Interview w/ Jennifer Rahn
Well, here is my review with Jennifer Rahn. Enjoy! SMD: Thanks for doing this interview with me! For the audience, could you please introduce yourself and perhaps give a little brief history about who you are, etc.? JR: Hello! I’m Jennifer Rahn, author of The Longevity Thesis. I am a first generation Canadian, born in Saskatchewan and raised in Alberta , to immigrant parents from Germany and Malaysia. Of course, with a background like that I only speak English and a smattering of French. I’ve visited family around the world, but otherwise, my life has been uneventful. I’ve basically gone to school for a very long time, and I’m pretty much still there, graduated or not. I currently work in the cancer research field, studying mechanisms of metastasis. I did a short stint in the biotech industry, but ultimately I’ve found that academia suits me much better.What initially sparked your curiosity in writing fiction? Who influenced you in your writing?Probably all the books I read as a kid. I don’t remember learning to read, but I’m told my brother taught me when I was three. On Saturdays I was usually left to my own devices in a library while my parents shopped. Endless books, full of illustrations and stories. As many as I wanted. My Mum influenced me the most. She trained as an Early Childhood Development specialist, and basically fed me books, crayons and plastic alphabet letters ever since I can remember. The only other person I remember leaving a strong impression on me in terms of my ability to write stories was Mr. Pezim, my grade 11 English teacher, mainly because he introduced me to Edgar Allan Poe. That’s not to say that I don’t appreciate the support or publication opportunities given to me by my other Language Arts teachers (Ms. Baldwin and Mr. Shields for ETC Magazine and Stepping Stones), but as always, the good stories drew me in the most.SMD: If you wouldn’t mind, could you perhaps explain in idiot terms what sort of research you are doing in the cancer field? What you’re working towards, etc. I’m a cancer survivor, so I have somewhat of a vested interest in any cancer research by default. JR: I trained extensively in experimental breast cancer pathology, focusing on the mechanisms behind the spread of the tumour cells. My supervisor was a clinical pathologist, so she taught me all about the clinical features of breast cancer cells, how to recognise them, stage them, etc., and my supervisory committee made sure I was up to speed on all the current experimental techniques in molecular and cell biology. To sum it up, I was able to study how cancer-specific proteins contribute to cancer spread in both artificial model systems (cells in a culture dish) and in samples from actual patients. The goal, as always, was to understand how cancer cells moved so that we could identify ways of preventing this movement therapeutically. Graduates are always strongly encouraged to leave town and broaden their horizons, so I moved 300 km south and took up a project on how proteins unique to brain cancer can assist in the migration of these cells throughout the brain. Hopefully I will find ways to block this movement, which would give the surgeons and radiologists a better chance of eradicating the tumour at its primary site. SMD: What are you currently reading (fiction or nonfiction)? Who are your favorite writers past or present and why? JR: I am currently reading Tesseracts Eleven (signed copy!) which I picked up at the EDGE/Dragon Moon Press Hot Off the Press Party last November, and will shortly resume reading Darwin’s Paradox by Nina Munteanu (not signed, but I’ll hunt her down). After that, I want to see what The Golden Compass is all about.As a child, I particularly remember Hans Christian Andersen, Brothers Grimm and Maurice Sendak. Later on, Zilpha Keatley Snyder and E.B. White. Now I live in perpetual angst, hoping that Joan D. Vinge will publish something new. Honestly, the woman writes literary crack. I think I was covalently bound to my copy of Catspaw for about three months, and I’m thoroughly addicted to her Snow Queen series. I also enjoy Barbara Hambly, J.K. Rowling, Alexandre Dumas, Shakespeare, Ben Johnson, Oscar Wilde, John Marston, Sarah Monette and Dean Koontz, and I get a huge kick out of the weirdness of Tanith Lee. I also spend way too much time/money reading manga (Bleach, Saiyuki, Hellsing). As for why, it’s because I get completely immersed in the stories, to the point where I really don’t care if the world is exploding so long as I can finish the book, and I love the characters that are tinged with neuroses. Please do not ask me to read Joseph Conrad. Ever. Or I may harm myself.SMD: What were your influences for The Longevity Thesis, if any? JR: Hmm. Possibly a combo of Joan D. Vinge and Tanith Lee, but I doubt very much that anyone other than me sees it that way. SMD: The Longevity Thesis is set in a world where medical technology is somewhat similar to today, minus the technology. Medical knowledge seems to be on par with what we might expect of the field today if things like CT scanners didn’t exist. Did your medical background have a significant affect on the creation of this world? Did you always envision that your world would be this highly scientific underground that merged aspects of the medieval with the world of today? JR: I actually wanted to write a story that examined frustrated anger, self esteem, personal development, spiritual development and finding inner peace. The setting came about because having spent most of my adult life in medical academia, it was easy and natural for me to write it that way. I think I always envisioned the Desert and the underground tunnels, as they could represent a repressed person (crusty, confused and boring on the outside, vibrant, confused and complex on