You've been involved in martial arts for over twenty-five years.  How did you get so involved?

I'm in my 30th year of practice. I began, all those long years ago, because I wound up in a South American prison after defending a woman on the street from the advances of a drunken policeman. It was a bad experience and it could have ended up much better for both me and the woman if I'd had a modicum of martial training. On the way to jail I made a deal with myself that if I got out of the situation alive, I'd study martial arts. I managed to find a way to freedom and I started training shortly thereafter. A few years in, the physical path turned spiritual and then became a real life quest for me.
 
With such great success in the nonfiction world, what drew you to start writing mysteries and thrillers?

Fiction has always been, and remains, my first passion. I have written far more novels than non-fiction books. As for the mystery/thriller category, my first agent liked genre fiction and steered me there and I sold my first book in six days to a major New York house. After some success with the category, including a flattering comparison to Dashiell Hammett that thrilled me, I found my spiritual path and the darkness and violence the category required at odds. That conflict roiled and boiled inside me until I turned to using martial arts and Chinese philosophy themes to set the violence in a moral context that made sense to me. It's a good solution for my particular sensibilities and the result is what I hope readers will find a unique voice, page-turning subject matter and a very clear style.
 
Most writers have themes that they embrace, certain types of stories that they like to write. You're books reach back into past lives.  Do you have specific themes that you like to address or do you see a myriad of choices?

Chinese philosophy, the old Daoist traditions we know today as go with the flow, revere nature, and don't use force against force, provide a context in which my characters operate. It's a certain world view and my stories are contained within it.
 
How many past lives has Xenon Pearl lived?

I suppose I'll know that when I reach the end of the series. In each book he rediscovers memories and connections that enrich his current experience.
 
Do you draw from your own past lives to come up with ideas to write about?

I started publishing in national magazines when I was 18. I studied herpetology, zoology, veterinary medicine and have been a motojournalist/motorcycle tester, zookeeper, forest ranger, advertising copywriter, marketing consultant, senior executive in the pharmaceutical industry, run a multimillion-dollar multilevel company, written Hollywood screenplays, and currently write novels and teach Chinese kung fu with a sword in my hands many hours a day. In a sense I suppose you could say I've lived a number of lives in this one, and they all inform my fiction.
 
Do you write to entertain or do you write to teach--or is it really about both?

I like to share interesting ideas by coating with in the sweet candy of story so that a reader doesn't even notice them deliciously going down.
 
You wrote a book of "apocalyptic, speculative fiction" entitled THE CROCODILE AND THE CRANE between the Xenon Pearl Martial Arts Thrillers.  How do you decide what projects to work on?

I like to alternate between thrillers and literary works so that I keep my fiction fresh.
 
Can we expect another Xenon Pearl Thriller coming soon?

I certainly hope so. My current project involves ancient China juxtaposed against the modern world and may take me a bit longer to finish.
 
What type of "in person" events do you have coming up?  Signings?  Conferences?

I have a signing at Books & Books in South Miami Beach on June 18 and some other local events, but the real big answer to your question is that The Huffington Post is currently serializing Quiet Teacher. This is a fresh and exciting mix of media in the tradition of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Charles Dickens, andy I hope it will enliven the link between on-line newspapers and books.
 
Anything else you want to include, talk about?

I can promise that readers of The Big Thrill will find QUIET TEACHER and THE CUTTING SEASON to be the kind of books that live in their imagination long after the covers are closed.

You can find more information on Aurthur Rosenfeld by logging onto his website: http://www.arthurrosenfeld.com/

Contributing editor, Christine Goff is the award-winning author of the bestselling "Birdwatcher's Mystery" series.  She began her career writing non-fiction for local, regional and national publication.  Chosen Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' 2002 Writer of the Year, two of her novels were named finalists for the prestigious Willa Literary Award for Best Original Paperback Fiction; and her latest novel, DEATH SHOOTS A BIRDIE, was a named finalist for the Colorado Authors League 2008 Best Genre Fiction Award. Her novels focus on environmental concerns through bird-related issues. Currently, she is working on a new book; a thriller set in Israel.