Kimberly Menozzi, Author
Follow me!
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Novels
  • Bio
  • Order Books
  • Contact
  • Reviews
  • Works in Progress
  • Interviews

An Interview with Author Heikki Hietala

22/2/2012

0 Comments

 

An Interview with Author Heikki Hietala

Today it is my pleasure to introduce you to my good friend and fellow writer, Heikki Hietala. Heikki is a Senior Lecturer at HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences. He holds an M.A. in English Philology from the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, and has worked in IT and localization for more than 20 years.

And, of course, he is a writer, too. With a full-length novel and numerous short stories to his credit, Heikki is no slouch when it comes to producing engaging and emotional work.


I reviewed his novel, Tulagi Hotel here on the blog last year. Have a look and see if it's the sort of thing you think you might enjoy.

And now, without further ado, here's my interview with Heikki Hietala.

Picture

First, the obvious question: You're a Finn, writing in English. Does this provide any particular challenges for you? Give us an idea of what those challenges are.

To me the challenge must be sounding real in dialogue. You can work on the descriptive stuff and the storyline quite easily even if you’re not native, but dialogue demands a lot of effort and much listening to natives in movies and on TV.


I also seem to have had a credibility issue – no one took me seriously when I first published Tulagi Hotel, but that looks like it’s been fixed when people read my short stories too. These days I rarely get comments on the language issue.

Prior to this short story collection, you wrote a novel, Tulagi Hotel. Which form do you find more challenging to write – short stories or novels?

That’s hard to say. I started Tulagi as a shot in the dark, not really trying to write a book, but rather to see if I could do it at all. I didn’t pay any attention to form, only function was necessary for me at that stage. I also cheerfully ignored any rules that novel-writing may have, for which I did get some feedback later.

With short stories it is different. Especially in Flash fiction where you only have 500 words to do the situation, persons, plot, and all that; you really need to pay attention to keeping everything down to the absolute minimum. I enjoy that very much, because it adds a level of challenge to the storytelling.

Your narrative style is rather concise – do you think this affects your choice to write more short stories than novels?

I tend to be concise in any case, and I like short stories just as much as I do novels. But the selection between short and long form is unique to writing – if you start building a wardrobe of oak, you usually wind up with a wardrobe, not a desk; but in writing, a story may start off as a novel and get whittled down to a novella or even a long short story.

Do you think writing in Finnish would lead you to writing more expansively?

Not really. I have always admired people who can use few words to say much. In Finnish literature there are many such people, of which little is known globally, but my very favorite author in Finnish is Veikko Huovinen, whose short stories are all-encompassing, compassionate, economical in words, and still very funny. Were I to write in Finnish, I’d pay much attention to this, as it is very easy to ramble on in Finnish and that’s what I totally dislike.

Who (or what) is your favorite character you've written, so far?

That’d have to be Don Wheeler of Tulagi Hotel. He has features of ex-colleagues and some of my friends and I believe I got his character built quite solidly. Don was vital to the book, because Jack is a very timid character and he needed a counterpart who had a certain joie de vivre and a recklessness that Jack could envy.

Some of your readers have suggested that your style of writing is quite nostalgic in tone. Do you agree with that assessment?

Absolutely. I am a member of Year Zero Writers, which is a band of avant-garde authors, and I’ve said my writing is like playing rhythm in their band – I want to be the solid background on which their new-style writing really shines, and I hope to provide a balance that is old-fashioned. I’ve also read a lot of books that are.

Have you found yourself trying to create the same sort of atmosphere in your short stories as you did in Tulagi Hotel? Do you give any thought to that as you write?

Atmosphere depends on the idea of the story, but yes, I do aim for something that is tangible and believable. I think my best efforts in that sense are “The Campsite vol. 1” and “Filtered Light”. Creating an atmosphere is sometimes so easy, and in other stories it takes more effort than the storyline. I work very hard on this, as I myself like to read stories with well-crafted worlds.

Where/When do you do your best writing?

I would like to think the best is yet to come; however, some stories appeared out of nowhere and went from conception to final stage in a day, some (like a Scifi story I am working on now) may take months of see-sawing between “this is how it’ll go” and “no one will believe that for a nanosecond”. The ones that came out clean were usually written just at home, it’s more a question of how complete the story is when I start writing, as I can write in sentence-length snippets if more time is not available at any one time.

Do you plan on writing another novel, or do you think you'll stick to shorter pieces?

I am working on two books, one a mainstream fiction and the other a YA horror story involving 3D design and a haunted hospital. But I also have more than 20K words in shorties that I am working on, so my meager writing time is by default divided between full length and short work. That’s one of the plus sides of writing in my mind, the ability to switch projects merely by switching Word files.

You've created some interesting characters in all of your stories – almost heroic archetypes in some, sensitive everymen in others. How do you go about developing your characters, and how much of yourself do you put into them?

I tend to observe behavior wherever I go, and try to figure out why people act the way they do. They’re the best source of material even if I can’t really know what they are thinking. But when you write almost 200,000 words of what happens to people, you have to use whatever sources are at hand. I’ve also used some of my own features (no, I won’t tell where) and those of my friends, but never to a degree of actually modeling some character on any single person.

Who do you consider your influences in your writing life?

They are many, but let me list Nevil Shute for novel writing, and Roald Dahl, HP Lovecraft, Robert Heinlein, Stanislaw Lem and Arthur C. Clarke for scifi. For my real life and humour attempts, I’d say Veikko Huovinen, the sadly untranslated Finnish master of the form.

What inspired you to write in the first place?

I can’t really say. I just happened to start writing one day and have not looked back - I have got so much out of this rollercoaster ride that I will just keep on working with writing. I am not one of the people who say, “I’ll become an author and I will write a book now” – in fact I do not think you become an author by deciding to become one. You become an author through gradual development and acceptance of your work.

What one lesson have you learned from your experiences in publication that you would like to share with aspiring writers?

That must be the fact that you can only write to please yourself, and any other people that are pleased with your work are a bonus. When you stay true to your own voice, it becomes louder and easier to pick up by readers, and if it doesn’t happen that you land on the bestseller list, at least you did your best and gave yourself a chance to be heard.



I'd like to thank Heikki for taking the time to chat with us about his work, and I'd also like to invite any of you who might be interested to have a look at Heikki's titles, below.


0 Comments

    RSS Feed

    Kimberly Menozzi

    Author. Happily Married. Survivor of life with two deranged kitties.

    Please note: Thanks to an increase in spam comments, I'll be approving the comments before they post. Sorry!

    Archives

    April 2022
    October 2020
    August 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    October 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009

    Categories

    All
    150th
    15th
    2010
    2012
    27 Stages
    About Me
    Alternate Rialto
    Amazon
    Anniversary
    Ask Me
    Ask Me If I\\
    Ask Me If I'm Happy
    Ask Me If I\'m Happy
    Audio Interview
    Blog
    Blog Hop
    Bologna
    Book After Book
    Book Covers
    Books
    Books I Love
    Busy
    Buy
    Cameron Chapman
    Catch Up
    Catchupe6eedff5b6
    Celebration
    Characters
    Charcoal
    Charity
    Chris Hollis
    Christmas Lights
    Christmas Presents
    Contest
    Coppi
    Cover Art
    Cover Design
    Critique
    Cute
    Cycling
    Cyclists
    Dead Men
    Debut Novel
    Depression
    Diiarts
    Doctor Who
    Donations
    Doodlebug
    Earthquake Relief
    Ebook
    E Book
    E-book
    Emilia Romagna
    Emilia-Romagna
    Evil Unltd
    Excerpts
    Excited
    Excitement
    Eyecandy
    Fabian Cancellara
    Factoids
    Falco
    Family
    Fiction
    Filtered Light
    FREE
    Friday
    Funfacts
    Gift Idea
    Gift Suggestions
    Giro D
    Giro D'Italia
    Giveaway
    Goodreads
    Good Stuff
    Grammar
    Guest
    Guest Blog
    Guest Blogging
    Guest Blogs
    Guest Post
    Happiness
    Happy
    Hawt
    Heikki Heitala
    Holiday
    Hotties
    Inspiration
    Inspiriation
    International Women
    International Women's Day
    Interview
    Italian Life
    Italy
    John Lennon
    Kimberly
    Kimberly Menozzi
    Kindle Books
    Kitty
    Language
    Launch
    Leopard Trek
    Life
    Ljubljana Witch
    London
    Loss
    Love Story
    Martin Riley
    Menozzi
    Misconceptions
    Misused Words
    Nell Dixon
    New Release
    Novel
    Novella
    Novels
    November
    November 2010
    NSFW(?)
    Oli Johns
    Other Sites
    Otherworld Diner
    Packing
    Photography
    Photos
    Plans
    Process
    Professional Cycling
    Profoundly Shallow
    Promotion
    Published
    Purchase
    Purchases
    Random
    Random Thoughts
    Reading
    Re-cap
    Red Cross
    Reggio Emilia
    Remembering
    Research
    Review
    Reviews
    Richard Pierce
    Ridiculous
    Rip
    Road Cycling
    Robert Stermscheg
    Sad
    SAD?
    Samuele Bersani
    Sarah E Melville
    Self-censorship
    Sexy
    Simon Forward
    Smashwords
    Stage Three
    Story Excerpts
    Story Ideas
    Summer
    T13
    Thankful
    Thanksgiving
    The Next Big Thing
    Think Geek
    Thoughts
    Thursday 13
    Thursday Thirteen
    Time Trial Championships
    To Be Read
    Tragic
    Travel
    Trivia
    Tulagi Hotel
    Twitter
    Uk
    Venice
    Visits
    Weather
    Wip
    Women
    Women's Fiction Writers
    Wordless
    Wordless Wednesday
    Work In Progress
    Wouter Weylandt
    Wow
    Write On Wednesday
    Write On Wednesdays
    Writing
    Writing Process
    Yums

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.