Interview with my heroine, Selena M, narrator of my trilogy

Interview with Selena M

I’m interviewing some of the characters from my trilogy, starting with the heroine, Selena M, who narrates the stories.

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Interviewer: Today we talk with singer Selena M, who has recently done some serious gallivanting into deep space. Selena, please introduce yourself.

Hi, I’m Selena Morisot, stage name Selena M, named “Songstress of the Year” by Time Magazine not that long ago. You sometimes hear me called a “ditzy chick,” especially by some of the men who are after me.

But I prefer to say I’m a sassy singer who befriends aliens and must choose between my singing career and gallivanting off into space, all while fighting off various baddies.

Besides singing, I’ve recently been on some adventures in outer space and on distant worlds. I’ve told all this in my three books.  They’re autobiographical, and as true as I can make them.

How did all your adventures in space get started?

This funny looking alien crashed on my hillside. I nursed her back to health, and we learned to communicate by singing. I called her Breadbox. She left her home world because she was not allowed to sing the songs most meaningful to her. She kept urging me to do the same—to sing from my heart. It took me a long time to get this. One night I dreamed of my namesake, the painter Berthe Morisot, and she said she only paints from her heart, all else is empty. This had a big impact on me. So, singing is my passion now—I always sing my heart song. And I miss Breadbox more than I can say.

Now, I ended up with Breadbox’s spaceship, and I thought, if I have a spaceship, why wouldn’t I fly to the stars? If only I’d had the good sense to stay on Earth, but no . . .

Let’s go even farther back. Why did you become a singer? Were you following your passion?

Hah! I wish. When I was in college, my big brother got drafted into major league baseball. He taunted me, “See, Sis, guys can leave school and make big money like this, but girls can’t.” I took that as a dare. I recorded this song we’d played around with, “Cotton Candy Lovin’,” and it became a hit. That launched my singing career. It’s still my most requested song, even though I’m sick of it. My brother never did make it in the big leagues, but I’ve made enough money to buy my dream house up along the California coast. So no, I didn’t go into singing as a passion. Breadbox and I helped each other rekindle our passion for singing.

Where did the “ditzy chick” label come from?

Did you ever hear a man called a “ditzy guy?” No, only women can be ditzy—according to the men who diss us and bully us. The government spooks going after my spaceship laid that name on me. Even though I outwitted them at every turn, and have kept the spaceship—Star Choice—to this day.

Now I can’t deny I’ve done some ditzy things, like the time I did a face plant during a moonwalk because I wasn’t watching where I was going and tripped over a rock.

You’re surrounded by men, yet you seem to have no romance in your life. What gives?

Hey, I just got a proposal for marriage! *giggle* Don’t know if I’ll say yes; that must unfold..

Seriously, my singing career with all the touring got in the way of romance. Ever since Doug, my one true love, got tired of waiting for me and married somebody else. I don’t even remember her name.

And zipping around other worlds in a spaceship also makes it tough for romance.

Truly, my life is full of romance—the romance of adventure. I know, it’s not the same.

On the other hand, I have great men in my life—men who aren’t looking at me for romance. We’re just friends and collaborators, and they’re always there for me.

Did you ever feel squeamish being so close to all those strange looking aliens?

Do you mean the time I got drunk and fell into the swamp where all the Fofonoloy were swimming, and in their rush to get away from me they brushed past me like a bunch of miniature hippos?

Or the night when I was awakened by what looked like a giant furry spider the size of an orangutan, and I screamed? Then I found out it had been sent to clean my room and do my laundry.

I still laugh about these, but I was terrified at the time. Squeamish and screamish.

No, most of the time I was very comfortable around them, even when touching or embracing them. After all, they were busy saving my life. They were squeamish around me, because I was the strange alien on their world. They are now some of my best friends. I’m hoping the people of Earth can accept them as I have.

What’s your closest brush with death?

I was in space in Star Choice by myself when I was attacked by missiles firing laser bursts. When my vessel was damaged, I felt my death approaching. We could no longer elude them. If I took a straight course, they’d have a clear shot; if I zigged and zagged, I used more energy and they’d catch up with me even faster. There was only one thing left to do . . .

What was that?

Play possum. I won’t tell you any more right now.

I see.

You’ve written a lot of music. How do you get all of that done?

Lyrics come to me. And melodies. I just have to capture them right then. Scratch them down. That happens quickly. But then polish, polish, polish. This can take days—or years. Life is my raw material. My life, what happens to me, goes right into my music.

If you had your life over and were forced to choose between space travel and music—one without the other—which would it be and why?

Ah, this is so hard for me to answer. I don’t think I could choose. Look, I chose more than once to follow my passion for singing on Earth, but every time I got pulled into some other adventure in outer space. But when I was invited to go to Everbright and do a concert, I thought, wow, I can do both!

When I returned from my last adventure I had a quiet realization: I have been touched by the Infinite. I can never be happy staying put. And I can never give up my singing.

What is the one principle you would die for if you had to?

I never saw myself as one who would die for a principle. But when my best buddy Clay had terminal cancer while I was orbiting the Moon, I risked my life to pick him up from Earth because only the instruments on my spaceship Star Choice had a chance to eliminate his cancer. With Star Choice, I made a perilous dash down to Earth where I knew the Air Force was gunning for me. I got him and the cancer doc from the Stanford Med Center before zipping back into orbit. We saved his life!

So I guess you’d say I’d risk my life for my friends. That may not count as an abstract principle, but it’s a real-life principle.

I also did this for my alien friends. When I was on Sfofong, their world, I argued their case before their Elders who had threatened to kill me. They tried but I eluded them—with a little help from my friends.

If someone is interested in the books about your adventures, where can they find them?

That’s easy! Go right here. It’s all there, including my songs.

“Aliens Crashed in My Back Yard,” “My Spaceship Calls Out to Me,” and “Space Girl Yearning.”

Thank you for talking with us today.

You’re welcome!