Writer’s beginnings
Lehtola recounts:
”My writing started on the 3rd grade of lower secondary school. It may have been equally influenced by an encouraging Finnish teacher and father’s heritage: father Teuvo had written short stories and novel manuscripts in his youth. Writing was similarly influenced by the shift from western serials to Alistair MacLean and Samuli Paulaharju, whose Tunturien yöpuolta short stories made an indelible impression – also on essays written in school. The joy of top marks for school essays were only disturbed by sister Irma’s complaints that ‘you have stolen all stories from Paulaharju’s book‘!
Writing fiction during school years culminated in a writing competition award from Nuoren Voiman Liitto in the matriculation exam spring. Writing began to acquire more varied nuances in the context of studying. A causerie writer and satirist emerged in the student guild publications and Oulu student newspapers; journalism refined factual writing and critical style. Studying literature lived up to its reputation: it ruined the enjoyment of reading fiction… The writer’s own fictional texts became buried in the drawer when factual prose took over.”
