Thursday Best Reads Interview: Georgeos Constntin Awgerinos, author of EUGENIA: DESTINY AND CHOICE
Geórgeos Constantin Awgerinøs,
author of EUGENIA: DESTINY AND CHOICE was born and raised in Athens Greece. He lives in New York City.
Visit his websites at: www.EugeniaNovel.com, www.EugeniaTheBook.com,
or www.EugeniaDestinyAndChoice.com
About the Book:
Title:
Eugenia: Destiny and Choice
Author: Georgeos C. Awgerinos
Publisher: iUniverse
Pages: 280
Genre: Romantic Thriller
Author: Georgeos C. Awgerinos
Publisher: iUniverse
Pages: 280
Genre: Romantic Thriller
Debut novelist Georgeos Constantin Awgerinøs paints an epic love story and political
thriller in EUGENIA:
DESTINY AND CHOICE. The title character,
Eugenia “Jenny” Corais, a Columbia University graduate, is an
idealistic young feminist and intellectual who charts her destiny against such
volatile backdrops as cabaret-era Berlin,
America during the
Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam War protests, and the violent final days of
colonial Africa.
With its potent combination of
politics and romance, EUGENIA: DESTINY
AND CHOICE resembles Erich Segal’s LOVE STORY, coupled with a tale of
political intrigue that would fit comfortably in the novels of Graham Greene,
John Le Carre or
Stieg Larsson, and historical developments
reminiscent of James A. Michener.
Awgerinøs’s title character, Eugenia, is complicated. Her idealism
and social consciousness, the author notes, is tempered with “a compulsive
curiosity for the weird, unusual, or forbidden. She aims at the light but she
cannot resist the temptation of the darkness.”
Jenny’s co-protagonists include
Dietrich Neuendorf, a charismatic and unyielding German human rights attorney
haunted by his family’s past and his country’s history. He and Jenny quickly
fall in love.
A third character, Desmond
Henderson, attracts Jenny’s darker side. Despite his humble origins and
abundant charm, Henderson has a deeply
dark core. A former British colonial officer, he is the head of South Africa’s military
industrial apparatus, linked to the high echelons of international corporate
elite and secret intelligence. He is an immense figure who designs mass murder and
forced relocations on spreadsheets and is involved in some of the most defining
political acts of the 20th century.
But in this novel, even the most
invincible have an Achilles heel. As Awgerinos puts it, “EUGENIA doesn’t romanticize power; rather, the book demystifies the
powerful by exposing the intimate, vulnerable and disowned aspects of human
psyche.”
Jenny, Dietrich, and Desmond
cross paths and embark on a perilous journey together in an exotic African
country, a wonder of nature that faces massive winds of historical tide and a
catastrophic revolution.
“Through
my characters and their interaction, I try to convey another view on love and
sexual conflict, society, human nature and beyond-natural, democracy and
collective mind control,” says Awgerinøs. “I also try to offer a historical
account about a very volatile era in a turbulent region, Southern Africa.”
Awgerinøs hints that he is working on a sequel to EUGENIA: DESTINY AND CHOICE. Meanwhile, EUGENIA shows great potential to be adapted as an exciting and
thought-provoking feature motion picture or TV movie.
For More Information
- Eugenia: Destiny and Choice is available at Amazon.
- Pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble.
Q: Welcome to The Writer's
Life! Now that your book has been
published, we’d love to find out more about the process. Can we begin by having you take us at the
beginning? Where did you come up with
the idea to write your book?
As always, the idea came
unexpectedly. I have never understood how a story was born in my mind and I
never grasped the mechanics of the process. I do remember it was Christmas Day,
and I was in my backyard in Brisbane, Australia,
in the late afternoon, when I felt a strong impulse to get a pen and paper and
sit down to write. By the end of the day I had the first draft of the story. I
am not sure what made me create a story about a troubled African country,
racial segregation, Waffen-SS in the Russian front and love affairs with a
promiscuous edge. All of the above were not strangers to me. I had a passion
for history and I had considered, before going to Australia,
the idea to travel and work in Southern Africa. The
world of the mercenary and foreign correspondent, apartheid and the continuous
late colonial wars always fascinated me. I grew up in Greece,
a country where hardly a day passes without the media or regular people making
reference to World War Two and the traumatic memories it left behind in the
country. That Christmas Day I made a covenant with myself: I promised myself to
write in English, a language I hadn’t mastered. I had no idea what I was coming
up against! However, I never wavered from my commitment to the project called Eugenia, which had a different title at
that time.
Q: How hard was it to write a
book like this and do you have any tips that you could pass on which would make
the journey easier for other writers?
It was very hard. I made a
commitment to write in English, not in my native tongue; and very early I
realized that it was excruciatingly difficult. I also discovered early that
being a male author, it was difficult to see the world from a woman-protagonist’s
perspective.
The next difficult part was the
civic maps. The country I describe (Zimbabwe)
had changed the names of the cities, streets, plazas and buildings after its Independence.
Finding accurate street names from the old colonial era was extremely difficult
because most of the Rhodesian expats I consulted with didn’t have any old maps
and had blurry recollections of the old street names. Finally I found such maps
when I travelled to Africa and after a long search. The
government wanted to erase memories of the old past and they were unwilling to
provide such information.
The historical data was also
contradictory. Africans and former white settlers provided completely diverse
view of the country during the late colonial era, the white UDI-regime and the
Rhodesian war. I had to contact historians, UN officials or journalists who
traveled during that period to provide their own accounts. Many of these people
were unwilling to collaborate, though others were very helpful.
I spent many weeks in libraries
and archives in order to collect information. At Columbia
University I spent nearly three
months interviewing and researching. I had to travel to Africa, Berlin,
Amsterdam, Washington DC and London to gather data; plus I had to interview
mercenaries, former South African combat police officers, Rhodesian war
veterans, German Jews who described me
the Kristallnacht, a former Waffen-SS combatant and his wife, and a former Red
Army officer who lived during the siege of Moscow in 1941 and the battle of Berlin
in 1945, officials of the Zimbabwe government and foreign embassies, former
partisans of the Liberation Army, and others. Interviews were not always smooth
and easy.
I have no tips for other writers.
Authorship is a very individual path through our own inner jungle.
Q: Who is your publisher and how
did you find them or did you self-publish?
After wasting three years back
and forth with literary agents and publishing houses,
I decided to go on my own. In the
meantime I discovered that many others had successfully self-published. I
determined to find my own way to promote my story rather than relying on the
law of attraction and the Universe to send me the right agent at the right
time.
Q: What other books (if any) are
you working on and when will they be published?
I have a backlog of about fifteen
story drafts, but at the moment I am focusing on how to promote this one. From
time to time I look at my next novel project, and I am polishing the final
details of the sequel to Eugenia.
Q: What’s one fact about your
book that would surprise people?
I think the last pages are the
most surprising, where the reader comes across a very unexpected conclusion…
Q: Finally, what message (if any)
are you trying to get across with your book?
I recommend that potential
readers visit my website www.EugeniaNovel.com, where
I have a special section on the
topics and themes my book touches on.
One of these central topics deals
with the contradictions raised by disowned sexuality; another is the “bad boy”
phenomenon, its appeal and the potential consequences. Other topics can be
expressed as: War and Peace Inc., spirituality and evolution, social conscience
and responsibility, and the trap of National Security.
Eugenia demystifies those in power and exposes societal hypocrisy.
The narrative provides details of the bedrooms and sexual preferences of
invisible policymakers who draw strict racial laws by day and break them at
night.
The novel embodies the message
that if humanity wants to experience freedom, prosperity and democracy, we
don’t need simply better politicians. Politicians are a reflection of the
people they represent, and if we wish to have transparency in government we
first need to enlighten ourselves as individuals. As citizens become informed
and conscientious, a critical mass is created that causes a collective social
transformation. When we have a society of enlightened citizens, eventually we
will elect conscientious public officials. Politicians are not saviors,
messianic figures or heroic celebrities. We are not with them or behind them,
and they are not our leaders. They are professionals hired by the people, the
same way we hire a lawyer, an electrician, an insurance agent or financial
planner. If their team can deliver results they stay on the job; if not, they
will be replaced by someone else. When citizens adopt realistic views and
expectations about the people they elect, then flags, hymns, anthems, banners
and balloons are not needed. Public affairs is about civic work, not P.R.-led
fiestas and mind-control slogan-driven propaganda.
Some quotes and excerpts that
illustrate some of the book’s underlying concept:
“I am not enthralled by messianic
saviors. Those radical revolutions ended up with Napoleon and Stalin.
Radicalism only changes the face of tyranny.
“Lust may last for a night, but
this night may last for a Lifetime.”
“President Kennedy in his
inaugural speech, back in 1961, uttered the famous challenge, ‘Ask not what
your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.’ To this I
have a rebuttal: I should not only ask myself what I can do for my country, but
what my country can do for me as well. Responsibility must be shared, and
commitment goes both ways. Unconditional allegiance is for serfs only! Dear
friends, learn how to be free citizens of the world, not subjects of the
state!”
“Oversized pedestals, miniscule
worshippers”
“The real enemy is not on the
other side of the trenches; he safely hides in a boardroom”
“This is the South African
Republic, not South Africa, Inc.”
“It is the South African
Republic, Inc. All states are corporate entities, monsieur, one way or
another;”
“When I witness injustice and I
remain silent, I’m not only a coward, I’m guilty.”
“Temptation will test you,
seduction will lure you, illusion will veil you…”
“Trying to understand people is
like interpreting dreams.”
“Once, I believed that science is
the answer to God but I have realized that there are areas of human capacity
that it will take a long time for science to reach. Maybe one day we will
discover that science is just one of the tools that lead to human expansion.
The meaning of “I,” “Being, “Self” are a matter of experience not intellectual
discourse or scientific examination.
Q: Thank you again for this
interview! Do you have any final words?
I tried for half of my life
to produce a character-driven, impactful and epic story with controversial but
socially important messages. I hope that EUGENIA: Destiny and Choice succeeds
as a call for self-observation, invites questioning of our value system and
contributes to the expansion of what it is to be human.
I thought initially that it was a love story with some exotic African settings as a backdrop but it was more than that...Eugenia is complicated as a woman, a bit unpredictable and the story suspenseful and informative. A bit terrifying how democracy can turn into a totalitarian state...
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