Author of Obama book finds life an adventure

One and done.

For Lisa Rogak, the charm of life is its diversity: new mysteries to plumb, new subjects to master, new sensations to savor. No matter how engaging or rewarding an experience might be, she is not inclined to repeat it.

(Kindly overlook the fact that she has owned seven hearses).

"All you need to know about me is that I don't read a book more than once," says the recent Charleston transplant. "I don't see a movie more than once. I don't make a recipe more than once. And I certainly don't buy the same kind of car twice — well, not the same make and model, anyway. If I do something twice, it means one fewer new thing that I'm exposed to. I've always been a generalist."

And a prolific one.

A revised edition of her best-selling "Barack Obama: In His Own Words" (Public Affairs) was released last month. Out this week is the bio "Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King" (Thomas Dunne Books), to be followed by "Michelle Obama: In Her Own Words" (Public Affairs) and a paperback edition of "A Boy Named Shel" (Thomas Dunne Books), her chronicle of celebrated writer, musician, composer and cartoonist Shel Silverstein.

A writer since 1981, Rogak has 40 books to her credit. "Haunted Heart" is her fourth biography, yet Rogak does not consider herself a biographer.

"I have no desire to write any more bios because now I know how to do it. It's no longer a challenge. I'm always learning something new, which is why I still feel like an apprentice. I've changed my beat so often: travel, health and fitness, science, high-tech during the first boom. Who knows what's next? I have not been diagnosed as having ADD, but I must admit that my condition, left untended, gets worse."

In addition to her books, Rogak's work appears in a variety of national magazines. A member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, the International Food, Wine & Travel Writers Association and the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators, the New Jersey native has featured the Upper King Design District in several recent travel articles.

Eccentrics welcome

After two decades "in the wilds of New Hampshire," Rogak decided to make one of her favorite subjects — Charleston — her home. She came to stay last April after having spent part of the previous September here on assignment.

"I wasn't looking for a new place to live. But the first morning I was in Charleston, I knew I belonged here." The city's reputation as a haven for, well, eccentrics, may have been a further inducement. "People here are much more welcoming of who I am."

Already, there is much buzz downtown concerning her latest ride, a maroon '92 Buick hearse named Ruby. How she came to be an aficionado of funereal transportation is a story in itself.

"I was writing about high-tech during the first dot-com boom and was ready for a break. I had always dabbled in garage sales in New Jersey, (a state) I left as soon as I could, and was in a junk store in New Hampshire looking for interesting things to sell on eBay. There was a little narrow suitcase with an art deco label saying 'Funeral Candles.' I put them on eBay and sold them to a funeral director in Tacoma, Wash. We completed the deal, and he asked, 'What else do you have?'

"So I went back on eBay and saw thousands of vintage funeral items: lamps, makeups kits, facial-repair kits, etc. I was off and running for the next two years. I started to contact funeral homes in New England and in Pennsylvania, which turned out to be a treasure trove for me, and seek out things in storage people didn't want. A lot came from the era of home funerals. Let me tell you, funeral directors are a scream, with a great sense of humor."

On one occasion, she bought out an entire funeral history museum.

"My first two books were a New England cemetery travel guide and one of my favorites, 'Death Warmed Over,' a funeral cookbook. When I went back to writing fiction, I did a version of the book as a comic funeral novel, which I still need to revise."

Funeral directors who got wind of her curiosity asked if she was in the market for a hearse. She was. Ruby, a stately stretch, is her latest flagship.

"You can always find a parking spot because nobody will park next to a hearse," she crows. "I know of no one else who can use the words 'my hearse dealer' in a sentence. What can I say? I'm into old cars. I had 13 once in a barn in various states of functionality."

Agent of change

Credit an agent with helping Rogak to shift gears at a critical juncture.

"I used to produce about four books a year before scaling back five years ago," says Rogak, whose other biographies, largely about writers, dealt with Dr. Robert Atkins, creator of the Atkins Diet, and novelist Dan Brown ("The Da Vinci Code").

"I was off in my pinball-machine world at the time. But my agent said I had to take one subject and stick with it, doing just one big book a year. What he taught me is that if you take a particular subject that is popular in other countries as well, you can sell foreign rights, too. It was a matter of making more money while working less. He had a point."

Rogak says she always has been adept at picking up on something in the news and turning it into book or article ideas. While her books aren't the sort of scholarly efforts that require years to complete, neither are they shallow "instant" books. Her biographies have been as well-crafted as she could make them.

"You never think you are going to get through to a subject's inner circle. I get to the second-tier circles and do interviews as well as rely on secondary sources like newspaper transcripts and do interviews. But I am not going to turn over every stone or explore all the inner workings of someone's psychology."

Rogak, who insists she was born to write novels, says her future is in fiction.

"I have one published novel, two in work, and two more 'marinating.' Fiction feels so natural and really utilizes my talent and skill in the best way possible. It's nothing like my nonfiction writing. There are infinite worlds to explore. When I write fiction, it's like picking up a remote control. I tune in to a parallel universe, and it's like taking dictation. Where I get into trouble is when I think about the process, and then everything shuts down."

Nor is Rogak all that analytical when it comes to her taste in pastimes. A skilled musician, she plays the upright bass and accordion, but the piano is her forte.

"I was trained as a classical pianist," she says. "I was supposed to go to Juilliard and do this one thing. But again, doing just one thing goes against the grain. I only lasted one year at Walnut Hill, a performing arts high school in Boston."

Writing has provided her with a fascinating, adventurous life.

"I wake up each morning looking forward to discovering what new things I'll learn that day, which is something I think that everyone should strive for. I fling myself out there from the moment I get up."

Reach Bill Thompson at bthompson@postandcourier.com or 937-5707.

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