Author James Rollins' Unique Method

Jan. 15, 2016

Bestsellers From A Cardboard Box

A 500-year-old mummy that’s not supposed to be there; solar flares triggering huge natural disasters; a derelict Russian scientific base buried, with many of its secrets, in an iceberg; gun-toting special ops soldiers trained to understand and defend America’s cutting-edge science — these plotlines all spring from the pen of bestselling novelist James Rollins.

Rollins will discuss his latest book, “Bone Labyrinth,” when he visits the Traverse City Opera House Wednesday, Jan. 27 at 7pm as part of the National Writers Series. A mix of non-stop action, science and plots that NWS Executive Director Anne Stanton says “turn more corners than a UPS truck,” “Bone Labyrinth” currently tops the New York Times’ list of bestselling e-books.

For material, Rollins (a pen name; his given name is James Paul Czajkowski) relies on well-honed habits as an intellectual pack rat. A worn cardboard box proves the point. Here, hundreds, if not thousands, of his unfiltered ideas land. As he reads other authors’ work and keeps up with some 20 magazine subscriptions, he jots down notes on whatever strikes him as interesting, whether it’s a new scientific theory, discoveries by a Jesuittrained German scientist from the 1600s or a news item from yesterday’s paper.

“I’m a bit obsessivecompulsive about it,” he admitted.

Before he begins a novel, he culls the box for ideas he can weave together. Even he doesn’t know what he’s looking for at that point, but eventually his scientific training and natural curiosity help him connect the dots.

“When I start pulling things out, I start seeing some connections, ones I never considered before,” Rollins said.

Like many of his works, “Bone Labyrinth,” the 11th and latest in his popular “SIGMA Force” series, centers around a scientific puzzle — in this case, the real-life anthropological mystery of the Great Leap Forward, a period 35,000 to 50,000 years ago when there was a sudden, and asyet unexplained, burst of human progress in the arts, technology and language.

The novel’s good guys — a strange mix of Western geneticists, priests, anthropologists and science-savvy special ops folks — square off against the rapacious schemes of a Chinese general who believes that whoever solves the scientific conundrum first will control the future of mankind.

From cover to cover, the protagonists of “Bone Labyrinth” – including a disarmingly smart, yet timid, young western lowland gorilla – sprint from continent to continent, pursued, drugged and slugged at every turn by the wily and well-armed antagonists. The relentless action propels the reader along – so much so that even Rollins admits he has to work hard to keep up with his characters.

“I start out with an outline — a start and a finish,” he said, “but the characters can surprise me, too.”

At its heart, it is the science — and its potential for either saving or ruining the planet — that the reader is most likely to remember.

That should be no surprise, as Rollins spent the first 20 years of his career as a University of Missouri-trained veterinarian, running a large practice in California. He wrote on lunch breaks and, energy permitting, late at night after 18-hour workdays.

At first he focused on short stories, lacking the confidence to write a novel.

“But the more I thought about it, I liked reading novels, especially series, and I realized that’s how my brain works. I’m happy to say that the short stories are buried in my backyard,” he said.

In those years, Rollins says he was still more of the “mild-mannered vet” than a writer. He jokes that he once considered giving his [human] clients one of his books if they would have their cat or dog neutered.

In the end, he quit veterinary medicine to devote himself to writing full time. Since then, he has pushed himself hard, not only as writer, but also as a spelunker, scuba diver and world traveler.

In addition to the “SIGMA Force” novels, he’s written six stand-alone thrillers, fantasy novels such as the five-installment “Banned and the Banished” series and the “Godslayer” series, which consists of two books so far, with plans for more to follow. He has also collaborated with Rebecca Cantrell to write several works in the “Order of the Sanguines” series and with Grant Blackwood on the military thriller novels “The Kill Switch” (2014) and “War Hawk,” which is due out later this year. There is talk of a movie based on the “SIGMA Force” books.

One of his most high-pressure writing gigs came in 2008, when Random House commissioned him to write the novelization of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the fourth movie in the adventure science fiction franchise.

“It was trickier than I thought, but I’m a huge Indiana Jones fan,” said Rollins. “I’m waiting for them to call me again.”