Rowe recently left the coastal town of Winchester Bay, Oregon where he owned a 51 foot commercial fishing boat called the Ceres. He works at a big box home store in Portland, Oregon now.
He was a nuclear power plant operator serving aboard the USS Norfolk, SSN 714, in the U. S. Navy in his earlier years. He went on to become a power plant operator and then Plant Operations Supervisor in the civilian world, and now has downsized from the mainstream in order to partake in his life-long dream of writing. You can find his books online and can keep up with the latest news on rwcollinspublishing.com
Cernon
Start here for the best introduction to the world of Paradigm Lost. Cernon is a novella intended to give the new reader a taste of this world which spans time from pre-historic up to a thousand years into the future. The Sophia Shaman tells a marvelous tale of harrowing adventure as she relates a shamanistic journey she took with Cernon, the father of Cernunnos, to his beginning. There she adopts a new tribe and helps them survive a cataclysmic event. She also finds herself a part of mankind's ancient history in a shocking role.
Jamari and the Manhood Rites
Of his original series, Jamari and the Manhood Rites, Parts I, II, and III, Rowe says: When the world order is disrupted by calamitous upheaval, the Elk Creek Tribe builds their culture separate from the many surviving factions who still war with each other. It's the year 2115 and Jamari is discovering many new things about his community as he works to become a full citizen. The reader, as they follow Jamari's endeavors, finds that when Native American Mythology meets Celtic Druidism in a culture built around Gnostic Christianity, strange things come to life! Journey with Jamari as he discovers his place in his community, and within his culture.
The Manhood Rites has been described as a prequel and the author finds this a fair representation. There's still a lot to enjoy as Jamari's world is built around him and his actions within it!
Eros Times
While some have said that there is too much sexual interaction in book one, the author took some scenes out because HE felt they were too graphic. Eros Times is a collection of those tales. It doesn't stand alone well at all and the reader would want to have read the Manhood Rites before delving into this one in order to follow the scenes.
Jamari Shaman
A couple years after the first publication of The Manhood Rites, Part 1, Rowe published "Paradigm Lost: Jamari Shaman", the second book in the Manhood Rites series. He reports that he drastically toned down the sexual interaction in Jamari Shaman in order to bring the work into focus on the actual goal of the trilogy: exploring human spirituality. He also hopes to reach a broader audience. The characters have led the tale in some unexpected directions, but, the overall theme remains steady on course.
For the reader who wants to start a series without going through the intricacies of world-building, Jamari Shaman is designed as the place for you to enter the story. The first three chapters are taken directly from The Manhood Rites as "key" elements of the series set up. The continuing reader can skip those three chapters.
Night Studies
This book of erotica can stand alone as the characters are developed enough to follow the events absent reading the first books. One reader said of The Night Studies: "After reading this, I've decided if anyone wants to be with me, they're going to need to read this book and promise to act out each scene with me!" In fact, Night Studies is written to an inexperienced audience who could use some instruction into the how-to's and do's-and-don't's of gay sex. It's a far better experience if you can share the first time through with a lover!
The Founder's Sons
Three years after that first big step, Paradigm Lost: The Founder's Sons, Part III of the Manhood Rites Trilogy was released and is now available. The readers' most common response to this book, and the conclusion of the first trilogy, is that it's prophetic. In fact, some current events have come to prove VERY prophetic and could have developed directly from Rowe's character interactions in The Founder's Sons.
Even though this will conclude the Manhood Rites Trilogy, there's a lot to explore in this new future world and Rowe says that he has a lot more in store as he explores both the future and the past of The Elk Creek Tribe! Paradigm Lost will host another trilogy focused on The Tribe of 2118 and forward. The author is also planning to open the Paradigm Found series with stories of the founding of The Elk Creek Tribe, focusing on The Founder, Justin Earl Knight, and his cohorts who went against the times to bring about the world Jamari and friends take so much for granted.
Lost in Legend
This is Jamari's world after a thousand years have passed. Jamari is a distant legend and his exploits have inspired a whole new church in his name. Justice Preston is a priest-supplicant into the Church of Jamari when he is assigned to research the Jamari times at the Jamari's home community. As he finds evidence of Jamari's life, he also encounters evidence that his church has gone astray. He must choose to keep silent and watch in pain as people he knows and loves are hunted by the inquisition, or to speak out the truth and become a pariah and outcast.
Then he discovers a new people residing in the wilderness set aside for the mysterious Children of Jamari. Fae. Faerie. Fauns, Satyr's and stagmen become his friends as he and his lover Ian explore forbidden worlds.
Lost in Legend is available on Kindle's new serial novel platform, Vella.
Also in development are books following Jamari and friends in a series of short novels in the Gay Erotica category. The first of these novels is ready for your enjoyment! Check out "Paradigm Lost: Eros Times" for a fun frolic behind closed doors ;) as Jamari and friends explore the Night Studies portion of the Manhood Rites challenges! "The Night Studies, Part II of the Eros Times Series" is in the final stages as we approach the summer of 2020.
Rowe says of himself:
I’m writing all of the time. I may not be sitting at the computer with a document open, but I’m thinking about my characters and their issues, and how to resolve their problems all of the time. I started ‘thinking’ about "Paradigm Lost, Jamari and the Manhood Rites, Part I" FIVE years before I ever wrote down a single word. I talked about it with friends and partners. In my life, I relate things that happen to me as a gay man to what those events would feel like to the characters in my novel. When I finally sat down to put it all ‘on paper’, I had the bulk of it completed in three months and then spent the next 4 months polishing, cutting, pasting, etc.…
In my mind now, as I have completed the first novels, the next one is growing in importance with each passing day that I spend on promotions and the ‘business’ side of this endeavor. The characters are beginning to haunt my dreams at night. “Where are you?” they want to know. “When are we coming out again? When do we get to start the next adventure?” A couple seem to sense that things aren’t going to go well for them. They seem to be offering other options . . .
I don’t like being alone, but, when I'm writing, I can’t stand the constant interruptions that non-writers offer when I’m building my stories. One of the most common things that those around me have said when I’m writing is: “He’s really grumpy when he’s writing.” Yep. Guilty. Now leave me alone!
I have had a difficult time in applying my work to any specific genre. It contains elements of Post Apocalypse (Dystopian), Science Fiction, Survivalist, Fantasy, Spiritual, Gay Erotica and even a bit of Naturalist. What I really set out to do was to allow readers to see culture in a new way; to see sex (and human sexual response) in a new way, perhaps even to develop their own understanding of the beauty of that very human endeavor. The secondary goal was to make homosexuality normal. In order to accomplish these two goals I had to build a society that had discarded our current taboos and strictures. I had to destroy the culture I was raised up in and then create an entirely new culture from scratch.
How long have I known I was going to write? I thought I would want to write as far back as 7th grade. I enjoyed reading so much that I actually got reprimanded for reading in class at times. I suspect if I had been reading the text assigned it would have been okay, but, I was addicted to fiction early and upgraded to Science Fiction early in High School. I wrote many short stories and poems in H.S. I won several writing contests and was given a scholarship to college based on my writing. The most important thing I ever heard about writing though was that I needed to live a little bit before I would have anything interesting to say. In retrospect, I always could say something accurately and with flair, but, I did need to live a little in order to develop my story-line and know how to present it so it gets the attention it deserves.
Is this a biography? Maybe not. But, it's a decent representation of "me" for today. Why would you want to read about some old dude's life anyway? Buy a book and learn about some fun characters and their society!
