A Word on Words; 3919; Mark Mustian

liz from nashville studio way celebrating offers literature and ideas for more than three decades this is word on workers with jobs ellen johnson and joe welcome once again to word on words my guest today is mark most and he's also an attorney a city commissioner he's here today with his debut knowledge on it's a meditation on memory and with the dreams of a fall apart and so to contain the truth to that it's a deeply moving story quickly broadened the readers a welcoming mark a world where this you write so well thank you and this is an interesting story is a different sort of a piece of fiction and sometimes you begin with film in what you call

whispering attendants and and use the headache is there and he saw in it and out of it and you keep a minute and how that one moment he's in the present and then once in the hospital and the presence of his door violent again you know if so and he's right at that moment in time that you would prefer to forget the violence of war where this idea come from well my heritage is armenian but it's fairly distant they all my life people asked me a war your name is and i am marie armenian and i'd tell them yes but its reach way back don't know much about it and one day somebody asked me the same question so would you read this book black

dog of fate but peter black and i hadn't been dead and that kind of got me going on this that was a story appeared at a coming to grips with his armenian heritage and they're learning that his grandmother was one of the people that survived this march are out of turkey in nineteen fifteen and that site i kept at it i kept reading india can add to the history of it which is that the turks were at war and war won with among others the russians to work christians and they had this large christian minority the armenians within turkey and our burst paranoiac worry about subversion or collusion an answer they killed a lot of the armenian man and forced the women and children to march out of the country into syria and so i decided we know what a neglected to share the story and get this out there more than i did as a second he came up with the idea to write this book and you knew at the outset that you are going to put him in the present and take them to the

past and a strange yeah i knew that i wanted to do it this way for a couple reasons i wanted to first day there are a number of stories of people that survived this march and they're very moving and and and difficult and i want to try and approach it from a different angle set aside i would take the point of view of one of the guys on the other side the year the gendarme who is escorting these people out of the country and i wanted can i get inside the head a little bit of warm what were these guys thinking you know what were the circumstances how could they do this and they do that and they were they inherently evil people i don't think so says that just trying to understand that in that i wanted also to be someone that it kind of either willfully or otherwise repress this memory and have a comeback tournament have to deal with it at the end of his life and where does the roxie in russian come from well beautiful roxy where it has porous and then the

other part it that they did with the stories i tried to wrap this into a love story because it's been its base level the book is a love story is in honor of them and it's the story of this guy though john don his name is comic con and lose those in coney island he comes to america later his name is an americanized to an icon but he was so he was attracted to this young woman who was on the track was one of the deportees in her name was are artsy and and and so i wanted to kind of explore that and then an air sea and what edith yeah and what to give away the whole store for people that that that i want to handicap come to grips with his own situation by his relation with her let me ask you about what is a meaningful encounter is that rape is a ripe rape rape

well intended for it to day and it doesn't quite get their air service society which is at that the large part of the story did a can of this is you know a man otherwise it might have been another conquests year but she is set i am shia and i love her character because she's a very strong young woman in the face of a lot of adversity she is indeed is it love at first sight what they get close to it and in the story he is on his part i think when people is sometimes i'll read things from the balkan were things always like to reduce the scene when they first neatly first seizure and he first sees the hershey has mismatched eyes and say he's attracted physically just by the kind of exotic of one eye is different from the other and so but as time goes on you know the attraction becomes more more the constraints and an

ass i guess it's love at first sight but some degree and you know the interesting thing about it is true you know it would have found out a lot about him as we go on women to find out where it came from and who we really is but in that and won't set first time whereas families of ninety two years old more than eighty nine a live a twenty three was the area and then the answer the question and he says i am an american where and he means it in a lung which makes the haunting dreams duty or isis or more compelling well thanks abba wanted it to be because i am i never tried explores can of one of the facets of the novel you know an immigrant's experience in america is for the story of this guy was injured in the war he was actually evacuated from the air from the dardanelles by the british

she was injured so so badly they mistook him for a brat took him back to london he is staying in the hospital there is a head injury as memory loss eventually he falls in love with his nurse isn't america and they get married and he comes to america at that point and from then on he's an undergrad and he's gentle and a languages have to try and survive in a foreign country and in its i thought was interesting for somebody to look back on their prior life you know nearly seventy years on after having done that and what they died and when they thought america was going to be like and what was it really like him and then sort of you know you want a song but again while and go their own way well i want to get to to be like any family where there's it isn't always the way you want to be upset and for there to be some kind of issues there that he's on a generally

happy with his life in america but there's some it's an issues with his daughters and the fact that he never had a sinus is very attracted to his grandson is very sympathetic to i thought about the about halfway through it i have a feeling that on early in that i had a feeling early on that he was really in a much worse person minimum yes he was for all the violent trek to punish people maisie at the train was on something that he brought out for cable i think in one case pregnant woman civilians over from their home how did you research the march to get

inside the pain and suffering one that was being inflicted old son and an in and do it on the album well surprisingly there are a number of memoirs from people that survived the march usually as children and a handful of adults and that say you can try to get a feel for mayor remembrances as to what it was like to some degree it was hard and horrible memories disease and it just is you can imagine moving any large group of people by foot over inhospitable terrain in it was there were a very small percentage of those and started actually made it so it was there was a very yeah difficult difficult track it was how did you decide to what the raid you're going to let him act out his role served

as a gendarme he's quite human whedon centers in regular mean humanity among his vote on or what i wanted him to be human but also they have done some bad things that database and horrific the hotel and then admittedly and come back to to haunt him and if you're called the earlier this year there was a story a back out in the western us of a guy who had murdered somebody four years ago has convicted walked off a chain gang and was never caught for forty years until the grandson of the victim tracked him down and he was recaptured and their depressive and asked him so we're way what what about this it is a law that was somebody else that did that you know i'm a different person now have the dad lived an exemplary life for four years and that's part of what i wanted to explore here is that somebody is their redemption i mean can you even if you've done horrible things can you turn around and i

think that's a hard question for further further almost everybody where is most often come from well the stuff that is another's gendarme who's also i tried to make human but is in a morgue ma ma ma momma are volatile away because he's also attracted to are artsy and and and there's kind of a natural rivalry for her affections between the two for those who just joining us were talking with mark must in about his book and on your right so well beautifully i like to share some iranian with hello audience couple passages are shot me jump all the page at me and you know where they are and just go shared think the navy for no sense of fernando's the story about how you how well iran thank you

the dream she asked the question trickles my scalp do i what dream do you applause yes a dream of the past of my home in the future i glance away do you yes every night colorful dreams of my home my family the journey here the death along the way some of the dreams are frightening some joyous others disheartening and one a dog chased me down a valley through a thicket of thorns and a river and beyond he kept after me swimming so close i could feel the heat his breath or the water feels scratches pauses he brushed up against me then back on land he caught up quickly tackled me sink his teeth into my leg should meet with such a vengeance at the bones clicked in my face and then he would go well woody guesses pursuant to release me once he had me i thought about the dream for days after a could not get out of my mind had another dream it haunted me even longer i was very young

maybe three or four out for a walk with my mother we stop a spoke to a turkish woman squad older woman with eyes rolled back in her head in the drain my mother said something i did not hear understand something that maybe a woman angry she cried out this loud contemptible whale a character my dream says like a cure for days i saw the woman's blind eyes and cruel mouth in the sun in the sky even the stars i still wonder what my mother said to her that she insults or a fender but i tell myself it was only a dream she smiles i said nothing do you believe in god she asked her bombs placed together yes of course i fear my dear god allah got is life she stares at her palms life i've seen so much suffering and death despite my prayers the prayers at the missionaries taught us the prayers at the will of god would be done and yet he was oh so all powerful will not as well be done whether i pray for it or

not she shakes her head strands of hair falling lose ten or face god my god she extends her arms as if taking in anatolia how it happened i shaved my head how to explain the unexplainable the things meant to be ministry birds fly people eat olive gives all demands all has he not given us this each other we must look forward not back in america i start again all things are possible in america all things are possible when you live how to ride along which are written first of all well i wake up early every morning and right for about an hour almost every day and then i don't want to rest the day and i they're my job and i have children that are there and no school high school and said that that that's a full day with everything else but it helps me because i'm a lawyer in your

and your public officials arent public official say they got duties and responsibilities beyond writing and so the concern is over it no idea i have found that i am enjoying that this is time to myself that it then it's it's fun for me to do this and it's amazing that if you do a little bit every day how much you can get accomplished and it's taken made all those seven years are started on this book almost seven years ago hi a lot of that time was research and was writing and was re writing and was traveling to turkey and syria and was getting a book published but i but i know that at the end of the day it's just kept at the end and when you're writing is that every day you voted seven a week from a brewery is a part of the job i try to write every day even on the we can't even on holidays for because i like it and if i didn't i don't think i could do it and if i

the thought of just doing nothing but this is sitting down for six or seven hours a day that doesn't seem real attractive either search how like the way i do it which is a little bit at a time and as a lot of mornings where we go got him right on a roll i need to you know i like to keep the one i got a got a girl and there's other mornings when i go oh thank god that our she learned that didi had not made and not make a lot of progress you're right now in talking about the law because maybe autumn and same way you are only last thirty nine years have said yes i do get writer's block yes there are moments when the news is not sitting on my shoulder whispering in my ear we do walk away from where i found that the hardest part for me is just getting something down the paper if i can get it down on the paper i can always revise it and it's a lot easier said the hard thing is is just getting down there said if i have the general idea of what i would do like you know i liken generally get something down and went to get down back and revise it in a supper workable and sometimes i'll take a long

time but that's gone away i go about it's a name that that she had writer's block that you sometimes hear about the people go for weeks or months or years you just can't do anything at that never face that mines more of a situational type type of thing were just thinking this is not work and what can i do differently here you found that the characters you know or yellow yet if i make it again and i get a roll with it was sometimes you don't want to come back and maybe if they're really stronger strong characters sometimes they'll do things that the old surprise you i mean in this book i started out i actually started writing this with the main character being a grandson give them a candle was gonna have him tried to understand his grandfather's story yes and that way and it decided ultimately that well you know he would be a pretty intriguing character if it's him and self remember in the us and so i went back and change the whole thing

to do it that way and when you have to and he planned to write first person on behalf of a ransom now i didn't say read it or you know that show you shift gears novum third person narrative yes to a first person narratives and it adds that said that's a hit kind of a an exciting a leap because it makes the story much more immediate and kana focused and once i did that i say i could tell us i think this is better that this is what we're doing here when did you know soak up in today's beer world for first time all in when did you wrote a publisher and how much trouble then they have convincing that this book should be published for less trouble convincing the publisher that i did getting an agent which would say is kind of the first step in the way you're supposed to do that is you send out a letter and tell us who you are and even though you prepare for a lot a rejection he had still got a

bunch of it start to think well maybe this just isn't that good and so if i decide i want better approach this the way i would as a lawyer or how good somebody's introduced me to have a job and be at least have a harem or purse or production side good friend of mine in tallahassee are dismayed his agent and the agent cinema manuscript he called baise city now so i can read twenty pages in this inner world of reading the whole thing he said the historical part of your book is wonderful it's really really good but the current day part we need to change the whole thing and that was the point that i went back and changed it to the tm a kind story about a first person narrative they can slice it anyway saying it took me about a year to do that i sent it back to them i'll hear anything out of here he thanked fell i call and say hey rio what's the word eerie says well i'm just not excited about it enough to do sir stern all over aleppo a primary letters in it and i finally i was to the

films alphabetically when i get my agent scott mendel and stat called me and we catch a train to voicemails and a day to get the general impression like the manuscript there was finally there was a party phone rings it's got a stepped outside and i said well hey i got your message i'm glad you liked the book uses know mark i loved the book and that was the other other than the words i've sold a book that's about it here as a as a writer did you get a response from an agent sailors almost all my robot agent is found a publisher who will bear what we're so the story continues from there say he told me so we know i'm friends with the ladies that did the kite runner and your hair your book reminds me of the kite runner i think they'll like it sign the nerve and get a full history man intensely myself going well pope writes like this thank

you but they get passed on the books a new convert the bad that it was the holidays and that that was happening but that two years ago the day after valentine's day it i get a call from now for my age and he says hey i have a lady who's starring in empress she really likes the book she said you ruined her valentine's day because she read this book gold down on and there was amy and horn in the first book from her imprint was the book the help which are stored nearly well it's so sad that been very blessed in and they're excited to return to be out there with the us went to get a publisher have to do another one when i was at a game is a wonderful them a baby is the editor and publisher so absolutely wonderful person very very good idea she would give suggestions we would talk about a most i thought were very good or i didn't feel strongly about and maybe

twenty percent i said nana where do this interesting lead that one thing that we have fought over little bit worse my use of commerce and cynical once and she said was clearly have trained as a lawyer as a way to make allison cynical as get rid of the opposite well that's the way i write she says that get rid of the us a head parent become as a cynical as lee that or you know mark twain once said if your writing change every time you use the word very the er on the dam so the outdoor was taken out and then we just perfect and that's so my vision of hell that it should be dealt with you know triple sow sunni those of trickery was not necessary she saw in this writings and so music that aren't our view is a country just a few minutes ago the mathisen as i said my right that process was was fine and it

was it was am gay i didn't have any real big issues with that i felt like she really made the book better and i'm very grateful that i got hurt we were that there are a number of foreign editions of the book they're caught by an interesting almost all them wait for her to finish the editing process because they have such respect for her before they did their translations in their admissions what you feel and go the cover the alarm and we can get the area covered by on the screen and them and take a look at it before the thing is quite unusual well i love a roxy record hey i love the cover you know one thing a lot of our readers noted authors don't get to pick either the title or the cover and so i was fortunate that the title as my title on the cover i couldn't be more pleased with the mayor i can't tell you the number of people that have said you know who is this woman and unwieldy what a wonderful covered it reminds a lot of people of the the afghan woman whose picture was on the national

geographic that we service a famous but buddy i know i thought the way they did it were faced wraps around and bbc the mismatched eyes if you open the whole jacket up is really really nice over amount to reuse will enjoy the conclusion of workers powerful than that but were about our time why you working on the book and work in another book it's a more it's another historical fiction more civil war era then the war one serb hoping hoping to get sold them out there before too long well i'll become back when you do script editor thank you for coming thank you jack i really appreciate that all the evil watching on johnson in both forward own words fifty three