Featured Personality: Mikhail Alexandrovich Romanov
by Myrrhine
Would
you tell us a little about your character Mikhail and the inspiration behind
him?
I created Mikhail for the IO Effect. At the end of the Romanov dynasty, many
of the Romanovs seem to have lost their interest in ruling, if not their will.
Mikhail, the Tsar's youngest sibling, was one of the proponents of transforming
the monarchy into some sort of constitutional affair. He was well-travelled,
quite the Anglophile, and had a light-hearted personality but could get a
job done when pressed to it. He was daring and a romantic - he even defied
the Tsar to marry the woman he loved, despite her unsuitability to a royal
marriage. His brother exiled him for the act, but then brought him back to
Russia when WWI broke out. I thought, "What would such a man do with
the opportunity to start again without all the baggage of who his family was
or without the dictates of his place in society. With the freedom to choose
his own destiny, what would he become. If you read some of my early posts
at the IO Effect, you will see these themes being introduced. Then, as well,
a one-time friend of mine - he has since left Panhistoria - Maximillian de
Robespierre was writing at IO and it was just too delicious to think of a
Romanov from the time of the Russian Revolution meeting the notorious Robespierre
in his youth while he was still loyal to the French king! Later, of course,
Alexei Nikolaevitch, Mikhail's nephew, joined the IO Effect and that established
us as unique to the story - we were the only family in it.
Much of your recent writing has been for the Io Effect novel, what was it that drew you to the story there?
I had been reading the IO Effect for a long time before I finally hit on a character to join in. I suppose you might say the novel represents a long-time fantasy of mine. I was rather peripatetic in my youth, always looking for the next adventure, wondering what was over the next hill. There is nothing I love more when I am travelling than getting lost - one finds the most interesting little shops or out-of-the-way places that way. And, of course, adventure! The idea of being suddenly plucked into a whole new world and having to make your way from scratch while at the same time solving the mystery of how and why just strikes a chord deep within me. Of course, we - the IO Effect - existed before the hit series Lost, but you can tell from its success, that I'm not alone in having that chord.
When and how did you discover Pan Historia and what is that keeps you coming back?
I discovered Pan Historia on the Alexander Palace Time Machine bulletin boards. Alexander Palace is a Romanov website. Somebody announced that PanHistoria was back on line and that the Romanovs - One Last Dance was back up. I checked it out to see what they were talking about. I had never heard of Pan before that. I created a character for OLD - Tatiana Dmitrievna Goganova - who was supposed to be an Okhrana undercover agent, but OLD had dropped their historical part of the novel and was only doing the "What If" part, so TDG didn't work out over there. My first actual writing experience at Pan was in a Short Cuts thread called "Portals et Cie" where I met Maximillian. The IO Effect was my second. There are three things that keep me loyal and active at Pan - the first is mercenary, I am afraid to admit: I want someday to have a novel I have been working on for some time published. Obviously, writing, writing and more writing helps to improve one's writing. But, in addition, the fact that one is in an interactive novel means one has to write and that establishes a discipline. I usually make at least one post a day. Sometimes real life circumstances prevent that, but unless it is something catastrophic such as I recently experienced during the month of December, I can usually find time for that discipline The second is the great writing that is here. Beatrice at IO, Jon May and Thomas Keene at Salem, Nix and Julian Starchaser at Star Wars the Saga. When they were here, Marianne de Carnavelet and Maximillian at Portals. Their writing just takes my breath away. Of course it can have a down side too, because then I start doubting my own ability - see goal number 1 above. Finally, there is the sense of community. I have met some amazing people on Pan - generous, witty, intelligent. In as much as one can trust any internet relationship, some of these people I count among my true friends - I think they know who they are.
This edition of the Pan Historian is all about exploration, where or what would you most like to explore and why?
Oh, that's easy: Space. It's funny, I became an Aerospace Engineer to work in space - in both senses of that word "in" and the irony of it is that, except for one satellite, I have spent the bulk of my career on the Aero side of that equation. Too bad for me. But, I'm still hoping we'll get our act together soon enough so that I can at least make it to the moon. Remember that peripatetic youth part - I'd give just about anything to live on a spaceship - with lightspeed capability, please! - just travelling from place to place. Oh well, maybe in my next life!
In nominating you Alexei mentioned your many hats and while I won't ask you to reveal the secrets of your other characters I am curious to know if you write across a broad spectrum of genres or if you have particular favourites?
I do write in several genres: science-fiction, horror, fantasy, history, Short Cuts - is that contemporary?. When things settle down a little, I'm contemplating joining an Action novel that has been wooing one of my other characters. Even Mikhail is cross-genre. Right now, he is in two Science Fiction novels - the IO Effect. and The Time Lords and a Fantasy novel, Salem where he plays a ghost, plus he is still a character at OLD - history, though not very active there. But, my one true love is Science Fiction. And Pan has so many great novels in that genre - it would be great if I had more time; there are several more I'd like to join.
Last one, I promise *smiles*. Tell us what you feel is your greatest achievment here at Pan or elsewhere in life.
I don't think I have made any great achievements at Pan - my writing has
improved in the year and four months I have been a member, but it's not yet
up to the level of those I mentioned above. In life, the achievement I am
most proud of was to bring about a promotion for a very deserving computer
analyst who had been largely overlooked by our company. That act really changed
the caterpillar into a butterfly. With his promotion he developed a confidence
and went on to become one of the company's most valued programmers. But, I
hope my greatest achievement is yet to come!
