About MJ Politis, Ph.D., D.V.M., H.B.A.R.P. (human being, aspiring Renaissance person):
The elements present in MJ Politis’ works that define them can be best described as humanistic comedy, drama and satire with a unique cerebral edge. Along with being thought provoking, they speak to common experience of struggling people trying to make the world a better, more enlightened and Alive, big A, place. Premises are often unconventional utilizing unpredictable and intricate plotlines to tell stories about complex characters with many internal contradictions. A large portion of the works utilize historical settings which relate situations that we encounter today, as well as being authentic to descriptions of life which we don’t experience in the 21st century. A common but not always present theme in the books and films is…’revolutionary’. Rugged individualists trying to do and implement the right things in a dead, dying or corrupt world. Central characters in stories penned struggle with intensity to make the world a better place, often against ‘too cool to sweat’ and ‘cool to be cruel’ antagonists.
Due to his previous career as a highly prolific senior level research neuroscientist, lecturer and veterinary clinician, many of the story themes are biomedical or deal with issues regarding how science serves, and (when done irresponsibly) doesn’t serve us in the tradition of fellow docs who became writers such as Anton Chekov and Michael Crichton. Stories about Revolutions are heavily represented because of his dedication to initiating and maintaining positive social change that is healthy as well as sustainable. Tales about the Wild West, the Wild East (Russia) and Greece represent a substantial portion of his writing due to his ancestry as well as having lived the first portion of his 73 year old life in the Big (Crab) Apple as a masochistic workahollic and the second half in rural Western Canada owned by horses, who he continues to work for, and with.
Author, 76 novels/novellas. Dir/Writer 25 plus films. MJ Politis, Ph.D., D.V.M., H.B.A.R.P. (human being aspiring Renaissance person)
What inspires you to write?
Inspiring and PUSHING me to write is the need to find the Truth about the human condition as it is and should be, expressing it, and have it be heard (that is, to be considered by and benefit others, now and in future generations).
What authors do you read when you aren’t writing?
John Steinbeck, Kurt Vonnegut, Nikos Kazantzakis, Dostoyevski, Tolstoy, Chekov. Yes, I know they are all 'last century'.
Tell us about your writing process.
Before taking on another work, I figure out and put on (scrap) paper what I am trying to say, and why. Who and what is the book about? Since I write (as all worthy stories are ) fact based fiction, and find a setting to tell the story that is…interesting. Once the characters are established, and the world they are in is sufficiently understood, and felt, the story takes on a life of its own, driven by the most thought provoking 'what if's' that come to mind/soul , and guided (but not smothered by) by logic. If I am doing my job as a writer, the fingers are smarter than the head, in that something emerges in each chapter that was not planned, at least consciously. Everything put down is about developing characters or moving plot along with twists and turns. Being true, intense and honest with the drama makes thought provoking humor come out, somehow.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I listen with the internal ears to them all the time. Wherever possible, each chapter is related from the perspective of a different character, said characters never being completely virtuous or 100 percent 'evil'. They all have to have their 'day in court', the sentence given to them at the end of the 'trial by story' at the end of the book being….the main Core of the story.
What advice would you give other writers?
A question I thank you for posing! Write from the heart, brain and gut. Listen to, consider but do not follow all of the comments/criticisms from others. Be prepared for the writing process to be more about intense work than stressless play, particularly if you are trying to express and share that all too seldom seen thing in print but much needed entity—HUMOR. Be real, and serve the story and important messages you are trying to convey rather than seeking to please a demographic like a stand up comic trying to work a crowd of drunks, druggies or doughheads. You never know who is going to like your book or hate it. And…if you are doing your job, someone in the world will hate your book, and someone will love it. And remember, if it were easy, everybody would be doing it.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
Having lived 40 years as a writer, and havin written 80 books (along with nearly as many screenplays, 30 of them having been produced)….different routes of publishing with those that are best suited for the marketplace, and which I like most. Mixture of small press, self publishing and the emerging entity for independent, impatient writers…hybrid publishers. In a world where anyone except the 'big five' traditional publishers is taking on a big financial risk printing/publishing ANY book.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
Those who are willing to put their blood, sweat, tears AND some dollars into it will remain. I personally see hybrid publishing being how those with independent voices who are not mainstream 'guarenteed to be popular with everybody' as a viable option. Most artists are great at doing their art but suck as publicists and promoters.
BUT- Which independent voices will reach the ears and eyes of the general public? I HOPE that such does not depend on the manipulative skills of human cyber gurus or, worse, AI.
Sidenote: One of the books and films in my vault that I am trying to get out to the world is set in 999AD, the protagonist being a prolific fiction writing monk-scholar who lives in a monastery specializing in copying books where aforementioned scholar/monk is one of the only two people who can read. I fear that we are in an age where independent humanistic voices are being replaced, or silenced, by gatekeepers who promote books which are popular, easy on the eyes and actively NON-challenging to the mind. Talking books are, to me, like being read a bedtime story at someone else's pace which, me anyway, never liked…even as a kid who preferred to read rather than be read to.
What genres do you write?: Fiction, with some combination of two or more of the following:. Historical, Horror, Medical, Thrillers, War, LGBT, Western, Social satire, metaphysical, sibling rivalry, futuristic, Scifi..
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
MJ Politis, Ph.D., D.V.M., H.B.A.R.P. (human being, aspiring Renaissance person) Home Page Link
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.
