Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason Michael Primrose.
Jason Michael, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
This story and these characters came into my life when I was ten years old. (I still have the first version of the story printed and bound!) Throughout my teen and young adult years, I tried to balance part-time jobs, attentiveness in class, completing homework, and studying for tests, with the tug of my imagination. I read fiercely, everything from Neil Gaiman to Cormac McCarthy to Madeline L’Engle to C.S. Lewis to Marvel Comics. I preferred getting lost in other realities and universes versus getting suppressed by ours. There was a freedom in those stories, tortured characters able to triumph through what seemed insurmountable page after page. I always loved writing as well, and so I wrote and I read, I read and I wrote, and as you can see, it didn’t leave much time for schoolwork or anything else. From ages 15-22, I wrote and finished Dragon Wars, an eight book series detailing the legacy of a young boy and a dragon planet caught in an intergalactic war for Dragon Magic.
And then, I stopped. I’m not sure what happened. Maybe it was the futility of it all. My enrollment in the VCU English program, my access to the publishing industry, my confidence, or lack thereof, in my writing skills. It built a brick wall in front of me that I was too afraid to climb. (Can I blame this on being a millennial?) Publishing the series didn’t feel possible, and so, I had to find something that was.
Marketing called to me. Eight years. Eight long years suppressing my imagination to try to wrestle adulthood to the ground. Keep a steady job, pay bills, improve my quality of life. This seemed an easier obstacle, more like a maze to navigate than a wall to climb. So many other people had done it already, anyway. And I saw them all, living great lives on Facebook and later Instagram. (I just checked my Facebook feed today for the first time in a month.)
And so marketing became my new outlet. It started with Fashion shows, which led to experiential and influencer marketing, which led to E-Commerce and Social Media, then Brand and Creative Strategy. I’ve been fortunate enough to find opportunities to route my creative energies through my professional career, often working behind or for other creatives in a particular industry. My ability to exist and operate behind the scenes allowed me to avoid criticism or failure, the spotlight, and the kind of hard work that comes with building your own business and universe.
I loved the work, I really loved the work. I loved working with people and I loved creating things. I think it was the impermanence that woke me up. That my imagination continued to expand, that I searched for more possibilities within businesses, and it often caused conflict with my superiors.
At around age 33, I said to my best friend, “I feel like a caged creative.” It was kind of a joke, but it was absolutely true. Wouldn’t it be great if I could play the victim and say someone had locked me away and forced me to create for them? And I had to scheme and plot to escape, to recapture my own mind and use my powers for my true purpose? That would be a great story, but no, I caged myself. One job or consultancy after another, I sought these roles that didn’t require responsibility or true sacrifice.
I’d been musing over my lifestyle and future goals since the pivotal age of 30, wondering, “If I could do anything, what would I do?” But I knew what I wanted. I knew what my heart yearned for. It was just that damn wall waited for me. Towering over my intention, casting harsh shadows on my resolve.
I realized during that journey down the path to self-discovery, me climbing out of the box society told me to build around myself, is what changed my perspective forever. It led me to reshape my original ideas with intent and endeavor to bring them to life. Now, the door to the cage is open, and though I still think I haven’t climbed out, how I view what I’m capable of is fundamentally transformed. Tapping into my obsession with the exploration of society’s intricacies and freed from my mental constraints and the dream of the world, I found a deeper story for these characters and this universe. Note – there will be dragons, but they will be very different than the dragons we’ve seen on any screen.
And thus, I decided to bring my series to life. I would take the money I earned and create something I could be proud of. I’d build my universe – (a universe that, despite my negligence, was as vibrant and intricate and dynamic as the day it found my head.) I say that of course because if you’ve read Elizabeth Gilbert’s BIG MAGIC, you know that ideas are somewhat sentient and if they stick with you, it means something.
Twenty-four years since inception, The Lost Children of Andromeda was born.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road to where I am today has been full of research, failure, fear, joy, wonder, imagination, sorrow, uncertainty, guilt…the list really goes on and on. Writing for me is like a superpower, I think it needs to be used for it to work, and when I stopped for all those years, I wasn’t really doing the work I was meant to do.
I would say it set me back, but a better way to put it is that it adjusted my path. When I began writing ZOSMA, the process was as exhilarating as it was challenging. I was rusty, to say the least. This is what happens when you don’t use your powers. (You’ll understand when you read “2052 Ends With Z”) I didn’t know how to use my powers and, full transparency, I was in one of my darkest places while writing that manuscript. The road to completion was paved so thick with self-doubt, that I foolishly let expectation drive my pen instead of passion. I focused on being a good writer more than telling a good story. We all want to be good at something right? I tried to do it right, like you would at a job or for a client, follow the rules, fit within parameters, use best practices.
That said, I needed Zosma, and I think the world needs Zosma too.
This time around, I’m working on my third full-length manuscript, which is a rewrite. I looked at problem-solving through prose, weaving back story with action and dialogue, foreshadowing and poetic language — in a fresh light. It isn’t work for me, it’s a function of my being. It is what I must do. I’m happy to say that lately, I feel more alive than I ever have. My rule is to write a page a day, and so I jot down dialogue and world descriptions mid-dinner conversations. If I have a free minute, I open my laptop and write a few sentences.
I have dark days, always. I have actively cut down the weeds of expectation as I till the soil for the future growth of myself and the series. But lessons have been learned. Progress has been made. I had to let go of the fear of my own inadequacy, one born from the notion that one must be perfect in order to be anything or do anything. It’s simply not true. Like Allister, my main character, I’m still learning how to use my gifts. I know that as artists, sometimes we take creating too seriously. It’s supposed to be fun and you’re supposed to learn as you grow. Everyday, I take a step back and gave myself permission to make mistakes — because I’m showing up, and I’m figuring it out, and I’m getting better. Resilience is key. Aaaannd, I have six more books to go.
Please tell us about Lost Children of Andromeda Book Series.
The Lost Children of Andromeda is a Science Fiction Fantasy book series. Zosma is the first installment of the seven-book Lost Children of Andromeda series, a new illustrated young adult science fiction saga that imagines the ramifications of today’s uncertain global socioeconomic and political landscape. A diverse cast of humans, superhumans, and aliens from a range of ethnic, racial, and orientational backgrounds, crafts a world that highlights our ability to find our purpose, own our truth and overcome.
Zosma follows Allister Adams on his search for an intergalactic refugee from the Andromeda Galaxy. The year is 2052 and our world is on the brink. Natural disasters have ravaged entire regions, borders have closed, and global surveillance has killed privacy. The world’s elite have enlisted a rogue organization known as C20 to find a solution to the approaching apocalypse, but this organization and their leader, Rabia Giro, have other plans. Allister fights to discover the truth about Zosma and her history on Earth, but he must explore a deeper truth about his own purpose if he hopes to master his powers and save her before the immensely powerful energy is used in a battle for control of the world’s remaining resources.
I am the author of the Lost Children of Andromeda Series. I think that I’m known for my ability to tell stories for brands across social, content, and influencers. I think the novel doesn’t have the brand power it needs, but, if I could tell you what I want it to be known for — it would be — telling stories that have inspirational nods to finding purpose, carving your own destiny, abandoning fear, and challenging the status quo, all wrapped in a fantastical world of political unrest, an inevitable apocalypse, and a looming alien invasion. I think it’s standard science fiction from a different perspective. I’m super proud to be an LGBTQ person of color writing in this genre.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
My goal has always been to open minds, to expand people’s perspective, and for people to look at each other with a new level of understanding and compassion. If I can get one person to stop and think, to reconsider how they’ve treated or judged someone, or their own potential, then — I will consider myself successful every day.
As an LGBTQ person of color, I’ve lived my life fighting to alter what preconceived notions people had about who I was, how I should behave, who I should love, or what I should do for a living. But how can I communicate my points and really get people to understand me if I haven’t done the research?
That’s why I think Vulnerability and Resilience are the two most essential qualities/characteristics you can have. Vulnerability allows you to feel, deeply and honestly. It allows you to explore the scariest parts of yourself and subconscious. Resilience allows you to recover from that exploration, as it can be scary and dark and lonely. Resurfacing from that experience, whether bad or good, gives us what we need to keep moving forward, should we choose to. I’m not sure passion is can inform that choice without those two arms carrying it forward. There are, of course, applications for vulnerability and resilience as it pertains to dealing with criticism and shaming and finances and failure, but I think it all starts with us, and how we perceive the world and ourselves. It all starts with deciding to take own our journey.
I always say, “You’re not lost if you’re here.” Here could be different places for everyone, but where you arrive and how life intersects isn’t by accident, it’s by design.
Resilience is what gets me out of bed in the morning and sometimes keeps me up writing at night. It’s the, “I know I can do this/I know I will finish this.” It’s the, “It doesn’t matter that it’s taken me a year to write my second novel and no one is reviewing or covering my first one. Or that I have five more left to conceptualize and complete” It’s the, “Your love for yourself and for these characters is enough. That’s all you need to keep going.”
And I firmly believe that it is.
Pricing:
- ZOSMA – Hardcover Novel – $24.95
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lostchildrenofandromeda.com/
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lostchildrenofandromeda/
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/thecagedcreative/
Image Credit:
Emily Acosta – main photo, Samir Janjua and Edris Mansoor – event photos, Elizabeth Sagan – Book interior images
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
