Labor Day Tie-In Writer Guest Blog #2: Aaron Rosenberg
Our next guest is Aaron Rosenberg, another veteran of the tie-in game. Aaron started out in the gaming industry, and even has run his own game company, Clockworks Games. I first worked with him on some Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers stories, including several solo pieces, and his collaboration with Glenn Hauman "Creative Couplings," which had the first-ever Klingon-Jewish wedding. He's also done World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Transformers, Warhammer, iGo, Ben 10, not to mention his Scribe Award-winning Bandslam: The Novel. Here he talks about his latest project....
There Is Method to My Madness
by Aaron Rosenberg
Hi, Aaron Rosenberg here; Keith has graciously offered the use of his soapbox, so I'm here to tell you all about my new novel. It's called Substitution Method, and it's the first-ever novel for the hit SyFy Channel TV series Eureka.
If you're reading Keith's blog, I'm guessing you already know all about Eureka. For those of you who don't, it's about a town where everyone is a genius-except Jack Carter, the sheriff tasked with keeping the peace and saving the day whenever one of their many mad experiments go horribly wrong. It's a great show, clever and funny and sweet, and well worth watching.
So what's the novel about? In Substitution Method (which takes place between Season Three and Season Four), Carter is faced with a brand-new problem. Buildings are disappearing all over town. And to make matters worse, they're turning up again-in other towns all over the Pacific Northwest. And the houses they've displaced are winding up in Eureka! Which also means that anyone inside those homes is being transported as well. This is a major problem because normally you need security clearance just to enter Eureka's city limits. And now there are civilians wandering through it, homes and all! At the same time, Eureka's residents-who are all incredibly smart but also have no idea how things work outside their sheltered little town-are facing the real world for the first time. How can one man hope to corral them all, find the problem, and stop it, all by himself?
Fortunately, Carter isn't alone. He has help from people like his best friend (and Eureka's mayor), Henry Deacon, and his good friend (and GD's director) Allison Blake, not to mention his deputy Jo Lupo and her bad-boy whiz-kid boyfriend Zane Donovan. Even Allison's know-it-all assistant Fargo and Carter's college-age daughter Zoe get roped in to help. Together they race to figure out what is causing these swaps and sort the problem out before all of Eureka winds up scattered across the countryside...
I had a great time writing this book-Eureka's a fun place to get to play, and I had a blast with the characters. One of my goals, of course, was to tell a story that couldn't be done in a regular episode. Transplanting houses? Multiple settings all along the Pacific Northwest? That's tough for a TV show, but easy in a novel. But at its heart I wanted to explore the question of what happened when you took these brilliant but sheltered people out of their home, and what Eureka would look like to a normal person who was dropped there unawares.
One thing you'll notice is that the book doesn't bear my name. Instead it's credited to a "Cris Ramsay." Ramsay is a pen name the publishers selected so that all Eureka novels could be found together with a single author search, or shelved together under the author name in a bookstore. But it's an open pen name, which means I'm allowed to talk about which books I wrote.
What am I working on next-and did I just say "books"? I just finished the first draft of my second Eureka novel, which is called Road Less Traveled. I don't want to give too much away, but it's about the question of "what would it have been like if . . .?" only applied in that quirky way that only Eureka has. Road Less Traveled will be the third Eureka novel, and it's slated for release on March 29, 2011. I've also got a slew of other tie-in novels, and I write young adult and children's books as well. You can find a list of them on my website.
I hope you'll check out Substitution Method. If you like the show, I think you'll enjoy the book-I had a blast writing the characters, and Jaime Paglia (the show's co-creator and executive producer) worked closely with me to make sure everything matched the series perfectly. Thanks for taking the time to listen to me blather, and thanks again to Keith for playing host. It's all yours, Keith!
Eureka: Substitution Method by Cris Ramsay (a.k.a. Aaron Rosenberg) is on sale now from Ace.
Read Aaron's blog.
Follow Aaron on Twitter.
Follow Aaron on Facebook.
Next up: Joan Marie Verba.
There Is Method to My Madness
by Aaron Rosenberg
Hi, Aaron Rosenberg here; Keith has graciously offered the use of his soapbox, so I'm here to tell you all about my new novel. It's called Substitution Method, and it's the first-ever novel for the hit SyFy Channel TV series Eureka.
If you're reading Keith's blog, I'm guessing you already know all about Eureka. For those of you who don't, it's about a town where everyone is a genius-except Jack Carter, the sheriff tasked with keeping the peace and saving the day whenever one of their many mad experiments go horribly wrong. It's a great show, clever and funny and sweet, and well worth watching.
So what's the novel about? In Substitution Method (which takes place between Season Three and Season Four), Carter is faced with a brand-new problem. Buildings are disappearing all over town. And to make matters worse, they're turning up again-in other towns all over the Pacific Northwest. And the houses they've displaced are winding up in Eureka! Which also means that anyone inside those homes is being transported as well. This is a major problem because normally you need security clearance just to enter Eureka's city limits. And now there are civilians wandering through it, homes and all! At the same time, Eureka's residents-who are all incredibly smart but also have no idea how things work outside their sheltered little town-are facing the real world for the first time. How can one man hope to corral them all, find the problem, and stop it, all by himself?
Fortunately, Carter isn't alone. He has help from people like his best friend (and Eureka's mayor), Henry Deacon, and his good friend (and GD's director) Allison Blake, not to mention his deputy Jo Lupo and her bad-boy whiz-kid boyfriend Zane Donovan. Even Allison's know-it-all assistant Fargo and Carter's college-age daughter Zoe get roped in to help. Together they race to figure out what is causing these swaps and sort the problem out before all of Eureka winds up scattered across the countryside...
I had a great time writing this book-Eureka's a fun place to get to play, and I had a blast with the characters. One of my goals, of course, was to tell a story that couldn't be done in a regular episode. Transplanting houses? Multiple settings all along the Pacific Northwest? That's tough for a TV show, but easy in a novel. But at its heart I wanted to explore the question of what happened when you took these brilliant but sheltered people out of their home, and what Eureka would look like to a normal person who was dropped there unawares.
One thing you'll notice is that the book doesn't bear my name. Instead it's credited to a "Cris Ramsay." Ramsay is a pen name the publishers selected so that all Eureka novels could be found together with a single author search, or shelved together under the author name in a bookstore. But it's an open pen name, which means I'm allowed to talk about which books I wrote.
What am I working on next-and did I just say "books"? I just finished the first draft of my second Eureka novel, which is called Road Less Traveled. I don't want to give too much away, but it's about the question of "what would it have been like if . . .?" only applied in that quirky way that only Eureka has. Road Less Traveled will be the third Eureka novel, and it's slated for release on March 29, 2011. I've also got a slew of other tie-in novels, and I write young adult and children's books as well. You can find a list of them on my website.
I hope you'll check out Substitution Method. If you like the show, I think you'll enjoy the book-I had a blast writing the characters, and Jaime Paglia (the show's co-creator and executive producer) worked closely with me to make sure everything matched the series perfectly. Thanks for taking the time to listen to me blather, and thanks again to Keith for playing host. It's all yours, Keith!
Eureka: Substitution Method by Cris Ramsay (a.k.a. Aaron Rosenberg) is on sale now from Ace.
Read Aaron's blog.
Follow Aaron on Twitter.
Follow Aaron on Facebook.
Next up: Joan Marie Verba.