User:Gregorik/András Gregorik

András Gregorik (born 1976) is a Hungarian novelist and screenwriter. His main themes include social isolation due to mental conditions or misfortune, and ensuing redemption through a spiritual journey of either a religious or psychological kind.

Childhood and adolescence

Gregorik was born in Budapest on May 10th 1976 to a lower middle class family. His parents divorced when he was 6, and he rarely saw his father afterwards, living with his mother and grandmother. Gregorik was struck with what he called kisiklatás (derailment), a strong form of OCD (and possibly a concurrent, mild form of Asperger's) when he was around 10, leading to his being unpopular at school and spending much time alone with books. As a young teenager, he would cheer himself up by writing fiction, including early drafts of the fantasy world Arfondam, the premise of a novel cycle started several years later. Throughout his teens, he was a fan of fantasy fiction, horror films and computer role-playing games.

He graduated from Anna Frank High School, Budapest, in 1994 and took odd jobs at journals afterwards. He also began working as a translator of film dialogs around 20, and worked for several months on a horror-themed PC adventure game ('Below') and a role-playing game ('The Guild') that never materialized due to a shortage of funds. He began writing short stories regularly around 1997, though none of these early pieces survive. Gregorik battled with a relapsed OCD (and purported Asperger's) at the time, and was more or less confined to his Pest apartment for three years, becoming a self-taught expert on world literature, classical music and computer games, and the owner of a vast classical music record collection.

Gregorik moved to suburban Budaliget in 1998, and started indulging in a newly discovered lifestyle of sex, drugs, rock gigs and goa parties soon after, dating several young women and traveling extensively throughout Europe. Gregorik researched Eastern religions and regarded himself a novice Radja yogi, a Buddhist and a Zen Buddhist, respectively, before becoming a born-again Christian in late 2002. Previously, he was briefly involved with the Church of Scientology, ICOC and the Krishnas. He wrote his first film script (What planet are you from?, 2003) loosely based on his Christian conversion. He unsuccessfully tried to mount a film project based on the script between 2003-5, shooting plenty of material featuring fellow students. Gregorik attended the University of Budapest between 2001-05, writing a well-received final thesis with the title "Shakespeare's approach towards Christian Mysticism after 1600".

Novels and screenplays

From early 2006, Gregorik turned to full time writing. He wrote two screenplays (Basic fault, Pseudolife) and his first novel (also titled Basic fault) in quick succession following a trip to Cuba. None of the three works got published initially despite mostly positive feedback. He finished his second novel (Pseudolife) in early 2008, and his third (Petra) later that year.

List of works

• What planet are you from? (script, 2003)
• Shakespeare's approach towards Christian Mysticism after 1600 (essay, 2005)
• Basic fault (script, 2006)
• Pseudolife (script, 2006)
• Basic fault (novel, 2006)
• Pseudolife (novel, 2008)
• Petra (script, 2008)
• Petra (novel, 2008)
• Thin Fabric (script, 2009)
• Thin fabric (novel, 2009)