Today, we've got an interview with Jeff Beesler, author of Optical Osmosis. This is one fantastic sounding story, and it's cut from some VERY Stephen King-esque concepts--which you know thrills the heck out of me! (And how's this for an epic cover?!)
EJ ~ "When an accident involving sunlight and a telescope alters Greg’s vision, he suddenly finds himself with a strange new ability that drains psychic fragments of a person’s soul from their body, killing his victim in the process."
That's the tagline from Optical Osmosis... Holy FRAK JB, that's some gritty sounding goodness right there! Other than from the bowels of your dark, dark mind ;), where did the concept for this story come from? Is this the darkest material you've created yet?
JB ~ I actually wanted to write it as a superhero story, creating a character with powers that were a hybrid of the X-Men Rogue and Cyclops. What I wound up with was a darker, and infinitely better, story once I toned down the unnecessary superhero tropes that the original plotline called for.
EJ ~ Optical Osmosis is clearly born of some serious sci-fi & horror influences. Tell us about what drew you to writing speculative fiction (one of Jeff's earlier works, Spell of Entrapment, is fantasy). Who were your influences, favorite stories, etc.
JB ~ My strongest influence has to be the Saturday Morning Cartoons of the 1980's. Don't get me wrong. King and Koontz and all the rest of them are there, but nothing is as scary as seeing your cute little blue smurf friends turn into purple, monstrous versions of themselves. The episode of the Smurfs called The Purple Smurfs instilled in me a strange fascination with horror. I didn't realize this at the time of course. I was only a kid who was terrified of losing his Smurf pals to some stupid fly bite.
EJ ~ At the heart of most every good story I've read is a relationship. A side plot to Osmosis is the possibly troubled relationship between Greg (the protagonist) and his sister. What kinds of things were you looking to explore with them in terms of developing Greg's character?
JB ~ I wanted Greg to find a way to help his sister out without feeling like he was enabling her problems by giving her money or letting her harp on him 24/7. I wanted him to see that his sister is far from perfect and that sometimes a call out of the blue might actually be a serious cry for help. Most importantly, I wanted him to learn how to forgive himself and others.
EJ ~ Time for an inside scoop: Is Osmosis a super hero type of story where his "powers" might be able to be used for good, or is this guy just screwed for life? (We need to know... for reasons. :)
JB ~ Oh, he's definitely screwed. The Osmosis thing does some really weird stuff to the souls it drains, where they become much darker and nastier than they ever were in life.
EJ ~ Last questions, but certainly most important: Why should we bump Optical Osmosis to the top of our TBR lists, and where can we get it?
JB ~ The thing about Optical Osmosis is that it's meant to be a literary joyride, where you can throw caution to the wind vicariously through Greg and let someone else worry about the blasted consequences for a short while. This book is totally about the escapism, although you may learn a thing or two about telescopes or psychic imprints along the way.
As for where you might find it, you can go here...
Amazon
B&N
Smashwords
As for where you might find it, you can go here...
Amazon
B&N
Smashwords
Born in May of 1978, Jeff Beesler has been writing since the 7th grade, although he likes to point out that his elementary teachers in 2nd to 6th grades kept sending him to Young Author’s Conferences throughout his school district. When not writing, he can be found chatting it up on social media, reading books, or playing computer games.
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