Rosen, Selina 1960-

PERSONAL:

Born February 2, 1960; divorced; children: Meyer. Hobbies and other interests: Farming, fencing, sculpting, woodworking.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Yard Dog Press, 710 W. Redbud Ln., Alma, AR 72921. E-mail—selinarosen@cox.net.

CAREER:

Writer, editor; founder of Yard Dog Press, Alma, AR. Worked variously as a mill worker, housekeeper, home health aide, teacher, in construction, in a salvage yard, and as a house cleaner.

WRITINGS:

FANTASY, HORROR, AND SCIENCE FICTION

Queen of Denial, Meisha Merlin Publishing (Decatur, GA), 1999.

The Boat Man (novella), Yard Dog Press (Alma, AR), 1999.

The Bubba Chronicles, Yard Dog Press (Alma, AR), 2000.

Chains of Freedom, Meisha Merlin Publishing (Decatur, GA), 2001.

Recycled (sequel to Queen of Denial), Meisha Merlin Publishing (Decatur, GA), 2003.

Fire & Ice, Yard Dog Press (Alma, AR), 2003.

Reruns, Yard Dog Press (Alma, AR), 2004.

Material Things (novella), Yard Dog Press (Alma, AR), 2004.

Chains of Destruction, Meisha Merlin Publishing (Decatur, GA), 2005.

Hammer Town, 2nd edition, Yard Dog Press (Alma, AR), 2006.

Strange Robby, Meisha Merlin Publishing (Decatur, GA), 2006.

Bad Lands: A Holmes & Storm Mystery, Five Star (Waterville, ME), 2007.

"HOST" SERIES

Host, Yard Dog Press (Alma, AR), 1997.

Fright Eater, Yard Dog Press (Alma, AR), 1998.

Gang Approval, Yard Dog Press (Alma, AR), 1999.

EDITOR

Bubbas of the Apocalypse, Yard Dog Press (Alma, AR), 2001.

More Stories That Won't Make Your Parents Hurl, Yard Dog Press (Alma, AR), 2003.

Shadows in Green, Yard Dog Press (Alma, AR), 2004.

International House of Bubbas, Yard Dog Press (Alma, AR), 2005.

Houston: We've Got Bubbas!, Yard Dog Press (Alma, AR), 2007.

Editor of additional titles for Yard Dog Press; work represented in anthologies, including The Anthology at the End of the Universe: Leading Science Fiction Authors on Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, edited by Glenn Yeffeth, Benbella Books, 2005; contributor to fantasy and science fiction magazines.

SIDELIGHTS:

Selina Rosen lived a very difficult life before being able to support herself with her writing. She was married for twelve years to a man with whom she homesteaded in the rural Ozarks, living without electricity, running water, or telephone as she tended the garden and animals and performed the household tasks without benefit of technology. Rosen also learned construction and timbering, skills that she put to good use after her divorce, when she had to make a new life for herself and her son. She left the marriage with only an old truck filled with tools, a dozen chickens, and three milk goats. She worked in a pallet mill and saved enough to buy three acres with a creek, and she began again. Like the first house, this one was built with recycled materials and local wood.

Rosen became involved with the Society for Creative Anachronism and learned to be skilled with a sword. When she left the group, she had a commanding knowledge of medieval history and armored combat, which she was later able to use in her writing. She suffered a compound fracture while fighting and lost her job at the mill. With no insurance to pay the extensive medical bills, she took a job in construction and hung ceilings with one arm in a cast. She worked for a short time in a salvage yard and then began to clean houses, a job that enabled her to be at home when her son was there. Rosen had always been an ambitious writer, but it was at this time that her writing career began to take shape. Her final job before becoming independent was taking care of an elderly man.

At her Web site, Rosen comments: "Among some of the more eclectic things I have done are: teaching not just one, but two Torah classes—one to adults and one to pre-barmitzvah aged boys (lost that when I came out, what can I say? It's a reform temple, but we're still in the South); doing stand-up comedy routines opening for a drag show (still do that one occasionally); entering and winning a nail-driving competition; holding the unofficial women's arm-wrestling championship of Northwest Arkansas (it's what happens when you beat the woman who holds the title three times in a row at a party)."

At science fiction writers' conventions she met Mercedes Lackey, who sent one of Rosen's stories to Marion Zimmer Bradley, who bought it. Her stories were included in anthologies, and other writers provided support. Rosen's books include Strange Robby, a sci fi detective story set in the near future. Female detective Spider Webb and her partner Tommy Chan are on the trail of the "Fry Guy," a killer who melts the brains of his victims. Bad Lands: A Holmes & Storm Mystery is a story of the paranormal that features Maggie Holmes, a forensic pathologist who signs up for a reality show on an island that was the scene of two groups of murders that were committed twenty years apart. A Kirkus Reviews contributor concluded that this story is "not for the faint of heart."

Rosen is the founder and editor-in-chief of Yard Dog Press, a small press that specializes in novellas and anthologies. In an interview with Kenneth Mark Hoover for the Strange Horizons Web site, Rosen said: "Yard Dog Press is a micro press that isn't afraid to say that we publish entertaining science fiction, fantasy, and horror. We publish real complete stories with an actual beginning, middle, and an end that's conclusive. You won't find a bunch of atmospheric crap wrapped in a layer of angst that leaves you asking what the hell happened when you close one of our books…. But our biggest strength is we not only put out totally different books, but we can compete by offering the reading public something the big houses can't, something that isn't easy to pigeonhole, something truly different."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2007, review of Bad Lands: A Holmes & Storm Mystery.

ONLINE

Science Fiction,http://www.scifidimensions.com/ (January 2, 2008), William Alan Ritch, review of Strange Robby.

Selina Rosen Home Page,http://www.selinarosen.com (January 2, 2008).

Strange Horizons,http://www.strangehorizons.com/ (June 26, 2006), Kenneth Mark Hoover, interview.

Yard Dog Press Web site,http://www.yarddogpress.com (January 2, 2008).