Menelaos studied Industrial Management and
Technology at the University of Piraeus in Greece and got an MBA specializing
in Marketing, at City University of Seattle. He attended Public Relations
Seminars at the Hellenic American Union. He has his own blogs on the internet,
and he has attended seminars on Creative Writing, Screenwriting, Social Media,
Digital Content, Communication and Conflict Management. He has self-published a
romantic drama and a fairytale and he is a digital marketing specialist.
Currently he attends Online AI lessons from The University of Helsinki and IBM
AI Learning.
IAN: Please tell us about your latest book.
Menelaos Gkikas: My latest book is a fairytale, a fairytale fantasy entitled
When Magic Truly Happens. A book for all ages above 9 years old that is self-published
internationally in the world wide web as an ebook and a pocket book as print on
demand. First of all, below I picture its summary:
Little Jennifer meets Jack, the elf, who plays
the flute and, through the looking glass, they're magically shifted to a
fantasy realm known as Flux, a world created by music. Together with Snow White
and the Seven Dwarfs, Jennifer makes new friends, while she discovers the
magical mirror plays an important role in her life.
I’ve always dreamt of writing fairytales, enjoying
and feeling the breeze around them. When Magic Truly Happens correlates with
one of the greatest stories of Brothers Grimm that is Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs.
It’s a technique entitled salad of fairytales, described by Gianni Rodari in
his book Grammar of Fantasy. Rodari, who has been awarded with a Hans Christian
Andersen medal in 1970 for his lasting contribution as a children’s author,
names as salad of fairytales the technique of entanglement of different stories
who occur onto the resultant of the two.
IAN: Are your books published in print, e-book or both?
Menelaos Gkikas: Both of my books, that is The Words of Emily Logan and When
Magic Truly Happens have been self-published both as ebooks and prints on
demand. Self-publishing globally with the sole power of the internet and
creativity has made this dream come true.
IAN: Where can we go to buy your books?
Menelaos Gkikas: Some of the
biggest markets for both of my books have been Amazon, Barnes & Noble,
Kobo, Walmart. Searching the internet for opportunities I discovered the
Independent Authors Network, known as IAN into which I created my own web
presence with an author’s page. So, aggregated, you can navigate some of my
biggest book markets if you just click at my page here: https://bit.ly/39chSSQ
IAN: What inspired you to write the books?
Menelaos Gkikas: Here I would like
to clarify the before and after of this inspiration and come up with causes
worth spreading. I am a web creator knowing that before I officially started to
attend creative writing lessons, the first one million words are practice. I
came up to the conclusion that anything and I mean the cure to any complex
situation can be explained with storytelling. I believe storytelling can change
lives for good. Nevertheless, the unique subjects and objects of this sentence,
is what made me quest my own dreams through creativity and not somebody else’s.
I still bring into my memory a thought of an epic PC game that is Dreamfall: “Where
have you gone to, dreamer? Whose dreams are you dreaming now?” All of the above
thoughts have been the stepping stone of coming up with official projects.
The
concept of The Words of Emily Logan, when I started writing it in January 2017
was mingled with thoughts and remembrances of the Woody Allen project Café
Society. In the beginning of the film wannabe Hollywood stars decide in the end
of the film that some dreams are just dreams. This was my motivation to make
Joel, my protagonist, act in the screenplay the way he acts and make his dream
of fame and fortune come true, at least as a start.
In
When Magic Truly Happens, I was inspired by the musical universe of Narnia,
described in the first book of the series, The Magician’s Nephew. I was also
inspired by Gianni Rodari as I state above and making my main characters
correlate with the legendary fairytale of Brothers Grimm was more than a simple
motivation and inspiration.
IAN: How
did you come up with the titles?
Menelaos Gkikas: I was inspired by Irish Eurovision winner Johnny Logan in my screenplay, singing the song ‘Hold me now’! I still remember how it starts: “Don't... Don't close your heart to how you feel... Dream... And don't be afraid the dream's not real...” Perfect tuning with my previous thoughts on inspiration… It’s also a motivation on telling words hence the title The Words of Emily Logan.
In
terms of my fairytale, I just wanted to create a title that bangs! There’s an
extraordinary fairytale about Christmas with bears, accompanied by plenty of
audio-visual and web material, known as When Magic Really Happens. Here, there
is a subtle and tiny distinction between truth and reality. We say for example,
those that make the war on ISIS are right, this is a truth. The reality is that
it needs violence, people are dying. These terms are complementary and do not
substitute one another. That’s why I wanted to create a full of magic and heart
fairytale, taking into consideration its potential.
IAN: What do you hope your readers come away with after reading your
books?
Menelaos Gkikas: It’s the discussion
I made with my mother. We were saying that what we have always loved in
Disney’s projects is the keeping up and the maintenance of a delicate line
among all its works. Nowadays, in many forms of art such as writing, music,
movies, theater, there have been themes that are heavy, dark, purifying,
metaphysical and often times revolutionary… Showing to the world the beautiful,
sweet and full of culture and spirit side of the world was my main motive.
IAN: What
books have most influenced your life most?
Menelaos Gkikas: As a result of my
interests and education I read everything. There have been mainly 3 categories
of books that I read: literature books, books related with my education and
coaching books. So far these have been approximately 50 since I started lessons
in creative writing back in 2015 fall. Hollywood vetted screenplays’ books have
a special place in my heart, I am also keen on pure fairytales and fantasy such
as The Little Prince of Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Hobbit or Philip Pullman’s
books. In most of the cases, the main influence comes from books that somehow
boost my multi-faceted intellectual nature such as Myla Goldberg’s Bee Season.
Apart everything else from Bee Season’s plot, I still remember the words of the
precentor to his son inside his studying library office. As the child had been
bullied and beaten by his classmates, followed by the discussion with his
father where the father expresses the will to share ideas, I still remember his
father’s words: “What we do in here, doubly cancels what the others do out
there”. I truly believe that the world of letters is the true world of
beatitude.
IAN: Name one entity that you feel supported you outside of family
members.
Menelaos Gkikas: For both of my
books I was being consulted by American writer, filmmaker, consultant and
business woman Laurie Lamson whom I first met as a host in free International
Screenwriter’s Association Teleconferences about the art and science of
screenwriting. Nevertheless, here I have to make a few things clear. A
supporter in general and a writing consultant doesn’t take you hand in hand to
navigate you into all the analytical details of the movie industry. This is an
issue of education, searching, networking, creativity, cross-checking of data,
books’ reading and a few inspiring professors. That’s why I am also grateful
for the help of Jacob Krueger and Jessica Hinds at the Jacob Krueger Studio in
NY, a screenwriting school, who have showed me a different way of filtering my
materials. The art that no matter whether something is good, bad, no matter
what we have been exposed to as a material, we should not judge, grab a cup of
coffee and enjoy the ride. Conclusively, we writers are horrible judges of
ourselves. But judgement comes from comparison in the end…
IAN: Do you see writing as a career?
Menelaos Gkikas: As a creative
individual, digital marketing specialist and transformational leader, writing
is the rolling DNA in my veins including my titles. Storytelling is the first
and the last attribute that is omnipotent enough to transform everything.
Leaders are being exposed to movies, theaters and scripts in terms of the arts,
so that when they will have to do it for themselves in their own fields (data
storytelling), they will be competent enough to come up with their own
simplification crusade. But it is a crusade after all… Especially in the 21st
century where digital information and Artificial Intelligence based on
information have changed the world, science is being defined by art and vice
versa. For the few of us who have the formal qualifications both in arts and
sciences, it would be amazing to know how to delimit and frame technology
through its creative assets or even better, make heavy weight champions in
computers create art where manual work can’t function properly unless it is
supported by technology. For all the above reasons, my reasons, I believe
creative writing is the beginning of everything for lots of things. Right now,
I worry more about the total quality of my whole work and my profile and not
making money out of a tiny aspect of it. A writer, engaged into the world of
letters that cultivates his soul and his creative expression multifaceted,
can’t focus on money from day one. Here it’s important to remember Prometheus,
the Titan who steals the creative fire from the Gods and gives it to humans, so
afterwards he is being found tightened onto a rock with eagles eating his liver
every day after it is being recreated. So, it’s important for me to isolate the
good and the bad elements from the creative story of Prometheus without making
mistakes. Although writing cases, worries or interests seem common to many
people, solutions are strictly personal.
IAN: Do
you recall how your interest in writing originated?
Menelaos Gkikas: Creative writing
found me - I didn’t find it myself. If I had taken the lessons earlier possibly
worrying about my resume, I would have probably failed. It started as an
extraordinary exploration of previous read books and materials. For the
majority of writers years have to pass before they begin, contrary to the
majority of performing arts. Perhaps I just found my calling! But it certainly
existed behind the wish to make my artistic dreams come true, if compared with
the trying ages of the past.
IAN: Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you
about their work?
Menelaos Gkikas: Antoine de
Saint-Exupery has written one of the greatest and most allegorical fairytales.
That is The Little Prince. Besides the fact that it has activated an animation
movie and inspired Greek singers play music and sing about the little prince,
it’s a book with plenty of messages about vanity, grown-ups and younger ones,
hypocrisy, the stars of heaven, faith, effort, the fact that the universe
listens, singularity and introducing to little children the issue of death.
Although it is written for children it speaks to the heart of everyone!
IAN: What was the hardest part of writing your books?
Menelaos Gkikas: It took me years
and plenty of expertise to realize that a script is not revelatory of someone’s
character. It is an aggregation of attributes that simply resemble with a
person. Man is much more than a sum of a few sentences… Einstein used to say
that everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a
tree it will live his whole life believing it is stupid.
IAN: Did you learn anything from writing your books and what was it?
Menelaos Gkikas: I am used to think
of my books including art in general as a metaphor and a self-reflection in
which I get to know how the world works. One practical way to do that, in the
sense of fantastic, is to receive stimuli and create chains of words within
seconds that help me create thoughts, decisions and material. This can also
happen at the audio-visual sphere. Depending on the temperament and the character
of writers, I believe inspiration can come from anywhere. A feather, a book, a
photo, nature, music, landscapes, by believing in the world’s fairytale. That’s
why the daily processing of experience can be huge but daunting as well. It
needs a balance between thinking, daydreaming and doing.
IAN: What were the challenges (research, literary, psychological, and
logistical) in bringing them to life?
Menelaos Gkikas: The single
greatest challenge for me was to be myself. All other roles are taken. Out of
this, rise a lot. Rise the research challenges: What about the material, the
theme and the multiple argumentations on the work? Confirmation knocks the
lonely doors of my mindset recursively. Rise the literary challenges: What do I
seek in writing? To portray aspects of my world and my fantasy. Rise the
psychological challenges: What is my personal connection to these stories? My
personal experiences, conflicts as well as traps in all arguments. Rise the
logistical challenges: Is the path I chose logistically effective in terms of
creating perspective? Can it be more effective in the future? Here I simply had
to do my work, focus on creativity and the world wide web and self-improve with
the cross-checking of data.
IAN: Tell us about your next books or a work in progress.
Menelaos Gkikas: There have been 2
books so far under consideration, the completed first draft of a screenplay and
the future writing of a novella the concept of which is completed. These are
the cases with which I have envisioned to make the great change. Ask for
consulting in terms of my entire work, quest movie agents if the prerequisites
are met and hunt my cinematic dreams. Nevertheless, the two screenplays plus
the novella are concepts with which I wouldn’t like to rush at all. It will
take time as Hollywood experts and cinema are not wishes that could come true
from one day to the next. All my works are stand-alone projects.
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