Heikki works as a lecturer in Information Technology at a University, and writing provides a pleasant counterweight. He is one of very few Finns writing and publishing in English, and is the first to have a book published in English outside Finland. He is married and has two sons.

Muse: First of all, Whispers of the Muse welcomes you to the site. Tell us a little about yourself. What part of the world do you live in? Tell us about your background?
Mr. Hietala: I’m a native Finn, but for some reason I like to write in English. My home is in a small town just outside Helsinki, where I commute to work. I have a degree in English, Communication and Computer Studies and have worked in the field of translation and general IT for 25 years.

It has been a little surprise to me that my writing has appealed to people. I didn’t consciously decide to become an author, I’ve more or less let it happen.

Muse: Who are your favorite authors?
Mr. Hietala: There’s many who have influenced me. Hemingway and Nevil Shute are the closest to my own style, but I am very fond of Stanislaw Lem, Robert Heinlein, and especially Ray Bradbury, whose speculative fiction provides me with inspiration. There’s also a few Finnish authors, but as they are not available in translation, they are not well known abroad.

Muse: Why do you write Military/Historical?
Mr. Hietala: History is my main hobby. For as long as I can remember I’ve read history, in all its variants, but military history is primus inter pares. This is probably because I find it fascinating how the human race still fights over the same issues and makes the same strategic and tactical mistakes for thousands of years. Just have a look at the Peloponnesian Wars and then check the Persian Gulf.

War provides a strong backdrop for people who land in life-changing situations, over which they have no control, but with which they must cope. I have set the book in WW2, but my short stories have ranged from the 17th century to science fiction set in the far future.

Muse: What is your writing regimen? How often do you work on a book? Do you set daily time or word goals? What keeps you meeting your deadlines?
Mr. Hietala: As a lecturer I have sometimes days off, and I try to use some of that time for writing. My regimen can still be best described as sporadic, as I do not set targets for word counts or chapters – I write when the need to do so becomes overwhelming. I use commuting time for plotting and sometimes also think of specific sentences to use when I have the time to write it all down.

Muse: Does the way you personally look at life reflect in your writing style?
Mr. Hietala: It does indeed. I have a self-assembled world view, which does not correspond to any religion or philosophy, mostly based on the idea that we all have a set number of days on Earth, and when the time is up, nothing will change what happens then.

I am also very much impressed by the poetry of Omar Khayyam, the 12th century mathematician and astronomer cum poet, whose elegant quatrains encapsulate my own world view. I have his poems in my book, and have had the short story The Ephemeral Man published on a couple of websites.

Muse: What are the creative jumping off points for you? Are you inspired by dreams? Music? Nature? The occasional black nightmare? What triggers your imagination?
Mr. Hietala: I seem to get inspired by a wide variety of things. Sometimes it’s a remnant of a memory from a situation I don’t really remember, or a chance encounter with someone interesting. My 404 word Flash fiction, Yessirree, came about after sitting in rush hour traffic and wondering about the new car that slowly passed me.

My darker stories probably stem from the collective psyche, the eternal campfire around which we all have sat, listening to stories that make the hair stand up in the neck. I have a fascination with the dream world, and indeed, the hereafter, and that is shown in many of my short stories – and it does make a brief appearance even in Tulagi Hotel.

Muse: Tell us about Tulagi Hotel. What was your inspiration?
Mr. Hietala: The inspiration was the golden age of air war, which is sadly neglected today, even in large productions such as the HBO miniseries, Pacific. In only 20 years air combat evolved from pilots shooting pistols at flimsy enemy kites to the highly professional choreography of aircraft carriers, which were capable of bringing the war across the vast ocean to the steps of Japan.

I saw the stressful but exhilarating life of fighter pilots as something that could be used for crafting a world for what happened afterwards: Jack McGuire is not happy with post-war America, but wants to return to the skies of the Pacific, this time with a floatplane for sightseeing. Still, the memories of the intense combat haunt him. I have personal experience of the post-war life of a fighter pilot in my late uncle, who flew in the Finnish Air Force, and his stories of life on the edge inspired me.

People have come back to me saying that even if they though this a men’s book, there’s enough content for women readers too, which pleased me immensely.

Muse: What is your favorite scene from the book and why?
Mr. Hietala: I believe it’s the one where Jack and Don, his best friend and wingman, steal a four gallon Jerry can of torpedo fuel (ie. 200 proof alcohol) and have a party in the bush for sending off the dead pilots of the squadron. Don gets the junior pilots drunk, then reminds them that if they don’t fight here and now, a carrier will steam past Golden Gate, but it’s not one of the US. The tense atmosphere leads to a confrontation but after that, the new arrivals understand that even if some will die, some will be injured, the battle must be fought, and every pilot must face death in his own plane, alone.

Muse: Have you written other books?
Mr. Hietala: I am currently developing two books, but neither has progressed beyond synopsis state yet. This is because of the need I have to work on short stories. I am a member of Year Zero Writers, and in that collective I see my role as one of the rhythm guitarist in a rock band – supplying the base beat to which the more creative and avant-garde authors can really shine. My stories are traditional to the extreme, probably.

Muse: Tell us about your other books?
Mr. Hietala: I am in the process of collecting a compilation of the shorties, and I will call it Slivers. It will consist of my speculative fiction, the ones sometimes called eerie or atmospheric, or indeed, Twilight Zone-ish. In a way I explore the unexplorable, since we cannot have direct access to the events surrounding death or birth, but I find working in that realm fascinating (and I hope it entertains readers too).

The two novels are very different from each other; one is a book with more than mild horror in it, but the other one relates the story of a man in his forties who is confronted with the loss of his father without the possibility of tying the loose ends. The horror may end up being a YA audience book, but the other should appeal to people of my age, who have to think of these issues.

Muse: How do you feel about the current publishing marketplace?
Mr. Hietala: As an author of a small publisher, I have to say the race for publicity is much, much harder than I thought. Nowhere more so than here in Finland, where I did expect a first book in English would attract attention, but that has not materialized. Getting reviews is more important today than ever, and I have had a couple of them published, but sites like this are invaluable for success in today’s highly competitive environment.

I have tried to pay back by distributing links to supporting sites, which is hard work, but also very rewarding when someone comes back and says he liked the linked site. It seems to me that everything is now intertwined and there’s no way of telling which site or review leads to the attention of the wider audience.