Suspense
Date Published: 11/7/2019
Publisher: BHC Press
REALITY...
IS IN THE MIND OF THE BEHOLDER
BB Danser, the patriarch of the eccentric and zealous Danser family, narrates his life story in View Finder. Set during Hollywood's Golden Age of greed, corruption, and scandal, his memoir is one of madness, passion, murder, and his desperate, lifelong effort to escape the confines of real and modern life.
The son of the famous actress Elizabeth Stark, BB is caught in the middle of his parent's tumultuous relationship and his father's crushing megalomania and jealousies. Desperate to escape, he becomes obsessed with movie cameras and cinematic storytelling, becoming transfixed with the question: Is it better to view or be viewed?
A roller coaster story of hope and vision, BB searches for about himself and his family in a world of industrialized fantasy making.
Interview with Greg Jolley
For those interested in exploring the subject or theme of your book,
where should they start?
Anyone
who wants to read odd crime fiction can open a Danser novel and start their
adventure. The books are not a series; the only constant is that each is about
a member of that strange and eccentric family. All are under-bridged with the
themes of crime, with some trying to solve them and others merrily engaged in theft,
murder, madness and revenge.
How did you become involved with the subject or theme of your book?
Off
and on I have haunted movie production companies, so using a few for BB’s story
was a natural choice, especially since this is also the tale of a
cinematographer with visions that compel his life. I also wanted to explore the
criminal greed that so often sparks senseless act of violence. And the
consequences of that, of course.
What
were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you
achieved them?
I
wanted View Finder to read like a
movie being watched. This is often my goal, creating what the French call livre de film (movie book). As with all
the Danser novels, the goal is to build a world for the reader to enter, much
like stepping into a cinema, where much is familiar and much is, well, strange,
but also compelling. And as always, story rules.
Anything
you would like to say to your readers and fans?
First
and foremost, I enjoy hearing from you. The good, bad or raving lunacy. I don’t
write for the money, I write to reach an ever-expanding readership. Because I
write seven days a week, I am seven books ahead of my two publishers, a gap I will
be closing with Épouvantail Books as they have agreed to publish two weeks per
year. I enjoy the questions the most because that encourages interesting conversations.
What
did you enjoy most about writing this book?
Building
the miles of ingredients, prior to starting the write. I do a ton of research,
which is always a joy. Before I start a book, I typically have 15,000 words of
ingredients, speaking to the cast, theme, choice of structure, locations and motivations.
By then I also have what I call the skeleton, not to be confused with an
outline. While I will have scenes and events and snippets of dialog as well as
all the other material, I also know that once I start in, all those little
darlings are at risk, as they should be. This leads to the second delight;
watching the story and characters take over and relegating me to the typing
pool.
Can
you tell us a little bit about your next books or what you have planned for the
future?
Later
this year, Black Veil will be
launched by Épouvantail Books. This is a dark macabre retelling of the Donner
Party tragedy as it is being made into a movie. Black Veil has two alternating story lines. One is of the trapped
pioneers and their turn to cannibalism. The second goes on behind the scenes on
the movie set, where a deadly and twisted movie company executive has cooked up
a way to riches by killing off the cast and selling the gruesome footage to
private collectors.
How
long have you been writing?
Since
I was twenty-six, when I wrote the novel Distractions,
my first exploration of the pathways to madness and possible recovery. Unlike
the following Danser novels, this one didn’t have crime as a major element. I had
yet to discover the powerful sway that compulsive greed and vengeance and other
sides of crime could add to stories.
Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in View
Finder?
The main
character is BB Danser, whose life is followed as he chases a cinematic vision
that he tries to overlay on his sordid and criminal real life. His life, quite
simply, is a roller coaster ride through haunted houses. He’s not evil by
nature, but survival calls for acts of violence as he struggles to find a way
to live with his visions. At times, his ability with viewfinders brings him
acclaim. At others, they are the cause of his madness and downfalls.
If
you could spend the day with one of the characters from View Finder who would it be? Please tell us why you chose this
particular character, where you would go and what you would do.
I
would be Pierce, BB Danser’s older son. He is one of the few to recognize his
father’s deteriorating mental health and has a chance to steer him from his
planned dark denouement. That said, being Pierce - a future cinematographer -
would also mean being more concerned with keeping a professional distance and
letting the movie, the story, to play out as it must.
About the Author
Greg Jolley earned a Master of Arts in Writing from the University of San Francisco and lives in the very small town of Ormond Beach, Florida. When not writing, he researches historical crime, primarily those of the 1800s.
Contact Links
Twitter: @gfjolle
Purchase Links
Also in iBooks
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