Monday, July 28, 2008

Interview with Mykola Dementiuk


Author Pen Name: Mykola (Mick) Dementiuk

CA: What genre(s) do you write? Why do you write the stories that you write?

MD: Sexual tales with a psychological self-examination bent. In all my stories and novels the characters are looking into themselves, why they act the way they do, why they almost love, why they screw so horrendously, why they slink away afterwards... Life is a puzzle to them, they are a puzzle that they just can’t decipher or figure out. And that’s why I write of them: looking for an answer to the puzzle…which of course, I or them, will never find….

CA: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

MD: Oh, must have been the time I was in a contest and won a prize. It was in the 5th grade in school and I wrote a poem about being a clown and everyone laughing at my sad face. I thought writing about it was a goofy thing to do and can’t remember what prize I won but I recall the poem was hung up on the wall, along with other winners (losers) -- after all this was grade school -- the winners were on the top, losers on the bottom but I know I was at the top and very proud over it. After that I constantly snuck off and wrote little poems which I’ve never shown anyone…I’ve always recalled the 5th grade with a sense of accomplishment, not so the other grades…

CA: Who or what was your inspiration for writing?

MD: Whatever I picked up on the street, murder mysteries, war tales, stories about rape and thrill seeking, but my most inspiring book I read at that time was ‘Portrait of a Young Man Drowning’ by Charles Perry, a novel about Brooklyn petty gangsters where one even rapes his own mother…well, all of a sudden I thought, Hey, I could write this stuff too, but of course I couldn’t; years and years had to go by before I even attempted anything like that but the seed was there. I kept reading everything, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Camus, Kafka, etc., and on and on and they were what drove me through the years. I always pretty much had a book in my pocket and those were the times when ‘pocket books’ could fit in your pocket, meaning they weren’t so expensive or costly, like fifty cents or I’d get used ones for a dime or a quarter in old NYC 4th Avenue bookstores…

CA: What is your work schedule like when you're writing?

MD: All I ever needed was an hour or two hours to create, do it every morning then go on with my life. Anyway, an hour or two is all I can take…but the research I do at times can be voluminous, sitting and pouring over every minute detail until I know that it’s right. So you see, it’s easy to write but the pre-writing, the research, isn’t….And my publication was going good, every few months I’d have a story in some magazine, Paramour, Aphrodite Gone Berserk, EIDOS, etc., but in 1998 I had a stroke which kept me in a coma for three weeks. After that I pretty much forgot about writing, had to re-learn everything from the scratch, eating, talking, even taking a shit and wiping my ass. Then one night I had a dream about old times I remembered and in the morning I began Times Queer…my memories of Times Square days and nights….Haven’t stopped writing since…

CA: Your book is about to be sent into the reader world, what is one word that describes how you feel?

MD: I used to think I’d be scared and apprehensive but I’m not. I been doing this for too long, and I know the things I write aren’t very popular with readers…I was very enthusiastic back in the days when first story was accepted by Avalon Rising, a tiny one-woman magazine in Cincinnati run by Hilary Tebbs (don’t know what happened to her) but I was ecstatic and thrilled; that high lasted for weeks if not months! Well, that’s faded somewhat, though I’m just as happy now when it happens. When Sally Miller of Synergy Press agreed to publish Times Queer as a chapbook, the same quiet happiness came over me and last year it came out in paperback and Susie Bright, very well known erotic writer and publisher, had a great comment and we put that on the cover. She called it, ‘Genuine whoreporn’, haha! I love it!

CA: What was your biggest challenge in writing your book(s)?

MD: With Vienna Dolorosa, my third book, creating a believable 1938 world before World War 2 started, hell, I wasn’t even born yet…it was the hardest thing to do but also the most satisfying. I wrote every morning and went on with my life, going to work, going to the library, going wherever…I came out of that book a real writer, before I was just a hack, trying to be one; with Vienna Dolorosa I was one!....And that one created a bit of a stir, seems the lesbian editors didn’t like it and warned me to never submit anything else to that…Oh, well, c’est la vie…. But with my first one, Holy Communion, I’ve had that in my mind since my childhood, and knew that one day I’d set it down, which I did, but only now am I getting it published.

CA: What do you like to do when you're not writing?

MD: Ha Ha! Goofing off! Staring into space, watching a little TV, dreaming crap…actually, doing nothing….Well, I do my exercises, walking back and forth, trying to stay in some kind of shape…in many ways the stroke has been a real bitch but in other ways it hasn’t…

CA: How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?

MD: About 10, and my favorite is Baby Doll a slim little chapbook, barely 50 pages, about a little boy of 14 who finds a pair of ladies panties one day that changes his world around him forever…it’s actually a long story that Sally Miller put out as a chapbook.

CA: Do you tend to base your characters on real people or are they totally from your imagination?

MD: Both, but the imagination is a lot better to work from….

CA: Do you have any advice for the aspiring writers out there?

MD: Never give up…Read, then read another book, on and on, once you grow out of those childish dreams and fantasies I can assure you the adult delusions are better….and easier to handle…of course, the sexy reading and writing is kind of nice too…

CA: How can a reader contact you or purchase your books?

MD: Through SynergyBookService.com or 908.782.7101, also through Barnes & Nobles under my name…also under my email mydem@comcast.net

or http://www.viennadolorosa.com/ my book and has some nice Mozart music there;

http://mydem.blogspot.com/ has interesting tales about life in the Big City;

http://adventuresinthebackrow.blogspot.com/ a horrible story about a little girl;

http://timesqueer.blogspot.com/ about Times Square, what else can I say?

http://frequentlyfelt.blogspot.com/2008/04/soft-core-by-mykola-dementiuk.html just a blog I did for M. Christian, a great writer and a friend of mine

Also had a tale in Velvet Mafia, a great site, http://velvetmafia.com/19/dementiuk.php
CA: Is there anything you would like to add?

MD: The thing about writing is being able to be alone…you can have some soft music playing but for me that hour or two are very monastic and solitary, no music, no nothing, just a computer pounding away… It’s like I’m praying to God, because in a way I’m doing just that: I write…and he listens…and he takes it from there…sometimes he answers but most times he doesn’t…That’s what creation is about, knowing the difference…and only a few times did I sense that….

Thanks! It’s been fun!

CA: Thanks Mick for doing this interview, it is amazing that you held on to your dreams!!

1 comment:

Zulmara said...

WoW awesome interview...love the topic, advice to young readers and how characters come into play...

ADELANTE!!!

Zulmara