The Hot Author Report

Interview with Chris Wardle – Author of The Lighthouse of Mr. Tinfish

Chris Wardle holds a bachelor’s degree in physical geography as well as a Master’s degree for water supply in developing countries from Cranfield University in the UK.

Over the last ten years Chris has travelled extensively in developing countries working on charity projects in poor communities. He has been able to draw on his numerous experiences to inspire his creative works, particularly living for long periods in communities with different cultures in Africa and Asia.

An orphaned kitten in Northern Uganda was the inspiration for Mr. Choli’s character in the Tinfish series. He now lives in the UK with Chris’s family (via a few months with a foster family in France to organize his European passport).

http://www.mrtinfish.moonfruit.com/

Q: What compelled you to write your first book?

I discovered my passion for creative writing whilst living in a small village in Cameroon in 1999. It was my first oversees posting and I was a lone volunteer managing the construction of a water supply project.  There was no TV, telephone, or indeed electricity for that matter. I had been writing a lot of letters home about my experiences and found that I really enjoyed putting pen to paper.

As a result I decided to write a short story about the pop band that I had played in at college.  I wrote it on scraps of paper, and found myself cutting out paragraphs from different pages and sticking them at the sides of others with duct-tape. The resulting collage of scribbling needed instructions to navigate. After discovering the pleasures of this creative process I went on to write longer stories about my adventures in Cameroon, and the subsequent places I’ve worked in over the past ten years. A lot of my travels have since influenced the characters and adventures that I write about in ‘The lighthouse of Mr. Tinfish’ as well as the rest of the Mr. Tinfish series.

Q: Tell us briefly about your book.

‘The lighthouse of Mr. Tinfish’ is the first in a series of children’s books which follows the humorous adventures of Mr. Tinfish the penguin and his friends as they try to cope with the impact of climatic change in their community. A sudden rise in the sea level is just the start of the problems that the ever-changing climate will bring. Luckily for Mr. Tinfish, the other animals and birds all try to support each other, and Mr. Vinegar the walrus organizes the first of many expeditions led by Mr. Choli the cat to help the colony adapt to the changing conditions.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

I have recently finished the first draft of the fourth book in the Mr. Tinfish series where Mrs. Cat-biscuit takes charge of a sea voyage to find the ‘downward land’. It was an enjoyable process to write the book as it brought some characters to the foreground, particularly Mrs. Cat-biscuit herself, who had more of supporting role in the previous books.

Q: Do you have a favourite character? Why is he your favourite?

Mr. Choli the cat has developed into my favourite character over the course of writing the Tinfish series. This has surprised me a little, as he is not as obviously comical as some of the other characters. However, particularly in the later books, he increasingly struggles to balance is natural selfishness, with his need to be respected in the community and his desire to help out. Deep down Mr. Choli is quite a frustrated little soul, rather eccentric, and a bit more complicated than some of his companions, which makes him all the more intriguing.

Q: If you could live in one of your books, which one would you live in? (If you’re promoting your first publication, feel free to talk about an unpublished piece.)

It’s a tough decision, but I’m not sure that I would want to live in the world of Mr. Tinfish and his friends in Daphne Wood, which is the setting for my current book. Of course, the characters are delightful, and it would be good fun to hang out with such quirky personalities. However, the place does suffer from wave after wave of climatic and environmental problems, which would take the edge of the experience somewhat. Also, a large section of the community seems to focus all of its attention on the catching and roasting of copious amount of fish to eat. I’m sure I would prefer to settle somewhere with a slightly more varied diet.  Maybe I could just go there for my holidays…

Q: The main characters of your stories – do you find that you put a little of yourself into each of them or do you create them to be completely different from you?

I have lived in a number of countries and have observed that the same social stereotypes crop up in different communities: the busy-body, the village idiot, a wheeler and dealer, the man who considered himself to be the ‘lord of the manor’, the person who actually does hold the power, and so.

However, for the Tinfish series I think I’ve unwittingly drawn on some slightly more obscure character traits, which are still recognizable in most communities. For example, there is a character called Mrs. Chutney who has a habit of stating something really obvious, then going on to explain it in detail, with the misguided assumption that what she first said had gone over people’s heads. This was something that I picked up from a friend when I was at college, and is one of the few things that I have purposely lifted directed from my experiences. However, when a colleague of mine from Uganda read the book, to my surprise he assumed that the Mrs. Chutney character traits were based on him.  Other bit-part characters in the book include the Hooverbags where the wife is the alpha-male and the husband is the quivering bag of nerves who takes cover every time that she speaks (or screeches).  Again, a number of different people have quietly enquired about who I was thinking of at the time.

The joy of these bit-part characters comes from two directions. Firstly they have a funny or memorable line and then exit the stage, to allow the lead characters to continue, rather than dragging out their joke in to a full play. Perhaps more importantly, we all know these characters for real, and probably bits of them lurk within ourselves as well.

Q: When growing up, did you have a favorite author, book series, or book?

As a child I remember enjoying having Winnie the Pooh read to me. I also remember owning a sizable collection of snoopy books. However, I think that The Bear’s Almanac by Stan and Jan Berenstain won the prize for falling apart into the most of pieces from being read so often.

Q: Where you have lived and what you have experienced can influence your writing in many ways. Are there any specific locations or experiences that have popped up in your books?

My travels have greatly influenced the settings for my work. For example, I spent several years living and working in Cambodia. The first job I had was as manager of a flood response program in an area called Kampong Cham, which amongst other things, involved travelling on the vast Mekong river to visit my field teams who were cleaning and repairing wells in flood-affected communities. Later on I worked in the far north of the country for a community water supply program. Part of our journey to access remote villages in the forests included hiring small river canoes to negotiate the rocky and braided upper reaches of the Mekong on the Lao border, beyond where the larger boats could go. Due to these experiences the Mekong and its tributaries are definitely part of the setting I have in my mind for ‘Mr. Choli’s river trip’ which is the sequel to ‘The lighthouse of Mr. Tinfish’.

Whilst I was working as a water program manager in North Korea I was kindly taken by our liaison officer on a trip to the coast during the winter so that I could experience where the sea had frozen. I was amazed, as the sight was not at all what I was expecting. I probably expected a nice glassy surface but found that it was a grubby maze of angular blocks of ice which had been thrown upwards and molded by the movement of the waves and tides. It was this incredible sight which certainly inspired me as I was writing the book ‘Mr. Vinegar and the frozen sea’.

Q: Do you have any book signings, tours or special events planned to promote your book that readers might be interested in attending? If so, when and where?

I am taking part in a ‘Pump up your book’ promotion virtual tour which is due to kick off in February. The aim is to give the Mr. Tinfish books greater exposure to a more targeted audience. In addition I have developed a website which introduces the Mr. Tinfish series and provides the first chapter of each of the books for potential customers to browse through. Lulu.com has made the book available on ‘eBay’ and ‘Amazon’, as well as on their own site.

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Chris Wardle’s THE LIGHTHOUSE OF MR. TINFISH VIRTUAL BLOG TOUR ‘10 will officially begin on February 1 and end on February 12. You can visit Chris’ blog stops at www.virtualbooktours.wordpress.com during the month of February to find out more about this great book and talented author!