Official Interview: Marc J. Seifer

[kandscreeley]

Today's Chat with Sarah features Marc J. Seifer author of Rasputin's Nephew.

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1. Where do you write at? What's your writing environment?

I have two writing environments. Sometimes, I like to create the stories and chapters through handwriting. And I can be out at the pool in a lounge chair. I also write at my desk by computer. There are advantages to both. I like the free-flowing nature of hand-writing, but then you have to type it. So, it's a two-step process. Partly, it's a rhythm thing, like riding a wave. When I'm on that wave through direct handwriting, that's the best experience and the story just flows.

2. What kind of writing process do you have? Do you outline? Brainstorm?

In general, I create a loose outline. I know where I am ultimately headed, so, as long as I get there, I can allow the story to direct me where to go. For instance, for my new book Maxwell Chronicles, which is actually a compilation of my two previous novels, Doppelganger and Crystal Night, in the story, my protagonist, Rudy Styne, ace reporter for Modern Times Magazine, ends up running into his doppelganger, his look-alike, at an airport in Germany. There is also a back story of a German Jewish family running a motor works that is morphed into an airline at the beginning of the twentieth century. At some point, I know that Rudy will find out that he is not biologically related to his mother so he needs to uncover who this doppelganger is because he is now interested in finding out who his biological parents really are. So, the premise and the endgame are now both there. How he gets to the endgame is not determined by "me", but rather, once I have the setup, the story itself begins to direct me. That's the best way because the story then becomes spontaneous, not "planned." By setting up a great scene, the story itself will tell you where you are headed. So I did have a basic outline and a real endgame, but the process of getting there is a true voyage of discovery. In this way, I avoid any sense of it being artificial or forced, because it isn't. What happens also surprises me as it naturally flows from the premise.

3. Let's discuss your book Rasputin's Nephew. Can you give us a quick synopsis?

I taught courses in Parapsychology for many years at Providence College Night School. At that time, the CIA were working with superpsychics involved in experiments in telepathy, psychokinesis and remote viewing, e.g., "looking" at Russian military installations by way of these psychics. In 1977 a well-known news reporter was arrested in Moscow for obtaining a paper on telepathy and brain waves. This arrest made the world press, but most of the main outlets, like TIME, CBS, NBC, ABC and most newspapers refused to mention the actual topic of what they called a "science paper." At the same time, while the CIA was working with the psychic Uri Geller, they were also supporting skeptical societies as a way to hide what they were really doing. My protagonist, Rudy Styne, ace reporter for Modern Times Magazine was being blocked by his editor from telling the real story because of all this prejudice against ESP. At the same time, the evil Gregori Boshtov, who was Rasputin's Nephew, was murdering Western parapsychologists who were studying what these superpsychics could do. At the same time, Rasputin's Nephew was planning on kidnapping a superpsychic to harness his brain for nefarious purposes. Since Rudy Styne was on the trail of what was happening, Rasputin's Nephew was now after Rudy Styne as well. The story is, of course, fiction, but much of it is rooted in what was actually happening in the parapsychology scene that I was heavily involved in during the last few decades of the 20th century.

4. The book includes some paranormal content. How did you decide to include this?

I taught parapsychology for 15 years at the night school of the University of Rhode Island and also at Providence College. During that time, I was conducting experiments in ESP, telepathy and dream telepathy, psychokinesis and remote viewing. I also had a parapsychology journal and was publishing my research in other academic journals as well. Much of this work was integrated into the story which pits the Americans against the Russians in this research, which really was occurring during this period.

5. Why Rasputin? What do you find so fascinating about this historical figure?

I had done a lot of research on hypnosis. For instance, I had students who had been to events and done the dumbest things under hypnosis. They didn't believe they did any of these things until they saw the tape of themselves! This was astounding. Rasputin was known to be an amazing hypnotist having control over the Czar and Czarina right before the Russian revolution. So I decided to use a fictitious member of his bloodline as the main "bad guy," in the story where hypnosis plays a key role.

6. What, if any, of this work is based on fact?

There is a lot of fact in the story and some fiction. For instance, I have the Russians creating psychokinetic soldiers by implanting computer chips in their brains to make them more psychokinesis. That is all fiction. However, the Russians really did have a secret underground lab in Siberia to study all aspects of ESP, and the Americans also had numerous labs around the country at various universities also studying such things as the neurophysiology of telepathy, dream telepathy, psychokinesis (mind over matter) and remote viewing. And I myself was conducting such experiments with my students and publishing my results in a journal I had and in other parapsychology journals. The animal experiments with monkeys were also all based on real experiments.

7. Which character is your favorite? Which one did you clash with most?

Other than my hero, Rudy Styne, who is the protagonist, ace reporter for Modern Times Magazine running through all 4 novels, I really took a shine to his Russian counterpart Imo Bern, who is a young medical doctor who gets sucked into the secret Soviet work in ESP which also had some gruesome aspects because in this fictitious story, they had to operate on the brains of monkeys and humans to plant electrodes and computer chips therein to make them more psychic and telekinetic. Imo was trapped, as some people are, finding themselves in situations that they can't get out of. So his challenge was to somehow rectify his existence by fighting against the horrible world he got sucked into.

8. What's next? Is there another book in the works?

I created what I call the Rudy Styne Quadrilogy, which are four novels "starring" ace reporter Rudy Styne: Rasputin's Nephew, Doppelganger, Crystal Night and Fate Line. The first and fourth books are stand-alone books. However, Doppelganger and Crystal Night are two parts of the same long story. Doppelganger ends in a cliffhanger. So I decided to combine them in a new book called MAXWELL CHRONICLES, where I simply published the first book followed by the second book into one larger volume. I just completed that.

I am also working on another book called WAR STORIES, which is an anthology of memoirs by people who have been to war, including two articles by two Holocaust survivors, several articles by Americans who served or fought during World War II, one who landed at Normandy, an article on MIA's from the Korean War, two articles by Vietnam Veterans including one written by best selling author Nelson DeMille and an article by Uri Geller who was wounded when he was in the Israeli army in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. This is a very exciting book with incredibly deep and breathtaking stories of true war heroes, in particular, Helena Weinrauch who survived 5 years in Nazi concentration camps during the horrors of the Holocaust. Right after she woke up from a coma, she wrote her account which was in 1945, shortly after the British freed her concentration camp and took her to a hospital to recuperate.

I like to end with fun questions.

9. What's your favorite way to relax?

I like to swim and I also attempt to watch a different movie every night.

10. If animals could talk, what animal would you want to converse with?

When I lecture I ask the question, which animal has the largest brain in relationship to body size? The Human is second to the Dolphin. I then ask the class, "How do we know the Dolphin is smarter than the human?" And of course, they don't know the answer, so I say, "Because the Dolphin never invented the atom bomb." I would love to speak with Dolphins who are obviously incredibly intelligent beings, well known to save humans on numerous occasions.

11. What place do you most want to visit?

I've been to Paris, Venice, Rome, other places in Europe, been to Israel and Hawaii and many islands of the Caribbean. I've been to the pyramids of Chichen Itza in Mexico, but I'd like to go to Tikal in Guatemala and also the pyramids and the statues of Luxor in Egypt.

12. What's one piece of clothing can you not live without?

My slippers. Are they clothing? If not, my flannel shirts.

[Blessed Hope]

A nice and insightful interview. I for once didn't know Rasputin did hypnotize the Czar and Czarina but i have heard a lot on hypnosis but highly doubt if it is practical. For example i heard once that a certain hypnotized man couldn't lift a small box because he was told it is heavy