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"Retail, Change, and Porn: the Orosel Interview"
By Mike E. PurfieldJenny Orosel is the author of the e-novel "This is the Way the World Ends" published by Fiction Work. It is her first novel and an achievement of exhibiting the darker side of human nature when faced with mortality.
Are you originally from Los Angeles? If not what brought you out there?
I'm one of those rarities--a native. Born and raised and other than a few weeks during the summertime, I love it here, especially the section of LA I live in (the San Fernando Valley). You can drive down one street and see million dollar homes, go a few more blocks and you're at the housing projects, a few more blocks then you're in an arts district. People are right when they say Los Angeles is a different planet.
You mentioned that you worked in the film production. Do you have aspirations of becoming a Director, Screenwriter, or Producer?
Actually, for a time I wanted to be a film editor. I even took some UCLA classes for it. Then I actually got a job in the business-a production assistant on a low budget direct to video kid's film. That was enough to cure me of the movie bug. Between the 20 hour days and meeting some of the biggest schmucks I've met in my life (even worse than my retail years) I changed my mind. The thing about being in production is you really need to want to make it your life. It wasn't what I wanted; I still wanted to be able to come home from work and write. Now my biggest "Hollywood" aspiration is to sell the rights to something I wrote and let someone else take care of the nasty work ;-).
How has Los Angeles affected your writing?
This is mostly an artificial city. We don't have the woods. We don't have 300 year old buildings with their own histories. So its rare you find somebody in one of my stories lost in the woods, or a story about a haunted house. But we do have our share of...odd folks. Rather than getting story ideas from an environment, I find most of my inspiration from people and trying to understand what's going on in their heads.
One thing I noticed from your novel and your short story "The First Love Song, One Last Time Around" is how your characters are unsatisfied with themselves or past and they are trapped in this mindset where they want to change, but change is not always for the best. Is that a correct interpretation or do you feel that change is for the best?
Wow-that's a tough one. I don't have a problem with change in and of itself. I try and look at the choices behind making changes, and look at how those choices will affect the lives of people around the character. All too often we do whatever we please without thinking about how our choices affect the people around us.
The catalyst for "This is the Way the World Ends" is somewhat supernatural. You use fortune telling, second sight, and premonition, but the rest of the novel goes on psychological and dangerously into straight fiction. Did you ever intend to go deeper into the supernatural with this story?
Not really. In fact, I was sort of scared to go into the supernatural as much as I did. The whole idea came from a talk show I was watching. The guest was this psychic who seemed to know the littlest detail about random people from the audience. Everything she said was so positive and uplifting. It got me to wondering, what if she said something negative, that something horrible was going to happen? If people are so willing to believe the good, would they believe the bad as well?
I tried to keep the supernatural to a minimum because I wanted to keep it as realistic as possible. I hope I pulled that off.
I love the retail aspect of involving the main characters. For me it rang true. Was that true to life involving yourself?
I spent 8 years in retail hell. The part about the wrong number of buttons on the uniform shirt came from real life. The person who said, "There are no stupid questions" obviously never worked with customers. They WILL ask stupid questions. And because you are the one wearing a nametag for some reason they think you have no soul and can become their emotional punching bag, like it's your fault that some bitch stole their parking space.
Bitterness about my retail years? Naw...it provided me with some great material ;-).
How many times have you heard from people at the retail job where they find out you want to be a wrier and say, "Oh, you gonna write about me?"
Hehehe…actually, quite a few of them, even people where I work now will ask, "Are you going to put me in a story?" Now that I think about it, the only people who ask me that question are people who have never actually READ anything I've written. I wonder why...
The book is epic, yet focused at the same time. There are many minor characters, but you manage to anchor the story down with Lenny, Jacob, and Shelly. Was that difficult to accomplish?
Yeah, that part was tough. I had to really think about how to make them and their characteristics unique enough so the reader doesn't get confused and say, "Wait, I thought it was this other guy still talking!" A number of times I had to go back over the dialogue because they WERE sounding like the other characters.
So, for our Christian readers, how much research did you do for the porno aspect involving Jacob and his rise to fame?
HAHAHA! I'm being honest here when I say that I find that part even more unrealistic than the whole psychic aspect. The part of Los Angeles I live in (the San Fernando Valley) is known as the porn capital of the world. More porn films are made and distributed here than in any other community! And from what I've seen of it (not too up close, I hasten to add) is very business-like. They take their business more seriously than even the "legit" movie business. So Jacob's involvement is more along the lines of a fairy tale than how things would actually happen.
What is it that you hate about being a writer?
There's very little about it I hate--I have a good time making up stories. If I had to pick anything it would be the sedentariness (is that a word?) of it. If I'm on a roll I'll spend hours and hours just sitting in front of my computer. You can tell how my writing is going by the size of my butt.
I have heard bad stories about some big E-publishers from other writers. How has your publisher, Fiction Works, treated you so far? Do you feel they are working hard enough for you?
For the most part, they've been friendly. They're still evolving as a company so sometimes there's changes that I didn't quite see coming. It'll be interesting to watch and see how both Fiction Works and e-publishing as a whole evolve...or if ebooks go the way of the eight-track.
How have readers responded to your writings? Any death threats?
Death threats? I almost wish--that would mean people were actually reading! For the most part, the reaction has been good. Granted, I don't have a whole lot of stuff out there. Because what HAS been out there has been in horror markets, the one comment I tend to get is "Well, it's not really horror..." I'm still trying to figure out what they mean by that. Probably because there is so little of the supernatural in my fiction. But I still believe that the most horrible things can come from us, human beings.
What can we look forward to in the future from you?
There's nothing signed and sealed as of right now. I've got a few short stories floating around and hopefully one of them will land somewhere.
Right now I'm working on the next novel--about a serial killer who turns his victims into works of art.
Kinda like the awesome Corman movie "Bucket of Blood?
Kind of. But I WISH I was as cool as Corman.
Well, thanks a bunch for talking with us.
My pleasure! I had a great time!
For more information on the work of Jenny Orosel just head to any of the following sites.
Critical Raves for Mike Purfield's "Dirty Boots."
"If you're looking for a good read, something you've never experienced before, then this is the book for you." Paul Kane of Terror Tales.
Rated 3 out of 4 by Unhinged Magazine.
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