Suspense
Date Published: 7/1/2020
Publisher: Épouvantail Books, LLC
Murder and Madness in the High Sierras
The tragic and gruesome story of the Donner Party is being made into a movie, a tale of cannibalism and treachery high in the snowbound mountains. The cast is made up entirely of children. One by one, they are dying. The series of deaths are haunting the production, each one of the “accidents” at the hands of Florentino Urbino. Driven by greed and jealousy, he is killing off the film’s stars to line his pockets by selling off the gruesome footage of the accidents.
Six-year-old actress SeaBee Danser in her black veil is his next target. She is the only one who can see through the black curtain that Florentino Urbino drapes over his deranged and murderous heart.
Can she survive?
Can he be stopped?
Will any of the children be left standing?
Interview with Greg Jolley
For those
interested in exploring the subject or theme of your book, where
should they start?
There
are many brilliant non-fiction titles that tell the tragic story of
the Donner party. For a similar fictional book, you could do no
better than enjoy The
Day of the Locust
by Nathanael West.
How did you become
involved with the subject or theme of your book?
I
joined the Broken Television Film Company to both learn the craft
and art of movie making and to research Black
Veil. I was
always interested in the tragic story of the Donner party and wanted
to research it and retell it from a movie perspective. The themes of
greed and evil are recurring in a few of my books, as well as
exploring the light and darks sides of all of us.
What were your
goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you
achieved them?
My
goal with each Danser novel is always the same: Grinning with
amusement and satisfaction while typing those two fine words, “The
End.” I find each journey, each write, to be an adventure. I also
love the fact that while I do miles of research and believe I know
where the book is headed, the road is always full of surprises and
the cast and events always take over. The writing is often like
constructing a roller coaster while you’re riding it, hoping to
get enough track laid out to support the journey to the end.
Anything you would like to say to
your readers and fans?
As
always, write to me and let me know your thoughts and reactions, as
well as questions. I always learn so much from readers and have a
tough hide for those who want to take me to task for why this or any
of my novels don’t work for them.
What did you enjoy most about
writing this book?
Building
the skeleton while doing the research, months before the start of
Black Veil.
The skeleton is somewhat like a badly disfigured outline where
ingredients such as the locations, cast, motivations and passions
play off each other. I will typically have ten to fifteen thousand
words of the skeleton and ingredients before I type a single page of
a novel. Such was the case with Black
Veil. Because
this effort is unstructured, I delight in letting imagination and
facts run riot.
Can you tell us a little bit about
your next books or what you have planned for the future?
The
next novel is about Molly and April Danser and is titled, Thieves.
It is scheduled for release in December of this year. The sisters
have lived a life of crime, mostly thefts from those they believe
deserve it the most – social vultures such as 1-800 lawyers.
Things turn dark and twisted when an innocent man dies and an ex US
Marshal decides that he has to put them down, permanently. Thieves
is more of a roller coaster than Black
Veil, which is
actually more like a haunted house ride.
How long have you been writing?
Oh,
jeez. Since 1984. That’s when Distractions
was published, the very first Danser novel. It also began my love of
passionate eccentrics who have little regard for social norms and
laws.
Can you tell us a
little bit about the characters in Black
Veil?
In
Black Veil, Film producer Florentino Urbino is a very dark man
driven by jealousy, madness and rage, determined to ascend his
second-rate status within the movie company filming the Donner Party
story. Opposite him is six-year-old SeaBee Danser in her first
acting role, up against tremendous odds, but also determined to win
out in the end, albeit her motivation is to simply survive and lead
the others to safety.
If you could spend the day with one
of the characters from Black
Veil who would it be? Please tell us why you chose
this particular character, where you would go and what you would do.
It
certainly wouldn’t be with “Flor” Florentino – laugh. I have
to go with SeaBee Danser, enjoying that strong and smart-assed
little girl. I imagine lots of surprises from her as well as much
shared laughter. I think I’d take her surfing followed by an ice
cream lunch.
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. Or goes surfing.
Contact Links
Twitter: @gfjolle
email: gfjolle@sbcglobal.net
Purchase Links
iBooks: Black Veil is available via search
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