Interviews with Authors - J.M. Turner

Being an author can be a fairly solitary existence - so I love to reach out to fellow authors, especially those who write in the same genre and feature similar themes as my writing does.  These authors are all working so hard to put brilliant and thought provoking writing out into the world, so it is a pleasure to find them and a privilege to ask them a few questions about their writing career.

Today I am featuring the work of J.M. Turner - a brilliant storyteller (who also happens to be my editor for my books). You can find Jill's book HERE on Amazon (affiliate link) and her proofreading and editing company is Little Red Lines (contact her via the Facebook Page)

J.M.T: Thinking that whatever I wrote wouldn’t be good enough! As I grew up, my mother regularly told me I should write a book because I had a way with words. She wanted me to write about her life (and believe me, there was a lot to write about) but I shied away from it for a variety of reasons. I bitterly regret that now because she passed away when my eldest child was a baby and the chance was gone. I then spent decades verbally telling original bedtime stories to my own children, starting a story on a Monday night which would run throughout the week or longer, all off the cuff and featuring either them or their favourite toys. They begged me for years to write them down but my confidence waned when I thought of putting pen to paper and life got in the way. My sister was the one who finally pushed me into it. One New Years’ Eve she said that if I wrote a book that year she’d give me £200. I wrote the book.

RD: What do you wish you knew back then that you know now?

J.M.T:That not writing is by far scarier than actually doing it. Self-doubt is the killer of creativity. I wish I’d started far, far sooner than I did—all those stories I told my children were gone as soon as they left my mouth and all that is left is the memory of their giggles and wide-eyed wonder.

RD: Why did you choose to write in the philosophical/spiritual fiction genre?

J.M.T:Sunshine Girl came about, strangely enough, because of my mother. She, one of her sisters, and my grandfather were all spiritualists. She grew up attending at the local Spiritualist Church and believed with all her heart that there was a form of life after we are gone from this one and that some people are able to speak to those who have passed. She talked about this to me a lot as I grew up and, to be frank, it frightened the living daylights out of me. As a child, I had visions of my father (he passed when I was aged 11) watching everything I did, up to and including using the loo. Consequently (and self-protectively), I refuted anything to do with spiritualism and thought it all a load of codswallop for a number of years. I became more open to it after Mum died and I plucked up the courage to visit the medium she used to go to. I didn’t give my name (or any details about myself and I don’t look anything like my Mum so she couldn’t have got anything from that), and she was able to tell me exactly what had happened when Mum passed (I was with her) and also how and when my Dad had died...

After I’d written my first few books, I had a story that niggled at me. What if Mum was right? What if there is something after this tumultuous life? This led on to the question, what if a teenage girl had a tragic accident and didn’t leave this earthly plane? What would make her hang around? What if she finds out her death wasn’t an accident; that she was murdered? How would she feel? What would she do? And so on and so on. The bare bones of the story began to flesh out in my mind and I began to write it from her point of view, incorporating things I didn’t know I remembered from what my mother used to tell me…

RD: What are the writing related things you still struggle with?

J.M.T:Finding the time to write! I also work as an editor and proofreader, so I work on other people’s stories a lot of the time which means my own get side-lined.

RD: Who in particular helped you along the way and how did you meet them?

J.M.T:My youngest daughter. She is my staunch supporter. She reads everything I write, as I write it, and tells me if I make any errors when it comes to teenage dialogue or if anything is unbelievable! She doesn’t mince words, either, so if she tells me something doesn’t ring true, I believe her.

RD:  What is the best thing a reader/fan could do for you, or has done for you?

J.M.T:Please, read my books and leave a review. Reviews are like hens’ teeth or gold dust – impossible to come by! Ask at your local library if they have any copies of my books. Tell your friends you liked something I wrote. Word of mouth by a reader is the best way for books to become known.

If you enjoy books like Jill's 'Sunshine Girl', then you may love my 'Beyond Veils' series. 'The Truth of Her', Book 2, is published on 29th July 2019. Pre-Order it here (Amazon Affiliate Link).