{"id":1446,"date":"2011-04-04T06:43:08","date_gmt":"2011-04-04T12:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/?p=1446"},"modified":"2011-04-04T09:46:47","modified_gmt":"2011-04-04T15:46:47","slug":"old-style-heroics-james-l-daniels-on-writing-in-the-dead-man-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/2011\/04\/old-style-heroics-james-l-daniels-on-writing-in-the-dead-man-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Old-Style Heroics: James L. Daniels on Writing in the Dead Man Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

James L. Daniels<\/a> writes heroic fiction.\u00a0 He loves the \u201cold-style heroics\u201d of brave, compassionate men fighting the good fight in world rife with profoundly untenable situations.\u00a0 Daniels\u2019 Dead Man: Ring of Knives<\/a><\/em><\/strong> is the second installment in Lee Goldberg<\/a> and William Rabkin<\/a>\u2019s Dead Man<\/a> series.<\/p>\n

The Dead Man books feature Matt Cahill, \u201can ordinary man leading a simple life… until a shocking accident changes everything. Now he can see a nightmarish netherworld of unspeakable evil and horrific violence that nobody else does…\u201d\u00a0 When Cahill wakes, that is, he sees the darkness within people\u2019s hearts\u2014sees rage, madness, and seething violence–in the form of lesions, swarming bugs, and rotting skin.
\n
\nThe first installment in the series, Dead Man: Face of Evil<\/a><\/em>, set the stage and a very high standard.\u00a0 Each subsequent installment will be written by an alternating roster of writers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Bill Rabkin and I came up with The Dead Man as a book series,\u201d said Goldberg, \u201cwe knew we wanted the roster of writers to be a mix of seasoned pros and exciting new voices… and James was the first name that came to mind. It’s an enormous thrill for us to be the first to bring James into print and to introduce him to a wide audience. I have no doubt he’s going to have a long and successful career as a novelist… he is too good not to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The thrill, Mr. Goldberg, is all ours.\u00a0 Daniels picks up the torch and makes it his own.<\/p>\n

Daniels, among other things, explores the Big Question of why<\/em> Cahill sees what he sees.\u00a0 Early in the first chapter, Cahill asks himself:<\/p>\n

Maybe this is the reason I was given this gift\u2026<\/em> Not just to get caught up in carnage, but to prevent it. To head off bad things before they come to pass. To make a difference in people\u2019s lives for the better. <\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

He liked the idea. It made him feel less like a delusional homeless man and more like a wandering knight. To save damsels in distress? He could get used to that gig.<\/p>\n

In many ways, Ring of Knives<\/em> is a quest novel.\u00a0 It opens with Cahill trying to reach a mental health center where he hopes to speak to another man who purportedly has a similar \u201cgift\u201d, who perhaps sees what Cahill sees.\u00a0\u00a0 Will Cahill find answers?\u00a0 Is his \u201cgift\u201d really a gift or it a curse?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Is it merely an ability to see behind the veil of everyday normalcy and propriety?\u00a0 Is some sick joke being played at Matt Cahill\u2019s expense? Or is Matt Cahill simply\u2014well, there\u2019s nothing simple<\/em> about it\u2014crazy?<\/p>\n

Below, Daniels and I talk about Ring of Knives<\/em>, Mr. Dark, and writing about a heroic character living in a dark world.<\/p>\n

*
\nSo you get the call (or e-mail) from Lee, then what?<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

James L. Daniels:<\/strong> The first thing I did after reading Lee and Bill’s first book was to select a plotline from several that they had suggested. The one I picked had Matt going to an asylum, and since I’ve been in lots of mental health centers (for business, not pleasure), it seemed like a good bet. I had some working knowledge of how they operated. And I’ve always liked fiction that took place in that setting (Cuckoo’s Nest<\/em>, Arkham Asylum<\/em>, etc). I should mention as a disclaimer that the mental health centers I’ve been in were generally well-run, and the dysfunctional hell-hole I depict in Ring of Knives<\/em> is entirely of my own invention!<\/p>\n

After I\u2019d picked my plot and read Lee and Bill\u2019s first Dead Man<\/em> book, I started going through my iPod playlists, trying to find music that would set the right tone for the piece I wanted to write. \u00a0I finally settled on Foo Fighters\u2019 \u201cEverlong\u201d. \u00a0It\u2019s a powerhouse anthem that\u2019s full of valor and melancholy, which for me summed up the mood in Ring of Knives<\/em>. \u00a0So I listened to that song \u2013 a lot. \u00a0As I did, images started to come to me\u2026 Matt walking through woods, stalked by an unseen specter; Matt holding an exhausted young girl in his arms; Matt outnumbered, unarmed, surrounded by enemies with blades\u2026<\/p>\n

I then did something that I hadn\u2019t done before: I started to write in a non-linear fashion.\u00a0 Instead of trying to build the story from the ground up, I just began writing whatever came into my head, even if it was the second-to-last scene, or a snatch of dialogue that seemed funny, or a description of a moment in a fight that hadn\u2019t even been established yet.\u00a0 Because I did it this way, the writing went quickly. \u00a0Usually I get bogged down in transitions, which are tricky, or exposition, which can be boring. But this way, I was able to skip from interesting part to interesting part, and once they were fleshed out a little, it was easy enough to string them together in a way that was (hopefully) coherent.<\/p>\n

I hadn\u2019t written in a while, and I was nervous when I started, and even more nervous when I saw the ever-expanding list of literary MVP\u2019s that were signing on to write\u00a0 Dead Man<\/em> books.\u00a0 But I soon discovered that my story was coming together. \u00a0All it required was for me to wait \u2018til my family was asleep, flip open my laptop, and then forgive myself for the 20 or 30 minutes of awful prose that I inevitably have to get out of my system before anything readable emerges. \u00a0I would literally look at the clock and say, \u201cTime for 25 minutes of dreck,\u201d and start typing. \u00a0And sure enough, during the 26th<\/sup> minute, something worthwhile would happen, and slowly the piece began to get wheels.<\/p>\n

I pushed hard to get the story done in a month. \u00a0There\u2019s an old saying: \u201cIf you can\u2019t hit hard, hit first.\u201d \u00a0I wanted to be the first of the guest writers to produce a Dead Man<\/em> book, because I had some ideas about how the antagonist, Mr. Dark, could operate, and I was worried that if my book came out fourth or fifth, others\u2019 works would either pre-empt or contradict my take on Lee and Rabkin\u2019s dark mythology. \u00a0So I plugged away, reached that magical mid-point, and after that it gained momentum (especially since I\u2019d back-loaded a lot of the violence into the end of the book), and finished up sooner than I\u2019d expected.<\/p>\n

For some reason the 26,000 length really worked for me. \u00a0It was longer than a short story, so I could use more dialogue, description and atmospherics than I usually allow myself, but the fact that it wasn\u2019t anything near a 100,000-word novel kept the work lean. \u00a0It\u2019s also not a long term project. If a Matterhorn<\/em>\u201d-length work is a marathon, then a Ring of Knives <\/em>novella is more like a 5K, which suits me just fine. \u00a0This project has taught me that I\u2019m a better sprinter than a long-distance runner, and that\u2019s good to know.<\/p>\n

How extensive or minimal was the plot-line you were given?\u00a0 How much flexibility did you have?<\/strong><\/p>\n

James L. Daniels: <\/strong>The plotline I was given was literally two or three sentences.\u00a0 I was given an enormous amount of leeway to determine the plot and tone of the book.\u00a0 Bill and Lee did advise me to make some changes at the end, though they weren\u2019t extensive.\u00a0 But it was actually very instructive for me to see what they wanted changed.\u00a0 In the middle of the book, I have Matt interview a mentally ill resident who gives him a lot of flack.\u00a0\u00a0 And I had given Matt some cutting responses in return.\u00a0 Lee and Bill were both adamant: that\u2019s not who Matt is<\/em>.\u00a0 No matter how rude or difficult the guy is, Matt would never disrespect him because he would recognize that the man is ill, is a victim of evil, and isn\u2019t capable of rational thought.\u00a0 In other words, Matt is a lot more compassionate than I had portrayed him as being.\u00a0 This was very eye-opening, and once I made the changes and read them through, the character in my head literally transformed into a better, more idealistic person.\u00a0 I liked him more than the hero in my first draft, and I think the readers will, too.<\/p>\n

It brings out a larger issue that I know I\u2019ve struggled with in the past: today we are so used to the anti-hero as protagonist, that it becomes very natural to make our main characters embittered, nasty, or morally compromised.\u00a0 But deep down, that\u2019s not what most readers yearn for.\u00a0 Most readers want the protagonists to be idealized versions of themselves<\/em>.\u00a0 And so to create characters that are unabashedly brave, and honest, and compassionate is not only weirdly liberating for the writer, but \u2013 I think \u2013 deeply satisfying to audiences everywhere.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

What was it about Lee and Bill’s “dark mythology” that got you excited?\u00a0 What direction did you take in?<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

James L. Daniels: <\/strong> I love the fact that the central character in the series is a loner who travels endlessly in search of the answer to a mystery, which will heal both himself and others. \u00a0To me, this type of tale hearkens back to the Grail legend, which I incorporated into Ring of Knives<\/em>. \u00a0I think that Matt is the modern-day equivalent of the medieval knight errant, and also of the gunslinger-in-a-white-hat, who is his American descendant. This set-up is an incredibly flexible template for storytelling, and it allows the author to take it in any direction possible. \u00a0I’ve seen brief summaries of the stories to come, and they range from gritty urban shoot-em-ups to gothic Lovecraftian lore. \u00a0It’s wonderful stuff. \u00a0My own brand of pulp is derived pretty directly from Edgar Rice Burroughs; he’s the one (along with \u201cThe Uncanny X-Men\u201d) who first snagged my attention as a twelve-year old, and those old-style heroics never cease to move me. \u00a0So I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from John-Carter-type stories and fashioned my own tale, which I dressed up in the trappings of Clive Barker, fed raw meat, and unleashed.<\/p>\n

What is up with Mr. Dark, anyway?<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

James L. Daniels: <\/strong> That’s a good question, and every author in the series is going to come up with their own interpretation. \u00a0Lee and Bill have been enormously generous letting the writers contribute to the development of the Dark Man’s nature. And it’s interesting, because – like Matt’s character – the Dark Man is an archetype that’s incredibly versatile. \u00a0A blogger recently implied that Lee and Bill may have borrowed the evil-clown idea from Todd McFarlane’s Spawn<\/em> series. \u00a0But this is nonsense. \u00a0The \u00a0unpredictable trickster is one of the oldest characters in fiction. \u00a0 McFarlane’s Violator was begat by Stephen King’s Pennywise who was begat by Jerry Robinson’s The Joker, who was begat by Edgar Allen Poe’s Hop-Toad, who was begat by Mr. Punch, who was begat by Shakespeare’s Fool, who was begat by Harlequino (and perhaps Sir Thomas Malory’s Merlin), who was begat by Loki, who was begat by Raven (Europe), Coyote (America), and Spider (Africa). \u00a0They are all manifestations of the same principle. \u00a0What is that principle? \u00a0Every writer of the Dead Man<\/em> will come to his or her own conclusions.<\/p>\n

For myself, however, that principle is Entropy, and the madness and despair that arise from our recognition that all our efforts will ultimately end in death. \u00a0The major challenge of life is to withstand – and maybe even overcome – that terrible prospect. \u00a0In the Welsh Grail legend “Peredur”, the hero is frequently tormented by a black hag who reminds him at every turn that all his acts of valor are causing more harm than good. \u00a0That hag, portrayed eight hundred years ago, is the direct ancestor of Mr. Dark. \u00a0And you don’t have to be a medieval knight errant to know who she is. \u00a0I’ve seen her. \u00a0And I bet you have, too. \u00a0How we deal with her terrible message is the biggest challenge that we face in life. \u00a0And one of the ways we learn to deal with it is by reading about others who confront it head-on. \u00a0Matt Cahill is a hero because he does just that. \u00a0That’s why it’s a thrill to read about him. \u00a0That’s why, when we read about him beating the devil, we set down the book hopeful and happy, believing \u2013 for a time \u2013 that we can, too.
\n <\/strong><\/p>\n

How did you approach the violence–writing the action, handling the violence?<\/strong><\/p>\n

James L. Daniels:<\/strong> My dirty secret: I love writing about violence.\u00a0 Love it. A well-written fight always gets my blood pumping: makes me ball my hands into fists when the\u00a0hero takes a hit, or get a thrill of release when he lands a haymaker.<\/p>\n

I think a well-choreographed fight is like a microcosm of the overall story: it’s got a beginning, middle, and end; it has an inciting incident, climax, and denouement; and it should reveal character. I also believe it should always contain a surprise. \u00a0There’s nothing more boring than reading about two guys just whacking away at each other ’til one of them falls down. \u00a0The fight should somehow make use of the setting in which the characters find themselves… A battle in a saw mill shouldn’t be the same as one in the rigging of an opera house, or on a sandbar. \u00a0Each fight should be unique. \u00a0And in my opinion, the hero should usually be at a serious disadvantage until the last moment: “always outnumbered, always outgunned”, as Walter Mosley put it.<\/p>\n

There’s a lot of traps for writers to fall into when writing about violence, but the one I see again and again is the portrayal of physically impossible events. \u00a0The other day I read a novel where the villain chases a woman up a staircase, so she throws a china vase at him. \u00a0It misses, and hits the floor near his feet, but the shards of china “embedded themselves deeply into his calf” so that he’s lame. \u00a0On what planet does ricocheting china have the force of a nail bomb? \u00a0Or again: in a bestselling novel, I found a scene where a mastiff chases a pregnant woman around her backyard “for several minutes” until it leaps at her, at which point she jumps out of the way and the dog brains itself against a tree-trunk. Really? \u00a0I’m six-foot-one, have long legs, am not pregnant, and I can’t outrun a Pomeranian<\/em>. \u00a0These are extreme examples, I guess.<\/p>\n

It’s more common for the writer just to punt and write about people punching each other repeatedly in the jaw, which is dull. \u00a0I think to jazz up a fight, writers should give themselves the challenge of trying to incorporate the setting into the fight, or have one of the characters use an unusual prop.\u00a0 Remember in Alien<\/em> when the android tries to shove the rolled-up magazine down Sigourney Weaver’s throat? \u00a0What a horrific, brilliant, memorable image. I haven’t seen that movie in twelve years and I still remember that vividly. \u00a0Would it be so vivid if he just punched her? \u00a0No way. \u00a0So that’s the challenge.<\/p>\n

And I think, if anything, writers have to be willing to trust their instincts, even when they stretch logic. \u00a0The rolled-up-magazine attack is a really odd choice, when you think about it.\u00a0 But in execution, it’s terrifying. \u00a0There’s a similarly effective moment in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre<\/em> where one of the miscreants attacks a girl with a broom. \u00a0Or in Stephen King’s Bag of Bones<\/em>, where the villain\u00a0 attacks a swimmer by throwing rocks at him… the possibilities are endless.<\/p>\n

The book comes out today.\u00a0 Can you give us a peek at one of your odd choices or memorable images from a Ring of Knives fight scene?<\/strong><\/p>\n

James L. Daniels: <\/strong>Actually, I\u2019m going to resist giving a spoiler for the final fight, which I think is a lot of fun.\u00a0 But I\u2019ll give you a preview of another Dead Man novella I\u2019m working on.\u00a0 Its working title is The Beast Within<\/em>, and hopefully Lee and Bill will like it enough to include it in their series.\u00a0 It begins with Matt defending a beautiful young woman against four nasty militia-types that he meets in a small Michigan town.\u00a0 They\u2019re armed with these long, whip-like chains that are sometimes sold in survivalist magazines.\u00a0 They also carry tactical slingshots, and have at their disposal a big, tricked-out ATV.\u00a0 So it\u2019s four against one, and all Matt has at his disposal is his wit, his instincts\u2026 and his grandfather\u2019s axe. Let\u2019s just say it was a fun scene to write!<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

What was the hardest part of Ring of Knives<\/em><\/strong> to write?<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

James L. Daniels:<\/strong> At a certain point I knew that the story I was writing would have to have two flashbacks that explored Matt’s relationship with his wife, who has died of cancer before the first story begins. I put off writing those scenes because my own wife was diagnosed with cancer only two months ago. \u00a0So the second scene (where Matt’s wife is very sick) was hard to write. \u00a0But weirdly, it wasn’t hard to write because I didn’t know what would happen. \u00a0It was hard to write because I did. \u00a0I knew exactly what Matt would say in that situation, because it’s exactly what I would say. \u00a0And because of this, that the scene got written pretty quickly, but I felt kind of shaky and wasted after I wrote it, because it hit too close to home. \u00a0After that, I was eager to get back to writing about wild times at the insane asylum. \u00a0Because that had nothing to do with my life.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

What’s next for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

James L. Daniels: <\/strong>As I mentioned earlier, I\u2019m working on another Dead Man <\/em>novel that a really hope makes the cut.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been thinking about writing a sci-fi series about a guy who is paid to steal other people\u2019s DNA.\u00a0 And at some point I\u2019d like to get a hardboiled novel published by Charles Ardai\u2019s excellent Hard Case Crime line, which I\u2019ve admired for years.<\/p>\n

Oh, that reminds me!\u00a0 I need to shameless plug the fact that I\u2019ve also put on Kindle Ghost Bride<\/a><\/em>, my 1920s noir mystery that took about a decade to finish (counting a six-year hiatus in the writing).\u00a0 I hope people check it out and tell me what they think on my blog<\/a>.\u00a0 I can promise you that the book does, finally, have both a plot and an ending!\u00a0 And it\u2019s four times the length of Ring of Knives<\/em> for the same price\u2026<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thanks for hanging out with us here at Booklifenow.com.\u00a0 Do you have any parting words? <\/strong><\/p>\n

James L. Daniels: <\/strong>Anyone who\u2019s read the first part of this interview<\/a> knows that my break with Ring of Knives<\/em> came solely because Lee Goldberg chose to take an interest in me.\u00a0 But looking back on it, the past few months have taught me two things.\u00a0 First, that writing heroic fiction is a lot more energizing and satisfying than writing ultra-realistic \u201ckitchen sink\u201d drama, or post-modern puzzlers.\u00a0 And second, that the business of writing seems to be largely about developing relationships.\u00a0 And that\u2019s a hard lesson, because a lot of writers, I think, are not confident socially, especially when dealing with authors, agents, publishers, and even their readers.\u00a0 But I now think that that side of it is just as important as the writing itself \u2013 at least, it is if the writer\u2019s goal is to reach a wider audience.<\/p>\n

Thanks for taking the time to talk, Jeremy.\u00a0 Good luck to you and all your readers!<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Jeremy L. C. Jones <\/em><\/a>is a freelance writer, editor, and teacher.\u00a0\u00a0He is the staff Interviewer for <\/em>Clarkesworld Magazine<\/em><\/a> and a frequent contributor to <\/em>Kobold Quarterly<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 He teaches at <\/em>Wofford College<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Montessori Academy<\/em><\/a> in Spartanburg, SC.\u00a0 He is also the director of <\/em>Shared Worlds<\/em><\/a>, a creative writing and world-building camp for teenagers that he and <\/em>Jeff VanderMeer <\/em><\/a>designed in 2006.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James L. Daniels writes heroic fiction.\u00a0 He loves the \u201cold-style heroics\u201d of brave, compassionate men fighting the good fight in world rife with profoundly untenable situations.\u00a0 Daniels\u2019 Dead Man: Ring of Knives is the second installment in Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin\u2019s Dead Man series. The Dead Man books feature Matt Cahill, \u201can ordinary man leading a simple life… until a shocking accident changes everything. Now he can see a nightmarish netherworld of unspeakable evil and horrific violence that nobody else does…\u201d\u00a0 When Cahill wakes, that is, he sees the darkness within people\u2019s hearts\u2014sees rage, madness, and seething violence–in the form of lesions, swarming bugs, and rotting skin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1446"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1465,"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446\/revisions\/1465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}