"Lost Sanctum," No: 2 "Interview with Dennis L. Siluk by Benjamin Szumskylj"
“Lost Sanctum,”
No: 2 (Wild Cat Books)
Ron Hanna, Editor
October, 2006
Interview with Dennis L. Siluk
By Benjamin Szumskyj
Note: Extracts from a Six Page in-depth Interview, the only thoroughly interview ever given to date by the Poet Laureate Dennis L. Siluk.
BS: You are an author in may genres of fiction, as well as writing non-fiction. What made you become an author?
DLS: I have written just about everything, like I’ve just about traveled everywhere. I do not think of genres when I write, I think about the emotions, my moods I am going through, what spirit is activated inside of me that day, and so on. …
What made me become an author? That’s a good question. I was born to be a poet, I feel. …I never had blank periods for ideas or writing, it just a case of not having enough time. I was always traveling or living, or in school, and in the Army…. I did some more short stories in the 90’s but had no time to finish them, so I quit everything in 2001 to finish everything I ever wrote and devote my time to putting everything into the writing.
BS: I’ve always enjoyed reading your horror stories, my favorites being those collected in Death on Demand: Seven Stories of Suspense. What is that appeals you to horror genre?
DLS: Somehow I don’t see it as a horror genre, or hadn’t seen it that way. … Some of my writings were experimental at first and I drew on experience and my imagination to sort it out. The psychology was not hard either: it was already planted in my mind. So it was the vocabulary I worried about, and perhaps that is where all my horror comes from. …I tried to make my images direct. Yet simplicity was important, so I tried to put that into my short stories. ….
BS: The honor genre is ever changing….How do you perceive the genre today?
DLS: I don’t feel I’m aware of it to make any sense of it. I just write it, I never look at it in any direction….
BS: What are some of your favorite horror novels and short stories?
DLS: Everything Edger Allen Poe wrote. I like H.P. Lovecraft, especially “The Dunwich Horror” and many of Clark Ashton Smith’s short stories. Perhaps the best of them all is Bram’s Stoker, form “The Lair of the White Worm” to “Dracula’s Guest”, the lost chapter to Dracula. …
BS: Several of your short stories come under the banner of science fiction and fantasy as well. What is your opinion on the current state of those genres?
DLS: …I don’t know, but Edgar Rice Burroughs is still selling, Jules Verne is still popular, and Greg Bear, a friend of sorts, sells his books of fantasy. I guess it seems to be on kind of a straight road but I think you’d know better than I, Benjamin.
BS: Currently, there seems to be a great interest in fantasy…. Why…?
DLS: Armageddon is getting closer….
BS: You’ve written a great deal of poetry. Who are some of your favorite poets and styles of Poetry?
DLS: George Sterling is a great poet…. Clark Ashton Smith’s a great poet…. Donald Sidney-Fryer’s Atlantean poems are great, while Frank Belenap’s In Mayan Splendor is a sound volume. Robert E. Howard’s Verses in Ebony are great…. Charles Bukowski…. Richard L. Tierney. Ed Sanders’ “Poem from Jail” is a good poem. …James Write, Yuli Daniel, Pablo Neruda, Charles Baudelaire, Georg Trakl, Phillip A. Ellis, Cesar Vallejo and especially Robinson Jeffers.
BS: Of your own poetical works, which do you consider to be your greatest? Why?
DLS: That really is a hard question. It is one someone else needs to answer, to be fair. …
BS: You like to travel, as seen in your travelogues…? What have been some of your favorite countries visited? Where else would you like to travel?
DLS: …I have really enjoyed Peru, Malta, Paris, Mystery Hill in New Hampshire…,Easter Island, Glastonbury in England, Athens, Cambodia, Beijing, Egypt, India…the list goes on and on. Where I’d like to go next: Tibet, The Refrain Circle in Israel…Ethiopia, to the Rock Churches, and to Timbuktu, to check out the old scrolls left over from a thousand years ago….
…deleted question (ref: Perhaps it’s Love and Cold Kindness, two books)
BS: The Last Trumpet and the Woodbridge Demon appears to be a pseudotheological work. Are you a religious man and if so, which faith do you follow?
DLS: I am not a very good Christian, but it is where my heart is. Not because I fear the Devil, or the demons in my life, but because of experienced Christ: thus I am a Christian. …I am for Christ, because you have to pick sides: should I pick the losers side, it would be dumb. Should I pick no side, it would be dumber since I know there are two sides, I’m sure the Devil would love that: play ignorant, and hope you’ll clear it up later.
BS: You’re also an artist, when time permits. Is this merely a personal indulgence or an equally serious craft?
DLS: … (I) have always loved art…. It is a love affair, I suppose. …I have used it for my illustrations for my books.
BS: Out of all you’ve written, what are some of your favorites and why?
DLS: I like (the characters of) Arizona Blue and I like the sketches of Old Josh. I love Romancing San Francisco, A Romance in Augsburg and Where the Birds Don’t Sing. …Perhaps my best short-story collection is Death on Demand. …A Path to Sobriety….
…deleted questions of wife, Rosa
…deleted questions on South America
BS: What does the future hold for you as an author? …
DLS: I am not sure what future there is for anybody or me. I am working on nine books at the moment. …
BS: Thank you for your Time Dennis.
DLS: No, thank you!
No: 2 (Wild Cat Books)
Ron Hanna, Editor
October, 2006
Interview with Dennis L. Siluk
By Benjamin Szumskyj
Note: Extracts from a Six Page in-depth Interview, the only thoroughly interview ever given to date by the Poet Laureate Dennis L. Siluk.
BS: You are an author in may genres of fiction, as well as writing non-fiction. What made you become an author?
DLS: I have written just about everything, like I’ve just about traveled everywhere. I do not think of genres when I write, I think about the emotions, my moods I am going through, what spirit is activated inside of me that day, and so on. …
What made me become an author? That’s a good question. I was born to be a poet, I feel. …I never had blank periods for ideas or writing, it just a case of not having enough time. I was always traveling or living, or in school, and in the Army…. I did some more short stories in the 90’s but had no time to finish them, so I quit everything in 2001 to finish everything I ever wrote and devote my time to putting everything into the writing.
BS: I’ve always enjoyed reading your horror stories, my favorites being those collected in Death on Demand: Seven Stories of Suspense. What is that appeals you to horror genre?
DLS: Somehow I don’t see it as a horror genre, or hadn’t seen it that way. … Some of my writings were experimental at first and I drew on experience and my imagination to sort it out. The psychology was not hard either: it was already planted in my mind. So it was the vocabulary I worried about, and perhaps that is where all my horror comes from. …I tried to make my images direct. Yet simplicity was important, so I tried to put that into my short stories. ….
BS: The honor genre is ever changing….How do you perceive the genre today?
DLS: I don’t feel I’m aware of it to make any sense of it. I just write it, I never look at it in any direction….
BS: What are some of your favorite horror novels and short stories?
DLS: Everything Edger Allen Poe wrote. I like H.P. Lovecraft, especially “The Dunwich Horror” and many of Clark Ashton Smith’s short stories. Perhaps the best of them all is Bram’s Stoker, form “The Lair of the White Worm” to “Dracula’s Guest”, the lost chapter to Dracula. …
BS: Several of your short stories come under the banner of science fiction and fantasy as well. What is your opinion on the current state of those genres?
DLS: …I don’t know, but Edgar Rice Burroughs is still selling, Jules Verne is still popular, and Greg Bear, a friend of sorts, sells his books of fantasy. I guess it seems to be on kind of a straight road but I think you’d know better than I, Benjamin.
BS: Currently, there seems to be a great interest in fantasy…. Why…?
DLS: Armageddon is getting closer….
BS: You’ve written a great deal of poetry. Who are some of your favorite poets and styles of Poetry?
DLS: George Sterling is a great poet…. Clark Ashton Smith’s a great poet…. Donald Sidney-Fryer’s Atlantean poems are great, while Frank Belenap’s In Mayan Splendor is a sound volume. Robert E. Howard’s Verses in Ebony are great…. Charles Bukowski…. Richard L. Tierney. Ed Sanders’ “Poem from Jail” is a good poem. …James Write, Yuli Daniel, Pablo Neruda, Charles Baudelaire, Georg Trakl, Phillip A. Ellis, Cesar Vallejo and especially Robinson Jeffers.
BS: Of your own poetical works, which do you consider to be your greatest? Why?
DLS: That really is a hard question. It is one someone else needs to answer, to be fair. …
BS: You like to travel, as seen in your travelogues…? What have been some of your favorite countries visited? Where else would you like to travel?
DLS: …I have really enjoyed Peru, Malta, Paris, Mystery Hill in New Hampshire…,Easter Island, Glastonbury in England, Athens, Cambodia, Beijing, Egypt, India…the list goes on and on. Where I’d like to go next: Tibet, The Refrain Circle in Israel…Ethiopia, to the Rock Churches, and to Timbuktu, to check out the old scrolls left over from a thousand years ago….
…deleted question (ref: Perhaps it’s Love and Cold Kindness, two books)
BS: The Last Trumpet and the Woodbridge Demon appears to be a pseudotheological work. Are you a religious man and if so, which faith do you follow?
DLS: I am not a very good Christian, but it is where my heart is. Not because I fear the Devil, or the demons in my life, but because of experienced Christ: thus I am a Christian. …I am for Christ, because you have to pick sides: should I pick the losers side, it would be dumb. Should I pick no side, it would be dumber since I know there are two sides, I’m sure the Devil would love that: play ignorant, and hope you’ll clear it up later.
BS: You’re also an artist, when time permits. Is this merely a personal indulgence or an equally serious craft?
DLS: … (I) have always loved art…. It is a love affair, I suppose. …I have used it for my illustrations for my books.
BS: Out of all you’ve written, what are some of your favorites and why?
DLS: I like (the characters of) Arizona Blue and I like the sketches of Old Josh. I love Romancing San Francisco, A Romance in Augsburg and Where the Birds Don’t Sing. …Perhaps my best short-story collection is Death on Demand. …A Path to Sobriety….
…deleted questions of wife, Rosa
…deleted questions on South America
BS: What does the future hold for you as an author? …
DLS: I am not sure what future there is for anybody or me. I am working on nine books at the moment. …
BS: Thank you for your Time Dennis.
DLS: No, thank you!
Labels: Poet and writer of the Year for the Mandaro Valley of Peru
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