The idea for Lunatics! came from a discussion between Terry Hancock and Rosalyn Hunter on space-homesteading, the problems of space settlers, and the potential personality conflicts of the space advocates who would be most likely be involved.
It was Rosalyn Hunter who conceived the characters and basic story ideas that grew into this series.
Rosalyn Hunter has been reading science-fiction since childhood, citing many Hugo and Nebula award-winning authors as influences, including writers as varied as Larry Niven, Anne McCaffrey, Tanith Lee, and Robert L. Forward. She was also strongly influenced by fantasy writers like J.R.R. Tolkien, Lewis Carroll, Hans Christian Anderson, and George MacDonald. She also enjoys the cyberpunk genre.
Other influences on her writing and especially screen-writing have come from her love of media science-fiction and fantasy, as well as Japanese anime and manga. She also has a love of ancient Greek mythology and classic literature in many genres.
She began writing herself at the age of 12, and has been an active amateur writer for many years. Recently, she has published a number of extremely well-received fan-fiction works under the pen name Aless Nox, including “The Potion” (Harry Potter) and “To Mend Icarus“, “Detective Lestrade and the Case of the Lonely Librarian“, and “Homeless Maddy” (BBC Sherlock). The “Maddy” series is very well regarded by a niche following, as it deals with some pretty high-concept social commentary, regarding class, wealth, and the implied dark underside of the series. She has also produced excellent audio readings of “Maddy” and “The Potion“.
She has also written several non-fiction articles. For Odyssey, the newsletter of OASIS (the LA chapter of the National Space Society), she wrote “The Curse of Mars“, which outlined the problematic history of Mars exploration. For Free Software Magazine, she has written a number of insightful articles, including her popular “A Beginner’s Introduction to the GNU/Linux Command Line” and the lighter (and somewhat controversial) “Completely Lost in Blender: The Untutorial“.
She is the original author of a free online biology text called “Biology: Answering the Big Questions of Life“, which has since been modified and extended as a WikiBook. In the early 2000s, she wrote an online blog as part of Anansi Spaceworks, called “The Space Homestead Corner”, in which she looked into some of the everyday problems that might face people living on the space frontier. Some of those concepts evolved into story ideas for Lunatics!
She has often been an early adopter of technology. She was on the Internet in the 1980s through usenet. She switched over to Linux and free software in 2000, as well as participating in software projects on Sourceforge. She was the originator of the story and adventure game-play concept for “The Light Princess“, an early free-culture project. She was a moderator and forum administrator for the “Anime Cafe“, a popular online site for anime fans in the early to middle 2000s.
She was a member and Vice-President of the UT Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS), and later went on to be active in the National Space Society.
She was an organizer of the 1996 Southwest Regional Space Conference and of the 2004 and 2007 International Space Development Conference children’s programs.
She studied horticulture in high school, going on to earn the first (and one of the very few) Bachelor of Science degrees in Botany from The University of Texas. Her research interests included closed-systems ecology, space agriculture, and molecular biology.
She interned as a biologist at the Argonne National Laboratory, studying the transformations of soil in restored prairie lands. She also worked for awhile as an environmental technician for Espey Huston and Associates in Austin, Texas, which included a great deal of environmental field work.
Later she attained her Master of Science degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Arizona, and went on to work as a laboratory manager for the Biological Imaging Center at the California Institute of Technology.
She has taught science at different levels, including high-school chemistry and biology as well as college biology for both majors and non-majors and botany. In Summer of 2013, she taught a course in “rocket science” to a group of middle school students as part of a program called “Gear Up!” She currently teaches biology and anatomy and physiology at Hill Community College. She’s also proud to be the mother of three beautiful and brilliant children.
We discussed some of her influences as a writer, but there are so many of them, I decided to make out some lists of her favorite (or most influential) authors and works:
Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors:
- Larry Niven
- Anne McCaffrey
- Tanith Lee
- C.J. Cherryh
- Joan Vinge
- Robert L. Forward
- S.P. Somtow
- Orson Scott Card
- Ursula K. LeGuin
- Frank Herbert
- Douglas Adams
- Harry Harrison
- Piers Anthony
- Stephen Donaldson
- J.R.R. Tolkien
- Lewis Carroll
- Hans Christian Anderson
- George MacDonald
- J.K. Rowling
Media Science Fiction and Fantasy:
- Star Trek
- Star Wars
- Doctor Who
- The Matrix
- Blade Runner
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Harry Potter
Anime and Manga:
- Ghost in the Shell
- Rurouni Kenshin
- Initial D
- Inu Yasha
- His & Hers Circumstances (KareKano/Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou)
- Kodocha (Kodomo no Omocha)
- Trigun
- Escaflowne
- Fushigi Yuugi
- Yame no Matsui
- Fruits Basket
- Paradise Kiss
- Planet Ladder
- Maison Ikkoku
- Ranma 1/2
- Revolutionary Girl Utena (Kakumei Shojou Utena)
- Great Teacher Onizuka
- Oh My Goddess!
- Hikaru no Go
- Nadesico
Other Authors and Influences:
- The Shadowrun books and universe
- Laura Engels-Wilder – The “Little House” series
- Arthur Conan-Doyle – Shelock Holmes Stories
- The Bronte Sisters – Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre
- Virginia Woolf – “A Room of Her Own”
- Collette
- BBC Sherlock series and fan works
- Movie musicals: Gigi, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music
- Fred Astaire dance movies
