Interview with Author DORIEN GREY – Part 2

INTERVIEW

WITH

AUTHOR DORIEN GREY

AND

THE HUMAN BEING ROGER MARGASON

-second part-

-you can find the first part here–

In the beginning, I met Dorien.

Or… was it Roger whom I met?

Or… they were both at the same time, same place, due to Dorien’s inclusion in Roger’s heart?

Who cares about these details?

I MET A SOUL!

AND I WISH YOU

TO MEET HIM, TOO!

Franklyn Roger Margason was not the first baby born in the history of the world, but he was the first (and only) baby born to Frank and Odrae Margason of Rockford, Illinois. This first photo… and it was his first photo… was taken either late December 1933, or early 1934.

This baby soon became a child and after this a teenager; it didn’t take long for the young adult to be born and from him, a fully grown adult to finally arise. The times and space couldn’t change the depth of the soul that inhabits Roger’s body and Dorien’s heart.

Time and space seemed to pass by, but… did it really do this? It seems that Roger/Dorien knows a hidden secret… and therefore his mantra is: “And then is now…”

The second part of the Interview

M.C.S – Talk about music, please. Do you connect music with your writing process? Any specific memories related to music?

R.M./D.D. – My taste in music is heavily on the classical (though orchestral only…I really don’t care for opera or choral) and music from my childhood and youth (the big band era, WWII popular songs). Even today, the opening notes of a song can take me almost physically back in time.

M.C.S – Did you ever think to write a story about the woman in her late 70, who was passing by your apartment frequently in the late 1950’s (the woman about whom you wrote that she carried herself like an empress and always dressed stylishly in a tight black dress, elbow length black gloves, and a large, wide-brimmed black hat with a bright red cabbage rose. Though pale, she wore lipstick to match the cabbage rose, and her cheeks were brightly rouged) and the gentleman of probably her same age (who always wore a spotless white suit with white shoes, whom you never saw without a flower in his lapel)? You always wished he and the lady in black could have met. If you would write about them, how would you imagine their story?

R.M./D.D. – Oddly no, I never did write their story, and the reason may not make much sense: I saw nothing to write. Each was their own story which I could never know. I have had people ask why I never wrote a sequel to my western/adventure/romance, Calico and I tell them that Calico and Josh, having ridden off into the sunset together, are now their own people, and don’t need me to interfere further into their lives.

M.C.S – What do you feel about earthquakes?

R.M./D.D. – The first few I experienced when I moved to L.A. were exciting… gentle rockers, rather like being on a ship at sea. But then I bought a house and went through the San Fernando earthquake of 1971, in which 70 people died. The most frightening thing about a strong earthquake is that you can hear it coming before it hits. The San Fernando quake was the kind that grabs you by the shoulders and shakes the bejeezus out of you. I watched a foot and a half of water slosh out of my swimming pool during the quake. My mother had just moved from Illinois to be with me after my dad died, and bought a house six blocks from mine. I immediately got into my car and went to see if she was okay. A large garage of the post office a block away had collapsed, and all the windows were broken out of the stores along the main street between my house and mom’s. She said that when the quake hit, she thought someone was throwing garbage cans at her house. As I walked in the door, the phone rang. It was my aunt from Illinois saying “I hear you just had an earthquake” (it had been all of ten minutes). How she got through, I have no idea, because when I tried to use the phone immediately afterwards, the lines were dead and all telephone communications were gone for a couple of days….. so I guess you could say my reaction to earthquakes is mixed.

M.C.S – Which was your happiest birthday celebration? What about the saddest?

R.M./D.D. – I can’t remember the happiest… there have been so very many of them. The saddest was the death of my dad in 1968. He died on my mom’s birthday, and my birthday was three days later.

M.C.S – Tell us please about the writer’s block moments. Did you ever have such a strong block that you felt that you will never write again? What methods are you using to overcome such moments?

R.M./D.D. – I think writers’ block moments are inevitable. While they happen infrequently for me, I usually find the best thing to do is go back several pages and start reading as though I’d never seen it before. Usually, by the time I reach the point where the problem occurred, I can move right past it. It’s sort of like a car trying to get up a slippery hill in winter. Just back up a bit and try again.

M.C.S – What do you think about limitations. Do you feel they are real or are we taught to believe that we are limited beings?

R.M./D.D. – Much as Dorien would like to believe that there are no limitations to anything, Roger’s logic acknowledges that there are indeed limitations, but that we can, however, push them considerably beyond what we assume them to be.

M.C.S – Tell us about your inclination for contemplation of words. Are you doing this having a specific goal?

R.M./D.D. – I have loved words all my life. They come and go constantly, and I have no control of which ones come and which ones do not (though most show up at one time or another), or how long they stay, or where they go when they leave. I am fascinated by all aspects of them, and sometimes love to stare at a word… even a word like “the”… intently until I truly feel that I have never seen it before in my life. I suggest you try it for yourself. One need not have a specific goal to be able to enjoy something.

M.C.S – Please, talk about Love. Tell us about July 2nd, 1978? What did you feel then? What did you feel after? And what do you feel now… after such a long time?

R.M./D.D. – It was July 2nd, 1978, that I met Ray Lopez, who went on to be who I think of now as the love of my life. And this is a perfect example of what we have just been discussing. Ray was perhaps the sweetest and most loving person I have ever met (Jonathan of the Dick Hardesty series is based to a large part on Ray). Unfortunately, he was also a hopeless alcoholic whose drinking eventually killed him. He was, truly, Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. We were together on and off for nine years of drama and trauma, and yet, through the Vasaline’d lens of time which blurs much of the harshness, I see only his sweetness and love, and I miss him terribly to this day.

M.C.S – What do you think… can time influence feelings?

R.M./D.D. – Of course, as my story of Ray indicates. Time indeed softens the sharp edges of memory… with each passing year, the impact of the details blur slightly, and the memories become more poignant. So, yes, definitely time influences feelings.

M.C.S – What jobs have you tried until now and which was your favorite?

R.M./D.D. – Most of my adult life I have been involved in writing and editing, which I of course love. For awhile, when living in the North Woods, I supplemented my income at various times by managing a local food co-op (which I really did enjoy) and utilized my writing skills as a paralegal for a law firm.

M.C.S – What about places you traveled to, on this planet. Is there a favorite one?

R.M./D.D. – I’ve traveled throughout the U.S., of course, and been to Europe five times. I’ve lost track of exactly how many countries I’ve visited… probably around a dozen. London, Paris, Rome, Athens, Istanbul, Venice, Florence, Cannes, Beirut, Naples, etc. I’m very fond of several of them, but I think my favorite is Pompeii. To walk streets uncovered after 2,000 years, to sit in the small garden of a ruined villa and listen for the ghostly voices of people so very long gone….

M.C.S – You say you are what you call a “reverse narcissist”. Do you want to speak about this statement?

R.M./D.D. – A reverse narcissist is one who spends an inordinate amount of time not on saying how wonderful he is but in enumerating and dwelling on his flaws, which is what I have done most of my life.

M.C.S – Our interview reached the final moment. In my name and our reader’s name also, I thank you for accepting to be our guest and for opening for us the door to your heart. Do you want to tell something more to our readers? Any wishes towards them; any advice?

R.M./D.D. – I’d like to thank you and them for allowing me this chance to introduce myself. I invite you all to check out my website doriengrey.com, where you can see all my books and read the full first chapter of any or all of them, and to connect with me on Facebook. And whatever you do, remember that life is much too short to waste dwelling on the negative.

M.C.S.’s comment:

I also thank you, the readers, for being near us through this travel in time and space and inside the depth of Roger/Dorien’s soul. If you enjoyed this travel and I hope from the core of my heart that you did… if you are still curious about my guest’s life stories, you can directly contact him; he will gladly answer to any new friend.

You can also check out Dorien Grey (Amazon Author Page).

And if you want to know more about the Earthen path of Roger/Dorien, you can do it following these links:

• www.doriengrey.blogspot.com
• www.doriengreyphotolife.blogspot.com
• www.facebook.com/dorien.grey
• www.pinterest.com/doriengrey

-you can find the first part here–