Ray Malus

Question: “Who has been a Nightclub Entertainer, Computer Systems Administrator, University Course Chair, Software Designer/Programmer, Choral Director, Composer, Actor, Director, Playwright, and poet?”

Answer: “Ray Malus.”

“Don’t wake me when it’s over. I mean, by then, IT’S OVER!”

Educated in New York City (Bronx High School Of Science, Manhattan College), Malus “dropped out” in his Junior year and hit the road with a travelling band. Eventually, he became a Variety Performer, and settled in the San Fernando Valley, California, in 1970. The rest just followed, naturally.

“I just followed my curiosity.” he says. “I never chased money, just went where my interest called me. Somehow the bills got paid.”

Now 68 and retired, Mr Malus lives with his wife of 10 years, Sharron, in a house he bought in 1971.

“With everything else in my life so chaotic, I needed a haven, someplace to hide in.”

Ray says he’s been fortunate to live in interesting times and places. He was part of the Greenwich Village “Folk Scene”, was in San Francisco for the “Summer Of Love”, and got interested in personal computers when they were still an arcane technical curiosity.

Although not a Dentist, in 1983, while working at UCLA School of Dentistry, Ray developed, and taught, the first course of study in Computer Dental Technology — now called “Dental Informatics”.

“I’ve always seemed to be able to ‘Grandfather’ myself into a career — finding something relatively new, and growing with the field.”

Asked about his various careers, Ray gets a bit “mystical”, “It’s all really part of the same thing, an urge to create – to make concrete something that only existed in my imagination. Writing, design, performing, composing, teaching – even programming – all reduce to that same act.”

He currently maintains websites which he designed for California Writers Club and his Church — along with his own website. Visit: http://raymalus.com

His writing covers a lot of different genres. Primarily a Playwright (he’s had 12 plays produced), he writes short stories, songs, and memoirs too – and is an award-winning poet.

“I’ll write anything I think people will read.”

Ray Malus was awarded the title “California Senior Poet Laureate — 2010”, and was awarded the “2011 Scribe’s Scroll”. His Chancel Dramas (6) have been performed at numerous Churches, and his full-length play “The Meeting In Durango” holds the record for longest run on ‘Reader’s Theater’ (Time Warner Cable, Southern California). Another Malus play, “NOIR”, is second.

“I love it when my writing makes people laugh, but I’m most pleased when it makes people think. I think all art should expose the commonality of people. My best compliment is always, ‘You wrote what I’ve always felt, but never could say.’ ”

Mr Malus is currently finishing his first novel, “Ashes In Yonkers”, which is adapted from one of his plays.

Interview with Ray

When were you born?
I was born in 1950 Aug 30th.

Where were you born and raised?
I was born and raised in The Bronx, a Borough of New York City.

How has your up bringing influence your writing?
I suppose being one of a pair of twins had some influence. I have always had a need to assert my individuality and to differentiate myself from the pack. But, at the same time, I’ve always had an awareness of my membership in a far greater body.

My remembrances of my parents during my childhood are uniformly warm and comforting. They accepted me, and didn’t object when I embraced my own eccentricities — a thing I did deliberately.

Are you married? If so, when and how did you meet?
I married late. My wife, Sharron, and I met when I was an entertainer on a Cruise Ship and she was a passenger. It was a short liaison, but 2 decades later she contacted me, and we eventually married.

Have you any children?
No. As I say, I married late. Sharron had no children.

When did you first start creatively writing and why? What prompted you to become a writer?
I suppose I’ve written since primary school. But I began to seriously write when I was an entertainer. There were things I wanted to say to an audience that just weren’t being written — or not in the way I wanted to say them.

What is your favourite book?
WOW! This is a tough one! I have many books I love. Some are just gratifying to read. Some are admirable because of their story-telling. I suppose I’d have to say Joseph Heller’s ‘Catch-22.’ He plays such a marvelous trick on the reader’s perceptions. You laugh like a fool throughout the book, and only at the end realize you’ve been reading a tragedy.

What is your favourite poetry?
You mean besides mine? (Just kidding.)

EVEN TOUGHER! Here’s a short list:

Shelley’s ‘Ozymandias’ — I don’t know if anyone has ever said so much about humanity within the confines of a 14-line sonnet.

Longfellow’s ‘Evangeline’ — as a child, I memorized the first and last stanzas. To this day, I cannot recite the last stanza aloud without breaking into tears.

Poe’s ‘The Bells’ — Yes, I know I’m a Philistine. But the MUSIC!

Waller’s ‘Go Lovely Rose’ — Read it, and you’ll know why.

Several poems by Walter Benton. — I just love his sensuality and love of ‘woman.’

I know I’m doing many of my favorites grave injustice by leaving them out.”

What is your favourite short story?
Somerset Maugham’s ‘The Verger’ — I don’t know any better story about the futility of regret. Everyone should read this.

Who is your favourite writer?
My favorite writer is a contemporary American writer named, Jonathan Mayberry. He wrote a modern Gothic trilogy called, the “Pine Deep Series.” Yes, I know this a ‘horror story.’ But his descriptions and settings are so rich and vivid! When I read, I often stop and ask, “Could I have said that better?” In this series, the answer is always “NO!”

Sadly, his more recent work is more commercial and rushed. One can hear a publisher urging him to “churn out the next one.” But these first three are poetic and masterful.

What is your Favourite song?
I gravitate toward Classical Music — all the biggies. I have a particular fondness for Wagner, because his work is so complex and yet so moving.

In ‘popular’ music, I’m enraptured by the great singer-songwriters of the ‘Folk-Rock’ era, Paul Simon, Dan Fogelberg, that ilk. They managed to say such human things so musically.

I’m also fond of almost anything by Jerome Kern.

What are your Writing goals?
I want to ‘reach’ people. I’m so perplexed by the huge gulf between people. It’s uncrossable, and yet artists manage it. There’s this idea, concept, in one mind, and somehow it manages to leap into another and provoke an emotional reaction. It’s kind of like that Star-Trek-Vulcan-Mind-Meld nonsense. I don’t understand it, but I chase it.

What are your dream and goals?
I’d love to say or write something that would permanently enter the Language.
I’d love to keep meeting an endless stream of people who tell me, “You really touched me.”
I’d like to know, before I die, that I’ll be missed when I do.
I’d like to be able to set my digital clock.

Oh yeah, and get a date with the head cheerleader for the Prom.

What are your Hobbies?
Besides writing and composing, I do 4 crossword puzzles a day. I love to program computers, and maintain 3 different websites. I still act in, and direct, theater.

What is the writing process like for you? Do you sweat blood or do the words come easily? How many edits do you normally do before you feel your work is completed?
It always begins with an idea — a phrase, situation, or concept. I seldom know, originally, what the form will be: poem, play, story… I just have the idea. If I think it will speak to people in general I let it grow and expand on its own. All of this is ‘in my head.’

Eventually, enough will have gestated so that I know what general form I’m dealing with. If it’s dialogue-heavy, it’ll be a play. If it’s plot-rich, probably a story. If it’s mostly ideas, a poem. If it’s all of those, maybe a novel. I firmly believe the work will dictate its own form.

By the time I start to write, the words always come easily, effortlessly — but, they’re often wrong. It doesn’t matter. When I’m finished, I read it aloud — usually to my wife. This is so my ear can evaluate it. I change weak descriptions, monotonous phrases, unwanted ugly sounds, awkward cadences.

Then I put it aside for a while. It kind of echoes in my mind, and revisions occur to me. When I consistently find that I go to revise the work, and find that I’ve already written what I was going to revise it to, I consider it ‘acceptable.’ Notice I didn’t say, ‘Done.’ It’s never done, and I blush to admit there are sometimes slightly different versions of my work that have been published in different places. (This is not that unusual. A ‘pit musician’ once told me that Marvin Hamlisch made revisions to the score of ‘A Chorus Line’ nightly – until it closed.)

Do you have an advice for aspiring writers?
Oh yes. I always tell writers: “Always be truthful. And always write as though it’ll be read by someone you want to seduce.”