Sunday, May 08, 2011

An interview with yours truly

I was recently interviewed by Greg Elich about my two new books. Here’s an excerpt:

Greg: Which takes me to your other new book, Darker Shade of Green. It seems to me that one of the main themes of that book is to lead readers to regard the humanity of the homeless. That’s not something that people are generally encouraged to consider

MZ: I created the lead character, a homeless genius named Allie Romano, back in 1989 for a screenplay so he’s grown with me and become close to my heart. Allie has made a cameo in each of my first two novels, CPR for Dummies and Dear Vito, and now he shares top billing in Darker Shade of Green with J.T., the 12-year-old boy to whom he serves as mentor. As you surmise, I wanted to re-humanize the homeless (by the way, my next novel is called Revenge of the Homeless) but I also wanted to show how Allie’s holistic worldview was not unlike the pre-jaded perspective of a child. In the beginner’s mind, things can be much clearer. The trick is to maintain a beginner’s mind in the face of a cultural propaganda onslaught.

Read the full interview here

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Another of my recent photos:

Makes a good first impression

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Poem: “How to give a rousing speech"


Posted on 05/08 at 05:32 PM
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