About Menelaos Gkikas:
I studied Industrial Management and Technology at the University of Piraeus, and I continued my studies with an MBA specializing in Marketing, at City University of Seattle. I attended Public Relations Seminars at the Hellenic American Union. I am a Michigan Proficiency holder and my first book was entitled “Mathematical Models”. My quests and concerns have led me to literature and social networking. I have my own blogs on the internet, a Writing Forum about Art and Fantasy entitled “Writer’s PlayBook”, and I have attended seminars on Creative Writing, Screenwriting as well as topics related to Social Media, Digital Content, Communication and Conflict Management. I am active in the area of Social Networking on Social Media and Digital Marketing, and I daily develop my own Creative Portfolio. I have creative experience in Business Game Simulations and I am data-driven. I also deeply believe in lifelong learning.
In 2018, I got a complete certification from Google Digital Garage in Digital Marketing. Following that in 2020, I attended Google Web Academy in another two areas such as YouTube Creators and Google Analytics. I have self-published a romantic drama screenplay entitled The Words of Emily Logan in September 2019, in Greece, and the fairytale fantasy entitled When Magic Truly Happens is my second creative writing effort.
Currently I attend online lessons in Elements of AI from the University of Helsinki and I have completed IBM AI Learning classes; AI Concepts and Deep Learning from CognitiveClass.AI.
What inspires you to write?
I am deeply inspired by the stuff that dreams are made of. My visions, my hopes, my dreams for the future, my alter egos, my personal chemistry with my characters, my avatars in parallel universes denote to me the fine line of my materials, the piece of art that if being written, it will make me proud. Nevertheless, I believe that inspiration can come from anywhere; a photo, a feather, a book, a landscape, nature, by believing in the world’s fairytale. These last thoughts depend especially on the temperament of the writer and it is essential to filter stimuli to come up with selective and quality material.
What authors do you read when you aren’t writing?
Bearing in mind my multi-faceted education and my creativity I read everything. Literature, coaching books related with creative writing and the creating a mindset side of screenplays, management, pioneering books from Amazon, including many world-renowned authors such as Paulo Coelho, Philip Pullman, Exupery, Tolkien, lots of Greek writers, plus whatever clicks at my soul at a specific given moment, it can be anything.
Tell us about your writing process.
Writers live through a role, that may not be necessarily their own… Nevertheless, they have to fit the mission. This means I am a firm believer as Kingsley Amis said, that the art of writing is the art of applying the seat of one’s trousers to the seat of one’s chair. What it means for me, analytically. Projects for a writer, are his intellectual children. Feeling less than deep admiration about them, won’t function. That’s why I believe it is important that although the past is the key to future, I should take bold steps of what I envision, including bridging the two. Although inspiration comes from my subconscious, I am trying to deal with my work as conscious as I can. Thinking, psychologizing, argumentation, solid steps, experiences, narration and plenty of work management can help me a lot. It’s where dreams mingle with reality. If I could summarize the above in a unifying statement, I would say that creative writing always finds me, I don’t find it. I am deeply influenced from an inside-out process.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
It’s important for fiction literature writers to balance a sense of chemistry with their characters. That’s why talking to them, meaning try to portray important aspects and discuss options is essential. Nevertheless, figuring out how would they feel, meaning to listen to their emotions and thoughts is important as well. That’s why I believe that the writer’s interaction with his characters should take place and be fostered on many levels. The deeper you are willing to get with them, the richer you will come out at the exit.
What advice would you give other writers?
To not rush into conclusions that are based on limited information and believe me, this can go too far…
How did you decide how to publish your books?
Firstly, as a primordial thought I believed in the power of the world-wide-web also dealing with the potential of lower costs. It’s not just that I wanted to be a writer, I had to find the way and the means to do that. Bearing in mind I was a digital marketeer and had graduated from lots of Google Academy classes, plus having seen the potential of the global markets of Dan Brown’s books in his website, I wanted to bet on that power. Nevertheless, this has been a research and creativity that took me years including my own education, so my advice to what new authors should explore, whatever they choose to be their pathway is to know deeply where something begins and where it ends, especially when it has to do with both publishing and the internet.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
Good literature offers different perspectives than screenplays. The same goes if it is to compare physical markets and the internet. Balancing dreams, market research and optimization of the writer’s decisions will determine to a great extent fostered global trends. Our societies are being digitalized and this means that although we act in the physical space, we thing digital (phygital). I do not believe the internet and AI will override traditional commerce but it's important for all creators to remain contemporary.
What genres do you write?: Drama and fairytale fantasies, so far.
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Menelaos Gkikas Home Page Link
Link To Menelaos Gkikas Page On Amazon
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All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
