We are delighted to welcome author TJ Turner to Omnimystery News today.
TJ's new novel is Lincoln's Bodyguard (Oceanview Publishing; April 2015 hardcover and ebook formats), an alternate history thriller in which President Abraham Lincoln survives an assassin's bullet.
We recently had the opportunity to spend some time with TJ to talk more about the book.
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Omnimystery News: Introduce us to the principal characters in Lincoln's Bodyguard.
Photo provided courtesy of
TJ Turner
TJ Turner: Absolutely! My main character is Joseph Foster, the bodyguard who saves President Lincoln from John Wilkes Booth's assassination attempt. Joseph is an interesting man. When I started trying to figure out who he would be — it might be more accurate to say that when Joseph told me who he was, as I subscribe to the theory that the characters truly do talk back and mold their own destiny — I was looking for a character who plausibly could have been overlooked by history. Someone who stood in the shadows of great events, and given the opportunity stepped in and altered history as we know it. Since Lincoln's Bodyguard is a work of alternative historical fiction, I wanted the transition from the historical events that we all know to my imagined history, to be as smooth as possible. Joseph is half-white, half-Native American, exactly the kind of person who back in 1865 could have easily been overlooked — or written out of history. And I liked the symbolism of his background given the context of the time, where Native Americans were being pushed out of their ancestral homes, and taken advantage of by the American westward expansion. Joseph is also very flawed. As the novel opens we learn that after saving Lincoln from assassination, he loses his wife and daughter to the men who planned Lincoln's killing. Unsuccessfully, Joseph has tried to recover his kidnapped daughter and avenge the killing of his wife, and that has left him broken from the things he had to do in the attempt. So when the President asks him back to Washington to take on a special assignment, it's his chance at redemption. Joseph has a lot of texture to him, and as a writer, I love that. Ultimately Joseph is searching for redemption, and that's a powerful motive.
Molly Ferguson is my other main character, and she serves as a perfect balancing point for Joseph. She's a smart, worldly and fiery woman who originally met Joseph in the employment of Allan Pinkerton — the famed detective who ran the Union Intelligence Service during the war. Molly is, in the parlance of today, an intelligence collector. Pinkerton uses her to find secrets, and she first met Joseph at the White House while protecting the President — albeit in a different manner than Joseph. Molly has an interesting background, as one who was raised on a plantation in the South. Yet at an early age she witnesses the death of her parents and stumbles into Pinkerton's circle. Together she tempers Joseph, and he comes to rely upon her to get his last assignment done. Molly knows how to work the system of her day, even within the gender confining roles available to women in the 1800s. She's every bit Joseph's match, though she uses her wit and experience while he opts for the strong-arm tactics. She's a cult of personality whom I never planned on in the very original story concept, but she willed her way into the novel and I'm so glad she did.
OMN: Do you see Lincoln's Bodyguard to be the first in a series?
TJT: That's hard for me to say. I intended Lincoln's Bodyguard to be a standalone novel, but recently I have become interested in the idea of a prequel to the book. Joseph's mother would be the main character in that work, as she is a strong, yet never seen presence in this novel. I think my criteria for deciding on whether to write that book will hinge upon how I see her story flushing out, and whether I can provide some unique insight into the time period. I think it's there, I just need to do some more pondering upon it.
OMN: We categorized the book as an alternate history thriller. Would you agree with that?
TJT: I would be best characterized as a Thriller writer, though I am certainly specializing in the Historical Fiction variety. There might be some disadvantages to being characterized as such, possibly down the road making it harder to write something that appears to cross out of that specific genre, but in general I think the demands of Thriller readers far outweighs those disadvantages. What I mean by that is that readers of thrillers are looking for something that turns the pages, which keep you hooked into the story, and wanting more when you get to the end of the book. That's a great recipe for an amazing novel no matter what genre you write. So to write for a community that expects it, even demands it, focuses my writing all that much more to keep the quality and the pacing high.
OMN: Tell us a little more about the book. Were you able to include any of your own personal experience into the storyline?
TJT: So obviously the assassination of President Lincoln is a real event, though I alter the outcome. Allan Pinkerton, and Ward Hill Lamon both characters to a lesser degree than Molly or Joseph, are based on real people — and President Lincoln. The rest are made up. Joseph for instance, is a composite of many ideas and people, including friends I have served with, who remain haunted by the things they have seen and participated in.
As for my experience, I think that's one of the things that make the novel unique among others set in the same time period. In my imagining of how history has played out, the South has not yet really given up the fight, and an active insurgency embroils the nation. That idea isn't mine, as even Lincoln himself feared a similar outcome. But my experience in Afghanistan, actively fighting an insurgency, gets folded into my writing and how I envisioned the insurgency of 150 years ago playing out.
OMN: Describe your writing process.
TJT: My writing process is a mess — it's all over the place. I do plot, but I keep that as a very very very loose framework. If the story deviates, or if the characters demand something else, I go with it. I do make biographies of my characters, and update those as I find out new things about them. And I don't worry about a fixed cast of characters too much, though I watch for that being a point of reader confusion as I edit. When the writing isn't coming to me, I don't stress about it. I feel strongly that moments like that happen when the story needs to percolate more, before it can tell me where it's headed and I can put it to paper.
OMN: And where do you most often find yourself writing?
TJT: It's also a mess! And it's anywhere I can get a few minutes. It might be my desk at home, or the dining room table. It's almost always in my hotel rooms when I travel, and even the coffee shop if I sneak out at lunch. It's 15 minutes long sometimes, even when it's a crowded and noisy locale, or its hours long way after I should have gone to bed when I have the house to myself. I dream of a quiet office, where I can stare out a window and have a comfortable chair, but I haven't found that spot yet — or created it. I'm a little worried that messing with the current system will take the urgency out of the time I have, and that will reflect in the quality of my writing.
OMN: How true are you to the settings in the story?
TJT: My books are set in a real place, yet I do take liberties. For instance, I used the club and resort at Jekyll Island, Georgia, even though it wouldn't be built for another 16 years in reality. So there are some liberties with setting, although I have a strong trump card — if it's an alternative historical, I can claim I altered the real time line for some things as well..to an extent. Overall though, the setting is incredibly important to the plot for me. Writing historical fiction, I think that may be fairly universally true. Where you are, both physically and temporally, make a big impact on the plot, the characters, and the reading experience.
OMN: If we could send you anywhere in the world to research the setting for a book, where would it be?
TJT: In the world? Africa. Just because I know so little about it, and I'm sure it would be just rich with stories waiting to be told — at least to an American audience. But given that I write so much American History, and the limited travel budget that my wife will let me have, I might have to stick with the western United States. I would love to travel by train, in my own sleeping cabin to have privacy, and then just write as the scenery rolled by. Maybe a few stops here and there to pluck out some research in some small town in the middle of nowhere. Sounds like a slice of heaven to me!
OMN: What are some of your outside interests? And have any of these made their way into your stories?
TJT: I swim, I ride my bike (I used to race), and I build guitars! None so far have made it into my writing, but all have an influence on my process. I don't force the story, so when it's not coming to me, I take a break. Often on long bike rides I get my best thinking done. And building guitars, it also has this factor to it, like working on a separate creative endeavor helps the writing along. There's something about taking time off from behind the keyboard to be able to work with my hands, or get the wind in my teeth, that just shakes things loose.
OMN: What is the best advice — and harshest criticism — you've received as an author?
TJT: The best advice: Start, Finish, and then find someone who doesn't love you to read what you've written. Also, after writing a first draft, turn to about page 50 and see if the story doesn't actually start there … so far, it always has for me!
Harshest criticism? I think I've had a bunch, but the most recent always hurts the most. Nancy (my wife) read my latest manuscript and said … "it's a little slow in the beginning!" So I have work to do … and it falls in line with the statement above … turn to page 50!
OMN: Have any specific authors influenced how and what you write today?
TJT: Tom O'Brien. Hands down, The Things They Carried is my favorite thing written in the English language. It's one of the few books I have stopped, and re-read passages because the flow of the words was incredible. Stephen Crane's Red Badge of Courage. Not only is it appropriate for the time period of my novel, but he was 22 when he wrote it and had never been to war. Yet when it was published, veterans thought he must have fought alongside them. It goes to show, that you can write things you haven't necessarily experienced firsthand. I can aspire to that level of writing. And Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns was amazing. It is a masterful work on character and plot, and story arc, all combined together.
OMN: What else do you read for pleasure?
TJT: I read a mixture of things, often switching between fiction and non-fiction. I like to keep a balance. On the non-fiction side, it's almost always American History for research. I've read a lot on the American Revolution recently. That's a nice turn from reading so much about the Civil War. I don't generally get drawn to serialized fiction, as I'm always scared I'll get sucked into a 15 book run and never emerge! Though recently I started Laurie Halse Anderson's books — Chains and Forge. I'm eagerly awaiting her third book in that series.
OMN: What about films?
TJT: I like watching all kind of films, but my favorite always have a great arc to the story and to the characters. Something changes, and they change because of it. Or the conflict is just so well done. I loved Road to Perdition with Tom Hanks. I don't think it had much in the way of commercial success, but what a film. I can say the same with Man on Fire with Denzel Washington. Very violent, not for everyone potentially, but the conflict is great on so many levels. And Washington's character goes through this amazing transformation. And then there are my other favorites, both Stephen King adaptations — The Green Mile and Shawshank Redemption. Again, great transformations in the characters, and amazing conflict set early that kept my attention. And I would be remiss if I left out Forrest Gump, just because. Man, I like me a lot of Tom Hanks, huh? Oh, I almost forgot, I loved Inglorious Bastards and Django Unchained.
OMN: Create a Top 5 list for us on any topic.
TJT: Here are three …
Books:
1. The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien
2. Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane
3. Catch 22, Joseph Heller
4. A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
5. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier
Movies:
1. Man on Fire
2. Road to Perdition
3. Shawshank Redemption
4. Forrest Gump
5. Inglorious Bastards
Places to Visit:
1. The Panjshir Valley — I've been there once, and there is nowhere as beautiful that I've ever seen with my own eyes.
2. Africa — especially central Africa like Mali.
3. Machu Picchu — my wife went, and I'm so jealous!
4. New Zealand — I worked with many New Zealand SOF guys while in Afghanistan, and I would love to see their country.
5. Alaska — I have a friend who lives way up north, and her husband is a bush pilot! What could be better than that trip?
OMN: What's next for you?
TJT: I'm working on another novel! I have several ideas mulling around, including a prequel to Lincoln's Bodyguard, but instead I settled in on a completely different setting. This one takes place in New York City during the Revolution, and is my take on the infamous agent 355 — the female agent who reported to the Culper Ring (and therefore George Washington) and whose identity is lost to history — another person whom history has forgotten, yet who played a pivotal role in our nation. I'm about 2/3 of the way done, and I know it will need some editing to get the pacing up. But the most important thing to do is to finish! (Well, the most important thing to do after starting!) I hope to get it done over the summer and then delivered to both my agent and then Oceanview for their review. I know I'll have another deployment coming up, so I anxiously watch the news to see where that might take me.
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When he's not writing TJ Turner wears more hats than he can keep track of. In his day job he's a research scientist, and by night (or for 6-month deployments every two years) he's a reserve military member. He may be the only scientist that has jumped out of a perfectly good helicopter in a hot-landing zone to capture a Taliban IED maker! Outside of work he enjoys time with Nancy and the kids, a huge white dog (horse), a crazy collie, and a pair of cats. When writer's block sets in, he heads out to his workshop where nothing gets him back to the keyboard faster than the frustration of trying to build his own acoustic guitar.
For more information about the author, please visit his website at TJTurnerAuthor.com or find him on Facebook.
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Lincoln's Bodyguard by TJ Turner
An Alternate History Thriller
Publisher: Oceanview Publishing
Though he prophesied his own death — the only way he believed the South would truly surrender — Lincoln never accounted for the heroics of his bodyguard, Joseph Foster. A biracial mix of white and Miami Indian, Joseph makes an enemy of the South by killing John Wilkes Booth and preventing the death of the president. His wife is murdered and his daughter kidnapped, sending Joseph on a revenge-fueled rampage to recover his daughter. When his search fails, he disappears as the nation falls into a simmering insurgency instead of an end to the War.
Years later, Joseph is still running from his past when he receives a letter from Lincoln pleading for help. The President has a secret mission. Pursued from the outset, Joseph turns to the only person who might help, the woman he abandoned years earlier. If he can win Molly over, he might just fulfill the President's urgent request, find his daughter, and maybe even hasten the end of the War.
— Lincoln's Bodyguard by TJ Turner
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