Meet Vladimi Zjukov, Author

A 24 year-old male living in northern Europe, Vladimi Zjukov is, at the moment, living a quite stressful life trying to run a company and taking care of his family (a daughter and a wife). Sometimes he finds a minute or two to write. You can follow him on Twitter, and download the opening chapters of his book-in-progress, Tales from a Relationship, for Amazon Kindle. He is currently offering chapters 1-2 and chapter 3 as free downloads.

1. How would you categorize Tales from a Relationship: is it memoir, fiction, or some combination of genres?

I would call it a combination. Everything I have written so far has happened to me in real life, but some changes have been made for privacy reasons and in order to make it readable. I have plans to continue writing another ten to twelve chapters based on events in real life and then add a fictional ending to it.

But it all depends on how my life develops. I am hoping to give it a happy ending based on my real life.

2. Why have you decided to start with only publishing the beginning of the book, allowing reviews/reviewers to determine if you will continue or not?

I started to write the book as self-therapy. It really ripped my heart out. Going through the fights did not feel at all as bad as writing about them. When I wrote the first chapters, I had to live through it again and saw things from another perspective. I realized how destructive we were and how this may affect our daughter. It made me upset and ashamed at the same time.

I shared the work for a few selected readers online who thought I should self-publish it. I was not sure about it at all, and that's why I decided to only publish parts of it. If no one likes it or wants to read it, I don't see the point of exposing myself like this.

3. As an author do you write for yourself or with an audience in mind--or both?

Originally this was all for myself. It was therapy. But once I decided that I would publish it, I altered a few things for the readers.

4. What role does Twitter play in your life as an aspiring writer?

Twitter is a place for me to share thoughts and get to read other people's opinions. Whenever I stand at a crossroad, I just pick my phone up and tweet. Within minutes I know in what direction I should walk.

5. What are the benefits for a writer in choosing to use pen names rather than release all of one's literary output under a single name?

We can expose ourselves to a large extent. However, I could never write this book without a pen name. What if someone I knew would read it? Everyone around me could know everything about me. The pen name makes it possible for me to write this without worrying about my privacy.

Thanks, Vladimi!