Ask the Author: Dan Eaton
Answered Questions (3)
Dan Eaton
I'm writing my third novel, a domestic thriller set in NZ's remote and beautiful Marlborough Sounds, about a family looking to escape the city for a simpler life in the countryside. Obviously it won't quite play out they way they dreamed it would!
I'm also adapting No White Lies into a screenplay, working with producers in the US and UK.
I'm also adapting No White Lies into a screenplay, working with producers in the US and UK.
Dan Eaton
No White Lies is not a true story, as claimed in the dedication. The characters
are entirely fictional. But it was inspired by real life, in particular my experiences as a foreign correspondent and later national affairs editor of a daily newspaper. Journalism is a profession where the pressures of competition are intense—the pressure to write a catchy intro, to overstate, to blur the line between fact and fiction. It is a profession that is not without blame for the world in which we find ourselves.
I began writing this story during the New Zealand winter of 2016, and often
found myself sitting in front of my computer screen wondering if my plot was too farfetched to be believable. Was I in La-la land, out of touch with reality? Sometimes it felt like it. But watching events unfold on the other side of the globe, as Americans elected a reality TV star to lead the free world and Britain chose to leave Europe, I was not short on reminders of the old adage, variously attributed to Mark Twain and Lord Byron, that truth is stranger than fiction. While this is a novel, it acknowledges two true stories in particular that influenced the narrative. One played out in Baghdad, Washington and London, and the other in Ruatoki, a small Māori community in rural New Zealand with a long history of resistance to authority. In New Zealand’s history of race relations there is much to be proud of, but this second story is a reminder we are nowhere near as good as some like to think.
are entirely fictional. But it was inspired by real life, in particular my experiences as a foreign correspondent and later national affairs editor of a daily newspaper. Journalism is a profession where the pressures of competition are intense—the pressure to write a catchy intro, to overstate, to blur the line between fact and fiction. It is a profession that is not without blame for the world in which we find ourselves.
I began writing this story during the New Zealand winter of 2016, and often
found myself sitting in front of my computer screen wondering if my plot was too farfetched to be believable. Was I in La-la land, out of touch with reality? Sometimes it felt like it. But watching events unfold on the other side of the globe, as Americans elected a reality TV star to lead the free world and Britain chose to leave Europe, I was not short on reminders of the old adage, variously attributed to Mark Twain and Lord Byron, that truth is stranger than fiction. While this is a novel, it acknowledges two true stories in particular that influenced the narrative. One played out in Baghdad, Washington and London, and the other in Ruatoki, a small Māori community in rural New Zealand with a long history of resistance to authority. In New Zealand’s history of race relations there is much to be proud of, but this second story is a reminder we are nowhere near as good as some like to think.
Dan Eaton
Believe in yourself. Stay strong. Grow a thick skin and keep writing. Everyone has an opinion but not everyone is right. The growing stack of rejection slips from mainstream publishers for my first novel, The Secret Gospel, was pretty disheartening. It's now sold more than 30,000 copies, and counting!
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