May's FEATURED AUTHOR: How to Get in Trouble...

James Rollins, our May Featured Author, swings by today to share thoughts on how (not) to research... 

How to Get into Trouble
At the end of every one of my books, I lay out what’s true and what’s not about each novel. I love mixing fact and fiction until it’s hard to tell them apart, but to do that well involves lots of research: time spent in libraries, doing interviews, etc. But I also love to “get out into the field.” Because of that, my publishing house always likes to portray me as some sort of adventurous novelist in the vein of Hemingway. At one point, they suggested an author photo of me swinging on a vine. That never happened and will NEVER happen.

While I certainly would like to claim to be some adventurous novelist in the tradition of Hemingway, in reality my adventures as a novelist could be better described as MISadventures.

Case in point.

I've always been an avid cave explorer, from the vast systems in Missouri to the lava tubes of Hawaii to the tighter squeezes of the California foothills. Much of this past experience crept into Subterranean, a deep Earth adventure novel. But one of the most frightening episodes of my amateur experience also allowed me to better describe claustrophobia of such enclosed spaces. While climbing out of the fairly technical wild cavern, involving lots of rope work, I managed to jam myself midway up a narrow vertical chute. Hung up on my rappelling gear midway up the chute, I found myself unable to move up or down. My chest was squeezed between two walls, my left knee turned the wrong way. I could not maneuver, and there was not enough room to get a rescue climber to me. The ropes were too taut to haul. I was trapped. I remember the team leader, leaning down from above, shining his helmet lamp at me. “You either find a way to un-jam yourself, or you stay there forever.”

So much for a pep talk or confident reassurance. It was up to me. It was me against Nature (in this case two walls of rock that I was sure were slowly and inexorably pinching tighter and tighter). And I certainly did not want to “stay there forever.” So over the course of a long hour--wriggling, sweating, cursing, and clawing--I managed to creep a millimeter at a time out of the jam. After this event, I had a better understanding for claustrophobia, panic, and determination born of pure desperation.

But spelunking through caves was not my only practical lesson. Two decades ago, I also took up scuba diving and went on dive trips all around the world: Monterey Bay, Hawaii, South Pacific, Australia. It was on a trip to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia that my next misadventure occurred. I was informed by the dive master to beware of the many hazards found in the region. “On land, Australia has seven of the ten deadliest snakes. The seas are worse. Box jellyfish can kill in minutes. Local sea snakes are some of the most toxic. But worst of all is the stone fish. It looks like a stone, but its spines are loaded with paralytic poison. So be careful what you touch.”

And down we all went, buddied up in pairs, enthusiastic and excited. I dropped toward the reef and adjusted my buoyancy until I was floating just above the reef. All around spread amazing sights: giant clams, a flurry of colored fish, an astounding variety of coral. But I miscalculated my buoyancy, my weight shifted, and I planted a hand into the sand to stabilize my tumble, careful of the razor-sharp coral. Inches from my thumb, a jagged rock suddenly sprouted fins and swam away. I met the gaze of my buddy diver. His wide eyes firmed up the identification. The deadly stone fish. And I had almost slapped my hand on its back. As the fish scurried away, I understood at that exact moment how little Nature cared about the life of a scuba-diving novelist. Down here, Nature ruled. We were only visitors. This insight became incorporated in my nautical adventure, Deep Fathom.

But Nature was not done with me yet. While researching Amazonia, I spent a week in the Brazilian rainforest. Led by an Aussie naturalist, I spent a long hot day hiking through the jungle. The only relief that day came when we reached a small shaded pool, fed by a trickling creek. We were invited to swim with the usual caution of parasites and other dangers. The water was clear. Freshwater trout sparkled within the depths. Stripping to boxers, I dove into the water and spent a good quarter hour enjoying the cool relief. Finally called to climb out, I swam to the shore and hauled myself back into the heat.

“Did you see the caiman?” my guide asked as I toweled off.

“What?” I turned.

He pointed to the five-foot-long crocodilian carnivore, basking in the tall reeds on the far side. The shock on my face must have amused the guide. “No worry, mate. It's only a small one.”

Now perhaps there was no real danger from this predator, but it made my wonder how much I missed in the jungle, what hidden threats lay all around at any moment. This became the crux of the evolutionary nightmare that became the novel Amazonia. And believe me, the caimans certainly made an appearance in the book…of course, much larger caiman. I think the first one ate an Aussie guide.

And the misadventures continued. While taking a few photographs of a handsome door in Barcelona, I found myself suddenly surrounded by uniformed men, shouting and leveling rifles. The door was a side entrance to the Spanish equivalent of the CIA. They didn't appreciate the amateur “spying.” Then there was the taxi ride from hell through rural China--a solo trip--where the Peoples Republic Army decided it was necessary to search and question the lone American traveler. Then a trip to Rome's catacombs ended up with the lights going out. The tour group sat in the dark crypt for ten minutes, allowing all manner of ghosts to press against us (this mishap became incorporated into Map of Bones).

So I still continue to travel, to research, to journey into strange places. And with each new misadventure, I find new inspiration. That is, as long as I survive the adventure.

Well, James... I think I can say for quite a few people that we're glad you've survived so far. There must be a plan for more of your novels! *grin* Thank you for coming by this month, I hope you've enjoyed it. I certainly have enjoyed your posts, and your Q&A is one of my favorites.

May's FEATURED AUTHOR: James' list...

James Rollins, our May Featured Author, swings by today to share some of his favorite books... Come and see what he has to share with us!.

FTC Disclosure: I am an IndieBound and Amazon affiliate, and any purchases made by clicking on the cover or the links provided may result in monetary compensation.

Let’s talk books! And let’s be specific! As a writer of both fantasies and thrillers, my tastes in reading are more defined by what I don’t read. I love to read across a wide gamut of genres (with an occasional nonfiction book thrown in there…right now, I’m reading Sebastian Junger’s War). But if I had to define a personal taste in genres I’d label it as “speculative fiction.”

While I’ve read lots of straight-laced mysteries over the years, I can’t say they’re my cup of tea. Though I do particularly enjoy Nevada Barr’s series because of the deep naturalism of her stories. I might not get to visit every State Park, but I get to vicariously through the adventures of Anna Pigeon. What I generally prefer are mysteries with a little extra something in them, like the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. Or going back further to Isaac Asimov’s series featuring a human detective and his robot sidekick R. Daneel Olivaw (Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, etc.).

And speaking of science fiction, I could wax poetic about dozens and dozens of authors from the golden age of scifi to today. Here are a few of my favorites (some classics, some not so much):

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

(and yes, I’m classifying the above 3 as science fiction, though you won’t find those books in the scifi section of a book store.)

Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey

Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny

Dune by Frank Herbert

Ringworld by Larry Niven

The Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov

Link by Walt W. Becker

Moving onto horror, again pretty much any early Stephen King and Dean Koontz are fine by me, but I thought I’d jot down a few that really struck home for me. Again, some are classics, some are a bit more obscure.

Vespers by Jeff Rovin

Salem's Lot by Stephen King (and a close second place, The Shining)

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice

Watchers by Dean Koontz

In the fantasy field, I go old school and new here, from Tolkien to Rothfuss. Here’s the list:

Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R Tolkien

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Lamb, the Gospel according to Biff by Christopher Moore

Watership Down by Richard Adams

Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb

Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks

Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

As with mysteries, I also prefer my thrillers that are a bit on the “speculative” side, too. Though that said, I’d never miss a Lee Child novel. Here’s again a fast list of some of my all-time favorites:

Temple by Mathew Reilly

Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Ice Reich by William Dietrich

The Romanov Prophecy by Steve Berry

Brotherhood of the Rose by David Morrell

Hooked: A Thriller About Love and Other Addictions by Matt Richtel

Regressing to my childhood, I thought I’d talk middle-school and YA (since I also just started a series in this genre). As a kid, I cut my teeth on the old Jupiter Jones series and Danny Dunn, but there’s some great stuff out there now. I don’t have to mention Harry Potter, do I? Plus a couple of my favorites out now:

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

And going old school, the novel that made me want to be a veterinarian:

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

And I must say I do occasionally sneak off the genre reservation and read the Pulitzer Prize winners for fiction every year. One of the most influential (and a book that made me look at prose in an entirely new light and to this day I think helped turn me into a published author) is The Shipping News by Annie Proulx. What she does with language is breathtaking, frustrating, and mindboggling.

Another such author is Dan Simmons. I’ve been reading his books since he won a horror award for his absolutely disturbing novel, Song of Kali. He’s since gone on to win awards in science fiction (Hyperion) and gained literary accolades for his latest novels (The Terror and Drood). But my favorite book of his remains Carrion Comfort. You want to see how to do vampires really well, read that book.

Lastly, I must also acknowledge the books that made me want to write as a young Midwestern school boy. I devoured truckloads of the old Bantam reprints of the pulp classics from the 30s and 40s. But the best of them all was the Doc Savage series, written by various authors under the pseudonym Kenneth Robeson. I still have all 181 (plus 1) of those novels still sitting on a hallowed place on my library bookshelf.

So that’s it. I’m off to curl up with a good book.

My goodness. Is that a list or what?? Some of 'em are on my list too, and some are new-to-me. I'm off to add them to my library holds. What do you think of James' list?

May's FEATURED AUTHOR: James' books!!

James Rollins is my Featured Author for May. And boy oh boy is he prolific! Come check out his bibliography... Be forewarned, there's quite the collection here!

FTC Disclosure: I am an IndieBound and Amazon affiliate, and any purchases made by clicking on the cover or the links provided may result in monetary compensation.

James writes the bestselling Sigma Force series, six individual adventures, and the Jake Ransom series for kids and adults.

Sigma Force books:

An inexplicable explosion rocks the antiquities collection of a London museum, setting off alarms in clandestine organizations around the world. And now the search for answers is leading Lady Kara Kensington; her friend Safia al-Maaz, the gallery’s brilliant and beautiful curator; and their guide, the international adventurer Omaha Dunn, into a world they never dreamed existed: a lost city buried beneath the Arabian desert. But others are being drawn there as well, some with dark and sinister purposes. And the many perils of a death-defying trek deep into the savage heart of the Arabian Peninsula pale before the nightmare waiting to be unearthed at journey's end: an ageless and awesome power that could create a utopia...or destroy everything humankind has built over countless millennia.

During a crowded service at a cathedral in Germany, armed intruders in monks' robes unleash a nightmare of blood and destruction. But the killers have not come for gold; they seek a more valuable prize: the bones of the Magi who once paid homage to a newborn savior . . . a treasure that could reshape the world.

With the Vatican in turmoil, SIGMA Force leaps into action. An elite team of scientific and Special Forces operatives under the command of Grayson Pierce and accompanied by Lieutenant Rachel Verona of Rome's carabinieri, they are pursuing a deadly mystery that weaves through sites of the Seven Wonders of the World and ends at the doorstep of an ancient, mystical, and terrifying secret order. For there are those with dark plans for the stolen sacred remains that will alter the future of humankind . . . when science and religion unite to unleash a horror not seen since the beginning of time.

In Copenhagen...a suspicious bookstore fire propels Commander Gray Pierce on a relentless hunt across four continents—and into a terrifying mystery surrounding horrific experiments once performed in a now-abandoned laboratory buried in a hollowed-out mountain in Poland.

In the mountains of Nepal...in a remote monastery, Buddhist monks inexplicably turn to cannibalism and torture—while Painter Crowe, director of Sigma Force, begins to show signs of the same baffling, mind-destroying malady...and Lisa Cummings, a dedicated American doctor, becomes the target of a brutal clandestine assassin.

Now only Gray Pierce and Sigma Force can save a world suddenly in terrible jeopardy. Because a new order is on the rise—an annihilating nightmare growing at the heart of the greatest mystery of all: the origin of life.

New York Times bestselling author James Rollins returns with a terrifying story of an ancient menace reborn to plague the modern world . . . and of an impossible hope that lies hidden in the most shocking place imaginable: within the language of angels.

From the depths of the Indian Ocean, a horrific plague has arisen to devastate humankind—a disease that's unknown, unstoppable . . . and deadly. But it is merely a harbinger of the doom that is to follow. Aboard a cruise liner transformed into a makeshift hospital, Dr. Lisa Cummings and Monk Kokkalis—operatives of SIGMA Force—search for answers to the bizarre affliction. But there are others with far less altruistic intentions. In a savage and sudden coup, terrorists hijack the vessel, turning a mercy ship into a floating bio-weapons lab.

A world away, SIGMA's Commander Gray Pierce thwarts the murderous schemes of a beautiful would-be killer who holds the first clue to the discovery of a possible cure. Pierce joins forces with the woman who wanted him dead, and together they embark upon an astonishing quest following the trail of the most fabled explorer in history: Marco Polo. But time is an enemy as a worldwide pandemic grows rapidly out of control. As a relentless madman dogs their every step, Gray and his unlikely ally are being pulled into an astonishing mystery buried deep in antiquity and in humanity's genetic code. And as the seconds tick closer to doomsday, Gray Pierce will realize he can truly trust no one, for any one of them could be . . . a Judas.

New York Times bestselling author James Rollins brings back SIGMA Force to battle a group of rogue scientists who've unleashed a bioengineering project that could bring about the extinction of humankind.

In Washington D.C., a homeless man dies in Commander Gray Pierce's arms, shot by an assassin's bullet. But the death leaves behind a greater mystery: a bloody coin found clutched in the dead man's hand, an ancient relic that traces back to the Greek Oracle of Delphi. As ruthless hunters search for the stolen artifact, Pierce discovers the coin is the key to unlocking a plot that threatens the very foundation of humanity. For an international think-tank of scientists has discovered a way to bioengineer autistic child who show savant talents into something far greater and far more frightening—all in hopes of creating a world prophet for the new millennium, one to be manipulated to create a new era of global peace...a peace on their own terms.

From ancient Greek temples to glittering mausoleums, from the slums of India to the radioactive ruins of Russia, two men must race against time to solve a mystery that dates back to the first famous oracle of history—the Greek Oracle of Delphi. But one question remains: will the past be enough to save the future?

At Princeton University, a famed geneticist dies inside a biohazard lab. In Rome, a Vatican archaeologist is found dead in St. Peter's Basilica. In Africa, a U.S. senator's son is slain outside a Red Cross camp. The three murders on three continents bear a horrifying connection: all the victims are marked by a Druidic pagan cross burned into their flesh.

The bizarre murders thrust Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma Force into a race against time to solve a riddle going back centuries, to a ghastly crime against humanity hidden within a cryptic medieval codex.

Aided by two women from his past--one his ex-lover, the other his new partner--Gray must piece together the horrifying truth. But the revelations come at a high cost, and to save the future, Gray will have to sacrifice one of the women at his side.

That alone might not be enough, as the true path to salvation is revealed in a dark prophecy of doom...

Individual adventures:

Jake Ransom:

When a mysterious envelope arrives for Jake Ransom, he and his older sister, Kady, are plunged into a gripping chain of events. An artifact found by their parents — on the expedition from which they never returned — leads Jake and Kady to a strange world inhabited by a peculiar mix of long-lost civilizations, a world that may hold the key to their parents' disappearance.

But even as they enter the gate to this extraordinary place, savage grackyls soar across the sky, diving to attack. Jake's new friends, the pretty Mayan girl Marika and the Roman Pindor, say the grackyls were created by an evil alchemist — the Skull King. And as Jake struggles to find a way home, it becomes obvious that what the Skull King wants most is Jake and Kady — dead or alive.

As if that's not enough, James also writes fantasy, as James Clemens. Books include The Banned and the Banished series (Wit'ch Fire, Wit'ch Storm, Wit'ch War, Wit'ch Gate, Wit'ch Star) and the Godslayer series (Shadowfall and Hinterland).

Phew! I'm tired just listing these... If you noticed, I started out strong, then realized that I would be doing lots of scrolling down to see the rest of the post. So, I'm using some handy dandy gadgets (I looooooooooooooove gadgets!) to help show you all of James' books. So. What're you waiting for? Go and check them all out!