Lookman is an interesting name. Why did you choose this name for yourself?

These days, writing is all about branding. I chose Lookman because it’s an immediately identifiable name for an author. Pen names weren’t so unusual in the past. Charles Dickens used the pen name Boz; and Stephen King wrote as Richard Bachman. Female writers in the nineteenth century wrote under men’s names, they thought their readership would not buy a book written by a woman. Notably, Mary Ann Evans used the alias George Elliot. In the theatre, it wasn’t considered unusual to use stage names.

In my late teens, I took an interest in Sufism. To name myself from the Qur’an, I opened it at random one day. In front of me, I read the name Luqman. Luqman is a wise sage who advised his son about the pitfalls of human nature and behavior. Some say it is Aesop. Luqman or Lugman’s preoccupation is much the same sort of thing authors spend their time doing, writing about human nature. The name Lookman isn’t unknown among the Jewish and Chinese communities either. When I reached the stage when I started looking for a publisher I already had the name Luqman, so I changed the spelling to Lookman. Lookman is immediately identifiable, it has the meaning ‘look man’ used in Northumbrian English, and it’s easily retentive. Normally, when I write the name Lookman I place dots in the ‘O’s’ to make them look like eyes. I have registered the name as copyright and have since developed an animated logo to use on my websites.

What manner of writing did you do earlier in your life?

I had no encouragement at school or home to write. I remember a schoolteacher wrongfully accusing me of plagiarism. My first real writing experience came at about the age of eighteen. I became a voluntary press and campaign officer for a local branch of a political youth movement. I wrote the branch press reports for local newspapers, organized stunts and campaigns on issues covering politics, the environment and pollution. Later, I became the press officer for the constituency party, and I was twice-elected, on the same day, the countries second youngest district councillor. At that time, I thought I would one day write non-fiction, perhaps theology, social philosophy or history rather than fiction.

A decade later, I became a correspondence student at the Open University. This enabled me later to apply for full time courses as a mature student. My experience at Kingston University considerably helped me develop my confidence, essay writing and other skills. After graduation, I worked as a recruitment consultant for six years. It involved interviewing; offering careers advice clients; and writing client’s résumés later forwarded to Human Resources departments in major companies.

How and when did the switch to children’s stories take place?

I was made redundant from my recruitment job, which gave me more time to think about writing. My first attempt was to write a book about prophesies for the millennium. At the same time, in the back of my mind I had an idea for a time slip children’s book, while visiting the haunts of the prophet Merlin in southern Scotland. Neither project was completed. However, at that time I wrote three short plays later broadcast on BBC radio.

Several years later, after my early attempts at writing seemed fruitless, I became obsessed with researching my family history. It came to a halt when I couldn’t go any further without learning Medieval Latin. Suddenly, I started writing a children’s book I based on a radio feature. I called it “The Gossiping Tree“. It was a time slip, which utilized my interest in history and anthropology. I did considerable research for this unpublished adventure novel. It fulfilled two criteria; firstly, it was a great story. Secondly, it gives the reader a real feel for children’s lives as medieval serfs. That society was a corrupt, famine ridden, brutal, and racist. “The Gossiping Tree” was my first Chiller, and it has strongly influenced what I’ve since written. That first book created my writer’s voice, and I’ve never stopped writing since.

What mindset do you need to write successfully for children?

To write for children you need to enter a child’s mind. This would depend on the age range you are writing for. You need to throw away all adult taboos and feel the unreasoned emotion and confusion of childhood. What a child sees as funny or frightening may not be what you see as an adult. At the same time, you need to understand how children negotiate their way through life, dealing with their own insecurities, complexes and taboos. This may make teen writing more difficult than writing for adults.

A writer needs determination and self-discipline to break a succession of glass ceilings. Writing can make you sometimes feel elated and at other times depressed. You can never rely on your publisher to sell your books, so marketing as an aspect of an author’s life is becoming crucial.

From where does your inspiration come?

My first source of inspiration is my own recalled feelings of childhood. You need to jump into a child’s shoes. It’s like entering a dark thorny forest. It forces you to confront, all the good times and all the bad times you once had. Children can be cruel, kind, loyal and disloyal. Next comes childhood memories, times spent role-playing, having adventures and exploring ones place in the world. We have to remember that adulthood is disconnected in a child’s eyes. Nevertheless, we all know that we carry childhood emotions with us to the grave. After successfully creating the medieval world found in “The Gossiping Tree” I realised childhood never changes. A child in any historical period is a child. We’re programmed biologically to act and respond in certain ways, irrespective of our time of birth, it’s our environment that changes between generations.

Taking things in the whole, my inspiration I have modelled from my life’s experiences, my observations, and what I have studied about history, mythology, religion, and anthropology. My characters are built around the circumstances they find themselves. We might well act differently if we were plunged into someone else’s shoes. I love to put my characters in a closed paper bag and let them box their way out of it. This method creates surprising results.

…and your books?

More specifically, I wrote my first published book the “Children from the Sea” based on an exercise given in a writing course. It was about merfolk. I also used in the novel the fact we have large-scale UK migration. This is encouraged by TV Programmes that assert ‘the grass is always greener somewhere else’. The main character in the book is a teenage girl called Katie. She’s forced by her parents to emigrate to a Spanish nimby-fishing village. The locals are superstitious about to a pod of dolphins that inhabit the bay. Katie finds a beached dolphin and kisses it. It turns into an amnesiac merboy who she immediately fancies. He is not what he seems to be, he has memories of Muslim Andalusia. In this book, I play on a host of conflicts to build this exciting mystery and reconciliation story.

“Henri and the Alien” is derived from another exercise on the same writing course, namely a conflict between two individuals. The scene starts when Henrietta is followed from another world to her bedroom by a malicious leprechaun. He plays a bewitching violin. Writing chapter seven first was a strange way to begin a novel, it broke all the rules of planning. I then wrote the beginning in a Roald Dahl style, by having the main character called Henrietta as an oppressed foundling child dominated by self-indulgent foster parents. The second character, Eanie Meanie, is a bit like a star ship captain from Star trek, except here he is a bumbling morphing alien, who really looks like a hydra. Overall, it is like a “Roots” novel. It’s a school romp that becomes a fantasy adventure.

My third published novel is “Mihte’s Quest“. It’s based on creatures from Celtic mythology. It is usual to get rid of the parents in most children’s fiction, so it starts as three children, left ‘home alone’ by their mother. My inspiration came from a BBC Radio 4 programme called Home Truths. They featured a young adult’s recollection, of how she felt when the bailiffs came to her house. The second feature I used from a later programme was an adult’s memory of his childhood when he was nearly drowned by swans. The whole story and later events in the novel are a weave of Celtic mythological entities.

I’ve mentioned that inspiration can come from a number of places. One can turn any idea on its head to create or include in a story. The last great influence in my writing wasn’t fiction but my love of film. When I write I see my characters living out their lives in a digital medium or in a dream state. I hope one day to see my writings take life through the cinema and have recently received encouraging news in that direction.

To read more about Lookman and his entertaining books visit: http://www.lookman.co.uk/

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