(This segment of the interview took place in a Chinese opium den and Celestial bordello in Paris that used to be the playground of Stanley Kubrick and author, Terry Southern and includes questions posed by readers)
AB: (Mike fires up another bowl of black, thick opium before he is ready to talk) Are you ready to continue?
MM: How much am I being paid for this? At least pick up the tab on the drugs and the China girl over in the corner and I’ll answer any and all you toss at me.
AB: (We did pick up the tab by the way!) From one of our readers, How do you store your work, how do you write, do you use typewriters?
MM: Wow! Fully automatic...bap bap bap. As to the first part, I store all my work in a condom. I blow one up so each page will fit in and not cause a pregnancy. No, OK, I store my work on a thumb drive as well as keep typewritten hard copies. I believe in paper, I don’t trust the digital realm all that much, I like a typewriter because you can feel the words lock and load on the page. How do I write? I prefer swinging on a trapeze naked, but it scares the neighbors who have threatened me with straight jackets and tranquilizers, so I sit near a window so I can look outside, for escape if need be and always have music on..Ramones, Tim Buckley, Traffic, something to fit my mood and the piece, but never a polka. Makes me want to get up and do a Polish folk dance when I should be writing.
AB: Another question. When is it that you decide what to reveal that is personal and what to keep under wraps? some of your things appear to be personal but are completely fictitious....when they are taken as truth how do you respond?
MM: This person must work for the CIA. They follow me everywhere since I killed Kennedy in Dallas. Let’s see I never keep nor kept anything under wraps of a personal nature. I’ve written about my drug use, sexual diversity, growing up as a Cathoholic, my days as a young thief, high school dropout, my problem with stuttering and my four marriages that floundered and crashed on the shore leaving seaweed and debris in it’s wake. I do write about them sprinkling auto bio clues in my writing from a third person standpoint but mostly first person. I add elements of fiction to them, just as I add elements of my auto past to my fiction, my new books for example. I helps me deal with fact, and the fiction without fucking me up, and leaves a trail of breadcrumbs for the reader to follow and step through my looking glass.
AB: (Mike then started speaking in Japanese to the Chinese girl then switched to a bad Cajun accent asking her if she would have sex in exchange for a bowl of alligator gumbo telling her he was a heterosexual Truman Capote and had written books about China disguised as Pearl Buck..She had a blank look stamped on her face, as did I. She of course smiled and said “Yes” not fully knowing what she was getting into or rather letting in!)
AB: When you do reveal something of a personal nature and it is received in whatever manner....i.e. good or bad....how do you deal with it?
MM: Mostly I get positive reaction. If I do get a negative reaction I feel it’s their problem, not mine. Write your own books and see what happens.
AB: When your words are taken in a direction you never intended what is your method for dealing with the issue?
MM: I go along for the ride just to see where it takes me, more fun that way, No net, no direction, no literary compass.
AB: Ever think of writing your auto bio?
MM: I do it in pieces every day...I’ve been working my auto bio for 4 years now and believe in ‘term limits’ so someday will get to it.
AB: Any advice for young writers just starting out?
MM: Keep at it or go work at McDonalds. It’s a solitary craft and you need a dungeon mentality mostly but I can write while talking on the phone, listening to a ball game or even sitting here bullshitting with you. Also diversify..don’t limit yourself to one subject arena or you’ll burn out and crash.
AB: I take that as a compliment.
MM: Don’t! Now pass that bowl over here..you’ve hogged it long enough. Don’t forget to pay these people. Now if you’ll excuse me. I need sex with an egg roll and China girl there.
AB: (He disappeared upstairs with his China Girl a ball of opium and I’m sure he found an eggroll somewhere in the establishment!) Next Segment: Cancer, Comedians and Conjugal Visits in the E-Books Madhouse