Author Interview

Mehmet Murat Somer
Interview (1,861 words)
by
Jeremy Battaglia

I would like to thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.
Below is a list of fourteen questions. I managed to narrow down the amount. Please feel free to stray off topic if you wish, tangents are welcome. Thank you again for your time.

1) JB - Charles Bukowski once stated that he never chose to become a writer. In fact, it chose him. In other words, it was something he HAD to do. How did you find your way into the literary world?

MMS – My writing adventure is a bit different than my “literary” entry . I was writing screenplays, both for theatre and TV films. As well as course notes on management skills, personal development, etcetera, since I was earning my life as a management consultant for years.

So, writing something was and still is part of my routine life.


My way to the literary world come later… And perhaps as a natural next step.


But, when I finished the first 3 books of the Turkish Delight series, i.e. The Kiss Murder, The Prophet Murders and The Gigolo Murder, I had many rejections from the publishing world. People were afraid of the books, claiming that radically religious people or people on the far right of political wing might attack their publishing houses. The memories of banning Salman Rushdie, the death threats, or protests against the film “The Last Temptation of Christ” were fresh. Or they were simply afraid of having a transvestite thriller in their catalogue, where the cross-dresser is not guilty and on top of all enjoying the life.


The aid came from “iletişim”, the publisher who also publishes Orhan Pamuk in Turkey as well as many prestigious non-fiction titles. They approached me, and bravely printed all three books. And their name became a protective shield both for me and the books.

2) JB - Please describe The Kiss Murder for me. It is part of the Turkish Delight series. Can you tell us more?

MMS – (Well, the short description of The Kiss Murder is on the back cover and there many plot summaries on the internet.)


Well, first of all, I humbly consider my self a good crime reader. And as everybody knows, there are many straight male and female detectives in the crime literature. Only a few gays, with a splash of bisexuals. So, I started to think, why not a transgender one. And as far as I know, my hero is the first and only one, yet.


I had, in fact still have, two aims:


First was to try to alter the perception of transgender people, which is a lifestyle not very welcome in most societies. Especially the transvestites. They are either presented as either slapstick fun material or potential criminals by the media. Merely third page news, inferior films and novels. For example start with the popular “The Silence of the Lambs” and I can name many more. And as a result transvestites are perceived by many, as potential criminals, doomed to be street hookers but nothing else, with almost no moral values. Or half-wits.

I don’t like this attitude at all.


And my first objective was to present a likeable, intelligent, witty, refined, well educated hero/heroine decorated with “positive skills”. Not the typical, stereotyped drag-queen. So, I furnished him/her with contrasting and considerable talents and skills… Plus lots of knowledge and warm wit.I try to put the transvestites, the transgenders in a different perception angle.


And having a transgender protagonist helped me a lot. Whenever I want, I entered him as a seductress with an Audrey Hepburn alter-ego, or as a handsome gentlemen.


And my second objective was to write a witty, “effervescent” crime novel. I, personally get bored with dark, dark, dark crime novels. Does that sound like middle age crisis? Not yet. Life is, and should be, joy for me.

3) JB - I have read that in fact, it is the 6th book in the series, however it was the first written. Please clarify.

MMS – No. “The Kiss Murder” is the first of the series, but in Turkey it was published as the second installment, following “The Prophet Murders”, where the publishers thought it has a more juicy and controversial appeal – at least by name.

4) JB - How has your writing changed as the series has progressed?

MMS – I still enjoy it! My first circle of friends, readers of the earlier copies say that I got better. As I said, I still write them with joy, a silly smile on my face and with ease. 

5) JB - What is the Champagne Trilogy?

MMS – It is another series, when I started on a momentarily break from writing the Turkish Delight thrillers. More on the best-seller format, my humble following the footsteps of Harold Robbins, Jacqueline Susann, Pierre Rey… The trilogy centers around where champagne is drunken for celebrations. The first, “Holding”, is about business world, the change of management of a family establishment when the big boss dies… And the complicated relations both in the family and the world of the in-people. The second, “Catwalk”, as the name indicates is about fashion world. The last, “Backstage”, which deals with the actors, producers, directors, theatre, film and TV world has not been published yet. And there is always a murder or a dead person as you can imagine 

Although they might sound worlds apart, the characters appear in all of the three books, but in different importance.

6) JB - The name of your protagonist is never revealed. I have discovered that her name is Burcak, but this is not divulged until later in the series. Explain why you chose not to name your main character. Some might question this tactic, after all, you are trying to create a memorable character. Why did you choose to conceal her name?

MMS – Congratulations! You are a hardworking person. I’ll give you an A+!  Not revealing the name is my kind of fun… In every book of the series, part of my protagonist is revealed, as well the name… Which came out only on the fifth book, “The Serenity Murders”. And furthermore, although some are very Istanbul oriented, I had other small tricks in all of them.

7) JB - Writers often get confused with the characters they invent. For example, I read that you are often thought of as leading the same type of lifestyle as your main character. How much of yourself do you place on the page?

MMS – Sorry to disappoint some people, but I am not a cross-dresser. I have some transvestite or cross-dresser friends for more than 20 years. I know them well. And these books are not documentaries! Just fiction, fiction that is fun… 

8) JB - The book is set in Turkey, a culture that is steeped in tradition. In fact, there is a great deal to be learned about Turkish culture from reading your work. For example, the difference between the familiar and the formal way of addressing a person, sen and siz. With such an emphasis placed on respect and proper behavior, how has your subject matter been received?

MMS – Like in French, or German languages, addressing people also indicates the distance we place between us and them. So, my protagonist is cool, and does not want get intimate with every one.


(parts of the question was answered above)

9) JB - As I mentioned briefly, I created a blog dedicated to the issue of censorship and book banning. Have you run into such issues? How do you feel about the matter? Is there ever a valid reason to censor literature?

MMS – I personally do not understand any kind of censor, let alone books. But the world history, even at the present times, is full of banning examples. It is just one of the many things on this world, I simply don’t understand.


(parts of the censor and difficulty is answered above, Q-1)

10) JB - Getting back to The Kiss Murder, beneath all of the satin and lace, if you discard the lavish sexual nature of the book, it really is a classical detective story. Do you find this to be true? Was that a necessity for success?

MMS – Well, the protagonist is a transvestite, the story centers around the drag-club. Nobody should be expecting ‘white’ characters. And also I believe the lavish sexual nature, is – or should be – part of everybody’s lives. It is fun, it joy, it is lavish… Isn’t it? And I adore classics like Great Agatha! I hope my works will be accepted as classic and classy as hers one day soon!

11) JB - Your protagonist can be viewed as a walking contradiction. At the beginning of Chapter 21, she states, “I will not stand for such class consciousness”. Yet, she is ever critical of others, constantly putting people in their place. While her actions at times are unscrupulous, she abides by a very clear set of self defined principles. Can you comment on this discrepancy? Please elaborate on her hubris, her tragic flaw.

MMS – You get another A+! I believe every person has contradictions and should have. And we all live with them, thorough them… Whilst working with the behavior scientist Prof.Dr.Paul Hersey, I heard from him that “behaving consistent under every condition and all the times, is inconsistency”. I jumped on it, and it became one of my mottos.

12) JB - You have such a command of popular culture, I must admit, while reading your book, I was forced to google some of the names that you drop with regularity. In essence you blend fiction and real life. I now know names like John Pruitt and Gunseli Basar. How does this list of who’s who add to the novel.

MMS – To me, at least my personal world is full of these people; singers of the songs I listen to since my childhood, the beauty queens of a lost world, the porn actors or models, Hollywood stars are all close to me as my friends and family! And I assume this true for most of the people. So I decided to add them as real icons of cultural references. These names, as you stated, all represent something in different cultures. Like Günseli Başar being the first Miss Europe of Turkey in the early 50’s, is assumed to be ultimate elegant women in Turkey; or John Pruitt being an icon of gays of the 80s porn era.

13) JB - I recently read that your protagonist was created in response to the general depiction of transvestites in the media. They are often comical, such as in To Wong Foo, or demented as was the depiction in Silence of the Lambs. Please elaborate on this, describe your protagonist for us?

MMS – (The answer of this is on Q-2)

14) JB - Finally, what is next for you? Are we to look forward to other installments being translated? Do you have aspirations of taking your writing in new directions?

MMS – The next book you will read here will be The Gigolo Murder by fall this year. And in Turkish, I have finished and gave the seventh book the series, “Chasing Destiny” to my publisher in Turkey. Working on the 8th of Turkish Delight thrillers and a medieval story set in Anatolia. What I plan is not modern urban, very new and challenging for me. I wish and hope all will be translated to all languages! And for that, publishers want good sales figures… So, even if you are not going the read them, buy my books! 

Thank you so much for your time and answering my questions. The honor was all mine.
Jeremy Battaglia,