Damon Kaulbach on "LifeStars"

Interview with an author -- My entry for the July 2010 "What A Character!" contest

         “Good evening, and welcome to ‘LifeStars,’ Universal News Network’s look at the everyday heroes making a difference in our society. I’m your host, Loreen Stehva.

         “Tonight we interview one of the most interesting persons to ever grace our studio. He is an award-winning author, which he works on in his spare time. His worktimes are spent as a medical evacuation pilot. With great pleasure, 'LifeStars' welcomes mister Damon Kaulbach.”

         “Thank you, ma’am, for your warm welcome. Though I’ll admit, I’m quite overwhelmed to be here.”

         “Please, call me Loreen. And may I call you Damon?”

         “Certainly, Loreen.”

         “Thank you. This wasn’t going to be my first question, but I have to ask – why does appearing on ‘LifeStars’ overwhelm you? After all, both your career as a medical pilot and your literary works have made great contributions to society.”

         “That may be, Loreen, and I am flattered by the attention. But I’m also a little embarrassed by it. You see… throughout my life, I’ve never been one to seek the public spotlight. I’ve always been quite content to do my work, whatever it may be, quietly and without much fanfare. I’ve never wanted to be a celebrity… but I guess you could say I had celebrity thrust upon me.”

         “But if you didn’t want to be a celebrity, Damon, why did you become a published author?”

         “The celebrity status I’ve garnered from my writing is honestly something I never expected. Since long before I was born, it’s been a truism that for every person who finds success as an author, there are at least a thousand who never came close. Maybe their writing talent wasn’t good enough to get noticed, or maybe their subject was something deemed not interesting. Shoot, there’s no guarantee, either then or now, that my stories would have been published, that an editor somewhere would like the stories I had to tell, or like them enough to push them and me through the publishing process. Even today, any author is only as publishable and marketable as his or her most recent work.

         “Because of all of that, Loreen, I never expected to be published – let alone to experience the success I have. For a long, long time, I’ve used writing as a way of relieving stress from the various things I’ve dealt with in life. It started long ago with daily journal entries, just jotting down random thoughts on what I was seeing or feeling. From there, I started creating stories in my mind and putting them down on paper or in the computer.”

         “On paper?”

         “Call me old fashioned, Loreen. Besides, I’ve been in quite a few situations where a computer wasn’t available. And ideas don’t always stay with you. When you get a good one, you need to get it recorded somewhere for future use. Heaven knows how many potential award-winning stories or ideas have been lost because someone didn’t find a way to note them. I’ve been blessed to have the opportunities my life has afforded me… very blessed, in fact.”

         “That’s true, Damon. Suffice it to say, you’ve lived a most extraordinary life –”

         “I don’t know about ‘extraordinary,’ Loreen. But it’s certainly been filled with its own adventures and struggles. And as you and many of your viewers probably know, it’s provided me with quite a bit of literary inspiration.”

         “You just lead me to one of my questions, Damon, one that many in our audience are curious about. How have your life experiences influenced the stories you’ve written? And are any of your stories autobiographical?”

         “I won’t say that any of them are autobiographical, as all of my stories are some sort of fiction. Some are total creations of the crazy space that is my mind. Others are either based in fact or inspired by actual events.”

         “Can you give us some examples of stories that were inspired by events?”

         “Sure, Loreen. ‘The Sunriders,’ for example, was based on the Magnees Cup solar sailboat races of years ago. I never raced myself – I was too young at the time – but for several years I spent various breaks from school helping my uncle Ray get his star sailor ready for competition. As we worked, he’d tell me stories of the earlier races he’d been in, the people he knew, and some of the inside controversies. When I got home, I would jot down various things he had told me. Even in my teen years I had the writing bug, the desire to tell stories. I was lucky that years later, I still remembered enough of the details to be able to write a good story.”

         “Wait, the Magnees Cup? The last of those was… you remember something from that far back?”

         “I’m lucky, Loreen, to have a very retentive memory. Then again, with everything I’ve seen over time… that can be a curse as well as a blessing.”

         “I… well, I never thought of it that way. But I can see what you mean. I think many in our audience would agree that you’ve seen things, events and personages that most would only dream of.”

         “Not to mention things few people would ever want to experience.”

         “Very true. Let’s take a break. We’ll be back shortly. You’re watching ‘LifeStars’ on the Universal News Network.”



         “Welcome back to ‘LifeStars!’ I’m Damon Kaulbach, boring the bejeebers out of both our host and you the audience! And now, please welcome the host with the most, Loreen Stehva!”

         “Thank, you, Damon, for that fun little bit of I think you would call it roll reversal. There’s a fair amount of humor interspersed through your books. Is that something you try to include?”

         “Very much so, Loreen. Something I decided a long time ago – the best dramas, adventures, stories, movies, etc., all have at least some well-placed humor and jokes along the way. It helps to lighten the mood, and can also underscore the drama or adventure you’re reading or watching.”

         “Movies?”

         “Sorry, an old Earth term. I think now you call them PalaceVids. That’s something I have to be careful with, by the way. Making sure that I use terms from today’s language to present the ideas of old. In some ways I feel like I’m translating as I write. But at the risk of bragging, I think I’ve succeeded.”

         “Oh, you’ve very much succeeded, Damon. Your novel ‘Healers In the Sky’ is proof of that. Though the events and timeframe you depicted seem to be many years old. How are you able to depict it so clearly?”

         “My great-great-grandmother was a helicopter medevac pilot, who also wrote journals and stories. I guess writing runs in the family. Anyway, reading them as a kid inspired me to become a medevac pilot and follow in her footsteps. Though I had no idea it would lead me to where I am now.”

         “Where you are now, Damon… as in living in the year 2295?”

         “Exactly, Loreen. That’s where the story ‘Firefrost’ comes from. How I effectively went to sleep in the year 2087, and ‘woke up’ in 2285. I’m not going to rehash the war; it’s in the history books. As to the basis of ‘Firefrost’ – I was flying medevacs at the Prometheus colony when the P’ok Char began attacking the Earth Coalition worlds and outposts in late 2086.

         “Maybe we humans let our guard down as we ventured into the universe. The Kellinars of Epsilon Eridani had started the technological exchange that allowed humans to join the galactic community. We established good relations with planets orbiting Alpha Centauri, Sirius, Rigel and Arcturus. And then…”

         “Damon, are you sure you want to talk about this? I can tell it’s a difficult topic.”

         “Thanks, Loreen. You’re right; it’s not easy to discuss. But it’s important, because it’s a large part of how I’m here with you this evening.

         “Without any warning, the P’ok Char attacked the Earth Coalition. Before that, we humans only knew of them from legends told to us by the older space-faring races. When it happened, I was a 29-year-old civilian medevac pilot on Prometheus. Any and all available pilots and medical crews were pressed into military service. All that meant for us was that our scope of patient’s expanded, flying the victims, civilian and military, of various attacks. For a while we humans held our own against the P’ok Char. And then one day…”

         “Was that the ‘firewall’ attack?”

         “Exactly, Loreen. I guess the P’ok Char high command decided us humans needed to be taught a lesson. So they unleashed their ‘firewall’ weapon against Prometheus. I’ll admit, it looked pretty when it first arrived, this giant blue flame apparition. Then we realized it was marching across the planet, trying to destroy everything in its path, and leaving everything iced over.

         “My base was equipped with various attack shelters. Like the main character in ‘Firefrost,’ Paul Tremschlagel, I had set up my quarters in one of them. I got down there just before the firewall marched over the base. The outpost was so heavily damaged that human rescue forces couldn’t get to me after the attack. Not knowing where I was, they listed me as ‘missing in action.’ So there I lay, quite literally frozen in time until a human-Centauri survey team came to see if Prometheus could be mined or colonized again. I can only imagine their shock on finding me there.”

         “What was your reaction when you found out what had happened?”

         “When I came to in the survey ship’s medical suite, I thought I had been rescued shortly after the firewall attack. I couldn’t understand why the doctor was doing all of these tests on me; I felt like a lab rat, an experimental test subject. And they kept quizzing me on my personal info, like my birthday and birthplace, family, job, etc. Then the ship’s Centauri commander leveled with me, filling me in on all the events I had ‘slept’ through. She had the surveyors bring up my belongings before I transferred to the hospital complex at Ariadne III. Among them were the various journals I had kept over the years, and Grandma Helen’s stories of flying helicopters in the early 21st century. Reading through all of that while I learned about the new reality I lived in… well, it helped me stay sane.”

         “Why did you return to medevac work?”

         “It was what I knew, Loreen. Granted, I had to re-learn flying again, which was a challenge. But I’ve enjoyed it. And I’ve always had a desire to help people, to make things better, no matter which century I was living in. Being able to keep flying medevacs gave me a purpose as I adjusted to being a 228-year-old man who looked and felt 29. 10 years later, I’m still fit and trim, my hair is brown instead of gray, and I’m not stooped over with arthritis or covered with age spots. At the risk of being immodest, I’m probably the most attractive 238-year-old human around!”

         “Well, as a Kellinar, I’ll say you are quite attractive to all three of my eyes.”

         “Thank you.”

         “You’re welcome, Damon. Thank you for joining us tonight, and the best of luck to you in all your endeavors. I expect we’ll be reading more of your stories soon.

         “I hope so, Loreen. It’s been a great pleasure being here.”

         “And to our audience, thanks as always for bringing us into your living quarters. For ‘LifeStars,’ I’m Loreen Stevah, thanks for joining us on UNN.”



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