Ask the Author: Daniel Pembrey
Answered Questions (4)
Daniel Pembrey
Thank you, Kalinga!
Daniel Pembrey
I have a close sister living in Amsterdam so I’d visit often and struggle to find good crime fiction set there, which surprised me. I felt that Amsterdam lent itself as well to the genre as the neighbouring Scandinavian capitals, where of course crime fiction is huge! So finally I decided to create a Dutch detective character: Henk van der Pol, The Harbour Master (as the series was named).
I lived in the docklands area of Amsterdam for several months to capture his voice and physical world. I spent a lot of time in bars and cafes listening to locals and watching how they interacted. It wasn’t all bad, but getting up at dawn on wintery mornings to peruse the harbour (as Henk does) took some getting used to!
I lived in the docklands area of Amsterdam for several months to capture his voice and physical world. I spent a lot of time in bars and cafes listening to locals and watching how they interacted. It wasn’t all bad, but getting up at dawn on wintery mornings to peruse the harbour (as Henk does) took some getting used to!
Daniel Pembrey
Freedom, in a word. The freedom to create, and the freedom to inhabit a larger imaginative world.
Daniel Pembrey
I think it’s important to write on a regular basis, if only for a small amount of time each day. Writing ability is like a muscle, I feel; the more you use it, the more it can do. With fiction especially, it’s important to write about what inspires you and what you like to read. I also feel that a certain fearless honestly is a hallmark of much great writing, so it can help to write while imagining that no one will ever read it!
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