Ask the Author: Daniel Cooney
Answered Questions (6)
Daniel Cooney
I was in Tower Books in Sacramento back in 2003 perusing the crime fiction shelves and stumbled across an anthology of true crime stories. I happen to turn to a page about a woman who dressed as a man with a masculine voice who collected frogs in the marshes of the San Francisco Bay during the Gold Rush era and sold them to the French restaurants. She was a street hustler and befriend some prostitutes after she came to her aid during an altercation with their pimp. They stole what money he had, beat him up and together became the first gang of women to go on a crime spree. I was inspired to tell that story but set during the 1920s.
Daniel Cooney
Life, fiction, film--anything that triggers a voice that calls for action to develop a character that has a story to tell.
Daniel Cooney
The Tommy Gun Dolls, Volume Two a 1920s graphic novel that follows Frankie, a crossdressing grifter who befriends a gang of burlesque girls searching for the murderer of their friend and knocking off Mob-owned speakeasies for clues.
The first volume: The Big Knockover is now available for preorder at dancooneyart.com
The first volume: The Big Knockover is now available for preorder at dancooneyart.com
Daniel Cooney
Don't take advice. For me, I have to trust my drive during the process and find my rhythm that bears fruit.
Daniel Cooney
I don't know if it's a thing you can just try to explain--I think the experience of writing a story terrifies and excites me at the same time, like drawing, there's a blank sheet of paper staring back at me and maybe a short while later, there's a semblance of a story developing or character drawn that's come to fruition. I enjoy getting to know the characters I create and where they're going to take me--it's never boring. I don't know what being bored is all about, I can't imagine that with everything this world has to offer in the short time we're here, so let's enjoy it.
Daniel Cooney
I take a walk, go for a drive and come back and that clears up some of the fog for a scene or narrative structure to a story. I tell myself over and over again, "Make the story simple and the characters complicated."
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