The Making of Rosalie: An Introduction

I wrote Rosalie as summer turned to fall in 2022, after a move to Bristol and a new job which had increased my spirits and outlook on life. This book marked a return to a more superheroic form of storytelling that I last really utilized in Whitewater, a similar novel about a girl who turns into a Great White Shark. While Rosalie is a bleak novel, and arguably contains elements of Greek tragedy in its ending, it was meant to romanticise and glorify the daily-grind of customer-facing service, with the besuited, smart-talking asshole transformed into a supervillain and our hero a behind-the-counter waitress. The cinematic influence of David Cronenberg soon bled its way into the pages, and our main character's transformations became as yucky and weird as real-life adolescence is for all teenagers, throwing up petrol and having head-lights for eyes.

Pacific City is a place riven by austerity, possessed with gangs and coming alive only at night, where it bursts with a futuristic, techno pulse; any film fans will recognise these tropes from Akira. Indeed, the relationship between Rosalie and Jack, and his eventual downfall, owes a strong debt to that film.

I'll admit the Jack character is based, subconsciously, on myself. Not in his background, but his temperament and being governed by his emotions are huge flaws I see in myself -- in this way, Jack's fate is sealed by his inability to control his interior desires. He is someone who, unlike Rosalie, cannot deal with the passion and anger inside. In the end, it consumes him and takes him into the sky, but it cannot help him reach the heavens. Anger will be a motivator, for sure, but it won't help you reach your ultimate goal.