An Interview with John Togher
John Togher is a Wigan-based writer whose fiction blends folk horror, coastal mystery and psychological unease as explored in debut novella, Bound by the Salt, set in the strange village of Cairnshore. John’s writing explores obsession, memory, and the strange pull of places we thought we had escaped.
What inspired you to start writing this book?
It was inspired by a conversation years ago with a friend about how your hometown always has a hold on you, always has a way of calling you back, and in a lot of cases, trapping people to a life there. From that grew the idea of a small town village calling someone back, leading them into something horrific.
It was only after breaking and dislocating my shoulder last year, and having around five months off work, that I had the mental space and time to sit and write a book. So from something horrific, some kind of horror made its way onto the page. I’ve written plenty of short stories and poetry over the years to varying degrees of success, but never felt ready to write a novel.
Tell us the story of your book’s current title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?
Bound by the Salt is the first book in a trilogy called The Cairnshore Tides. This first book follows the partner of the missing Georgette; his only clue as to her whereabouts is the small, coastal village of Cairnshore. As a reader, you only ever know as much as he does and find things out as he does, and he comes across a village that is cursed and holding secrets tied to the ocean.
Book two is written a year before the events of book one and is written from the point of view of a Tidewarden (village cult) and you get to discover the folklore, and why they chose Georgette, plus book two’s narrator becoming increasingly, and scarily, obsessed with Georgette.
Book three is set years after book one, dealing with the after-effects of those events.
If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?
Anything by Godspeed You!, Black Emperor, Nick Cave. Maybe Ben Frost, Cruel Machine.
What books are you reading (for research or comfort) as you continue the writing process?
The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley. Junji Ito.
What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?
I’m a full-time teacher of English in a college.
Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?
I read most of Stephen King’s books as an early teen; they have always stuck with me. Then going through the works of Lovecraft, Jackson, and others like Arthur Machen. More recently, Junji Ito’s horror is so disturbing because he rarely explains why the nightmare is happening; he simply lets the impossible exist, leaving the reader trapped with the same helpless confusion as the characters. I like that. Also, the work of David Lynch has had a big influence in that kind of slow dread and unease and in the way the ordinary can suddenly become deeply wrong.
Where is your favorite place to write?
In the dark of the attic, where the monsters live.
What advice would you give your past self at the start of your writing journey?
To finish what you start. So many times, I’ve started writing something, then abandoned it. Just put placeholder notes in the places where you get stuck and move on, then come back to it later.
What’s one thing you hope sticks with readers after they finish your book?
An unsettling feeling, maybe a feeling that their hometown will always be a part of them and have that psychological hook on them.
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