Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I reside in Mount Vernon, NY with my wife Trudy and twin son and daughter. I work as a supervisor for a New York State Agency in a Correctional Facility, so I keep my hobbies separate from my professional life. I’ve always written, but like any artist, I try to move on from my past works. This may have been my fifth or six book I’ve written to completion, but it’s hard to remember!
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Last Man Alive. After that silly election in 2016, I picked up Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four and read it again. Versus being a teenager, where I read the book literally, as an adult, it was not much of a fantastical dystopia but a haunting reflection of real life. In Orwell’s book, the truth is something subjective, or really arbitrary or made-up. When I live my life everyday, whether it’s issues out in work, at home, or the “two minutes of hate” coming in through my Facebook newsfeed sometimes I feel that either I’ve went crazy or the whole world went crazy, kind of like Winston Smith. So, with frustration that can’t be healthily vented out right there in the real world, I took to my Samsung Galaxy S7 and wrote TLMA!
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Unusual in that I do not have a lot of typical writing influences. There are no authors I pay close attention to and lift from their style. My writing style really comes from have a New York State College Education and foiling that by growing up with barely savory Italian characters, which if you’re in the know you’d call “gavones.” So, it’s the kind of book where you delve into heavy subjects, darkness, then there come the jokes. It’s how I experienced my life, so it’s definitely how I write.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
The Last Man Alive is definitely influenced by Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four, though the idea to write a dystopia dates back to the day where I was disappointed by The Hunger Games thinking, “Any idiot could write a dystopia better than this!”
What are you working on now?
The hardest thing as an author is taking the journey necessary, sometimes as long as a year, to complete a book. I’ve been writing about a fallen angel fruitlessly trying to earn her vindication, a book about a “loser virgin” and his misadventures, a comedic story about a husband who gets “red-pilled” and how this affects his wife, and an alternate history of a fascist “Catholic Socialist” Haiti. As you see, four radically different ideas!
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I work a modest full-time job, and raise my children pretty much by myself! It was a miracle I had time to write the book, nevermind promote it! Do you know a good website to promote my books? Ha ha!
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write for your enjoyment and only for your enjoyment. What agents are looking for may not suit what your soul needs to tell the world. (By the way they are looking for female protagonists of color who may be lgbt, have disabilities, etc.) So if you want to make a couple of bucks and sell out, go to agents’ website and write some garbage. If you and your soul want to go on a journey, and you have the life experiences (usually painful) to back it up, go to your word processor and start writing. Always write as verbosely as possible because you can always trim it down later.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Well, the worst advice I ever heard was “someone will always notice how hard you’re working” as my insane efforts at work always go unnoticed! The best advice I ever heard was this adage, “The only thing more weird that a weird person that acts weird, is a weird person who tries to act normal.” There’s always a dead giveaway to who you are that people who know you, even barely, cannot explain. There is no use in being no one but yourself, because by being anything else you’re a bad actor.
What are you reading now?
According to my phone, I fell asleep reading about the 1918 German Revolution.
What’s next for you as a writer?
As a writer I hope to finally mold together an idea that can hopefully vindicate my artistic tendencies. I already have a career and my children who mean everything to me. I’m just striving for that one big idea that can rest there on my bookshelf and I can say, “I wrote that!” The biggest challenge is following my heart, rather than what’s in vogue.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Definitely the bible, because you never read it the same way twice. Aside from that you might as well read picture books.
Author Websites and Profiles
Victor Kontos Website
Victor Kontos Amazon Profile
Good book. Sorta a 1984 for people with low attention spans, without skimping on any of its intellectual tendencies. Makes it both incredibly underrated and stupid at the same time–worth the read.
Looking forward to your next read as “The Last Man Alive” was fascinating on multiple nuanced levels.
Good book. Sorta a 1984 for people with low attention spans, without skimping on any of its intellectual tendencies. Makes it both incredibly underrated and stupid at the same time–worth the read.