One Family.
Two Brothers.
One Big Decision.
“We Are the Light Join Us”.
Turner is a rich, dark, layered text that slowly draws you in before taking you on a roller-coaster ride of emotions in a story about what it means to be human, pure love and the sacrifices people make to preserve those things.
Hero, a young boy joining a new school, discovers he has a unique ability. One he finds that he shares with his mysterious, enigmatic older brother James. Upon this realisation, the brothers’ bond is cemented as they embark on a complex emotional journey together, honing their skills and developing their understanding of what this new found ability can bring for them both. However, upon his eighteenth birthday, Hero learns that with his new ability comes a choice and whenever he makes a decision there are serious consequences.
Q&A
Enjoy!
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1.When and where do you prefer to write?
At home, anytime. When I was first writing, I was working in the City and spent a lot of time travelling around the UK and to France, so I got into the habit of being able to write anywhere with any amount of noise and distraction around me. I even have a portable speech to text kit that I can use for high pace writing on the move. (I have a much larger / more accurate system at home).
2. Do you have a certain ritual?
I have a very involved coffee making ritual that I undertake before writing. I use freshly roasted and ground coffee beans then meticulously heat all of the equipment with filtered water before finally filtering the coffee!
In my writing room, I firstly look over the entire story on my story board, pick out the scene I want to write, read through the extensive journalist’s account (an in-depth bullet point outline of the scene) then I ask questions about the scene about the five senses, the emotions etc. sometimes I might play a piano piece in the emotional feeling of the scene. And then I write it.
3. Is there a drink of some food that keeps you company while you write?
Coffee (freshly made as above!) and chocolate (preferably green and back’s butterscotch / toffee/ caramel, or else, Cadbury’s Twirl bits are also good!
4. What is your favourite book?
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
5. Do you consider writing a different genre in the future?
Yes, definitely, in fact my next book, entitled ‘Saves 9’, is much gentler than Turner, it’s not as graphic and there’s no sex or violence in it at all.
It’s a bittersweet love story spanning 2000 years between 1986 and 2038.
I also have a number of spin offs for Turner planned such as a crime / investigation series involving Inspector Bertrande.
6. Do you sometimes base your characters on people you know?
Yes, and probably more often than I should. If I know them well, I always tell them in advance, get permission and put in an acknowledgement.
7. Do you take a notebook everywhere in order to write down ideas that pop up?
No. I make notes on my phone, one word here or there and fill it out when I get home on my main story board if the idea holds.
I’m in the process of filming a tutorial on how I write. I have a large magnetic white board in my writing room and I have a set of magnetic post it style cards that I can attach to it. Whenever I have an idea for a scene I can write on a new card and attach it to the board. This also allows me to reorganise the rest of the story to accommodate the new idea fairly easily. It also allows me to see the story flow in a glance which naturally helps with keeping the narrative pacing correct.
8. Which genre do you not like at all?
Not a big fan of fantasy e.g. Tolkien / GoT. I still read them, but more for writing style and theme / story analysis than for pleasure.
9. If you had the chance to co-write a book. Whom would it be with?
I had an idea for a book that I’d love to write with JK Rowling, but I suspect I have a way to go before that would even become a remote possibility!
10. If you should travel to a foreign country to do research, which one would you chose and why?
Mongolia. I visited the country back in 2005, it was a wonderful tapestry of a country with the capital being quite built up, but with the countryside seemingly unchanged since 1200AD. The people were almost all welcoming, but there was some racism directed at me; it was only a glimpse at how that felt because it wasn’t my home and I could always leav
Thank you, Jonathan de Montfort and Love Books Group Tours.
About the author
Jonathan de Montfort may not have had a conventional route into being an author, but his first novel “Turner” demonstrates his passion and commitment to the craft of writing, having taken four and a half years to write it! He already has ideas for a series of “Turner” novels and is committed to writing a new novel by 2020.
Starting his professional life trading the US500, he went on to work as a hedge fund manager. His experience in this area was the inspiration for a more innovative route into publishing and the birth of De Montfort Literature in 2018. Offering a new alternative route to the traditional agents and publishers, publishing has entered a new era. De Montfort Literature is a division of De Montfort Capital, a successful hedge fund with a passion for literature. Recognising there is a dearth of good, new novelists, they decided to take what we know about hedge fund management and apply it to literature and the creation of a new generation of best-selling novelists.
Turner is the first book to be released from DML, an engaging and challenging novel of love and sibling rivalry that is guaranteed to provoke both interest and outrage.
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