The Lucky Seven Interview, with Bill Turpin

As a longtime journalist, Bill Turpin surely drew on plenty of real-life experience while writing Max's Folly (Guernica Editions). From Max's dangerous adventures while reporting in Latin America to his combative relationship with publishers, the details of his journalistic life are rich and entertaining — but there's something about Max that sets him apart from other journalists, whether Bill's real life colleagues or Max's own fictional counterparts: Max can travel through time. The problem is, his abilities aren't exactly reliable. 

This unexpected, original premise sets up a funny, biting, and often touching satirical novel that deftly explores the nature of time and memory while telling a page-turning story. We're excited to speak to Bill today about Max's Folly, as part of our Lucky Seven interview series. 

Bill tells us about the unexpected questions that arose from Max's Folly, the upside to combining the writing process with doing laundry, and his playlist strategy for tough writing days. 

Open Book:

Tell us about your new book and how it came to be.

Bill Turpin:

Max, a journalist who has sustained a long career by using his wits, is confronted with a succession of devastating losses: his job, the death of his wife and —so he’s been told — his memory. But Max knows there’s nothing wrong with his memory. He’s a lifelong time-traveller and his supposed memory lapses are actually bad “jumps”. When it seems he is about to lose his freedom to an assisted living home, Max decides on one last journey — a search in time-past for his late wife.

As I started putting the book together, I thought about the experiences that help define us — the ones that become memories and the ones lost to oblivion. And about how insubstantial and malleable memories are. Then two things happened. First, I began to empathize strongly with Max’s interpretation of events. Secondly, I realized that telling the tale in chronological order wasn’t going to work. It wouldn’t reflect Max’s confusion or the way our minds work when they’re floating in time. Think about watching clouds or staring at stars. There’s nothing chronological about the experience. Your memory can go from your first romance to falling out of a tree in a single moment. And memory be indistinguishable from experience.

These insights cleared away the last obstacles to telling the story and allowed me to concentrate on writing it.

OB:

Is there a question that is central to your book, thematically? And if so, did you know the question when you started writing or did it emerge from the writing process?

BT:

I did not begin with a central question. My focus was on telling a good story.

But I was surprised, as the work progressed, to see a number of questions emerge. One is the possibility that where experience is concerned, timing is everything: a fresh experience can help you fall in love with your wife a few hours later, but not the next day. Another was the shifting line between life’s heroes and villains.

OB:

Did this project change significantly from when you first starting working on it to the final version? How long did the project take from start to finish?

BT:

The most important change was to include humour in the narrative. I’m not a big believer in characters taking on lives of their own, but I couldn’t seem to keep Max on the straight and narrow. He and his friends used humour as emotional armour and as a tool for finding meaning. Also, Max was attracted to quirky people.

I had been wanting to write a novel for many years. I finally got going on this one in early 2014. Then, in October, I accepted an involuntary early retirement. The first draft was complete seven months later.

OB:

What do you need in order to write – in terms of space, food, rituals, writing instruments? 

BT:

I wrote Max’s Folly in my messy basement office next to the laundry room, and sometimes combined the two activities. This way I always had something to show for my efforts at the end of the day.

In general, I need lots of uninterrupted time to focus and maintain my concentration on writing. I have friends who can switch effortlessly from milking goats or attending a hockey game to working on their novels, but doing a laundry is the extent of my versatility. Also, unlike my friends, I have to sleep.

OB:

What do you do if you're feeling discouraged during the writing process? Do you have a method of coping with the difficult points in your projects? 

BT:

If I got discouraged with Max’s Folly I would remember how disappointed my wife would be if I quit, and then go back to work. She had been waiting for this book almost as long I had.

In general, music helps. I’ll root around our collection on iTunes until I find something that fits my mood and use it to play a genius list.

When I hit difficult points it often helps to try writing the opposite of what I intended to write. Changing the music also helps. So does thinking about the problem in bed while trying to drift off to sleep.        

OB:

What defines a great book, in your opinion? Tell us about one or two books you consider to be truly great books.

BT:

I love story, character and good writing craft. For me, no book is great without them.

Two of my favourite books are Nathanael West’s novella Miss Lonelyhearts and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. I love West’s striking, economical prose. Slaughterhouse Five is an epic story working brilliantly on multiple levels simultaneously. It’s horrifying, viciously satiric, funny and fearless. Published in 1970 it was banned from a U.S. high school district as recently as 2011.

And, um, its main character becomes unstuck in time.

OB:

What are you working on now?

BT:

A novel tentatively entitled The Deputy.

Bill Turpin has worked most of his career as a journalist, first in Montreal and more recently Halifax, but has also afflicted government and the communications world. He is currently living off his wits while studying to be a gadfly. Turpin is married and the father of two cats. Max’s Folly is his first novel.