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Larry M. Rosen Novels
Posted by: newgatedenizen ()
Date: December 29, 2011 10:30PM

I recently came across a series of novels by a local Centreville author Larry Rosen. They are sort of down the line of Tom Clancy/Patricia Cornwell. What made them a little more interesting is that that the main characters live in Centreville and the author works in many local details of Fairfax County and the entire DC metro area into the stories (e.g. roads, schools, restaurants, etc.).

Anyway, they come pretty cheap via EPUB ($3.00). Curious if anyone else has read them since I hadn't heard of them before.

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/larrymrosen

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Re: Larry M. Rosen Novels
Posted by: Drybrarian ()
Date: December 29, 2011 11:03PM

Cornwell writes crime fiction...Clancy writes techno-thriller fiction...How could someone write in a style that is and I quote "down the line" of these two authors?

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Re: Larry M. Rosen Novels
Posted by: Harlan Coben ()
Date: December 30, 2011 01:08AM

Drybrarian Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Cornwell writes crime fiction...Clancy writes
> techno-thriller fiction...How could someone write
> in a style that is and I quote "down the line" of
> these two authors?


Wait, fictional novels is no longer a "line" to go down ?

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Re: Larry M. Rosen Novels
Posted by: Larry M. Rosen ()
Date: January 01, 2012 09:56AM

Thanks so much for the plug for my novels. I've tried to make them character driven, reflect the D.C. consulting business, yet still provide a good deal of action. The novels are cross genre, but I don't place a great emphasis on technology and hardware, as Clancy tends to do. I'm glad you noticed my emphasis on the D.C. Metropolitan Area. I've lived there for 43 years. Its mixture of urban, suburban, and rural locations gives me opportunities for a variety of settings.

So thanks again. As a relatively new author, I appreciate any positive references to my work.

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Re: Larry M. Rosen Novels
Posted by: Larry M. Rosen ()
Date: January 01, 2012 10:03AM

Oh, I forgot to mention that I live in Manorgate, the community at Route 28 and Green Trails Boulevard. As for restaurants, I often eat at the Yorkshire Cafe, Anthony's, Sino's, Glory Days, Logan's Steak House, and the Colonnade Outback. Not exactly five star cuisine, but as a former Brooklynite, what do I know about fine dining? I grew up eating hot dogs off pushcarts.

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Re: Larry M. Rosen Novels
Posted by: @ Larry Rosen ()
Date: January 01, 2012 10:53AM

Pro Tip: This board is frequented by known felons, obsessives, hackers, freaks, and loners a hair's-breadth from complete breakdown/going postal.

As such, it is ill-advised to give out any personal information (if indeed the person posting as "Larry M. Rosen" is Larry M. Rosen).

Just some friendly advice, fwiw.

P.S. Good luck with the books.

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Re: Larry M. Rosen Novels
Posted by: Larry M. Rosen ()
Date: January 02, 2012 10:49AM

Thanks for the tip about this board being infested by miscreants. I won't divulge my e-mail address, home address, phone number, Social Security number, or bank accounts, as I had otherwise planned. I should have known that anything positive about my novels would be part of an identity theft black ops conducted by the combined forces of the Russian Mafia, Opus Dei, and the Democrat National Committee. And I thought the only extant danger in Centreville was ordering an omelet at IHOP.

Oh, I am indeed Larry Rosen, and I'm already regretting my naive exposure to organized crime. I knew I should have stayed in the life-on-the-edge world of database development. Well, so much for the joys of the Internet. That's what I get for using a medium invented by Al Gore.

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Re: Larry M. Rosen Novels
Posted by: newgatedenizen ()
Date: January 02, 2012 05:29PM

Dear Mr. Rosen (in my judgement your writing style matches that of the books - unless you are a really good imitator which is unlikely to be found on this forum - so I can accept you are legit),

I really enjoyed the 4 Haley and Willi novels - they provided many hours of entertainment! Well done (and I hope more is in the offing).

Did you have the outline of all 4 books already planned when you started the first one? e.g. did you already have all the characters in mind at the beginning or did you work some elements and plotlines in later? Do you have enough material in mind right now for additional books? How long where you working on the project before you published the first book?

I am curious if you had an editor or if the books are entirely self-published?

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Re: Larry M. Rosen Novels
Posted by: Larry Rosen ()
Date: January 03, 2012 10:26AM

Thanks for the kind words about my four Haley and Willi novels. I'm currently some two-thirds through a spinoff novel, the first in a Maxine Kordell series. It's titled Max-imum Penalty. Haley, Willi, and Mena are in it, but it's definitely Max's show, as she returns to Phoenix for a high school reunion. The novel involves painters Francisco Goya and Francisco Goitia, several chapters in which Sherlock Holmes appears, The Cluster and The Tracer, Pope Pius XII and Pope John Paul II, the Bush Administration, a character based on Nelson Rockefeller, and a rogues gallery of professional assassins—Vedova Nera, Ustasha, Mantide Religiosa, and El Encarnizado. I'm hoping to have it completed by April, but you never know.

I really can't answer your question about how I write the novels. Each one developed rather differently. I was trained in the consulting business to create a detailed topic sentence outline before writing. A fellow author told me years ago to drop that approach, and let the characters take you where they want to go. So that's what I try to do. Neil Simon once said that he never outlined, because if he did, he'd know how everything turned out, and then it wouldn't be any fun doing the writing. I agree with him. In the first novel, I had no idea that Haley had an alter ego when I started. He just showed up at a park and surprised me. I didn't know if Willi was 10 years older, 10 years younger, or about the same age as Haley. Then I watched Michelle Williams on TV, she smiled and puckered, and Willi was born. In the second novel, all I knew going in was that Willi would go down the dark side and execute a serial killer at the end. I wanted Haley and Willi to be equals, so she'd be more than a damsel in distress or a vehicle for moving the plot along. In the third, I had no idea whom the serial killers PKU and DPU were, until I was writing the scenes that unmasked them. The serial killer Johnny Bench was originally named Mister Anthony, until he told me that made him sound like a hairdresser. So you can see the process is rather unpredictable.

I have no master plan. The books just sort of come out of the air. I have no editor. My books are totally self-published. It would have been nice to have an editor to discuss plot points and phrasing. I'm never sure my decisions are best, and hearing another viewpoint can't hurt. Sometimes I fear my characters are too shrill or bloodthirsty. Other times I wonder if I should have left more corpses behind. But that's why it's an art, not a methodology.

Thanks for reading the books, and taking the time to reply. It's nice to learn someone enjoyed my novels.

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