ROCHELLE WEBER (Cont.)
INTERVIEW
MFRW: How much of your personality and life experi-
ences are in your writing?
RIW: There are elements of my life in most of my books.
My first day in writing class I asked my instructor if we
wrote from experience how we distinguished between
biography and fiction. He said, “Write it the way you
wish it had been.” So, my heroines mostly are how I
wish I could be, except for Katie McGowan. She’s me
without meds, and she can be a raving *****. People
with really severe bipolar disorder do hallucinate. The
Voice in Rock Crazy was always there. The other halluci-
nations were either actual arguments I had with my
mother, or dreams I had about her. Unfortunately (or
fortunately for my writing) I have an almost photo-
graphic memory and I’ve not forgotten the worst of the
tantrums I threw before I was diagnosed and got on the
right meds. Oh, and the broken wrist incident really did
happen.
MFRW: Would you like to write a different genre or sub-
genre than you do now?
RIW: My first two books are sci-fi romance. I started writ-
ing Rock Crazy and decided to just write a couple para-
graphs of back-story for some of the people on the
Moon who help Katie. Next thing I knew, I had Rock
Bound. They just kind of took over and wrote their own
book. The Thin Person Inside, however, is contemporary.
I hope by 2051 science will have figured out a way to
turn off whatever it is that causes cravings, or to turn up
the metabolism of people like me who feel we “just
look at food and may as well apply it directly to our
hips.” And my work-in-progress, Full Circle, is consid-
ered an historical book, because it’s about a Corpswave
and a Marine who dated as civilians during the Vietnam
era and then meet again after he’s been to Nam. It kind
of boggles my mind, because that’s when I was in the
Navy, so it doesn’t seem like history to me. So, I guess
I’m all over the map. Even though I’m pagan, I don’t
see myself doing paranormal or fantasy. I’d like to go
back to Rockton in the Moon, but everyone up there
seems to be just fine. No angst, no drama, nothing to
write home about.
MFRW: What song would best describe your life?
RIW: Peaceful Easy Feeling by the Eagles.
MFRW: Tell us about your latest book. What motivated
the story? Where did the idea come from?
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RIW: The Thin Person Inside: Kristen Jensen never expected
to fall in love when she got help for her morbid obe-
sity—let alone with a rock star. I started to write a book
about a secretary who meets a rock star. Originally they
met at an AA meeting, but I just couldn’t get the con-
flict there. First he relapsed. Then she did. Then I de-
cided a story about a person in recovery relapsing was
just too trite. Then I decided to put it in the future and
have them meet in Rockton. Maybe the conflict could
be that he lived on Earth. Then they were going to hon-
eymoon up there. Nothing worked. Then someone said,
“You should write about your weight loss.” Bingo! I
changed Kristen from an alcoholic to a food addict,
described my experience in treatment, even copied my
homework from treatment, and the whole thing just
flowed. I decided Sean should lose his hand because I
already had a hero with crushed legs in another book.
I’m not a heavy metal fan, so I didn’t know there was a
drummer out there who lost an arm and came back to
the band. I met a veteran who lost his hand in a farm
accident and played piano, and that’s where I got the
idea Sean could manage keyboards with one hand.
MFRW: Bubble baths or steamy showers? Ocean or
mountains? Puppies or kittens? Chocolate or caramel?
RIW: I love bubble baths, but I now have problems getting
out of the tub due to arthritis. As for the rest—do I
have to choose? Can’t I gaze at the mountains from the
beach? Snuggle with both puppies and kittens? Eat
chocolate-covered or flavored caramels (provided
they’re gluten & sugar-free, of course)?
MFRW: A biography has been written about you. What do
you think the title would be in six or fewer words?
RIW: Rochelle Weber: Ditzy, Crazy Author
MFRW: If money were
not an object, where
would you most like
to live?
RIW: I’d start with a year
or so aboard that ship
with the condos that
travels the world, and
then I’d settle some-
where warm and
sunny—more west
than south.