Darthneko

Kathy: This is one of your "Ghosts" characters?

Rose: Yes. =) Not the main character - more of a supporting character. Originally supposed to be a bit part, but it got away from me and now he's got his own side story.

Kathy: I looove when that happens ;-) Tell us more?

Rose: His name's Vász Kalmenka (family name first, personal name second), and I wrote a small thing for him for one of the Flame prompts, actually (http://roseletters.livejournal.com/41707.html). He's Hungarian, in an alt-history fantasy where Hungary is right on the edge of the eastern front of a war between the German Reich and the Byzantine Empire. Hungary is technically part of the Reich and Kalmenka is a war mage and an officer in the army. I affectionately call his side story "dorks, party of six" (ok, the actual title is Luck's Boys) because it's all about him and his squad and the stuff they get up to during the war. It starts off when they're all optimistic patriotic teens signing up for the army and follows them through it all right up to when Kalmenka finally just lost it on the battlefield, which is what that illustration in particular is the aftermath of.

Kathy: Wow! Thanks for that :) Your art is magnificent by the way. I find it difficult to believe you haven't been published. Or have you?

Rose: Not as a comic book artist. A lot of the work you see on there that's less figurative, more focused on objects and landscapes - those are all book covers, most of which went to print.

Kathy: Whoa! Nice :-) Did you find that particular venue difficult to break into?

Rose: Not really? It's all done for a smaller press, they started out with ebooks and went into print. It's not like doing covers for Tor books or anything that fancy. ;)

Kathy: Well, still ... Kudos!

Rose: Thanks! It was fun. A little challenging, more difficult than doing private commissions. And hey - I have a shelf full of books that have my cover art on them. ^_^

Kathy: That's terrific! (Since you're quite qualified to answer this, I'm going to allow hubby to ask a question if that's okay ... ) "What do you think the role of the artist is in today's world?"

Rose: "The role of the artist in today's world"? Yikes, you're making me think. ;) Do you mean "artist" as in fine art, or "artist" as in anyone who does visual things, ie, commercial art?

Kathy: All of it ... well ... what you consider art.

Rose: I could go off on a long rant about how "graphic artists" is a misnomer and how 95% of what you see every day really *isn't* "art" in my opinion - it's psychology and propaganda wrapped up in visual packaging and dubbed "advertising" - but "real" art, things that are created because the creator is inspired to make them, or that tell a story, or that are just plain beautiful, is something I don't think the world will every get tired of. It's just getting harder and harder to make a name or a living for yourself doing it exclusively.

Kathy: Do you think it's getting harder or that it has always been a difficult field to break into. After all, were Divinci and Monet every truly recognized as artists before they died? Of course Divinci was well known for many things, but ...

Rose: It's shifted. I think it was always hard - the term "starving artist" was coined for a reason, and most great artists didn't get that way until after they died - but where artists once painted private commissions for wealthy clients the advent of commercial art shifted it into having to create pieces that are not only artistic but also served double duty as advertising or entertainment or something aimed at the masses, not just a single client. Sure, you can point at some fine artists today with work that hangs in galleries who have made big names for themselves - Thomas Kinkade comes to mind - but if they're doing really well then the reason is almost always because they're also really good at marketing themselves. You don't get famous any more just by being good. You get there by selling yourself.

Kathy: Good point. And true for most creative genres, I think. Writing is definitely one of those ... the reason I allowed hubby to interject that question, is because he's working on a project in Art Appreciation and currently standing by the belief that "the fast food generation" has taken over the production of what society is expected to consider art. So it seems y'all agree on that point ;-)

Rose: It's one of those soapbox points for me, being in the field - on the one hand I want to create pretty things, and tell stories, and entertain! ...and on the other hand the bills need to get paid, so I grind out advertising design.

Kathy: Is there a way to fight for the integrity of your advertising design to aid in that? Of course, when you work for a company, you have to go along with whatever aesthetic they choose to approve of at that time, right? It's pretty easy to see that trends take on a new life in televised media just as in novels, etc. (groans over the vamp saturation as of late)

Rose: Yeah. I tend to just separate it out - there's what I do at work, where I'm absolutely not the final say in what gets done (honestly, it's sort of like being a construction worker. The foreman says "go do XYZ", so you go do XYZ, and nobody really consults whether you like it or not) and then there's what I do in my own time, which is the part I'm passionate about. And vampires/werewolves/witches are terribly overdone in young adult fiction right now. x_x I'm waiting for something NEW to break onto the scene.

Kathy: YA? Gosh, it's everywhere. And since that subject has been opened up ... What's your favorite genre to read?

Rose: I'd have to say fantasy. =) Blame it on Tolkien and McCaffrey being the first books I ever read (beyond Dr. Seuss). High fantasy, urban fantasy, anything inbetween. I like science fiction too, but hard core sci-fi tends to be too much about action/science/plot and leaves me cool on the characters. That's probably the first prerequisite, no matter the genre - I want characters that pull me in and make me care.

Kathy: Check! :-) Do you find that you tend to write what you like to read then? Character driven fantasy?

Rose: Absolutely! =D I've had to be dragged kicking and screaming into writing things that involve more political and action driven plots, instead of just focusing exclusively on the characters.

Kathy: Your latest work, Ships at Sea, tell us the inspiration behind that. (and how far along you are with that storyline)

Rose: Ahhaha! It's actually the prequel story to my main epic - the kid in SaS grows up to be the father of the main characters in my other story, Ghosts. Really, it's a shameless excuse to write swashbuckling pirate fic - it plays out in my head like a BBC period costume drama. And then, because I can't be content just doing research and writing historical fiction, I had to throw in the fantasy element; the timeline of the world doesn't go in a straight line, it's been twisted back on itself so that past and present and future keep overlapping in random pockets here and there. So you get things like 16th century Dutch tall ships with rudimentary rail guns mounted on the sides. ;) I have most of it plotted out, but the parts I wrote for the Flame are the only bits I've written so far.

Kathy: What do you think the word count will be when you complete it? And .. are you interested in sending it off for the chance to be published?

Rose: I have *no* idea about word count - I'm terrible at estimating that sort of thing. Easily full novel size (and "full" novel, imo, is something like 300 pages). I've discovered I'm much wordier than I think I am and (for instance) squeezing a full plot with a minimal amount of plot twists into something like 30k leaves me feeling like it's nothing but a bare skeleton with no real development or description. So I could see it going very long. As to publishing, I'm torn - I can see the appeal of sending it off and the validation of having it (maybe!) picked up by a publisher, but on the other hand I'd kind of like to self publish. Just because I think I'd be hard pressed to find a publisher who would let me pepper it with chapter headers and interior illustrations. ^_^

Kathy: I look forward to seeing it - illustrations and all! I'll close with this question: If you were to have a personal motto in print (or favorite quote of all time by someone you admire) what would it be?

Rose: "Keep dreaming",honestly. Silly, short, but it's at the core of just about everything I do.

Kathy: That's a good one!