Today, Norm Goldman, Editor of Bookpleasures.com is delighted to have as our guest,      ROSE ROSETREE

 Rose is the author of is the author of several books and is widely
considered the world's leading expert at deeper perception. She has
pioneered easy-to-learn techniques of of Face Reading, Skilled Empathy and
Aura Reading Through ALL Your Senses.

She's written how-to books, two of which were selected by a division of the
Book-of-the-Month Club. She's given over 650 media interviews--on five
continents-her work praised in publications as different as The Washington
Post, The Washington Times, The L.A. Times and The Catholic Standard. Her
clients include Clinique, the American Folk Art Museum, the NFL Players
Association, USA Today, Freddie Mac.

Good day Rose and thanks for agreeing to participate in our interview. * I'm
honored, Norm, and hope that in some way I am able to help every person who
is reading our interview.

Norm: Rose, could you explain to our audience what is meant by face reading,

Rose: Face reading means looking at physical face data to learn about
personal style in areas like career, relationships, power, sex, dealing with
money.

Reading other people is a way to gain practical insight, overcome
ruts in an existing relationship and evaluate potential dates, employers,
etc. Reading yourself can do wonders for self-respect.

If you write fiction, face reading can help you to give characters just the
right faces. (Dickens, among others, used physiognomy.) If you write
non-fiction, what you learn about your own face can help you work more
confidently and sell yourself more congruently.

What else to know from the outset? My system of Face Reading Secrets (R) is
an adaptation of a 3,000-year-old Chinese art and is based on the premise
that God does not make junk! FAQs galore are answered at my web site.

Norm: And what is aura reading?

Rose: Auras are energy bodies around each person's physical body. Unless
you're writing a detective story-in which case the corpse lacks any aura at
all. :)

But for us among the living, fictional or not, auras are filled to
bursting with vital information.

Myths about auras make it appear that a person must possess a rare kind of
clairvoyance to access auric information, and that special photos must be
used to read auras. Nonsense and nonsense. My system of Aura Reading Through All Your Senses has helped thousands of people to become really good aura
readers, and clients often hire me to read auras from regular photos.
One of the most practical benefits is being able to do the most effective,
and nuanced, lie detection you can imagine. I've used that for everything
from hiring a painter for my house to helping hotshot executives make more
informed choices for business mergers. For FAQs on this topic, click HERE


Norm: And what is an empath?

Rose: Among writers and artists, the percentage of empaths is higher than among
the population at large, so I hope your readers are still scrolling and
reading away! Very likely you, Dear Reader, are an empath of some kind.

Gifts can be intellectual, physical, spiritual, etc., not simply emotional.
While anyone can become a face reader and can learn to read auras in depth
and detail, either you're born as an empath or not. Most people are not. In
America, it's about 1 in 20 people with a lifelong gift as an empath.

How can I tell? Because any empathic ability is encoded in auras. Many gifts
are possible. Every empath has at least one significant, trainable gift for
directly experiencing what it is like to be other people. Unless skilled-not
merely talented-you probably have spent your whole life picking up pain from
other people. That part-time job is completely optional, and I'd love to
teach you how to turn off that part... and without putting up walls (which
never work and only make a person feel dead inside). I also have developed
unique techniques for turning gifts on stronger.

Both facets of skill are extremely helpful for writers. FAQs are, as you may
have guessed by now, available at my website: 

Norm: Why and how did you become interested in face reading?

Rose: At my college, Brandeis, the motto is "Truth even unto its innermost
parts." And that could be my personal motto, too. As soon as I discovered
that faces could be interpreted meaningfully, I began to study face reading.
That introduction came at a MENSA meeting in New York City in 1975. By 1986,
I turned pro as a physiognomist.

Norm: You have written several books, what makes you write a new book and
what keeps you going?

Rose: Inspiration starts it up, keeps me going, and reminds me to continue
despite any difficulties. At times, I've been so discouraged that I wanted
to give up for good. For instance, one day I came to work at Rodale Press,
where I had a staff job in their book division. I had moved across the
country at my expense, borrowing money, to take this job.

After three months to the day, my boss called me into his office, explained
that Rodale had closed down a magazine that same day ("Spring," not their
famous one, "Prevention"). Because it would be expensive to fire those
employees, he was going to let me go. It was the final day of my probation
period, so Rodale didn't have to pay a penny for unemployment or severance
pay.
"Be out of here by noon," he said. It took six months before I stopped
shaking, deep down.
When I packed up my apartment, I felt so deeply discouraged that I threw
away the manuscript of a book I'd worked on for years. I'd never write
again, I told myself.
Just one example! The writing has always come back. It is my greatest joy in
life.

Norm: You have a very unusual and pretty name. Is Rose Rosetree your real
name?

Rose: It's real, i.e., both legal and authentic. Original? No. I've had an
eventful life, including multiple marriages (but not simultaneous ones).

Norm: How do you come up with ideas for what you write?

Rose: Again, inspiration. Sometimes I'm so filled with joy or insight, I have to drop
everything else and write the stuff down. Maybe this sounds lofty but,
really, it's just as natural as scratching an itch.

Sometimes ideas for books result directly from conversations with people.
You may know from my website, Norm, that I teach workshops and do personal
sessions with clients related to deeper perception. Service to real people
keeps my sights on what is worth writing about. For instance, a friend
complained to me that she had taken a workshop on aura reading that was a
complete waste of her time. I thought, I could teach something better than
that dreadful workshop. So I wrote "Aura Reading Through All Your Senses."

Norm: What methods do you use to flesh out your idea to determine if it's
salable?

Rose: The ideas? I trust them. And they come complete with plenty of flesh.
Only ideas that really interest me are worth writing about; I never have
written just because something is salable. That would be like eating poison.
But sometimes I must work with ideas to make them intelligible, which is
required to make any words from a non-celebrity salable.

With "Aura Reading Through All Your Senses," I wrote it three times in its
entirety, taking 6 1/2 years. With "Empowered by Empathy," I drafted the
book during three months of inspiration and then spent three years revising
it so that other human beings would be able to make sense out of the
concepts. For "Wrinkles Are God's Makeup: How You Can Find Meaning in Your
Evolving Face," I spent over nine years researching, writing, locating
photos. Just yesterday I found out that I'm down to my last few cartons and
will have to do a second edition next year.

Norm: How have your used the Internet to bolster your career?

Rose: Three cheers for the Net! I love all the ways it has helped my
career... except for the used books sold by Amazon and e-Bay. I used to be
pretty generous in sending out review copies, but I sure hate seeing them
show up for sale.

Otherwise, my website lists my books, classes, tours and articles. A monthly zine with face and aura readings of people in the news has about 2,000 subscribers, and I love having a way to give something for free, yet not be taken advantage of.

When requests come in for free readings of people, I've had to learn to say no or I wouldn't
have time left to earn a living. But thanks to the Net, I can give everyone that zine, which alone is reason to be grateful for the e-world.

Right now I'm doing something new with the Internet. In June 2006, I'll
officially publish, "Let Today Be a Holiday: 365 Ways to Co-Create with
God." But the books came in from the printer last month. So I'm offering
advance copies with free shipping through my website and tollfree number
only before the Pub. Date. So far it's working well.

Norm: Can you tell us how you found representation for your books. Did you
pitch it to an agent, or query publishers who would most likely publish this
type of book? Any rejections? Did you self-publish?

Rose: Norm, if you were in the mood for a tear-jerker, I could tell many sad
tales of my hideous experiences with 29 literary agents, one worse than the
other. And that doesn't even include the agents so terrible I didn't hire
them.

At least I can recommend a fantastic agent for foreign rights, Loris Essary
of International Titles, lessary@austin.rr.com. He has wonderful integrity.

Any reader who is curious can google on International Titles and find Loris'
website, or just query him about representation. He charges a reasonable fee
and it's a far better investment than being displayed by a distributor.

Likewise, with publishing, ooh la la. I've been burned by big, medium and
small presses. They make for funny stories now, but I've cried more than
I've laughed. Thank goodness I have the skill set to run my own publishing
company. I've even gotten to be pretty good at typesetting my own books,
though I have covers and inner design from professionals.

Norm: Could you briefly tell us something about your books and their
underlying objectives.

Rose: They empower people to use their gifts in life. Every non-fiction work
contains leading-edge techniques and understandings that you won't find
elsewhere. My lone novel, "The Roar of the Huntids" supports my how-to
"Empowered by Empathy," and is very appreciated by people who enjoy fiction.
The great poet Robert Frost, when describing his writing process, wrote, "No
surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader." For me, it's about
joy. Readers seem to find that my joy is contagious for them.

Norm: How would you respond to potential readers who might be skeptical
about the subject matter of your books?

Rose: Why waste time on skeptics? I appeal to those who are interested.
There's a loyal, growing following for what I offer, so that's where I put
my attention. However, I also do lots of media interviews (including one
today, for the Chicago Sun-Times), and sometimes those interviews turn
skeptics into readers and clients.

Norm: I understand you are called upon to give classes to physicians,
psychotherapists, social workers, massage therapists and other
professionals. How do you help these professionals?

Rose: Techniques for being more perceptive and emotionally stable, plus new
concepts for self-understanding-that's how I help. Nobody else (yet) is
teaching the information for empaths, which has the greatest impact. The
systems of Face Reading Secrets (R) and Aura Reading Through All Your Senses
are also distinctive. And my new book ought to have an interesting life.
It's another big step forward, a daybook about consciously co-creating with
God.

Norm: I understand you have students that come from all over the world. How
did they find out about you?

Rose: Here's where we can thank the Net. For example, I was scouted by
VOICE, the premier seminar company in Japan, and will be teaching there for
the third time in 2006. They publish books, too, and will bring out the
first Japanese edition of "Empowered by Empathy" to coincide with the book
tour.
Otherwise, I must thank Loris, my foreign rights agent. We have many titles
worldwide now, including my first national bestseller, the German edition of
"Aura Reading Through All Your Senses." I've studied enough German to give
funny little answers to my German fan mail, which I adore receiving.

Norm: What challenges or obstacles did you encounter while writing your
books? How did you overcome these challenges?

Rose: Publishing was the biggest one, with a subset being my varied and
pathetic experiences with agents. Mostly what got me through was the joy at
the core of my work and my determination to honor what I'd been given by
bringing my best to it.

Beyond that, I do my best to act with integrity in every situation. Sounds
waay abstract, so here are two examples:

When I began my publishing company, I got a tollfree number, MORE-JOY. One
month, Sprint made what they called a "little mistake" and sold it to a
phone sex company. This number was imprinted in every one of my books, plus
my how-to aura reading video.

Sprint refused to give me compensation of any kind. I tried to hire a lawyer
on contingency, and researched telecommunications lawyers all over America.
I contacted every one I could find, asking for help. Not a single response
to any of my letters.... Later, a friend explained to me that I was just too
small to be worth their time. I also appealed to a writer's organization to
which I belonged, but received no significant help there.

So I cried and raged and then let it go. Eventually, I reprinted "Aura
Reading Through All Your Senses" and "The Power of Face Reading" without the
offensive phone number. With the insert in my video, I hand-correct that
part-did it just last month when ordering a new batch of VHSes. After I
bring out this title as a DVD next year, there will be no further reminders
in print of MORE-JOY.
At the time, all this seemed like such a big deal. But it would have been a
bigger deal to let that stop me.

The second example is the worst thing that has happened in my career. One of
my titles, "I Can Read Your Face," was published by a book producer,
Ottenheimer Publishing.  I worked on it with a delightful editor for about
six months. Ottenheimer had a secret arrangement with a mail order company
that pretended to remainder books from big publishers. I'd been wooed with a
small advance and the promise that my title would sell tens, even hundreds,
of thousands of copies.

Imagine the happy day when I opened up my box of author's copies and found a
little note from the editor. "Perhaps you already know that the book was
remaindered." Yes, after just three weeks it was staler than moldy toast. In
fact, I got a phone call from a man who bought a copy of my newborn book for
a buck at Wal-Mart. He was delighted with the content and happy to by my
book at such a bargain.

What had happened? The mail order company lost interest after my editor
there quit and a test ad (two whole column inches) didn't do fabulously
well. So they dumped the book.

That wasn't even the worst part. In my contract with Ottenheimer was a
clause that rights would revert to me when the book went out of print. I'd
paid a literary lawyer to go over that contract with a fine-toothed comb.
But neither of us anticipated that Ottenheimer would lie and claim the book
still was in print.

Not having had the presence of mind to get the phone number of my fan from
Wal-Mart, I couldn't prove the book was out of print, and because of that
technicality, Ottenheimer forbade me to print any more books on my
trademarked system of Face Reading Secrets (R). Again, I lacked the funds to
pay for a big litigation. For over a year, I wrote the most threatening
letters I could pen, but the publishers were incredibly greedy about this
possible future source of income for them and, therefore, refused.
Finally, Ottenheimer decided to stop publishing trade paperbacks altogether
and sent me a little letter saying they would let me have back the rights to
my material.
Bottom line: I persisted. They didn't. That's what joy will do for a person!

Norm: Is there anything else you wish to add that we have not covered?

Rose: My best advice is to go deep inside for the best you have to offer
people as a writer. It will help you to write, to market, to make a
difference in the world. And yes, if you ever do go through tough times,
your desire to help people can help you keep going.
Oh yes, Norm, here's some advice about book reviews: For six years, I wrote
reviews of small press books for Pathways Magazine. I quit about five
years ago because I'd become so busy. To this day, I receive sample books to
review.
Even when I did review books, I asked that people send me query letters
only, so they wouldn't waste their money. I explained that I would let
publishers or authors know if I was interested in seeing a review copy.
So why do I continue to receive these books? At least one extremely
unscrupulous entrepreneur sells my contact info. When I emailed him, he
refused to stop.

Thus, this interview's two last bits of advice for my colleagues: Send
queries rather than books to any reviewer, whenever possible. And question
some of the people who peddle services to self-publishers and authors.
You'll find a higher percentage of scam artists than in the public at large.

Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors. Aw,
you're welcome, Norm. Great questions!