Hey you, Bing Turkby here. If you want to write, get writing. Photo / Supplied
Hey you, Bing Turkby here. If you want to write, get writing. Photo / Supplied
Bing Turkby's advice is simple. If you want to write do it. You don't need to wait for permission.
"The best time to start is 10 years ago, but the second-best time to start is now."
The Palmerston North writer and musician has just finished his fourth book, Dead Man'sAxe. It's a cosy mystery and the first in his Guitar Store Mysteries series.
Business is dead at the Pick Me guitar store. But that's not the only thing that's dying. When a music teacher is murdered, store owner Dana Osborne is determined to track down the killer. She's joined by her young employee Brody, and guitar store cat Paws McCartney.
"There's always going to be a guitar involved because I just love guitars," Turkby says.
Think Lee Child and every time he mentions a gun Turkby mentions a guitar.
Turkby is a cat owner and Paws McCartney plays a pivotal role in solving the mystery in a typically aloof feline way. Cosy mysteries love puns.
Dead Man's Axe is set in the fictional town of Rockingham West, which bears some resemblance to Palmerston North. He says those in the know can draw their own conclusions.
Turkby Googled unremarkable UK prime ministers because Palmerston North is named after one, and found Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham. Lord Rockingham served two terms as the prime minister of Great Britain.
That the politician's name had rock in it appealed to the rocker.
In keeping with the cosy mystery genre, the murder is off the page. There's not a lot of gore and some humour. "It's all very tongue in cheek."
Bing Turkby is the 48-year-old's pen name. About 1993, he was going to practise with his band and said let's all get stage names. Bing Turkby came straight out of his head and he thought job done.
Turkby wishes he had started writing earlier. He has realised you don't need permission to write - if you want to, just start. Maybe your first book won't be amazing, but the next one might be.
Colleagues at City Library have been mentoring him and he has realised you become a good writer by writing. Turkby said to one colleague he had wanted to be a writer for years and years. The colleague replied, "well you should write something". Good advice, Turkby thought.
"It's so much fun writing and just seeing what happens even if you never release the book."
The cover of the first book in Bing Tukby's Guitar Store Mysteries series.
Turkby grew up in Turakina and went to Wanganui Boys' College. Growing up on a farm was perfect because he liked being alone and reading. He moved to Palmerston North to go to Massey University.
"I knew that I liked science and maths so I took English, I don't know what happened there."
He has a Bachelor of Arts in English and Philosophy and has worked at the library since 1995.
He says Palmy is a great place to live. He doesn't want too many people to find that out; he remembers coming here thinking he wouldn't last in such a big town.
Dead Man's Axe is due out in May. Turkby is saving up to give the physical copy the best chance possible otherwise people can be put off by the cover, or open the first page and think it looks a bit amateur, he says.
He is trying to plan his stories a bit more, but finds it fascinating where ideas go as he writes. "I just love having an idea and seeing where it takes itself."
Book two in the Guitar Store Mysteries series is due out next year.
Turkby's other books have been speculative fiction, with the first coming out in 2016.
