RETURN OF THE FEATHERED SERPENT- Cody Catanzaro, a drunken kite-boarder, survives an accident and falls in love with Dr. Amanda Knoxville. A mysterious implant found during an MRI and bizarre occurrences around him suggest he is the second coming of Quetzacoatl. Click on the picture to find this e-book.
Gregory Brulte writes science fiction. He is also a real scientist.
Brulte, an anatomy and physiology instructor, is challenging stereotypes by showing how science can be an artform. He is a former dentist who has published 11 science fiction romance novels, three novellas and three short stories. He wrote his first screenplay in 1994.
Brulte said he loves fiction because of its endless possibilities.
“With fiction you’re not restrained,” he said. “You can go anywhere you want to go, do anything you want to do.”
English professor Francisco Bustos said he sees a place in the literary pantheon for science fiction like Brulte’s.
“It’s a kind of literature that opens up our imagination and takes us to new places,” he said. “It invites technology and new kinds of worlds and energies. It’s a way to tell history with a different kind of lens.”
In this way many of the worlds in Brulte’s novels deal with the dangers mankind poses to itself and to our planet, such as habitat destruction and extinctions.
“Though some of the stories in science fiction deal with worlds far removed from our reality, much of it serves to connect back to universal themes of human experience,” said Bustos.
A ZOOLOGICAL MYSTERY- Nicholas Nichols falls asleep watching Animal Planet and wakes up to a curious situation: extinct animals have started popping up in his home. An environmentally-conscious reporter comes over to interview him and is shocked to find it is not a hoax. She spends the night to investigate. Click on the picture to find this e-book.
For Brulte, that means presenting hope even in grim settings. His most recent novel on Amazon, “Amphibian Dream,” is the story of an introverted scientist who learned to quantum manipulate DNA and attempts to “morph himself into a hunk of masculinity” to win the heart of his psychiatrist.
“It’s always a happy ending,” said Brulte. “It’s not in me to do otherwise. I think people need that, it’s more of an escape.”
He said he follows the advice of sci-fi icon Ray Bradbury which is “Just write every day. Just write.”
Brulte said he does write every day, which has led to publishing success and a frenetic writing process. Barreling through a story is the only way he knows how to write, he said, so finishing 300 to 500 page stories in three months or less is the norm.
“Sometimes the faster you write the better it comes out and I rarely back up and change things,” he said. “Your subconscious just kind of works on it.”
Brulte said he embraces an organic progression in his stories.
“It’s like golf,” he said. “You hit the ball and then you hit the next shot from wherever you’re at.”
Brulte said music is often central to his novels.
“A lot of (of my) books have songs and have (a) musician as one of the main characters, so sometimes I throw lyrics in there,” he said. “Eventually what I want to do is link it (to technology so that) reading it on the Kindle is like a book with a soundtrack.”
Brulte is the songwriter and vocalist of the band 95% Harald and produces soundtracks for his novels.
“(The reader) will be able to play the songs as they read, but we still need to get them produced,” he said. “The stuff we have now is basically a demo.”
Brulte said he would like to revamp the Amazon e-book into an interactive experience across media platforms to create a multi-dimensional quality.
“If you’re lucky, it’ll have multiple levels to it,” he said. “It’ll have the story but then it’ll have undercurrents. It’s like levels. Someone will get something sociopolitical out of it, or metaphysical, or someone might just say ‘oh, that’s a nice love story.’ I guess you can do it intentionally, but I’ve found that a lot of times it’s unintentional.”
Brulte said his novels will teach.
“I’m bringing in the science, but making it so non-scientists can understand it,” he said. “With teaching, if you can’t take something complex and explain it simply, then you probably don’t understand it yourself.”
Brulte said he tries not to mention his writing career to those who know him.
“I hate it when it’s about the author, that’s why I never do interviews (except for this one).”
