Featured Interview With Samuel Rose
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Hello – Excited to do this interview! Thank you for the opportunity. Well, I grew up in a small town in western Colorado and life has been strange from the git-go. To that point, I just started a semi-autobiographical series on Vella and would encourage you to check out Freckle Constellation. In Episode 1, “What Can We Know,” you find out about a life-altering experience and life-long puzzle for my family. I cannot explain it, but it may involve aliens. *sigh,* I know.
These days, I am on the Front Range in Colorado, choosing “the quiet life of a country bumpkin” in the words of a writer friend. Back in the day, I did a fair amount of adventurous travel, including living near Mexico City for a few months on a trip to Panama (by car). Have also lived in the Philippines and have a scar to prove it.
I have never had any pets, but have been owned by *many* other animals. My cosmovision is a hybrid of Western science and Mesoamerican shamanism–and when you feed, protect, provide medical care and give love to another being you have to wonder who owns who. These days, my “owners” include some geese, chickens, dogs, cats, wild neighbors, and a bunch of trees that require me to haul their water. Yes, most of the trees have names. *sigh,* I know.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
Very early. I remember Dick & Jane, Cat in the Hat, etc. Probably the first book to really hook me, was “The Forgotten Door” by Alexander Key. I started writing as a kid–a diary. But, it got snatched and read by alleged family. I learned not to write down my thoughts.
Then, in 1985, I was living on my own and started writing again. This was the start of a 37-year journey to write the Scout Report Universe. Not a typo. Not a lie. Thirty. Seven. Years. Ok, about 1991 life happened, and I dropped the project, with 2.5 unpublished books to show for the effort. Then, in 2011, life happened again. This time, due to injury, all I could do was write. So I restarted the project.
By the end of last year (2022) I finished the project. That included eight books (five published publicly; three kept private because [reasons that are actually part of the story!?!], plus the separate diptych of SORYANA’S SPEAR and HEVIN’S SPEAR.
Wow! Can you imagine what it was like to finally finish that project? It was truly a pivotal time in my life. It was such a huge and mesmerizing story, that I couldn’t let go of it until I had done my best to try and communicate to others what I had seen in my mind’s eye.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Have lots of favorite books and their authors. It’s all about the story, for me. The story stands alone. The story is not the author (unless an autobiography?). The first few that come to mind: “How I found Livingstone,” by Stanley; “The Conquest of New Spain,” by Bernal Diaz; “The Forgotten Door,” by Alexander Key; “Tom Sawyer,” by Mark Twain; “Odysseus,” by Homer; “Jonathan Livingston Seagull,” by Richard Bach; “A Separate Reality,” by Carlos Castaneda; “Dandelion Wine,” by Ray Bradbury.
It is not really a genre for me. I like to read books that feed my soul in some way. What is attractive to me is a story that is something I have not seen anything like before, is remarkable, is memorable, and provides thought-provoking abstract truths.
Who inspires me? I’m pretty cynical these days. But sometimes we humans manage to bring forth a whiff of that ancient remnant aroma of virtue. That is inspiring. Would honestly say that inspiration comes from within. Not as something that is a part of the person or owned by the person. More in that the facility for perceiving that inspiration is found in the soul, and so when we perceive it, it always seems to come from within even though it is not a part of us, per se.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
The Scout Report Universe
Brace yourself for an epic story that takes place in an alternate Universe…but then something unimaginable leaks over into ours. The diptych of SORYANA’S SPEAR & HEVIN’S SPEAR take place in two universes (not alternate timewaves–SciFi writers, do better). These two books are the only ones currently in print, but the plan is to re-release the other five as prequels at a future date.
The whole saga started when the apex species of the Scout Report Universe conquered a planet whose living soul is named Soryana. These great quasi-material creatures travel through the Universe spreading life in the form of biospheres that they grow.
They are horrific discarnate dragon-like beings, whose wings are nearly a mile wide when spread. There are forty-eight in their pod. No other species in the universe can stand up against them. They hyperdimensionally inhabit the core of their target planets, feeding off the emotional and soul energy of life they cultivate on the planetary “skins,” with the assistance of deities they create to manage that life.
The oldest of the deities knows his lease on life is running out, and contrives a plan to with the favor of The Builders, in the hopes of extending it. He will grow a hue-man soul over eight lives in multiple timewaves, and then they will balloon-animal contort that soul in four dimensions to create a new tesseract-type of spiritual being: star-sail being. That being will be able to travel vast distances pandimensionally and find the information that The Builders can use to fix a pesky problem they have: entropy.
One problem: when The Builders arrived on the planet hundreds of millions of years ago, Soryana cried out into The Void. Something unimaginable heard her. Wheels were put in motion. In the depths of space, a most unlikely angel that was injected into their universe…changed his course. Soryana, who is slowly being consumed, raises up her warriors–including the soul(s) that Lord Uman is manipulating–to try and defeat The Builders. A wolf crosses their paths.
These books are available on Amazon (see https://linktr.ee/samuelroseauthor in bio). There is also a short story series spin-off on Amazon Vella: World’s Edge Neighborhood.
Are you a Scout?™
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The Noble Angel Ryquori (aka “Grey Wolf”) incarnated as a modern canid: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AOM3H7cokowKFpzya4oA95SKFgP5WoHB/view?usp=share_link.
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