Interview with Mike Mihalek
Mike graduated from Buffalo State College with a science degree and spent over thirty years working in healthcare. He has a deep love of music, which he used as one of the themes in his first novel, “Three Chords.” He also loves photography and fishing, and he tries to combine his respect for the environment, insights into human nature, and offbeat sense of humor into his work, despite the lack of humor in his first novel. Mike also writes poetry—he feels a writer should be able to write in a variety of genres. The rich and often times bizarre world of Florida, where he’s lived for the past twenty years, plays a major role in his work. “Leisure Daze” which he is here to talk about today, is his second novel. Tyler: Welcome, Mike. I’m excited to talk to you today about your new novel. To begin, will you tell us a little bit about the discovery the two main characters, Phil and Kyle make at the beginning of “Leisure Daze,” and what made you decide to create a novel based around this discovery?
Tyler: Mike, Phil and Kyle are not typical heroes for a novel. Will you tell us more about them and what you found attractive about creating these characters? Mike: I’m in my late fifties and having dealt with seniors for many years, I felt I was in a unique position to delve into some of the issues which they and a huge number of baby boomers like me will soon have to contend with. Kyle is my age, Phil twelve years older. They and a number of other characters I created for the story allowed me to take a multigenerational view of aging and consider a wide variety of points of view on the topics I brought up above and many others. As you know from a previous interview, Tyler, I’m a bit naïve in that I don’t feel you should write unless you have something to say, meaning a writer’s work should be topical and relevant as well as entertaining. Tyler: At one point in the novel, a group of senior citizens gets high from eating brownies mixed with pot? What was your intention in this scene? Mike: Like I pointed out above, I’ve always been intrigued by the hypocrisy we live with concerning drug use in our society. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating illegal drug use, heaven knows we haven’t quite figured out how to handle alcohol yet, but a lot of seniors are on anti-anxiety medications, in addition to a host of other meds. It’s painfully obvious that our “war on drugs” has been completely unsuccessful, owing mostly to the fact that no matter what our government does there will always be a demand for such drugs. Herbal medicines have been a part of every culture for recorded history, and it’s up to each individual to decide whether to make use of them or not. I’m willing to bet there are far more people living today that have at least tried marijuana than haven’t, and a lot of folks are out driving and working on antidepressants and other medications that come with labels warning against operating heavy equipment. Tyler: I understand the pot was purposely put into the brownies as a way to get people to sign a ballot against dumping contaminated waste? Isn’t this doing something illegal to try to accomplish something legally? Where did you get the idea for this ironic situation? Mike: The pot-laced brownies were introduced to “enlighten” a few of the more uptight members of the community. There’s a big dividing line between liberals and conservatives in the community, just like the one that exists in current politics. The issue of dumping billions of gallons of contaminated waste into the St. Lucie River in southeastern Florida is a real one, as I address with an author’s note at the end of the book. So, to answer your question, is it not doing something illegal to accomplish something legal, no, its more like doing something illegal to get the government to stop doing something that any sane person would object to; poisoning the environment and destroying the property values of its citizens. Something, in its insanity, it feels it has a legal right to do. Tyler: Mike, you mentioned that you feel a book should say something. What about your characters—how do you balance between letting them express themselves as individuals and controlling the overall message you want the novel to convey? Mike: That’s probably a universal problem all writers face. I’ve often been puzzled when I hear a writer or even an actor say they had nothing in common with the character. I’m not sure I could identify with any of mine if I couldn’t inject some part of me into each one. (Which is scary, considering some of them are pretty sick!) You create characters in order to examine the themes you’d like to visit, but then, in order to move the plot and create conflict, you have to express contrasting views on those themes. It’s basically like arguing with your self, and sometimes I don’t always win. As far as controlling the message, that message isn’t always clear. By that I mean I don’t know exactly where the story’s going. You take the characters, stir them up in a pot, experiment with possible combinations and outcomes, and see where it leads. Like life, each journey presents its own unique set of questions requiring its own set of answers. Tyler: Mike, why did you decide to set this novel in Florida, and was the drug trafficking in the novel based on actual events you were familiar with? Mike: I’ve lived here for almost twenty years now, having moved from Virginia Beach in order to pursue my love of offshore fishing. Funny, it was reading the opening scene in Carl Hiaasen’s novel “Tourist Season” that prompted that decision way back when. There’s certainly enough lunacy to go around to serve as inspiration for a writer here, and as far as the illegal drug theme, there’s plenty of that to go around too, but no, as far as I know, the events are completely made up in order to further my purpose of examining various and sundry issues. Tyler: Mike, where do you stand on legalizing marijuana, and what made you decide to use marijuana as a focus in your novel? Mike: My attitude towards legalizing marijuana is like I mentioned about alcohol. It seems to me that whenever we’re presented with personal freedoms in this country we have a majority of individuals who act responsibly with those freedoms, but a minority of individuals who insist on abusing them. Unfortunately, because of this, we often have those freedoms taken away. That goes back to the hypocrisies I mentioned. Some drugs are legal, others are not. Most people drink responsibly, others become alcoholics and ruin their lives and the lives of others. Because of the minority of abusers and the experience we’ve had with alcohol we’ve had to accept compromises in those freedoms. Good or bad, right or wrong; who’s to say? It simply occurred to me that given the premise that a well-off retired person has paid his or her dues to society, as long as they’re not affecting anyone else, what does it matter what they do? Tyler: The novel also includes an environmental lawsuit that I understand is based on actual events. Will you tell us more about this lawsuit, and why you chose to include it in the book? Mike: Since I write about Florida and environmental issues have always concerned me, I always try to address some perceived injustice if at all possible. I spent five years living and working near Stuart, where this issue has long been of concern, and have seen first hand what it’s doing to the river and the Indian River Lagoon. When you stand at the mouth of the St. Lucie Inlet on an incoming tide with crystal clear green/blue water running past your feet and then watch it turn into coffee colored effluent as the tide turns minutes later, there’s no ignoring the problem. This has been going on since the 1930’s, when the government dug drainage canals east and west from Lake Okeechobee for flood control and to protect agricultural interests. Once again, we have a case where man thinks he’s improving on a million year old system of natural irrigation and realizes later he’s caused more problems than he’s solved. Many environmental organizations have fought this practice, and the Rivers Coalition was formed about ten years ago. The latest attempt was the filing of just such a lawsuit as I describe in the novel, and you can read all about it at RiversCoalition.org. Tyler: Mike, what genre would you describe your book as—suspense, humor, mystery? Mike: As you mentioned in the bio, I despise genres. Still, given my nod to Carl Hiassen earlier, I’d have to place it in the category of topical humor. Besides the obvious, it also addresses how someone overcomes the death of a loved one, develops generational and cultural relationships, deals with declining health and mental capacity, and experiences personal growth (or lack of it!). Although I’ve used humor to address many of those issues, I’ve also tried to be sensitive and insightful. If I’ve heard it once I’ve heard it a thousand times these past few years; growing old’s a pain, but not so bad when you consider the alternative. Tyler: Will you tell us more about the theme of dealing with the death of a loved one in the novel? Mike: When the story opens, Kyle has lost his wife to cancer three months ago. His sister-in-law, a nurse, has been living with him, having come down to help take care of her sister during her illness. Both are in a state of limbo—still grieving and wondering where do you go from here. As such, they’re drawn together through empathy and help each other by discussing their relationships with the recently deceased and their own individual philosophies on loss. Having worked in medicine, I can tell you it’s practical to keep a certain amount of emotional distance between yourself and your patient, but can you do that when that patient was your sister, and how do you go on with the rest of your life when you’ve lost the person you planned on spending it with? Tyler: How do you demonstrate generation gaps in the novel? Are there gaps even between the senior citizens, which could range from people 55 to 100 years old? Mike: Again, from personal experience, I represent the fifty year olds, and I’ve been dealing with the sixty to eighty set for many years now. Since I’m a glutton for punishment, I also added some working middle class maintenance staff and a couple of teenagers sentenced to spending part of their summer break with their grandparents. Depending on how much experience each group has had interacting with the other, they might see each other as complete aliens or old soul mates. As far as that 55 to 100 group goes, you’re talking about my “peace, love and understanding” generation all the way to the few W.W. II vets still living today. In a very real sense they saved the world, and we were going to make it better. What ever happened to that, I often wonder? Tyler: What did you most enjoy about writing “Leisure Daze”? Mike: Like I mentioned at the onset, I can identify with the characters and feel sure many of my baby boomer cohorts will do so too. Also, like I said the last time you interviewed me for my first novel, this was also a cathartic experience, allowing me to work through a lot of the questions I have about how I want to end up in the future. I’m not sure, but I think at some point there’ll actually be more people retired than working. Will we live out our lives selfishly or continue to try and give something back? Are we going to be the stern war-tested conservatives of the last generation or a bunch of open-minded liberals’ hell bent on enjoying themselves? At some point we’ll all have to face facts, and my attitudes always been to go through life with the idea you’re either part of the solution or you’re part of the problem. Tyler: Mike, I previously interviewed you regarding your novel, “Three Chords,” which was about reconciliation between a son and his mother who abandoned the family. I am struck by how serious that book was compared to the humor of “Leisure Daze.” Do you see these novels as vastly different or similar, and why? Mike: They’re vastly different in that I’ve used comedy, and they’re similar because I’ve tried to address serious themes in each. That’s overly simplified, of course, but it’s always been my nature to use humor to deflect sensitive subjects, and I find it particularly effective in this case since there’s simply nothing anyone can do to keep from aging, whereas “Three Chords” was about taking the first step on the long journey of healing. Two means to a similar end? Hopefully. I think in this case the subject matter dictated the genre. It seems to me we’re all gonna end up in the same place in the end. We can learn, we can grow, we can become content or bitter, again, it’s just personal choice. Maybe it’s fitting we never learn the answers to all the questions, and that might be the biggest joke of all. Tyler: Mike, do you have plans for any other novels? Mike: I’m currently touching up a manuscript I haven’t yet burdened my publisher, RoseHeart Books, with. It’s about a disabled Iraqi war veteran who gets involved with a group of people conspiring to destroy a sensitive Everglades habitat for their own selfish gain and a family of Native-Americans trying to stop them. Needless to say, there’s not an ounce of humor anywhere in it. Tyler: What would you say is your overall environmental message you want to make clear to your readers? Mike: We can’t keep on soiling our own nest. In light of what’s currently going on in the world, we’re only just beginning to see the effects our relatively brief time on the planet is having, and it’s pretty frightening. Why what’s going on now hasn’t been intuitive has always amazed me, and certainly the environmental problem I mention in the book is small in relation to global warming, but it’s a classic example of the short sighted stupidity that permeates our culture. Tyler: Mike, when people read “Leisure Daze” what is the reaction you most hope they will have? Mike: I see it as a thoughtful and uplifting story. Its themes are universal, its characters, though outrageously drawn, are lifelike enough to be identified with, and by adding touches of humor I hope the messages it contains are both positive and constructive. Tyler: Thank you for joining me today, Mike. Before we go, will you tell our readers about your website and what additional information they can find there about “Leisure Daze”? Mike: My website is 2headedmullet.com, named for the mullet I used to see swimming in a retention canal off the St. Lucie River when I lived there. In addition to a bit more biography and philosophy about my writing you’ll discover that “Leisure Daze” should be available in August of ’08. |
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