’s easy to follow a book about a 70-foot shark (MEG). In Resurrection we get more complicated. It discusses the Mayan equivalent of the bible, and I tried to stay true to those stories. It’s not the lightest reading but goes at a pretty good pace. Resurrection also deals in things like Bible code and remote viewing…
“I think it is a spiritual novel that tries to give a scientific explanation. But it’s not religious. It is about humanity’s journey through evolution to what we’re to become as a species as people get scrambled in loop of time in space. One man is the lynchpin: Michael Gabriel.”
So does that mean the author considers himself a sci-fi writer since his novel somewhat deals with outer space and time loops?
“I don’t want to be pigeon-holed, but that’s fairly true. I prefer fictional thriller. There is sci-fi in Resurrection… I researched afterlife experiences to try to come up with logical explanations by asking: ‘What’s waiting for us on the other side?’ The common thread among many is there is another consciousness waiting out there for us. It’s not the end, it’s the beginning of a journey. At the same time, there’s a dark side to that too—Resurrection delves into the dark side.”
OK, Alten was just plain creeping me out, now. I had to change the pace of the interview. I put on some punk rock to take my mind off the idea that demons were going to jump up through the floorboards. “Where do you like to go to think?”
“To the beach; ocean rather than lake. The ocean is not too far here in Florida. The best is at night when everyone is asleep. I just sit in my office and think about things.”
“Where is your favorite place to go to write?”
“My office. It’s five-walled on a second story. Views overlooking a lake. I don’t look out the window much. All the walls have bookshelves and they’re stocked. One wall is a tribute to the military. I have fans in Afghanistan and Iraq and an American flag that was on one of the first missions in Iraq. I look at them everyday because I support the troops, not necessarily the war. The Shell Game will express some of my views on that.”
The interview ended with Steve Alten telling me about a show on August 3rd on the History Channel that he helped write about the 2012 Mayan doomsday prophecy: "2012: Doomsday Prophecy".
“It’s a great special. Best I’ve seen on the subject and explains what could be waiting for us,” he said.
What could be waiting for us? Doomsday means doomsday doesn’t it? I promptly hung up the phone and went to the store to start buying cans of Spaghettios. Tomorrow I’m going to start digging a basement.
My latest review... 2nd book in the Domain series
The character of Lilith is just not a good person. She’s a psycho babe who could rip your head off a million years into the future. That’s a long reach for a girl who has no problem with obsessions. Problem is, she’s really hot and seems like the kind of character a novelist might base on a troublesome beauty from the past. Reality? No, she’s really based on an abuse victim gone out of control.
Steve Alten and his dog. No, that's not Lilith with him...
After my little write-up on Cynthia Langston, the self-proclaimed Bicoastal Babe of the East and West Coast, Blanco & Peace, a PR firm out of Chicago contacted me about reading another one of the many books, authors, film, and TV shows they create publicity for. The latest on my plate? Resurrection by Steve Alten, author of the 2004 hardback just released into paperback.
And why not review another book? Artists need reviews, whether from fans, fellow novelists, professional book reviewers, or… now where do I fit in? Blogger? Controversial novelist? Citizen journalist on the prowl who covers anything from immigration protests, house fires, Bakersfield punk rock, touring novelists, radio shows, and even hometown rock and roll megastars?
Maybe all of the above and more.
I called Steve Alten on the phone and began to pick his brain. He’s a prolific novelist, has written many books, three more of which I got in the mail today: Goliath, The Loch, and Domain. Resurrection is book two in the Domain series.
A prehistoric fish tale? Looks good.
Got this title in the mail today...
Why did I start with book two?
That’s what I was asked to read. I really didn’t mind. The story was easy enough to follow and complicated enough to catch my interest. And once I started reading, I wanted to see Lilith turn into the bane of mankind, so I just had to follow through. Besides, she was an abused girl like the character in my novel, Lords: Part One.
Now I have to read Domain. I’ll fill you in… What’s the Domain series about? Or more specifically: Resurrection?
Spirituality without being religious? Science and nature without the Discovery and Weather Channel? You bet. Resurrection explains a scientific view of mankind’s purpose on planet earth. All you have to do is digest a story about a time loop and an extra-terrestrial civilization that is unexplainable—and intended to be such. Why write a book that explains the universe—that would be like mankind unraveling the bible for a perfect understanding of godly intentions and the spirit world. Did you ever stop to think life might get boring when you’re 'in the know' about the meaning of life? Definitely, Resurrection is about occurrences in the near future written about in a 'current event' style that fills the reader with technology and jargon that purposely teeters on how readers digest current events and fictional thrillers.
If you like fictional thrillers, then you can digest the quick pace of Resurrection. The novel follows Domain, which is set more in the immediate future with an apocalyptic bent that features the Mayan prophecies of 2012.
There are some creepy big-headed surprises in Resurrection
Alten is a reachable author. Send him an email and he will answer your questions, or try to get his books into your community classrooms. Why not? 8,000 teachers have signed up for his Adopt-an-Author program that gets students to read. He even does conference calls to some classes. Students reading his novels help create a buzz about books like Resurrection, Domain, The Loch, and MEG, which is being turned into a movie. It’s like Jaws, only about a prehistoric shark. So think REALLY big fish.
Steve Alten and the former PREZ...
So I asked Steve Alten if Lilith from Resurrection was based on an ex-girlfriend. “You’re definitely not targeting the young girls who attended all those Lilith Fairs,” I said.
“I think some fan reviews were negative because I have a big teen following. Readers were upset because Lilith was such a wild character. She was abused. It’s upsetting for some readers to read about abuse victims sometimes. I have responded to emails where some women were upset because they themselves were abused. My point of Lilith is that people are products of environments and childhood years. Often we read about priests, and family abusing their loved ones. Affects of such abuse occur long after abuse has stopped.
"There are shadows of society we don’t like to probe, but its there. I always do the research. I’ve spoken to victims and read abuse victims letters. Yet Lilith is not just a victim. She has DNA powers that pull her into the dark side of the force if you will.”
“I was hoping she was an ex-girlfriend from a troubled past…”
“What she turns into came to me in a dream one night. It was a nightmare… I got out of bed and drew her. She wasn’t a girlfriend but did come to me in that nightmare vision…
Ahh figures, those nightmare chicks are the worst. Might as well dream of the Devil. Or did he? Alten paints a devilish picture of Lilith that gave me a few late night freaky moments thinking Satan was scratching on the wall. It was just a mouse, right? I moved on. I dug the sports scenes from Resurrection and knew Alten has a background in sports medicine—a dead giveaway for his penchant for intricate Clancyesque details in his prose. Must have been all those anatomy and science classes he was tortured with in college at Temple. “Who did you model Sam the GFL football star after? Those scenes remind me of when Kerouac wrote about his own football days; good sports writing.”
“I played basketball… The character of Sam isn’t modeled after anyone in particular. I just made him as realistic as possible.”
“Do you include sports writing in all of your works?”
“No—but a lot of times the heroes have some kind of physical background in athletics.”
Alten was open to any question I threw his way. I like that kind of a challenge. And writing some of the end-of-the-world prose he puts to ink, I’m thinking he may be a little deep into the adventure of not just 2012, but of even the current war going on. It makes his demeanor a little dry. And I didn’t really want to talk war stories even though he has a military fanbase. So I asked about his other books and writing style. “Because I haven’t read any of your other works, would you say Resurrection characterizes your style and your books?”
“Resurrection is not as mainstream as my other series: MEG, The Loch, The Shell Game that I just finished. They’re all fast paced, well-researched novels…Domain fans were a little bit different type of story… Resurrection takes place from birth to later adolescent years. Although it goes along at a good pace some fans couldn’t follow along. You didn’t have a problem. You were able to follow along. Yet it’s easy to follow a book about a 70-foot shark (MEG). In Resurrection we get more complicated. It discusses the Mayan equivalent of the bible, and I tried to stay true to those stories. It’s not the lightest reading but goes at a pretty good pace. Resurrection also deals in things like Bible code and remote viewing…
“I think it is a spiritual novel that tries to give a scientific explanation. But it’s not religious. It is about humanity’s journey through evolution to what we’re to become as a species as people get scrambled in loop of time in space. One man is the lynchpin: Michael Gabriel.”
So does that mean the author considers himself a sci-fi writer since his novel somewhat deals with outer space and time loops?
“I don’t want to be pigeon-holed, but that’s fairly true. I prefer fictional thriller. There is sci-fi in Resurrection… I researched afterlife experiences to try to come up with logical explanations by asking: ‘What’s waiting for us on the other side?’ The common thread among many is there is another consciousness waiting out there for us. It’s not the end, it’s the beginning of a journey. At the same time, there’s a dark side to that too—Resurrection delves into the dark side.”
OK, Alten was just plain creeping me out, now. I had to change the pace of the interview. I put on some punk rock to take my mind off the idea that demons were going to jump up through the floorboards. “Where do you like to go to think?”
“To the beach; ocean rather than lake. The ocean is not too far here in Florida. The best is at night when everyone is asleep. I just sit in my office and think about things.”
“Where is your favorite place to go to write?”
“My office. It’s five-walled on a second story. Views overlooking a lake. I don’t look out the window much. All the walls have bookshelves and they’re stocked. One wall is a tribute to the military. I have fans in Afghanistan and Iraq and an American flag that was on one of the first missions in Iraq. I look at them everyday because I support the troops, not necessarily the war. The Shell Game will express some of my views on that.”
The interview ended with Steve Alten telling me about a show on August 3rd on the History Channel that he helped write about the 2012 Mayan doomsday prophecy: "2012: Doomsday Prophecy".
“It’s a great special. Best I’ve seen on the subject and explains what could be waiting for us,” he said.
What could be waiting for us? Doomsday means doomsday doesn’t it? I promptly hung up the phone and went to the store to start buying cans of Spaghettios. Tomorrow I’m going to start digging a basement.
This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on
Monday, July 03, 2006.
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Lillith sounds creepy, but the book sounds very interesting! Great review, I'll have to check it out...
sounds like his books are quite interesting... if i liked stuff like that, i'd check them out.
Thats the guy who wrote MEG the only other book besides the bible and lords that I have ever read
!!
I haven't read MEG yet, but that one sure caught my eye. I'm looking forward to the historical detail in The Loch. Who knows, maybe we have a monster in Truxton Lake...
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