Interview with John Reyer Afamasaga
on the release of his new book
“The Guy”
John Reyer: Hey, Tyler, are you there?
Tyler: Yeah, I’ve been waiting for you. We never can seem to get that Australia/U.S. time difference thing straight, and I don’t function all that well at 3a.m.
John Reyer: Okay. We’ll make this a quick one; let’s just talk about “The Guy” and nothing else. If I digress, play with the buttons on the phone, making that beep sound, like it’s some sort of obscenity, okay?
Tyler: Whatever you say, John…
John Reyer: And if I mention Ish, the new character in the follow up to The “Guy”…
Tyler: “BEEP.”
John Reyer: Tyler, are you there?
Tyler: Yes, John I’m here…I thought “Ish” was a bad word.
John Reyer: Bit of latitude, ah? You’re beginning to become like Lazoo, too literal. Anyways, where was I?
Tyler: You were talking about Ish. Just what is an “Ish”?
John Reyer: “BEEP.” Sorry mate; anyways, like I was saying, this is a quick interview, and a long one.
Tyler: So “The Guy” begins at the end of GUIOPERA II, when Little Lazoo finally enters into the bar, LMLA-ink’s offices, a place he hasn’t entered since his dad’s death, which haunted him throughout last year’s GUIOPERA? Is it an addition to the GUIOPERA, and is it written by Little Lazoo, who is one wretched soul in that serial?
John Reyer: Very good question, one that if I knew the answer too, would mean I’d have to kill you after submitting the answer? Hey, can we add LOL after that?
Tyler: Seriously, who’s writing the story? Is it Metofeaz, whom we find out is alive and up to his old tricks in the SenFenide Dimension, SFD?
John Reyer: OKAY! Serious like the wheels on the bus go round and round, ah? Sorry, okay! Let’s imagine a video game, in which the players can reprogram the game, and change the levels, enter the game from wherever they want, and the player with the most POWER, drags all the other players to that level. So the goal is you have to know the game so well—maybe clock it three times, from three different perspectives, essentially each perspective a new game on its own, each character has his or her own three perspectives to master; once you master a perspective you can attempt “REPRO” and if you’re good enough, you go “WIDE RELEASE” or online on the web.
Tyler: Just what is “REPRO”?
John Reyer: REPRO is reprogram, but derives from Life Form Reproduction, which is a concept I first suggested in GUIOPERA I. Like the way a movie depicts life, well a REPRO is like…OK, imagine you could go inside your dream, which is a random replay of events which jut above the rest of the data in the subconscious for various reasons. Once in there, you could smooth out or resolve the conflict in the scene. And in doing so discover the cause of the scene, process it as a lesson, and upload it to the conscious mind as experience for future’s sakes???
Tyler: Okay. Got it. I knew that—just wanted the audience to know too. So you were saying there’s a battle of wills between some of the characters—who precisely?
John Reyer: Well, in this case we have “The Guy” and the Pirate from GUIOPERA II who’s an entity housed by the Guy. We also have Metofeaz Litigatti, a powerful entity who has been banished to the SFD. And we have John Reyer and John Lazoo, who are entities forced to inhabit the scummiest, the most deplorable, and unforgivable Shells imaginable in Owner and Country respectively. Now, if we take the Video Game metaphor and apply a scenario in which “The Guy” a rookie and John Reyer his mentor wrestle for the reins of the story in what’s essentially a test for “The Guy,” we may be able to find an explanation for how the story is told.
Tyler: And Ish?
John Reyer: BEEP, sorry.
John Reyer: Yes, Ish—she provides the seed for the conflict in “The Guy.” I had a conversation with someone a couple of nights before I started writing “The Guy.”
Tyler: So? How did that conversation inspire you? Did it change what you planned to do in “The Guy”?
John Reyer: No it didn’t change what I had to do, it gave me another angle. Originally, I had this story about a guy who worked in a 7-11, or convenience store, who also robs them, so he can make some dosh, so he and his girl can escape to the MMD. How the conversation between me and a close friend inspired me was that I had planned in 2006 that in this year, 2010, I would write my first piece of work that I was going to sell. Without going into too much detail, my friend was having a difficult time in in regards to a career path, and so on. The crazy idea, which was just one of those passing comments, about the fairness of life, and so on, how a pro can make 3K in one night, caught my attention, and voila! there it was—the seed for the story’s conflict, setting up the battle for the Girl’s mind, between The Guy and Country.
But, yes it inspired me to stick to the business plan—Year 4, start selling the product, which I’ve developed over 3 years since May 2006, in building etfiction, and the GUIOPERA.
Tyler: How long did it take you to write “The Guy”?
John Reyer: Start to finish, fifteen days straight, 26 Dec 09 to 9 Jan this year. That includes a day of downtime in which “The old girl,” my machine, or computer broke down. A quick plug for Tony at Mates Rates computers in Albion, Brisbane, for giving the Old girl her new mother-board – for all your computer needs, ah? Nice guy too, a Kiwi by the way. Anyways, this friend of mine gives me this idea about a woman, who considers prostitution as an alternative to working 9 to 5. I had been planning to write an eBook like BrocoliFlower in size, and a link to new stuff, and also a wind down after writing GO2, and I had the framework and characters for the story REPRO in the SFD, but hadn’t settled on the conflict, struggle, whatever they call that thing which triggers or which drives the main character’s actions; anyways this conflict is shared by two people, The Guy and the Girl, who has the entity Ish inside of her, owner of the dream which is central to the plot.
Tyler: And did you say then this book will be the first one sold, unlike your previous work, which is available free at efiction.com and GUIOPERA.com?
John Reyer: My other work Free? I’ve found about at least four cases where people are trying to sell “BrocoliFlower,” “John Lazoo” and “Jon Le Mac Book 1.” But hey, what can you do? Can you control every event that happens in life? Nope. Some are just bad memories, lessons and mistakes, and you have to handle that shit. So if other people are going to profit from my creativity, it’s time I did, ah?
Anyways, hopefully “The Guy” is going to be a Kindle eBook on Amazon for $6.95 US.
Tyler: You’ve mentioned Ish is your next big character, with plans that she will rival Polina Rada and Lazoo?
John Reyer: Ish is special; she’s my first attempt at creating a female character who is not for some reason a victim of one of my other characters or the end-to-saga’s circumstance. I’m finding creating such a character to be a bit of a struggle, but I’m seeking help on this matter—hopefully in time for when I start writing “West End Girl” April 1st 2010.
So if you have any advice about how a sexy and strong chick operates in a male-oriented world…?
Tyler: I wouldn’t know, John. Go talk to Oprah or Hilary Clinton maybe. But what’s so special about Ish?
John Reyer: Well, let me see; first she goes on to become a Super Model in the Repro in SFD series. But before that, she’s probably just a teeny-weeny bit too short to make it in the MMD as a Super Model under normal circumstances. She has real doubts about how beautiful she is. She’s also had a few players, play her. There’s plenty more that girls will probably be able to tell us about….
Tyler: The MMD, SFD, AMD?
John Reyer: Did you say KFC?
Tyler: BEEP.
John Reyer: Okay, sorry! They’re just my feeble attempt at explaining what I perceive to be the dimensions that I understand all forms of life to be, having been raised as a Christian kid.
MMD = MindMorph Dimension, or the planet earth and the universe in which it exists. Named after the way our minds as a collective are controlled easily, as easy as saying “Finger Licking Good! 1 herb and spice, 12 teaspoons of whatever.” You know what I mean? Our minds are all morphed, by slogans, colors, tunes, brands, and mother’s tales.
SFD = SenFenide Dimension, or the subconscious where I imagine the darkness of hell dwells scaring us with all the unexplained stuff which accumulates there, together with other stuff pushed to the back, having been smashed into you when you were young and easily lead. Also referred to as the dream world, which is how we access the SFD. In this series – Repro in SFD by John Reyer & Ish, they play in the SenFenide Dimension.
AMD = AmalgaMension Dimension, my idea of heaven, where you’re a whole. Having totally amalgamated all the experience, lessons, and knowledge, integrating all that good stuff into your everyday life, and living what my mum and dad used to refer to as “A life that counts!”
Tyler: Okay. Got it. So MMD would include all those song lyrics in your books and how they seem to control characters, although perhaps in a more positive way than the other things you list? It’s almost like you’re writing a screenplay with the soundtrack in the background, wouldn’t you say? I guess music is controlling your mind and how it creates…
John Reyer: I don’t feel there’s a need to put a spin of any kind on the list of the control mechanisms capitalism utilizes to segment, and therefore segregate in the name of Marketing, under the guise of demographics. It’s fact, and it’s a part of any brief, any list of requirements in the marketing industry, “Target Market.” And also I wasn’t saying it was a negative, or evil device, I was merely pointing out that almost everything we are fed via the media is for a part of some campaign, whether it be political, social, but it is delivered using keywords, wrapped up in colors and music which the punter will hopefully take a punt on. Our minds are morphed in this dimension due to these controls. I also have another list made up of the humanitarian acts which are achieved via these channels created using the mentioned control mechanisms, but that’s for another time, ah?
Tyler: But back to “The Guy.” It’s hard to imagine, even in an unfair world, that Little Lazoo, John Lazoo, or James Elton’s son would turn out so terrible, after Lazoo himself had undergone such a transformation in the end-to-end saga?
John Reyer: All I can say is beware of false prophets. No, seriously. Check out the literary device “Unreliable Narrator.”
I’m not sure if it were meant to be used by characters in the Narrative, which renders the device defunct in my hands, but since we’re allowing ourselves some liberties reserved for the novice, I’d like to plead “Unreliable Narrator,” and assure that I cover this very contentious issue—Lazoo’s son and the light in which he’s portrayed in GUIOPERA II by “The Guy,” which I might add has something to do with Metofeaz Litigatti, good old Feeaz, the whimsical one, the fall guy; where the hell would I be without that guy, ah?
Hey, is there a device called “I totally messed up, and I’m making up this stuff as I go?”
Tyler: You mentioned in the “Narrative you can no longer write Lazoo. Is this true, and why?
John Reyer: Come on, Tyler—you of all people. Come, let’s say it together, “You cannot believe everything Feeaz Fontain says.”
Tyler: I thought we were going to say, “You can’t believe everything you read!”
John Reyer: Same thing.
Tyler: So Metofeaz is the writer?
John Reyer: Hey dude, can you see me shrug my shoulders? I’m sick of saying, if I knew I would say.
Tyler: Just something I noticed in The Guy, also— you state in the overview of the GUIOPERA format, that each “PART” of a chapter is set in a different location, yet in “The Guy” that seems to have gone out the window.
John Reyer: Very good Tyler, in the MMD or here on earth where things are physical, yep PART equals Location. I’m not sure about you, but I’m yet to come against any walls in my dreams? In the SFD everything just melds into one long blissful sometimes painful scene. Long story short SFD is exempt from the rule. But thanks for clearing that up. Next question.
Tyler: I love it at the end of Book 1 when John Reyer and the Guy go to the brothel to free the prostitutes, and as it turns out the Prostitutes don’t want to be liberated.
John Reyer: I wasn’t going to mention the metaphor, but since you brought it up. The Pimp and hooker relationship is a direct descendant of the Master/Servant relationship –Please footnote that one as: John Reyer’s lunatic POV—haha! Which ironically enough are the terms for the parties in the employment contracts between employer and employee in parts of the commonwealth still, not sure of how it is in the states?. But at the end of “The Guy,” the prostitutes not wanting “to be liberated” your term, I might add, reminds us we all prostitute ourselves in some form. If we were all recognized for our true worth–each and every soul on this planet who works for someone – the system would go bust!—We’re all slaves, and all we want is a better deal, for every breathing person, and the children they bare!—Humanity! My friend.
Tyler: Well, then, I guess we’ve said everything that needs saying, except when is “The Guy” going to be available on Kindle?
John Reyer: It will be for sale starting February 23, 2010 on Amazon. Click here to buy
Tyler: Great, John. I’m looking forward to its debut, but for now, I’m going back to bed.
Read our book review of "The Guy."
