Interview with Author DORIEN GREY – Part 1

INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR DORIEN GREY AND THE HUMAN BEING ROGER MARGASON

-first part-

-you can find the second part here–

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”.

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!

Addressing both Roger and his alter ego Dorien, the following interview has only one goal: to dig inside a soul which captivated my whole attention. I am now wondering if being trapped into a human body, is it really possible to deeply dig inside a soul?

A lifelong book and magazine editor, Roger Margason decided one day to write. Today there are already fifteen books in the popular Dick Hardesty Mystery series and five Elliott Smith paranormal mysteries. Adding also Calico – a western/romance/adventure novel, Short Circuits: a Life in Blogs – a compilation of his blogs, the book of poems Dreams of a Calico Mouse, and A World Ago: A Navy Man’s Letters Home, 1954-1956… does an author needs to publish and audio-publish more? Dorien’s value brings into the Writing’s World a unique breeze of talent, which combined with Roger’s heart transform everything into the powerful magnet of their Soul.

This Soul’s bio as a human here and now, can for sure be found all over this tool called the internet. It’s not my goal to emphasize a well known and accessible bio. As I mentioned before, this interview’s goal is to start revealing a soul, a heart who has deep feelings and a brain that can easily touch a genius frequency.

While preparing my research for this interview, so many emotions invaded my mind, so many answers were eagerly waiting to be received, that with all my efforts to keep a shorter list, cutting and concentrating on many questions, I finally decided to split this interview into two parts.

I want the readers to have time to grasp each answer that Roger/Dorien provided; and this split is necessary from my point of view, because behind each answered word, is a whole other world which is waiting to be felt.

This interview is that kind which must be read with a peaceful mind and heart; this peace will let the reader unlock the gate to the hidden world.

And if you want to find some 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

If, after doing your own researches you will want to find more, write directly to Roger/Dorien… there is nothing “they” enjoy more than hearing from a reader… as they always used to say.

Now… let us guide you through a life-time journey…

Interview with Roger/Dorien
-First part-

M.C.S – Hello and welcome Roger/Dorien. Thank you for accepting to be our guest today and thank you even more for sharing with us your words and the feelings behind them.

R.M./D.D. – Thanks, M.C., for allowing me to talk with you and your followers. I very much appreciate it.

M.C.S – Many of your readers are saying that the problem with Dorien’s books is that once you start to read you can’t stop until the end. When you write a book, do you have this hook in mind or are you writing directly from your heart without involving a rational goal for doing it?

R.M./D.D. – Well, first I am flattered by the “problem.” When I start a book, I begin telling myself a story. I have a general idea of the kind of story I want it to be and where I want it to go, but then I more or less sit back and watch what my fingers put on the screen in front of me. I am truly delighted when the story decides it doesn’t want to go exactly the way I’d intended it to, and takes off on its own. My favorite example of this… which I’ve related it many, many times… is when in book #5 of the Dick Hardesty mystery series, I have Dick walk into a bar to pick up a copy of a gay newspaper. I had absolutely no idea until I saw the words appearing that sitting at the bar would be a young man named Jonathan, who would go on to become Dick’s life partner and change the course of the entire series. I am still delighted every time I think of it.

M.C.S – When was Dorien Grey born inside Roger? Did Dorien ever take the control, or do you keep a balance between them?

R.M./D.D. – Dorien was “born” in the fall of 2001 when I was about to publish my first book. I was living in a very conservative area and did not want to risk harassment by using my own name. I’d always been a fan of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray because the protagonist remained young and beautiful on the outside while his soul, captured by his portrait, aged and withered. I consider myself as the reverse of that: I remain young (if not beautiful) on the inside while my body suffers the ravages of time. Since Dorien first emerged, we have developed a great relationship. In everything related to writing, I am Dorien. In everything else, I’m Roger. I greatly admire Dorien, for whom nothing is impossible and who can be anything he wishes to be whenever he wishes to be it. Roger, alas, cannot.

M.C.S – Do you ever write about things that your mind cannot grasp? Do you always feel comfortable with what you are writing?

R.M./D.D. – LOL! My mind cannot grasp most things in life, but if I were truly uncomfortable about something, I don’t think I could write about it. One great advantage a writer has is that the reader tends to give him or her the benefit of the doubt and assume he/she knows what they’re talking about.

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M.C.S – Tell us about the time spent joining the Naval Aviation Cadet program. Did you know at that moment that you will be a writer? Did you ever intended to publish your journal?

R.M./D.D. – I’d been writing long before I joined the Naval Aviation Cadet program in August of 1954—which I did for two main reasons:

1. I had always wanted to fly, and
2. The Korean War G.I. Bill, which provided funds for college, was ending on January 1, 1955, and I needed the money for school.

And yes, even then I did hope my adventures might be seen by a much wider audience than my parents.

M.C.S – What does the past mean to you? Tell us about your hunger for the people from your past, whom you love and loved you. If you would have the chance to make a leap in time… would you prefer to go to past times near the loved ones or would you choose to take them with you in a future moment where you could build a new life together?

R.M./D.D. – I readily admit I cling too tightly to the past. I am infinitely greedy. I do not like endings, and do not handle them well. Life is a wonderful party, and I am acutely aware that every minute that passes brings me closer to the time I will have to leave. I would love nothing more than to be able to go back in time to re-experience those times I remember so fondly… to have the chance to spend a day with those I have loved and lost, and to make it clear to them how important they were to me, and how I loved them.

M.C.S – I saw your family album and I felt your love for what was and what those people gave to your heart. Tell us about them, please.

R.M./D.D. – I think the question above pretty much applies here. I am who I am because of the people and experiences of my past.

M.C.S – You want to know more, to write more, to read more. Why do you think you have this hunger? Do you sense its root?

R.M./D.D. – Again, because I so desperately love life and realize how very much it has to offer, and how very little time, relatively, is allotted to human beings to experience it all. As I said, I am greedy; I want it all.

M.C.S – What do you feel about what you had and you don’t have anymore?

R.M./D.D. – I often feel very much like a lion tamer, with nothing but a whip and chair to hold a great sense of longing and loss at bay.

M.C.S – You once said: “Two of life’s many perversities are:

1. We seem incapable of appreciating what we have when we have it, and
2. Things often seem rosier in retrospect than they did at the time”.

What do you think now about it? How is this related with your desire to have more, to know more… more and more…?

R.M./D.D. – It is one of the infinite number of ironies of human existence that we are unable to be fully aware of the impact of “now” until it has passed. It is only then that we can put it into perspective. Having said that, there are, if we are very lucky, a few, rare moments when we can appreciate the now, and they are what I think of as epiphanies. I’ve been fortunate enough to have been blessed with several, and I look back on each one with total delight. One that comes immediately to mind was being in Venice for the first time in 2011, sitting in St. Mark’s Square in the shadow of the bell tower on a beautiful April day, having a beer in front of a restaurant where a small orchestra was playing songs from the past, and being suddenly overwhelmed by the realization of how very, very lucky I was. It was truly euphoric.

M.C.S – You consider yourself being a logical person. I sense you more like an emotional one. Tell us please, about the battle between these two aspects, between your heart and brain.

R.M./D.D. – I am logical in that I know what is right and what is wrong for me (and, truth be told, for most other people). I know what makes sense to me and what does not. I also consider myself one of the last of the hard-core romantics, and that when it comes to my emotions, too often my heart rules my head. But, again, it all works out well. Roger is my brain, Dorien is my heart.

M.C.S – What do you feel about magicians? What is your logic saying and what is your heart?

R.M./D.D. – Just because I know something isn’t real doesn’t mean I cannot wish—and pretend—it were. In the case of magicians, Roger simply lets Dorien have fun. In all matters between harmless fantasy and cold reality, I tend to prefer fantasy. It is much more fun.

M.C.S – Tell us why “one of my favorite fictional characters is the little lady from the play The Madwoman of Chaillot, who every morning reads exactly the same edition of her favorite newspaper because she likes the news in it.” If you dig more inside your heart, why do you think this is one of your favorite types of women?

R.M./D.D. – She is one of my favorite people. She is me. She is Dorien. She ignores what might bother her and concentrates on what gives her pleasure. No one is harmed by it, so why not?

M.C.S – Speak about physical age, spiritual age and heart’s age. What do you feel about them?

R.M./D.D. – Physical age disturbs, frightens, and angers me. And here we have another example of my ability to know something is true without believing it. I know I was born in 1933 and that I have lived 80 years thus far. I can say it, but do not believe it for a second.

M.C.S – What do you think about desires and their fulfillment? Do you think we as humans will ever be completely happy when we materialize a desire?

R.M./D.D. – I honestly don’t think humans are meant to be happy all the time. We are a species always dissatisfied with the way things are and always wanting more… to see what is around the next corner, over the next hill. It is one reason I cannot believe in heaven. To be blissful for eternity would really be very boring.

M.C.S – Did you lose your physical sense of taste? If yes, how has this happened?

R.M./D.D. – I’ve recently totally lost my physical senses of both taste and smell as a long-term result of the chemo and radiation treatments I underwent during my bout with tongue cancer in 2003. I find it nearly impossible to differentiate salt from sugar. I can spritz cologne on my wrist and, my nose to my skin, cannot smell it.

M.C.S – Tell us about Sheba, the cat that leant strong moral support during your recovery after the successful battle with cancer.

R.M./D.D. – While I cling to the past and its memories, sometimes I try not to. Sheba was a large, black cat who just suddenly appeared in my life and became part of it. I have a “thing” for black cats—my current cat, Spirit, is black—and Sheba was there during my bout with tongue cancer and the recovery period afterwards. Sheba was an outdoor cat, wise in the ways of the world and its dangers. When I decided to move back to Chicago, I realized how utterly unfair it would be to relegate Sheba to a life where he could never again go outside, so with more reluctance and guilt than I can relate, I sent him to live with a co-worker who had a farm in the forest, where I knew he could continue to be free. I have tried very hard not to think of him since, because I know how much it hurts when I do.

M.C.S – You said that forests are eternal and time sneaks up on people. Did you ever wonder why do you think this?

R.M./D.D. – The individual trees of a forest fall and are replaced by new trees, but the forest remains. And the same is true of humanity. We are a forest, and each of us is a tree. Humans, again, are two busy living in the “now” to recognize just how quickly time passes until we are suddenly no longer able to do the things we once did.

M.C.S – Are you loving Love, or do you love Loving?

R.M./D.D. – I love the very concept of love in all its aspects, and one of the greatest regrets of my life is that I have aged myself out of the chance for one-on-one romantic love. There is no word more beautiful than “we” when including just one other human being, and I terribly miss not being able to say it. (It is one of my perversities that I could not possibly romantically love someone as old as I.)

M.C.S – One of your favorite suggestions when you were a book and magazine editor was “never give up”. Did you ever give up, as Roger or Dorien?

R.M./D.D. – I’ve given up an infinite number of times on the smaller things (trying to follow an instruction manual, for example) but never on the big ones.

M.C.S – You believe in happy endings and you are trying to show people through your writing that what unites us is far stronger than what divides us. What do you believe people think that divides us?

R.M./D.D. – No two people have exactly the same thoughts or reactions to any given situation, but most are within a recognizable set of boundaries. But today, political and religious hatred fueled by stupidity, intolerance, and bigotry is getting out of hand. I just try to calm the waters as best I can…which is not nearly as much as I’d like. However, when I become emperor, you can be sure things will change pretty rapidly.

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M.C.S.’s comment:
Thank you all for reading up till now. We are eagerly waiting to meet you for the second part of this interview. There are still so many questions that Roger/Dorien had the kindness to answer for us. There are still so many interesting things to find out about his life, about his heart, about his soul.

Until next time…

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

-you can find the second part here–