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Your new novel Guilty City
- in a few words, what is it about?
It’s
a “noir” crime novel with a period setting. A hard-boiled detective
story. With a supernatural twist.
From what I know, Guilty
City is in parts based on historical events - so do talk about
these stories behind your story for a bit, and the research that went into
that aspect of your novel? The
book is set in New York City in 1929 at the time of the Wall Street Crash
which provides the backdrop for the story. It’s set within the
social/political scene of the time, when the city was a cesspool of
corruption, run by the mob and the dirty politics of Tammany Hall. The
storyline itself was inspired by the true-life unsolved murder of
high-class courtesan Vivian Gordon in 1931. The book features her as a
central character and other historical figures from the time such as
mobster Dutch Schultz, Mayor Jimmy Walker, and the Tammany bigwigs. My
research consisted of accumulating a library on the period, the settings,
the events, and the characters. And many searches on the web. (Other) sources of
inspiration when writing Guilty City? These
would have been the “hard-boiled” detective fiction and other
literature of those times and movies made in that period. To get me into a
“period” frame of mind. Guilty
City paints a very vivid picture of the late 1920s/early 30s - so
what attracted you to exactly that era? I’ve
always been into that period and been an avid reader of
books and watcher of films produced at that time. It’s really the energy of that
era and the “edge” to it. The vibrancy and social upheaval. Everything
about it, it makes for such a colourful backdrop. Do talk about
your writing style and your stylistic influences for Guilty
City for a bit! My
writing style has often been described as “cinematic” and I tend to
structure my books in “scenes” as though in a movie. I’m not
consciously influenced by anyone; I try and avoid writing like someone
else. Although of course I’ve absorbed all the usual suspects in my
genre, such as Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. If I do have a
definite “influencer” it would be Paul Cain and his definitive
hard-boiled classic Fast One. Guilty
City is a sequel to your earlier novel The
Big Farewell - so did you always plan to expand on the
protagonists of that book, or was this only an afterthought? I
had the notion of a possible sequel in the back of my mind although it
wasn’t a definite plan. Some of the reviewers of The
Big Farewell said they hoped for a sequel and that motivated me. I’d already come
across the story of Vivian Gordon while I was writing The
Big Farewell, and it was an obvious candidate.
What
can you tell us about the writing process as such?
I’m
not one of those writers who can set themselves so many words or so many
hours a day. My creative juices don’t work that way. I must wait for the
next “scene” to percolate, which can be the next day or take a week or
more. And then I write that scene, which takes as long as it takes; and
then wait for the next one to form in my mind. I often start a book with
no idea how it will end. I often don’t know what will happen next, let
alone how it will end! The
$64-question, where has Guilty City
been released? Like The
Big Farewell, I self-published Guilty City on Amazon in
Kindle and paperback.
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0B28D5K19
USA: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0B28D5K19
Germany: https://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0B28D5K19
... and from pretty much all Amazons worldwide J Anything you can tell us about audience
and critical reception of Guilty City?
It’s
early days for Guilty City, I’m still waiting for reviews to come
in. Those who I’ve let read it have all praised it and said that it’s
even better than The
Big Farewell, which is what you hope for, in a
sequel. The great crime writer James Ellroy said that he hoped that
readers would find each of his books better than the previous one. I
haven’t run any of the usual online promos yet for Guilty City
because I’m currently running some to draw more attention to The
Big Farewell first.
Any
future projects you'd like to share? Having
been told that The
Big Farewell would make a great movie, I’ve
just started adapting it as a screenplay which I hope to submit to
production companies in the USA. I’ve been asked whether I intend
extending The
Big Farewell and Guilty City
into an ongoing
series but I’m not sure about that. Maybe a trilogy. Your/your book's
website, social media, whatever else?
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Feeling lucky ?
Want to search for books by
Dan Leissner
yourself? |
The links below
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I
have a Facebook author page -
https://www.facebook.com/Dan-Leissner-Author-108392741538057 and I’m
also on Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/221669.Dan_Leissner. Otherwise,
I’ve confined my “social media” presence to any promos that
I’ve signed up for. Anything else
you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? Just
that if any of you out there do read my books, I hope you enjoy them. Thanks
for the interview!
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find Dan Leissner at amazon.com
find Dan Leissner at amazon.co.uk
find Dan Leissner at amazon.de
