Guest Interview with author Corinna Turner

CORINNA TURNER is the author of the I AM MARGARET and unSPARKed series for young adults, as well as stand-alone works such as ELFLING and MANDY LAMB AND THE FULL MOON (for teens) and Someday (for older teens and adults). All of her novels have received the Catholic Writers Guild Seal of Approval (except new releases for which the Seal may be in process). LIBERATION (‘I Am Margaret’ Book 3) was nominated for the Carnegie Medal Award 2016 and ELFLING won first prize for ‘Teen and Young Adult Fiction’ in the Catholic Press Association 2019 Book Awards. Several of her other books have been placed in the CPA Awards and the Catholic Arts and Letters Awards.

Corinna Turner is a Lay Dominican with an MA in English from Oxford University and lives in the UK. She has been writing since she was fourteen and likes strong protagonists with plenty of integrity. She used to have a Giant African Land Snail called Peter with a 6½” long shell—which is legal in the UK!—but now makes do with a cactus and a campervan. You can find out more at www.IAmMargaret.com.

-When did you start to write and where did you find your inspiration?

I remember writing various childhood stories and enjoying it, but it didn't cross my mind that I might want to be a writer until the 'short' story I wrote when I was 14. It went on for 37 pages in my homework book and the teacher gave up marking it after about page 8 due to lack of time. I promptly set to and wrote it up into a full-length novel. The novel was awful. No one is allowed to see it. Ever! I’ve always had plenty of ideas, both from dreams and just the ones that pop into my head, and I've been writing ever since.

-How has your writing career progressed since you started?

I have an agent, though she mainly handles translation rights since she doesn’t handle my faith fiction. I was offered a publishing contract from a major US Catholic press for my first ‘faith’ book, but the contract terms were such that the Society of Authors and my own conscience led me to reject it. Publishing independently is hard work but very rewarding.

-What changes have you noticed in your style, content, and habits?

When I started writing at 14 I was writing for the secular market because my idea of a ‘Christian’ novel was the painfully twee and unsubtle little things they gave us at Sunday School. By 2009 this was becoming a serious trial because it felt like I had to keep faith out to have a chance at publication, so when I had the idea for I AM MARGARET while on retreat at a convent, I decided to simply write it exactly as I would write a secular novel, but to allow the faith to come into it naturally.

-What is your favorite genre to write/read, and why is it your favorite?

I like to read quite a variety of genres including dystopian, fantasy, sci-fi, old thrillers, the occasional romance. I probably enjoy writing dystopian or fantasy the best, since one can really use one’s imagination and create different worlds or versions of our world. Having said that, one of my favorite things I have ever written—‘THREE LAST THINGS: or the Hounding of Carl Jarrold, Soulless Assassin’ (coming out soon)—is set very much in the real world, though it has a very slight dream-like quality.

-What parts of story structure do you like developing the most? (e.g. Character introductions, plot points, the climax, etc.)

I don’t think about it like this. It arrives too organically. Character profiles are something I have started doing recently, but they count as a chore!

-What character roles do you like to write the most? (e.g. The mentor, the best friend, the hero, the villain, etc.)

I do like the heroes and the love interests, but when compiling lists of favorite characters the holy supporting characters often appear, the friends or brothers or mentors.

-What do you struggle with the most when writing?

I have far more ideas than time!

-What do you struggle with the least?

Ideas!

-Which of your books was the most fun to write?

That’s very hard to answer. Possibly DRIVE!, my first unSPARKed novella, since virtually nothing truly awful happens to any of the main characters, at least long-term! It’s a rollicking fun adventure. BREACH!—the unSPARKed prequel—was also a whole lot of fun to write, despite the emotional intensity of the pro-life storyline.

-Which of your books was the hardest to write?

It’s a toss-up between ‘THREE LAST THINGS: or the Hounding of Carl Jarrold, Soulless Assassin’ or THE SIEGE OF REGINALD HILL. BANE’S EYES was also hard. But I think THREE LAST THINGS has to win.

-Which of your characters was the most fun to write?

Oh dear, I have so many! Probably Darryl or Joshua from unSPARKed, though Vincent from MANDY LAMB AND THE FULL MOON is also a fun character.

-Which of your characters was the hardest to write?

Carl Jarrold, from ‘THREE LAST THINGS: or the Hounding of Carl Jarrold, Soulless Assassin’

Name one thing that has completely changed your writing game.

Allowing faith into my work. It feels whole and complete and fulfilling, now, and no longer artificial.

-Often times when writing novels, authors tend to take a completely different route than what they had originally planned. Has that ever happened to you?

Not significantly with plots, though it has certainly happened with individual characters. I have two characters I introduced into my YESTERDAY & TOMORROW series in the one published book, SOMEDAY, for a particular purpose, and they wouldn’t play ball at all as the series continues. By partway through (in the not yet completed part of the series), I’ve had to introduce two more characters to take over the purpose they were supposed to be fulfilling!

-Are you a plotter or a pantser? (Do you plot out your whole story before writing, or do you just jump right in?)

I used to write without even knowing how the books ended for years as a teen, but it did not result in remotely tightly plotted books, oddly enough. My first book that I had the whole plot in advance was ELFLING, and it was so much better that I ended up getting an agent on the strength of it.

-Who are your favorite authors and why?

In all honesty my favorite author is still Lois McMaster Bujold because she grips one both emotionally and page-turningly in a way that cannot be matched. But she does, alas, support quite a few ‘modern’ ideas especially in terms of sexual morality, so I cannot recommend her too whole-heartedly. Carol Berg is also an excellent fantasy author, and none of her books contain anything objectionable except the last few (she’s sliding, alas). I have also very much been enjoying exploring other current Catholic writers for teens, such as Susan Peek and Theresa Linden and other authors from Catholic Teen Books.

Non-fiction, I particularly like St Anselm’s meditations and Thomas a Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ.

-What are your life goals when it comes to writing?

I think this is entirely up to the Lord.

-What are you planning to do within the next few years?

This summer I’m hoping to publish ‘THREE LAST THINGS: or the Hounding of Carl Jarrold, Soulless Assassin’ and a romantic historical fantasy, THE RAVEN AND THE YEW, both of which are completed. I’m also hoping to publish some more unSPARKed novellas, plus another series prequel. And then I really, really do intend to complete my YESTERDAY & TOMORROW series at long last.

Rapid-fire (write down the first thing that comes to mind):

· A food – Shepherd’s Pie

· An animal - Goat

· A book – Greek New Testament

· A song – ‘Now the Green Blade Rises’

· A movie - Avatar

· A medieval item – straight, single-strand rosary

· A quote – ‘We cannot love unless we are first loved.’ St Augustine

· A country - UK

· A day - Sunday

-Links

Website: www.UnSeenBooks.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CorinnaTurnerAuthor/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/CorinnaTAuthor

Books: 1. I Am Margaret: https://amzn.to/2qWNfdc 2. The Three Most Wanted: https://amzn.to/2KcpuGM 3. Liberation: https://amzn.to/2HrqnNR 4. Bane’s Eye: https://amzn.to/2qX8zix 5. Margo’s Diary: https://amzn.to/2vJi5vq 6. The Siege of Reginald Hill: https://amzn.to/2Bi7Rmg Brothers (Prequel): https://amzn.to/2vGlkni The Underappreciated Virtues of Rusty Old Bicycles (Free Short Story): https://amzn.to/3aetZ0t 1. DRIVE!: https://amzn.to/2Hoz9MN 2. A Truly Raptor-ous Welcome: https://amzn.to/2FIMOvl BREACH! (Prequel): https://amzn.to/2RLOw3J Elfling: https://amzn.to/2qY5tuR Someday: https://amzn.to/2FeEIYb Mandy Lamb and the Full Moon: https://amzn.to/2stn92K SECRETS: Visible & Invisible (I AM MARGARET Short Story in Anthology): https://amzn.to/2N2enkg GIFTS US: Visible & Invisible (UnSPARKed Short Story in Anthology): https://amzn.to/2nLXa7L