Tracking Down Selina Rosen and Strange Robby
by Amy Herring

Author/editor Selina Rosen (“Selina”) drove through ten states, racking up over 32 hours in drive-time and almost 2,200 miles to attend Dragon*Con this year in back-to-back appearances starting at L.A.Con IV/World Con in Anaheim, CA. With that kind of determination, it’s no wonder that Selina is debuting her first hard cover novel this year, Strange Robby (Meisha Merlin Publishing). Esther Friesner has called the book “a sharp, satisfying page-turner, a thrilling ride like a cross between N.Y.P.D. BLUE and THE X-FILES.” You can find Selina promoting Strange Robby at the Meisha Merlin Publishing booth in the Marriott Marquis Ballroom.

To say that I interviewed Selina at WorldCon, is stretching things. What I did do was chase her through convention parties and bars, catching up with her for a moment of repartee, than losing her again as she chortled her way through crowds of friends and fans. Her editor told me that finding her would be no problem and he was right. That booming alto voice with the distinctive Arkansas twang heard over the crowd, almost always followed by raucous laughter, is trademark Selina. After every encounter, I found myself laughing, too, no surprise after sampling Selina’s writing.

Selina’s fiction runs amuck through science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Her stories range from futuristic hard-boiled crime fiction to redneck “Bubbas” encountering aliens, witches, ghosts, and zombies, to a lesbian Kabbalah-wielding rabbi fighting a new breed of vampires. C. J. Cherryh has called Selina “one in a million,” “a creative soul” whose experience has yielded “truly outrageous ideas and a way of looking at the universe with attitude with a capital ‘A’.”

In addition to her writing, Selina is editor-in-chief of Yard Dog Press, whose current motto proclaims “kicking literary ass for over 10 years” (www.yarddogpress.com). For more information about Selina and her work, including the strangest biography I’ve ever read, go to Selina’s website at www.selinarosen.com.