Ask the Author: Daniel Hecht
Answered Questions (9)
Daniel Hecht
Hi, Peggy -- I am so sorry you haven't received your copy of The Body Below. I don't know what might have happened, and I have nothing to do with book sales or shipping. But I suggest you contact Megan Bixler at Blackstone: megan.bixler@blackstonepublishing.com . She's very helpful and will no doubt get one to you pronto. Thanks for entering the contest -- I hope you enjoy the book! -- Daniel
Daniel Hecht
I have already written about a couple of personal mysteries -- including my first novel, Skull Session, and my most recent, The Body Below.
Skull Session was based on the time I was called by an old family friend to see if I could fix up her hilltop mansion in New York, which she had fled from. Now in California, she had heard it had been vandalized -- could I check on it? I did -- and was appalled at the extreme violence of the vandalism, much of which seemed to have required superhuman strength to accomplish. Also mysterious to me was the fact that she had fled leaving all her possessions -- priceless antiques, mink coats, jewelry, family photos -- there to be stolen or ruined. I puzzled about it for years before writing Skull Session, and my descriptions of the house are entirely true.
The Body Below, published August 29, 2023, is based on a terrifying event that happened to me while swimming. I used to swim long distances in Vermont's mountain lakes, and I was well out on a four-mile swim when I kicked something under the water. It was heavy, with the density and resilience of human flesh. Horrified, I peered underwater to see a large object spinning in slo-mo away from my kick and disappearing into the silty water -- something that had to be a human body, wrapped in a blue-white shroud. At the time, a woman had gone missing from a town 15 miles away, and the police believed she'd been murdered and dumped in a reservoir near her home. They had drained that reservoir, finding nothing, several days before I kicked my mysterious object. All I could think at the time was, "They drained the wrong reservoir!" The event stayed with me for years, until I finally wrote about it in "The Body Below"!
Skull Session was based on the time I was called by an old family friend to see if I could fix up her hilltop mansion in New York, which she had fled from. Now in California, she had heard it had been vandalized -- could I check on it? I did -- and was appalled at the extreme violence of the vandalism, much of which seemed to have required superhuman strength to accomplish. Also mysterious to me was the fact that she had fled leaving all her possessions -- priceless antiques, mink coats, jewelry, family photos -- there to be stolen or ruined. I puzzled about it for years before writing Skull Session, and my descriptions of the house are entirely true.
The Body Below, published August 29, 2023, is based on a terrifying event that happened to me while swimming. I used to swim long distances in Vermont's mountain lakes, and I was well out on a four-mile swim when I kicked something under the water. It was heavy, with the density and resilience of human flesh. Horrified, I peered underwater to see a large object spinning in slo-mo away from my kick and disappearing into the silty water -- something that had to be a human body, wrapped in a blue-white shroud. At the time, a woman had gone missing from a town 15 miles away, and the police believed she'd been murdered and dumped in a reservoir near her home. They had drained that reservoir, finding nothing, several days before I kicked my mysterious object. All I could think at the time was, "They drained the wrong reservoir!" The event stayed with me for years, until I finally wrote about it in "The Body Below"!
Daniel Hecht
Geoff was my best friend for many years, and his obsessive interest in so many things catalyzed my own curiosity about the world. When we were kids, he got me into dinosaurs, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and geology; later in life, his roving mind awakened me to blacksmithing, the Zulu Wars, motorcycles, and so much else. I loved his visits here to Vermont, when he'd bring artifacts to show me from his trips to South Africa, and he'd stomp back and forth in our living room, regaling us with story and opinion and his own poetic descriptions of things. His manic enthusiasm and obsessional fascination for certain topics taught me the power of such enthusiasms and gave me license to do likewise. He alone understood the humor hidden in the grotesque of my book "Puppets," and I always knew he loved me. I hope he knew how much I loved him, despite the miles between us. I always told him he should write about his adventures and ideas -- he'd get rich! I have missed him terribly since his death.
Daniel Hecht
I'm working on a very exciting project that will be published next year but has been fifteen years in the making. The book has taken a number of forms over the years, but it's still, essentially, a magical realist take on the amazing artists' community I was born into. Those astonishing people, in their rare and fabulous historical moment, the degree of their rebellion against convention, the hilarious, tragic, and seemingly unbelievable things they did: This is the book I've wanted to write for 20 years.
Daniel Hecht
I don't believe the old saw "Write what you know" -- I could easily make an argument for the opposite! I suggest that people write about life as they live it and as they imagine it. Don't write from the basis of a reader's experience. Use the feelings, sensations, thoughts, and images that stem from interacting with the real world.
Daniel Hecht
It obligates me to keep my eyes open and my mind moving. I am always hungry for new insight that might apply to what I'm writing -- even the tiniest details. I walk through life as a sort of spy, observing and mentally recording, and this attitude can inject a sense of adventure into even the most mundane activities like waiting in line at the grocery store. The world is full of surprises!
Daniel Hecht
I have a page on my computer that says HAVE FUN WITH THIS! If I'm stuck on some part of a book, it's usually because I'm constraining myself in some way -- I'm not saying what's really on my mind. So I (try) to make myself loosen up, write what comes, and, no matter how weird, accept it as part of the novel writing process. Another stumped-writer technique: Don't write for a while; instead, go do something new. Refresh the spring at its source.
Daniel Hecht
I varies every time! I have written seven novels now, and yet I cannot claim to have the foggiest clue as to how to write them . . . As strange as it may seem, I based Skull Session on real events that happened to me. I wrote The Babel Effect because I wanted to explore the origins of violence and altruism. . . In the Cree Black series, I wanted to explore ideas of the supernatural, or at least the psychology of the supernatural, and I wanted an excuse to visit the marvelous places I set the novels in.
On Brassard's Farm derived from my experiences living far out in the woods on Hooker Mountain, near Peacham, Vermont, and from a desire to explore the varied dimensions of love -- romantic and otherwise.
More and more, what inspires me is a central feeling or sense of what's true and beautiful. Of course, I don't always know where that center is, so I sort of circle it, spiraling in toward it through intuitive guesses. When get a clear sense of it -- then I get excited and the novel starts to write itself! It's the greatest feeling . . .
On Brassard's Farm derived from my experiences living far out in the woods on Hooker Mountain, near Peacham, Vermont, and from a desire to explore the varied dimensions of love -- romantic and otherwise.
More and more, what inspires me is a central feeling or sense of what's true and beautiful. Of course, I don't always know where that center is, so I sort of circle it, spiraling in toward it through intuitive guesses. When get a clear sense of it -- then I get excited and the novel starts to write itself! It's the greatest feeling . . .
Daniel Hecht
On Brassard's Farm, due out in April, 2018, is based on my own experiences living in deep woods and on experiences of working on farms art various times in my life. I have the greatest respect for America's small farmers, and wanted to portray their struggles and strengths in a moving story. I really feel that their spirit is the muscle and bone of our country, and that whatever upheavals we go through, they'll stick it through. It's good to remember!
Also, I wanted to offer a different perspective on what "love" is, and therefore what a "love story" can be. In my view, the love Ann finds and the way she comes to it are more realistic than the conventions of too many novels, TV shows, movies. The real thing is so much better than that!
I had a strong sense of Ann Turner, my main character. In many ways, she resembles Cree Black, the heroine of City of Masks, Land of Echoes, and Bones of the Barbary Coast -- she's empathetic, open to experiencing magic, an outsider, afraid yet facing down her fear. Her voice was always clear in my head.
Also, I wanted to offer a different perspective on what "love" is, and therefore what a "love story" can be. In my view, the love Ann finds and the way she comes to it are more realistic than the conventions of too many novels, TV shows, movies. The real thing is so much better than that!
I had a strong sense of Ann Turner, my main character. In many ways, she resembles Cree Black, the heroine of City of Masks, Land of Echoes, and Bones of the Barbary Coast -- she's empathetic, open to experiencing magic, an outsider, afraid yet facing down her fear. Her voice was always clear in my head.
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