Guest Interview: Tej Turner

In a rare break from the regular anime reviews and exceedingly irregular writing news, let's get 2021 off on the right footing with something a bit different.  I first met Tej Turner at Fantasycon the year before last - or rather, I'm pretty certain we'd met no end of times before that, but that was the first occasion we properly got talking.  Since Tej is a lovely bloke and I knew where to find edible takeaway food in the near vicinity, we hung out a fair bit, but I don't recall getting much into his writing career, since I'm far too ill-mannered to ask all the regular questions you're supposed to ask in these situations.  Well, I'm addressing that right now!  Tej has a new book out, titled Bloodsworn, and what better time to pick his brains on the subject?  And, um, inquire about his tastes in anime?

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- You've mentioned that your first two novels were semi-biographical.  Is that a common approach for you?  How much of yourself and your own life experiences would you say goes into your books?

I think that, to a certain extent, I'm always putting a part of myself into my characters (even if for some of them it is only a very small part), and I often write from what I know, drawing upon my own experiences.

I won't go into too many details here, but I didn't have the easiest childhood, and those two novels were part of a cathartic process for me dealing with that. None of the characters in them were completely me, but lots of the things they went through were inspired by events that happened to me during my youth. By writing the novel in such a way – using personal stories about myself, but warping them, and projecting them through fictional characters whilst entwining them with fiction, some of my dreams, nightmares, and a bit of surrealism – I was able to exorcise some of my personal demons whilst not exposing too much about myself and maintaining a certain amount of psychic distance.

I'm glad I wrote them that way, but I'm not sure if I will ever write novels of that nature again. I penned them when I was young and experimenting with different methods of writing, and I reached the catharsis I needed at that time. My adult years, in comparison, have been both much more stable and enjoyable.

- You describe those first two books as coming of age novels; were there opportunities in writing younger protagonists that would have been missing with older characters?  Were there ways in which it felt like a restriction?

It's certainly true that one cannot cover the full spectrum of the human condition by writing coming-of-age stories alone, but I've never claimed to have achieved such a thing (I don't think any single writer can). It was just what I wanted to write at that time and it was appropriate for those two novels. My latest novel (Bloodsworn, soon to be released) does also feature some youthful characters, but also several adult narrators too.

One thing I realised recently is that one of the themes which repeatedly occurs in my writing (whether I'm composing weird urban fantasy, epic fantasy, or some other sub-genre) is protagonists who are, whilst young, somewhat older than their years through circumstance, and I think that, just because a book is mostly told through young protagonists, that doesn't mean it doesn't contain adult themes. And it certainly doesn't mean it is not an adult novel. I think that, after the YA phenomenon happened, it became a label people felt inclined to throw at almost anything with a young protagonist, despite a huge amount of the adult epic fantasy before that term being coined featuring focal characters who were coming of age.

- You're extremely well-travelled, and obviously that's been a huge part of your life.  What have those experiences contributed to your writing?  Would you encourage other writers to do the same if they can?

Yes, it certainly has. Travelling has not only exposed me to many different cultures, climates, and landscapes, but I think it also informs my writing.

I have first-hand experience of a lot of things that will be familiar to readers of fantasy. I know what it's like to live in a jungle – without electricity and other modern comforts of the first world – and I've made long journeys through some of the world's highest mountain ranges, where I've suffered altitude sickness and been lost in the snow. I know what it's like to suddenly find oneself in a land which feels very strange, where no one speaks your language, and had to get by whilst crossing cultural divides as an outsider. I have even visited parts of the world that are quite lawless and had my life come into danger.

That said, I wouldn't say that you cannotwrite about these things without experiencing them; that's what research is for.