SuspenseDate Published: 11/7/2019Publisher: 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.
Why Write Suspense Novels?
Greg Jolley, author of View Finder
Have an hour? I’ll buy the espressos. Writing each Danser novel has been an opportunity to explore human motivations through storytelling, which takes precedent over thematic concerns. The personalities of the cast for each book dictate the novel’s structure (i.e., wordy or smart ass? POV, levels of details). That said, the writes are really about turning these dear friends loose and scurrying as fast as I can to transcribe their antics and struggles. Quite simply, it is a helluva lot of fun and if it wasn’t, I would find another use for the seven days a week I spend with them.
A while back I answered the question from another angle.
Because of the dance. Who will lead? Who will follow? Or will they embrace?
The Danser novels are about individuals and their choices, as well as their instincts, passions, goals and compulsions. But always there is the dance, the suspense: Good or Evil?
What are the mechanics of suspense?
Let’s start with a decent, formal definition:
“Pleasurable excitement and anticipation regarding an outcome…” Source: iThesaurus. Not bad.
The definition that I work with is from a good and interesting conversation with my brilliant and wise publisher, who said, “When you know who the protagonist and antagonist are.”
For the Danser novels, I’ve been working with my interpretation of that definition of suspense, “When you know the devil and who its perusing.”
Unlike the mystery genre, where the villain or devil are often not known until the cliff hanging, who-dun-it reveal, the suspense genre offers the opportunity to share both faces and minds of good and bad. In effect, make their light and dark paths viable for my readers. It is also a helluva lot more enjoyable for this writer. And this reader.
So, what is the attraction to books of suspense?
The dance.
Good and evil out on the floor, under the soft lights, the music swaying.
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
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