Wednesday 28 December 2011

AUTHOR INTERVIEW - ANDREW LAVRIK



What is your name, where were you born and where do you live now?

HelloMy name is Andrew Lavrik (real name Andriy Lavryk). I’m from Kyiv , Ukraine . It’s somewhere between Romania , Poland , Slovakia , Hungary , Belarus and Russia .


Did you always want to be a writer?

 I can’t tell you how much. When I was a kid I loved thrillers, detective stories, horror and fantasy. However in the Town of Lubny , where I grew up, the library was quite limited. I’d begun making up stories myself, writing them in a school notebook and giving them to read to my classmates. When I got older, I burned the notebook to prevent anybody using the rubbish written in it against me!


Do you work another job as well as your writing work?

Unfortunately I haven’t got much time for writing books – you can’t earn a living with books in Ukraine . I’m an editor of the investigations department in one of Kyiv’s magazines. I always write my books at night.


Who is your publisher? or do you self publish?

Somehow it didn’t work out with a publisher. I have to publish my stories myself.


How long does it usually take you to write a book, from the original idea to finishing writing it?

One day I calculated that without occupational distractions I could create a couple of novels a year. But there is so little time for books. As a result, my three novellas have taken nine years.


What can we expect from you in the future?  ie More books of the same genre? Books of a different genre?

 There are already two more novellas from the series “Go And Kill” - «Two captains» and «The Outcome». They are continuing «John Doe», the first part of the series. They are only in Russian at the moment, but possibly, you’ll be able read them in English soon. I’m maturing two more plots for novellasOne is about a tender serial killer, the second – about a man, who woke up one day and found that everyone had disappeared. Both of them are in mystic thriller genre.


Do you have a favourite character from your books? and why are they your favourite?

I love all of my characters. Even the out-and-out villains. Why? Perhaps, because you can love anything you’ve created.


Where do you get your book plot ideas from?

I get it from life and my fevered imagination.


How do you come up with the Title and Cover Designs for your book/books? Who designed the Cover of your books?

 The titles come by themselves, somehow. And the cover... I give a book draft to an artist or designer and I’m open to any of their ideas.


What do you do to unwind and relax?

 Apart from sleeping, I like to take walks in forests. I try to penetrate a forest as deeply as possible to avoid meeting people.


Have you ever based characters on people you know or based events on things that have happened to you?

I do this all the time. For instance, the idea of «Go and kill» was given to me by the case of the maniac Anatoliy Onoprienko, who killed about a hundred people. But he is not in the book himself. The nature of the many secondary characters I’ve copied from my friends.


Are there any hidden messages or morals contained in your books? (Morals as in like Aesops Fables type of "The moral of this story is..")

A moral is in any good book. Often, there are even more than one moral and every reader can sight his/her own moral in between the lines. I hope the same is with my books.


Is there a certain Author that influenced you in writing?

Any author whose text has appeared in my hands has influenced me. Mostly I love – Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury (?), Roger Zhelyazny (?), Michael Bulgakov, Francis Schott Fitzgerald (?), Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, William Golding (?)... In general, it could be a long list.


Do you think ebooks will ever totally replace printed books?

I would say yes rather than no. It’s a pleasure to hold a printed book, however e-books are cheaper, they are more compact and more eco-friendly. We will abandon them as we refused clay tablets and the parchment some time ago.


Is there anything in your book/books you would change now if you could and what would it be?

You can make changes improving any text infinitely. Literally, just yesterday I’ve reviewed one of my novella, took something away, added something else. By the way, the charm of the electronic self-publishing is that you can you can improve your book at any time.


What piece of advice would you give to a new writer?

Remember about the reader, mate. They are don’t give a shit about your reflections and your opinion about yourself.


Your web site ?

The site is in Russian and Ukrainian, but any on-line translator, like http://translate.google.com , for instance, could help to understand.

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Your Goodreads author page?



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