Interview
What is the hardest part
of writing your books?
I don’t find concepts
especially difficult. Nor is outlining a story, which I always do, so that I
know my beginning and my end. That ending, which I write first, is like my
north star. It keeps me on track so that I don’t wander too far off the beaten
path. Nor is character development particularly hard, because I am writing a
series with the same characters and I often find myself thinking like Talanov
thinks. What I find hard is perfecting the subtleties that I think readers
deserve in a good story, namely, those expressions and nuances we find in life,
which comes from visiting a place or observing an expression and then trying to
communicate it in words without making it sound forced. Nuances need to flow naturally
as part of the narrative, and that is what often takes me the longest. I want
it right because readers deserve to have it right.
What songs are most
played on your Ipod?
None. I do not own an Ipod or an MP3
player. In truth, I do not listen to music very much. When I’m in the car or
take walks or go for bike rides, I prefer the quiet of my own thoughts. That’s
because I’m usually turning story scenes over in my mind. I liken it to a lapidary
drum, where raw ingredients are dumped in and tumbled about, and eventually, a
polished gemstone emerges. For me, figuring out the puzzle of a good scene take
quiet moments of little or no distraction, and I’ve just gotten used to doing
it the “sans music” way.
Do you have critique
partners or beta readers?
No. I work on a story alone until it
is done, then I edit it a few times, then read it out loud to myself, then hire
a freelance editor to critique it for me and make suggestions. I’ve had
unpleasant experiences with critique groups in the past. Some members took
great pleasure knocking writers back for trivial, pedantic reasons. I found that
more frustrating than useful.
What book are you
reading now?
I recently finished a Vince Flynn
novel. It was written by one of the take-over writers hired by his publisher
after Vince’s untimely death. I read it to compare writing styles and overall story
development with the books Vince himself wrote. I read most books 2-3 times.
First for enjoyment, then for analysis. Which includes making myself finish
books I sometimes do not like in order to identify what dynamics made me react a
certain way. I like good writing that is seamless and effortless, and I like
identifying those dynamics.
How did you start your
writing career?
It began in grade school, which is where
I developed my love of doing research and writing stories. I grew up in a
family of storytellers and listened to my parents and grandparents telling
yarns about their lives. That love of hearing (and telling) a good story stuck!
Years later, I read about a guy who self-published a book on how to cook
hamburger, and I thought, I can do that. So I wrote a cookbook on 101 ways to
cook potatoes, which I self-published, took onto some morning TV shows, then got
picked up by St. Martin’s Press in New York, who republished the book, then
found myself touring the United States cooking potatoes for television
audiences and their hosts, including Regis Philbin and Pat Boone. How I got
from potatoes to spy novels is another story entirely, but that crazy potato
cookbook
was my first big break.
My Talanov series began with November
Echo. Every spy has a beginning and November Echo takes you back to when it all
began for Talanov on the Costa del Sol, Spain. In Department Thirteen, we find
Talanov retired from the KGB and living happily in Australia. Suddenly, killers
break into his home and gun down everyone attending a party he is hosting. The
reason is a deadly puzzle that forces him from Australia to Vanuatu to the
snowy mountains of Switzerland, where the puzzle mysteriously evaporates, only
to resurface in my upcoming new thriller, DRAGON HEAD, which occurs after a
stop in Los Angeles for Greco’s Game, where Talanov teams up with two young
women to bring down a human trafficking ring being run by his old colleagues in
the KGB. I’m excited about Dragon Head, because we again meet Talanov’s old
nemesis from November Echo, who is hell-bent on revenge. What I like about this
story is that it continues to reveal Talanov’s character as someone who sticks
up for the proverbial “little guy,” who in this case is an orphaned eleven
year-old girl who is kidnapped from a shelter in San Francisco that is being
run by an old friend of his. It’s a love story, although not a romantic one,
but one of loyalty and the bond between old friends and new, who in this case involves
the girl’s teenage brother and sister, who stow away on an airplane when
Talanov flies to Hong Kong to rescue their sister, which of course is a trap
that Talanov’s old nemesis has engineered. Dragon Head, like all of my
thrillers, couches a love story in the midst of an action thriller. To me,
action thrillers need more than action. They need heart and emotion, which
comes from relationships being put at risk. And that’s exactly what I do here,
just as I did in Greco’s Game.
I hope you enjoy the ride.
James Houston Turner is the bestselling author of the Aleksandr Talanov thriller series, as well as numerous other books and articles. Talanov the fictional character was inspired by the actual KGB agent who once leaked word out of Moscow that James was on a KGB watch-list for his smuggling activities behind the old Iron Curtain. James Houston Turner’s debut thriller, Department Thirteen, was voted “Best Thriller” by USA Book News, after which it won gold medals in the Independent Publisher (“IPPY”) Book Awards and the Indie Book Awards. His novel, Greco’s Game, has just been optioned for film. A cancer survivor of more than twenty-five years, he holds a bachelor’s degree from Baker University and a master’s degree from the University of Houston (Clear Lake). After twenty years in Australia, he and his wife, Wendy, author of The Recipe Gal Cookbook, now live in Austin, Texas.
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