Interview with Alex Domokos
and Rita Y. Toews

Added January 22, 2004

Ayden: The authors of the award-winning novel Price of Freedom, Alex Domokos and Rita Y. Toews sat down with me to talk about their available novels and their work in general.

Alex and Rita, thank you for joining me today. I hope you're ready to have your brain picked. *g* We'll start off with a rather easy question... why writing? Is it something you've always wanted to do or did it come as a surprise?

Alex: I have been writing since my mid-teens. I actually won a literary award in school when I was eighteen. Then, during my time in Russian prisoner-of-war camps after WWII, writing became a way to escape the deprivation of my circumstances--to escape into a world of my own making. I accumulated the thoughts, the stories and so many of the experiences I write about today.

In later years, I wrote to stimulate provocative thoughts in others. I believe the greatest gift a writer can give to his reader is a challenge to think and question, to force them to use their intuitiveness, rather than staying on the trivial surface of life.

Rita: For me the desire to write came as something of a surprise. I have always enjoyed reading, but didn't consider writing until I was in my twenties. Even so, I did very little about it until I turned 50. It was then that I finally started taking writing courses with the University of Winnipeg. That lead me to Alex and our writing team began.

Ayden: How do you write as a team? In what ways does it differ from writing solo? Do you find it easier or harder to have a partner?

Alex: I tell Rita that I give her the skeleton of the story, and she has to put the muscle and sinew on the bones. My English is far too limited to write a story that would interest an English speaking person.

Rita: I have the best of both worlds. I write my children's books as a solo writer, and as part of a team I get to do the fun work. I give the characters created by Alex personalities, I set the scenes, I give the wind a scent and populate the landscape with plant and animal life. Alex does the hard part--he writes the plot. I get to interview the medical examiner about the symptoms of strangulation, while Alex has to figure out how to blast a hole in an ice wall using an oxygen tank. Somehow, it all comes together beautifully.

Ayden: I'm assuming that with two people, two different visions and voices plotting is a very important part. Just winging would seem to be a bit difficult if not impossible.

Rita: Yes, that would be impossible. I leave Alex's plot alone, unless my research finds a flaw in it. In our latest book, Masquerade, we learned that the police investigation would not allow our heroine to return to her house. We had to figure out a new plot for a good portion of the story. Once you change one small item it has a way of effecting other parts of the story. It proved quite interesting to amend the story, but once again Alex came to the rescue.

Ayden: Let's take a moment and talk about your available novels. Now The Price of Freedom is Alex's autobiography, correct? I'm in the middle of reviewing it and it reads more like an post-war action/adventure tale, than a biography.

Alex: Yes, The Price of Freedom is my autobiography. It seems that for a portion of my life, I spent my time just trying to survive the circumstances of my life. I often wondered how many times a man is required to pass through hell before it is enough. Now that it is behind me, I think I had a rather interesting life--don't you?

Ayden: I have to agree. What other novels have you written as a team and where can we find them?

Rita: We've written The Price of Freedom (www.hardshell.com), which has won three awards and is being done in audio by Blackstone Audio. We've also written Prometheus (www.hardshell.com) which is in the finals for an Eppie award, Masquerade and an historical entitled The Centurion. Our readers can find information and links to the publishers of these books at our website: www.domokos.com.

Another book, a novella entitled Shades of Gray, is still looking for a publisher. We have also combined several short stories into a collection entitled Ten Chocolates From the Box (www.writers-exchange.com). These are wonderful inspirational stories, many of which are taken from the years Alex spent as a POW.

Ayden: Prometheus may be a science-fiction novel, but it also deals with issues we see in today's world: smaller countries developing nuclear weapons and the super powers trying to maintain their role. At any time while writing it did you have problems keeping the fictional storyline from becoming too preachy?

Alex: Not at all. Although the plot deals with nuclear weapons and the consequences of their use, the purpose of the novel was to examine man's primitive nature and the forces that govern his behavior. My time in the POW camps caused me to examine whether the ideology of different societies might have an influence on the way an individual from that society might react given certain circumstances. Does man truly have control over his actions, or are we driven by ancient instincts that we can never overcome?

Ayden: No matter what your chosen career you have to have support. Who are your biggest supporters, other than each other obviously?

Alex: My wife, Elizabeth. We recently celebrated our 60th wedding anniversary. Anyone who has read The Price of Freedom knows what we had to endure to remain together. She is the biggest fan of all my work--my novels, my poems and my philosophical work.

Rita: My husband, of course, who gives me the freedom to spend hours at my writing. But I also have a wonderful writing group whose individuals give me tremendous support as I work my way through a novel.

Ayden: Congratulations, that's a very long time to be together and definitely a great accomplishment. What can we expect from you this year?

Rita: This year you will see the publication of Masquerade, a police procedural mystery story, in e-book format by Books Unbound (www.booksunbound.com). Masquerade has also been accepted by a print publisher for release in 2005. That seems an age away!

We have also submitted The Centurion to a Christian print publisher for a novel competition. If it doesn't win the competition, then I suspect we'll submit it to e-publishers while we look for a print contract. In The Centurion, we've taken the story of the crucifixion of Christ and looked at it from a strictly political point of view. Readers get to see the historical figures of Pontius Pilate, his wife, Procula, Herod, and Caesar Tiberius as real people. Given the political climate in Rome during that time, there was really only one outcome to the trial of Christ.

Ayden: You've both been published in magazines. What's the biggest difference, besides length, between magazines and novels?

Alex: Anything I have published in magazines has been either non-fiction or poetry. Other than my autobiography, anything I have written in novel length has been fiction.

Rita: I echo Alex on this question. All my published work in magazines has been snippets of humorous events in my life--dating back to my childhood days in northern Canada.

Ayden: Alex and Rita, thanks again for talking with me. I really enjoyed our time together. For more information on Alex and Rita's work, please visit their website: www.domokos.com

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