Literature

In brief: The author of four fiction books Justinas Žilinskas could be presented as a professor at the International and European Law Institute or publicist, or a musician, a blogger, or science popularizer, a father of three, or... We would probably need a long paragraph to consistently describe and count all J. Žilinskas' works and achievements if not one mitigating circumstance - we are talking about literature and writing.

It is interesting to know how the writing habits of such a busy person look like. Justinas Žilinksas says, “I would be delighted if I could reveal some kind of special writing habits that for example, I write while sitting on the roof sipping Contreux and eating blueberries. But oh, as you noticed, my other responsibilities allow me to work only when the planets are properly aligned. Well, maybe not planets, rather times and jobs. So I write when I find time, using the various options that appear (for example, yesterday I was traveling from Klaipėda to Vilnius by train and had 4 hours for writing! How divine!). As of now, the ability to hide somewhere for a week from the world's noise, responsibilities, temptations and Facebook and write like other writers do is only a dream.

The author says that the idea to write a book for teenagers that would combine fantastic and historical elements about Vilnius was born "when the head of Aukso Žuvys, Sigita Pūkienė found me and asked if I would like to write a guide of historical part of Vilnius for teenagers, about 20 pages long. Soon I wanted not a "historical part", but "historical adventures", because what teenager is interested in facts? After all, we learned about Cardinal Richelieu from the Three Musketeers and only later from the textbooks.

I wondered what the author’s opinion on the Lithuanian Writers' Association was and why he did not want to join it. J. Žilinskas says that "it is difficult to have an opinion on a thing that I do not know much about, and frankly, I do not really know what it does, except that it has a publishing house and organizes events. I understand that the attitude, which comes from the Soviet era, that only a person who is the member of the Writers' Association is a writer (maybe that is why the Independent Writers' Association and the Village Writers' Associations were established - I wonder what are they so independent from?) as if self-institutionalization give some kind of meaning to your activities or a blessing given to your work by some higher court (during the Soviet era it was of the vital importance if you wanted to get a flat or a path to the printing house, but times are different now).