When Gene Lempp was young he came to an epiphany while staring at the stars – nothing is written in stone, not even history. This belief sparked his lifelong quest to prove that thought true. Fiction being the best method of testing historical fact, Gene set about writing of medieval shapeshifting kingmakers and intelligent squirrels that covertly assisted in the great scientific discoveries of the past.
As a teen, Gene became deeply interested in how history and archaeology revolved around myth and legend to form the social development of humanity. Seeing the long cause and effect chain of history, he naturally started to twist it in an effort to discover the truth. What he found is that all events connect, are open to interpretation and are generally based on less than the full facts. Which, of course, led him to the idea that fiction and historical fact are entwined, symbiotic, like strands of DNA.
And then, mundane life called. After careers in health care, sales, and as a Pokemon gym master, Gene discovered a career that meshed with his beliefs in the entanglement of fact and fiction – public relations. He has spent the past 15 years as a targeted researcher and information editor for a variety of Fortune 500 companies, focusing on their public relations and marketing efforts in his quest to root out the secrets of the universe.
Gene combines his researching experience with his love of writing and the past to show how history, myth and archeology hold the keys to unearthing an endless treasure trove of story ideas. He showcases this understanding through his Designing from Bones blog series. “Give the same seed to a thousand different writers and watch a thousand different stories bloom to life,” sums up the power of Gene’s concept.
Gene is an Alternate History/Earth writer blending in elements of the paranormal, horror, fantasy and science fiction for a dark and delicious mix. He lives in northern Illinois with his wife, three active teen daughters and a loveable pair of cats.
You can connect with Gene here on his blog and on Twitter. Gene is also an active sponsor of Kait Nolan’s “A Round of Words in 80 Days” (#ROW80) focused on helping writer’s achieve their goals and dreams.
Love the shout out to the squirrels. I grew up on a grain farm in Manitoba. We quickly learned this Animal Farm-esque mantra: red squirrels good, gray squirrels bad (they’d chew through things to get to grain).
Happy writing!
Around here they are all gray with the rare exception of a black squirrel (which are very aggressive). The grays have a love for the rubber coating on phone and internet cables, so much so that the various companies had to come up with cables that have squirrel repellent infused into them. Still love them, we have several acorn-bearing trees and rake them into piles. It’s fun watching a dozen squirrels feast from the same heap.
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