Welcome Guest Blogger Rob LaPointe

Hello everyone,

Today I am privileged to have author Rob LaPointe as my guest. He's going to answer a few questions about himself.

1- How long have you been writing?

Writing or writing reasonably well?  Wink.  Probably since the early 80s.

2- What made you decide to put yourself out there to publish.?"

The first story I sold was to Aboriginal Science Fiction Magazine.  It was accepted upon submission, with no edits.  I was thrilled to finally be a "real" writer.  The terms were "payment upon publishing," but it took me close to, I think, two years to finally get a check.  I actually had to send a demand letter.  So if your question is what made me decide to publish as in self-publish online, that's my answer.

3- What is your favorite genre to write in?

Speculative fiction.  For me, the whole point of writing is "what if."  I love to take the ball and run with it . . . but I feel like I'm only an honest writer as long as I can keep the reader running with it too.

4-What are you working on now?

I've been a martial artists since about 1973.  I got fired up about it watching the original Kung Fu TV show with David Carradine (shame about that whole auto-erotic thing!  I always thought he was a man to emulate, um, right up until that).  Anyway, back on topic, I'm working on a satire about a guy running a martial arts school and all the, what's the right word, interesting, people he meets.  Believe me, I've met them.

5-Favorite character from one of your books?

There are two.  The first is based on reality.  The second is pure fiction.  I like them both, but I deeply admire the first.

The first is the main character of Shirabe, the short story I sold to Aboriginal.  He's based on my father-in-law, who is Japanese.  My father-in-law survived the fire bombing of Tokyo when he was a small boy.  During the bombing, as he was running to a bomb shelter, there was a much younger child who had been separated from his family.  The child was crying in the street as everyone ran past him.  My father-in-law ran back and picked him up and took him to the bomb shelter.  When the boy's mother found him she was so grateful she couldn't speak to say thank you.  That tale from the war deeply impressed me and I was compelled to write about it.  I think my father-in-law showed more courage as a six year old than most of us are ever called upon to show as adults.

The second is Descreo.  He's a character in my novel Bow to the Moon.  He's blasted into space on a mission to er, pass on his genes, but conditions beyond his control cause him to crash land on a planet different from his destination.  Let's just say he stays on task.

Blurb:

Five space faring races have tried to colonize the planet Avora. All have failed and watched as their settlements reverted to savagery. Only the native Xha remain unaffected, their culture ancient and unchanged beyond memory.
Now one man finds himself among a new colony of clones. He has no name and no memory. All he knows is that someone is trying to kill him. As he searches for answers, the Xha begin their great migration, and the world Avora seems on the brink of change and wonder, but if he is to witness it, he must survive the threat to his life.

Excerpts:

1st Excerpt from Bow to the Moon:

They went further, but the buildings showed no variety.  Omon turned the dray around, taking them into Westmont where they parked in front of Judiciary Square.  The statue was as they had left it.  The figure of the Primate had been sheared from the knees up, charred pieces of marble were strewn about the plaza.

“It can be repaired,” said March confidently.

“Of course it can, by a skilled craftsman.”

“No, I mean by the drones.  They have done remarkable work on the city, one statue would be a small matter for them.”

“A small matter which they will refuse to do,” said Omon. 

March gave Omon a skeptical look.  “Have you ever tried to reassign them?”

“The drones are difficult to deal with.  They’re programmed to use human speech and human modes of expression, in an attempt at more natural interface with human controllers.  The effect is unfortunate.  I find them spleenish and have spent a year avoiding them.”

2nd Excerpt from Bow to the Moon:

The Sudd are an old race.  They have had time to mature, sour into over-ripeness, convulse through several reformations, and settle at last into an indolent sophistication of no ordinary attainment.  Their astronomics are coeval with their mystic perceptions.  They have developed an elaborate science in conquering the stars, then made, some would say, the final exploration by turning that science inward.

I visited their mausoleum on Uytron III.  The halls were pervaded with an austral despair that haunts me still.  Midnight arrases hung from towering pedestals whereon perched elder gods of worlds visited then forgotten.  Spires of cinnabar and onyx rose ever into a nocturne vault.  Devices of alien wizardry were stacked against the walls, spying us from the shadows.  Alembics and sistrums of uncouth usage called silently, and in the beckoning gloom I sensed the heave and sink of ancient behemoths.

I was unsettled by what I saw, but my hosts only regarded me with flat, parchment eyes, all the while smoking their small pipes.

Rob is also a professional martial arts instructor, so when you visit his site don't forget to get yourself a copy of his FREE self-defense ebook.  Home page, top left.

Buy Link: http://www.lapointebooks.com/BowtotheMoon.html

Website:  http://www.lapointebooks.com/index.html

Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4862219.Rob_LaPointe