Saturday, July 1, 2017

Books: Interview with Historian and Byzantinologist Konstantinos Karatolios



We had the pleasure of interviewing a Greek historian and expert in Byzantine history, who is also a writer, Konstantinos Karatolios. Read more to find out about the fascinating history that he brings to life in his book.

Living in Greece, you’re breathing history. Did your surroundings make you passionate about history?


You can say that. People in Greece love history. It is a topic to be discussed not only by experts but almost by everyone. 


Yes, your country is a live museum, so rich with culture and history. When did you realize you wanted to write and when did you start writing?


I’ve always wanted to write. Writing is about expressing yourself. Whether it is history, literature or just a letter to your beloved one, it can be creative and fun. Of course writing about science has its own rules, but I still enjoy it as much.


I agree. Writing is a wonderful form of expression. What is your favorite quote, and who wrote it?


Τον άρχοντα τριών δει μέμνησθαι: Πρώτον ότι ανθρώπων άρχει. Δεύτερον ότι κατά νόμους άρχει. Τρίτον ότι ουκ αεί άρχει. Αγάθων (Agathon), 450-400 b.c.. It means that those who rule must remember three things. That they rule over people, that they rule according to the law and that they will not rule for ever. I think that if all rulers followed his advice, our world would be a much better place to live in. 




That's for sure. A very interesting quote indeed. Who is your favorite historical figure? Why? 


If I had to choose one I would pick Constantine the Great. He was the founder of Constantinople and one can argue that with him starts Byzantine History as well. So in a way, we can say that he can be used as a symbol for this great civilization. 


That shows that you're totally into Byzantine history. What inspired you to write your book on Greek Fire? How did you research the topic? What is your target audience for the book?

The mystery surrounding this secret weapon and the fame it had gained through history was enough to intrigue me. I love researching Byzantine History, but this was a real challenge. I like working with the sources. I believe that it is the closer we can get to how the Byzantines actually thought. Of course you can’t just ignore what other researchers have wrote on the subject and I certainly didn’t. Although it is a scientific book, it is also written in a way that a wider audience that doesn’t know much about the era can read it too without difficulty.


It's a great book, and well researched. Readers who are familiar with "Game of Thrones" might also take an interesting in finding out more about this interesting topic. Why do you think it’s important to learn history? How do you think history impacts our lives and the world around us?


Everything around us is a product of a historical process. To understand our world is to understand how it has come to be this way. I think that History is a real brain opener.




There's so much we can learn from history. It's always been one of my favorite subjects. If you could choose a historical period to visit as a time traveler, where would you go and why?


I think that you already know the answer. Byzantium would be my target. It would be a chance to know if what we say is true, and I would be able to learn so much more. For now, the only time travel machine we have is called books though.


I'd have guessed this answer. With your extensive knowledge of historical periods and the Byzantine world, do you have plans to write fiction or historical fiction?


That would be nice. Time is always an issue, though. We don’t live long enough to do everything we like.


You could certainly write a very accurate time period fiction book! What are you working on currently and what are your writing plans for the future?


I’m working on a PhD regarding the education of the byzantine princes in the Middle Byzantine period. If we know what and how they learned it we might be able to know more about these future emperors.




It sounds like a fascinating topic. Is there anything else you'd like to share with the readers?


My book on Greek Fire is available in English and in Greek. It will also be available in Spanish and Portuguese soon. I hope it becomes an introduction for more people to get to know Byzantium. 

Congratulations! We wish you success with your PhD research and hope you write more books that tell the fascinating history of the Byzantine period.

Don't miss this exciting book. To purchase, click on the links below:

English:

 
Spanish:
 

Sunday, June 18, 2017

Music: Interview with Rock Star Ed Richwood

I often say that one of the coolest things about this blog is having the opportunity to meet and interview so many talented artists, and I'm really excited to introduce you to Ed Richwood, a rockstar whose voice reminds me of Chris Cornell's. Read on to find out more about him and listen to his music!

Please tell us a little about your background and where you are from.
I was born and grown up in Spain. And I basically spent most of my life surviving as a musician. A few years ago I moved to Berlin, here the art scene is really interesting.

That's cool! When did you realize you had a calling for music?

I was 9, it was a Saturday morning. I was listening to the radio laying on my bed, and then I heard a guitar riff (from The Cult). That sound just made me jump out of the bed with excitement, I was sucked into a vortex of excitement. Since then, I'm still hypnotized and high on that thrilling emotion of rock music. 

Wow, that's amazing. Since you mentioned The Cult, who was your greatest influence to follow in the music career? Why?
That's a really tough question. Honestly I don't know. When you love music you feel attracted and continually fascinated about many music. Still, it would be fair to say that I'm strongly influenced by Seattle's grunge (Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Nirvana...).



And your voice reminds me of Chris Cornell's... as I mentioned before. Do you also write the lyrics and compose the songs?
Yes. I just have fun doing it. I improvise the music most of the time and the lyrics are just words that feet the sounds. I don't have any ambition of writing great songs or lyrics, it's just a game. 

You're very skilled; improvising music is not that easy! When was the first time you performed live and how did you feel?
I was probably 13, and it was a really small town with my first band, which was actually pretty bad. But we had fun. Still, it made me realize that this thing of becoming a musician was harder than I thought. So it felt pretty sad. But I never could actually stop trying. We thrive in challenges.

I'm glad you feel this way. Don't give up, you're very talented. Is there a specific performance you feel was your best so far? If so, where and why?
Well, at the time with my project "Ed Richwood" I'm not performing. It is a studio project although I'll be starting touring at some point soon. 
But I really enjoyed playing with bands when I was 18-20, in small clubs. The music was terrible, but we just played each gig as if it the last one. I have some amazing memories out of that crazy nights. 

I bet you had a lot of fun doing that. What do you enjoy the most between your interaction with the fans?
Well, having someone listening carefully to my music is always an honor. So when I see that someone has been listening and saved my music on Spotify/iTunes/youtube...that feels real. It makes me very happy to see that I may be inspiring another's day. 
In the other hand, I have people who just cheer me up every time I post or share, with heartfelt comments. That's priceless!

Yes, it's priceless indeed, when you're recognized for your talent! How do you draw inspiration to write your music? 
I just surrender. The songs are there somewhere. So to me it feels a lot like fishing. I just sit there, with patience, and sooner or later the beauty appears. Instead of being an activity, it's more like being open an receptive. I don't try to write songs, it just happens. So, I actually don't write any song in some way. I wouldn't describe me as a creative person. I don't even understand what people really mean by that, because when music happens there is no personal intention of playing.

What are you working on now and what are your plans for the future? Where can we find and buy your music?
Well, I'm recording song #11 of my 7th album that will be released on July this year. Actually you can find my music on Spotify, I-tunes, Apple Music, Google Play, and Amazon.  I try to share the process with my friends on Facebook, twitter, and Instagram.



Click on the links below for music:


Besides that, if anyone wants to support my music, rather than buying it, I would prefer people to tip me when I finish a song. https://www.patreon.com/edrichwood.

Thanks for sharing your music! Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Well, first to thank you for this opportunity. I believe that people like you change the paradigm, so I wish you the best with this blog! =D

Thank you for your time; we wish you much success with your music and next projects! Keep singing because you have an amazing voice!

Saturday, February 11, 2017

Books: Interview with Science Fiction and Fantasy writer Mjke Wood


Today on the blog we have the pleasure to introduce writer Mjke Wood. Read on to find out more about his fascinating books.

Where are you from and what's your background?

I was born on the Isle of Man but I’ve lived most of my life on the Wirral, in the UK. I worked as a Finance Manager for a large public transport company, but last year I took an early retirement deal to concentrate on writing full time. I’m also a musician, playing alto sax and clarinet in bands around the North West. I love playing in pit orchestras for amateur shows, too. It’s a great way to see lots of hit musicals without having to pay to get in.

What a great way to attend shows! When did you realize you wanted to write and when did you start writing?

I’ve always loved reading, and about thirty years ago, after a bad commuting experience, I wrote to the local newspaper. It was a full on rant, but I injected humor into it, and when it was published as the star letter, and I began to receive feedback, it got me thinking. I decided to try writing humor pieces and sending them to magazines. They were rejected of course. They were bad. But it didn’t stop me because I’d fallen in love with the whole process of writing.

That’s great that you didn’t give up after being rejected. What genre do you write and what's your target audience?

It’s strange that while I was sending these random humor pieces out to magazines, I’d never thought to try writing science fiction. I read a lot of science fiction, and have done since I was eight or nine years old. My dad used to bring home stacks of short story anthologies from the library, and I read these because they were way better than the stuff I could get from the children’s library. So I took a break from the humor stuff and started writing science fiction short stories. I sent them to magazines, and when these rejections came back, they were different. They were rejections from America, from magazines like Analog and Asimov’s, and the editors were names that I knew, and they were writing letters to me, and sometimes they even included comments that made me realize they’d actually read some them. I’d found the thing I wanted to write. There was still humor in a lot of the stories, but also some serious stuff was coming through. So for the most part, my target audience was these editors. I wrote for them. If ever I were to sell a story it would be because I’d written something that appealed to a particular editor.

It’s quite an interesting take on your audience. And how many books have you published so
far? Were you ever accepted to be published in any other publications or journals?

My focus stayed on short fiction for many years. I wrote occasional novels and sent them out to agents and publishers, but always my passion was for writing short fiction, and I’d begun to sell some of it. In 2007 I won the Jim Baen Memorial contest with a short story, and then a year later I won Writers of the Future, and that was cool because part of the prize was a week-long paid-for trip to Los Angeles for a workshop and for the award ceremony. I’d never been to America. I’d never even flown, and that’s a whole other story in itself. Okay, I’ve strayed from the question, so I’ll try and get back on track. Before writing any novels I had maybe two dozen short stories published in sci-fi magazines and anthologies. I put together a collection of my own short stories, called ‘Power for Two Minutes and Other Unrealities’, and indy published it on Amazon, and I have now, at last, published a novel-length science fiction story, ‘Deep Space Accountant’, which is the first of a series. Book two will be out later this year. In the meantime I followed a parallel thread, writing a humorous travel memoir called ‘Travelling in a Box’. It’s very niche, very UK focused, so I’ve been surprised at how well it’s done.

You have a lot of interesting adventures to tell, that’s for sure. And congrats on your winnings. What is your favorite quote and who wrote it?

I don’t have a quote, so much as a set of rules, coined in 1947 by the sci-fi writer, Robert Heinlein. They’re designed for short fiction writing but you can make them work for long form, too.
1                    You must write
2                    You must finish what you start
3                    You must refrain from rewriting except to editorial order.
4                    You must put it on the market.
5                    You must keep it on the market until sold.

Rule three seems a little strange but what it means is don’t keep going back over something you’ve finished, polished and edited. Concentrate on the next thing. So I also like to include a sixth rule that was added much later, by Robert J Sawyer:
6          Start working on something else.

This is important. It’s too easy to sit back after one story or book and decide that your work is done. It isn’t done, you have the next book to do, and then the next.

Indeed, the job of a writer is never done… Do you have a favorite author? Who? Has this author or his book(s) influenced your writing in any way?

As a sci-fi writer Arthur C Clarke is perhaps my biggest early influence. I think I’ve read every novel he wrote, and most of his short fiction, too. Clarke’s ‘A Fall of Moondust’ was the first Sci-Fi novel I ever read. The memory of reading that book, waiting for the rain to stop while on a camping holiday near Minehead in Somerset, is still vivid in my mind. I was eleven or twelve years old. ‘A Fall of Moondust’ just blew me away. If Arthur C Clarke was my gateway drug to sci-fi, then Stephen King hooked me with the full-on addiction for writing. Around about the time when I was sending off those daft little pieces to newspapers and magazines, I read Stephen King’s ‘The Stand’, and then ‘It’. I felt rocked back on my heels. I’d encountered real magic. How could a few squiggles on a page transport me, mind body and soul, into another world? I wanted more and I wanted to be able to perform that magic.

I can see why they can influence any writer! If you could be a character from any book who would you like to be, and why?

This is hard because most of the characters from my favorite books are put through hell and back. It’s something writers do, they create characters you love and then they do horrible things to them. But if I may return to Arthur C Clarke, and his 1974 Hugo-winning ‘Rendezvous with Rama’, then Jimmy Pak is my choice. He’s a crew member of the exploratory mission to Rama, a massive rotating cylindrical starship that enters our solar system en route to an unknown destination. Jimmy Pak gets to skybike along the axis of Rama, and he sees the whole of this artificial world rotating around him. Ever since reading that book I’ve been fascinated by the whole concept of generation starships built as giant cylinders with artificial gravity. What a fabulous thing to explore one and see it from such a vantage point. And Jimmy Pak gets through the whole book without getting maimed or mutilated or anything else of a discouraging nature.

Wow, that’s true. Hard to find a character that doesn’t go through a horrible experience, but the adventures are worth it! What are you working on now?

I have a first draft for the second Sphere of Influence novel all ready to start knocking into shape. It’s called ‘The Lollipop of Influence’. I envy those writers who can get a first draft that’s more or less good to go. My first drafts need a lot of work to iron out all the bugs and plot holes and clunky writing, and I have to make sure it’s consistent with the first book. I’ll only send a ‘final’ draft to my editor when I’m sure it’s clean. And then, for sure, it will come back marked up with another month’s work for me fix all the things I missed. I’ve also written a follow-up to my travel book, called ‘Two in a Box’, which is sitting in the queue waiting its turn to go through the second-draft factory. Beyond that I there’s a third travel book to come, provisionally titled ‘Flying in a Box’, and at least one more book in the Sphere of Influence series. And I’m still doing short stories at the rate of about one per month, just for the fun of it.

You’re keeping very busy, and that’s great. Where can we find out more about you and your writing?

My website is www.mjkewood.com and I have a separate website for my travel books, www.travellinginabox.com.

You can find me on Twitter as @MjkeW and my Facebook page is www.facebook.com/mjkewood/

Is there anything else you'd like to share with our readers?


Well, just to mention that one of my short stories has been optioned for a movie. The story is ‘The Last Days of Dogger City’ which first appeared in the April 2015 edition of Analog. Right now it’s being turned into a script by the producers, First Enterprise Productions. This is a turn of events that I most definitely wouldn’t have predicted a few years ago. As I say, it was only a short story so the movie will need more plot material than in the original, so I’m dying to see what comes out of it.

That’s about it, only to say, thanks, Andrea, for the interview. I’ve very much enjoyed doing it, and I wish you every success with your own writing endeavors.

Congratulations, Mjke! That’s absolutely fantastic and I hope to be watching the movie based on your story soon. Good luck and thank you so much for your time telling us about you and your books! 

To puchase Mjke's books, visit his page on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Mjke-Wood/e/B00IA4HJCA