P.D. Viner's Blog

I just wanted to let all you book lovers know that something special is happening for me later today.
The excellent, From Left to Write book-club are getting together in the on-line ether to discuss my novel, The Last Winter of Dani Lancing.
Book bloggers all over the USA (and even the world) will analyse and dissect my writing. I am a little daunted but very excited. All thoughts and reviews will be available on their site so check it out:

http://www.fromlefttowrite.com/upcomi...

So I have told everyone on Goodreads about my novella, The Sad Man. It takes Tom Bevans (the policeman hero of my novel The Last Winter of Dani Lancing) back into his past to share the case that made his name in the police force. It is a 110 page novella and it is FREE to download... but not so far in the USA. Sorry! But that has all changed as I have posted the first four chapters on wattpad for everyone to read. I will post more chapters next week on Monday 11th November, more on the 18th and then the finale on November 25th.
So pop over to wattpad and enjoy.

http://www.wattpad.com/user/PDViner

It is 8th October 2013. Publication day for America and Canada. Now everyone can read Dani's story... (breathe) It is almost a year since I got the call to say the book was sold... it has been wonderful and yet unreal in so many ways. For twelve months, when people asked (as they do) "So what do you do?" I have replied. "Writer." "Oh what have you had published?" "Er..." It is like the child-birthing classes I attended - on my own, with no pregnant wife (yes the other couples all thought I was a pervert). Being an unpublished but about to be published author is a weird limbo existence. But no longer. Now my friends can actually order my book and even (and this is the best bit) walk into an actual shop and see a copy.
This is a great day. So, let me thank my friends at Crown for making me a real writer and not just one made of wood. And the biggest thanks to those who have read me and written their thoughts about my writing (good and bad) and those who may read me in the future.

FYI: My wife was in hospital for 6 weeks and we had paid for the birthing classes so I thought I should go. When the baby came I had it all down.

I have just had my first Q&A on the UK's Dead Good books site. A great site for all things crime. If you don't know it, check it out. But here is the Q&A in all its glory.


Who or what was the inspiration for The Last Winter of Dani Lancing?

I began writing The Last Winter of Dani Lancing after two major life-changing incidents: I had become a father for the first time and my business had collapsed. Being a dad was amazing but I found myself thinking about what I would do if my daughter were threatened, how I could really hurt someone if they hurt her… how I could actually kill someone if it would save her. Or revenge her. Then the financial crisis wiped away my little audiobook business and I suddenly had a lot more time on my hands and a real desire to be creative… to write. Under my bed I had a box of rejection letters, two novels and loads of short stories covered in red pen but… could I try again to write a publishable novel? Yes. I told myself I would give myself two years to write. But what? The first inspiration for the novel came from reading the Brothers Grimm. I read two stories back-to-back that featured a murder, and as the body was hidden three drops of blood fell to the floor and those drops screamed blue murder. I thought these drops, bearing witness to their own deaths, was like modern DNA profiling – the way our genetic signature is ingrained in every particle of our being. I loved that idea and immediately envisioned an older woman (65), taking a blood sample by force from the man, she believes, had killed her daughter. The idea of this woman hollowed out by grief and yet still so full of rage, twenty years after the crime, made me buzz.

Dani Lancing is an enchanting character – what came first, her character or her story?

The story began with her mother, Patty, and I wrote from her perspective for quite some time, but it was exhausting to be in Patty’s mind as she was so brittle and full of anger. So, before I knew who Dani was, I had the set-up and knew she had been murdered twenty years previously… then it was time to create the character of Dani. Patty was so abrasive that I wanted Dani to be vibrant and funny and so full of life. I wanted her to be gentle with her dad and to be open and vulnerable. I wanted her to be a young woman, to be experimenting with smoking, drinking and sex, to be confused about life but hopeful and excited… to be real. Once I had created her character it felt really tough to put her back into the frame of the story – to snuff out her life before she really got to live it. I am sorry that I murdered Dani Lancing… but I had to do it.

London and Durham are central to the novel. What made you choose these locations, and how much research did you have to do on them?

I was born and grew up in London. I lived most of my early life in South West London, on a housing estate (you can see my block of flats in the movie of Fahrenheit 451). For the novel though, I chose a section of London that I didn’t know very well to base Jim and Patty in: Greenwich. I chose the area because of the visuals – which must sound odd for a novelist – but if you stand at the royal observatory on the crest of a hill and look down at the sweep of the park, to the Thames, London is laid out before you. It is the best view of London and a magnificent back-drop for Dani’s story. My favourite scene in the book is Christmas Day, when Jim and Patty dance in the park, so close to the meridian and the birthplace of time, while London sprawls before them and fireworks explode over their heads. It places the novel so vividly, giving both a great sense of physical space, but also of history. I had visited the Cutty Sark as a child and taken a school trip to the maritime museum but in researching the book I spent a few days walking in the town and was lucky enough to be shown around the observatory by one of the astronomers there and see behind the scenes. I even got to hear about the ghosts. The observatory will feature again in my next book, The Summer of Ghosts.

Once I had decided that Dani was murdered while she was away from her parents at University, I decided I wanted her to go to a top school just below Oxford and Cambridge – because she had failed to gain entrance there. So, even though she was going to a top university, she felt she was a failure and it made her vulnerable. I considered Edinburgh, which is a city I love, but another writer suggested Durham. I had been there many years before and remembered liking the place so I went there and thought it was perfect. Again I was swept away by the visuals of the city, it is gorgeous with the Cathedral at the top and everything else corkscrews down. I loved the market and had to set a scene there but once I entered the cathedral I knew the final scenes of the novel had to be there. It is an amazing building and the incredible wooden driftwood sculptures of Mary and Jesus are there and look so beautiful and creepy at the same time. In total I spent 5 days in Durham over two trips. I took photos and little movies everywhere I went so that I could revisit my trip afterwards and (hopefully) write visually enticing and more-or-less accurate portraits of the city.

Does your writing ever scare you?

I produced the audiobook of The Last Winter of Dani Lancing and directed a full cast of actors. Listening to Michael Maloney, Lucy Robinson and Steven Elder read Jim, Patty and Tom was amazing but sometimes I squirmed. Hearing their beautiful voices carry such anguish and bile was much worse than hearing the words in my head. It is fairly easy to read: Patty screams in pain. But to hear a great actress scream and sob, tears into your gut. While I was editing the scenes I had to wear headphones in the house so my daughter couldn’t hear any of it as I think it would have given her nightmares. None of my writing is excessively violent or really gory but I do write about what sits in the dark places of our minds and in our guts and how we are affected by violence – and listening to the audio has made me think a few times: P. D. Viner, you are a sick puppy.

Where do you write your novels?

I mostly write in coffee shops. I like the buzz of people around me and I am lucky as, In Brighton, there are so many lovely places. Research is a different matter, and for that I go to the library. And our local library is amazing and has a coffee shop in it… so best of both worlds.

Which crime fiction related book, TV programme or film has had the most impact on you or your writing?

When I was thirteen or fourteen I had a run of reading that totally made me love books. I had always read, but a lot of that had been the target Dr Who books, which were fun but not great literature. But I remember that after my Dad left us (when I was thirteen) that I decided I was now grown up and it was time to read adult books. Back-to-back I read The Catcher in the Rye (my Dad’s favourite book) The heart is a lonely hunter and Marathon Man. All three have stayed with me and influenced the writer I am, but it was the last of the three – a thriller masterpiece that I would point to as the crime book to most influence me. It taught me the art of the reveal. I was in the playground of my school, reading while other boys played football when…the truth about Janey was revealed. I was gobsmacked. It was a visceral dig to the belly. In one sentence the whole book was turned on its head by a piece of information that we had seen in plain sight – but had not understood. Janey was… no I won’t tell you. Read it. The film is rubbish compared to the book.

What is your favourite scene or line from any crime fiction book?

I grew up reading Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe novels. They are all wonderful but this is my pick: the final scene from The Long Goodbye. In the novel Philip Marlowe spends the whole time defending his old friend Terry Lennox, only to discover that his friend was guilty and used him as a patsy. I love the way Chandler reveals the truth and that Marlowe lets the betrayal go… he lets Terry Lennox get clean away because they were once friends. It is such a bittersweet ending… in the novel. BUT the reason I chose this scene is because the novel was written in 1953, but twenty years later Robert Altman filmed it and in his version, when Marlowe discovers he has been played by his old friend, he shoots him. It is the antithesis of Chandler’s ending. And it works brilliantly too.

What tip would you give any budding writers?

Write. Get an idea from somewhere – I think opening a book at random and reading a line is great, but get an idea – buy an idea – rent an idea, and then write. A book is 80,000 – 120,000 words and that takes a lot of time and effort. So write. Just keep writing, something will emerge.

At Dead Good we’re passionate about working with Libraries, what is it for you, that makes libraries so special?

Since my daughter’s birth the library has been like a second home, because they are not just repositories of books and DVDs. Our library has weekly baby boogie and story time, homework club and a teenage room. We have seen plays there and film screenings, even concerts. It is a community hub that brings people together in a way that no other place can. I do my research in the library and meet friends there and then there’s the books, audiobooks, DVDs, CDs and graphic novels. And the mobile library, it brings books to you. Wow.

Ebook or paper?

My wife accused me of being fetishistic about books (I was buying a second copy of The world according to Garp) – so you would guess I would opt for paper, but actually, as I get older I find I want a less cluttered house. So if a book is special to me, I want a physical copy, and some books need to be owned as they are so beautiful. But most books I would only read once and don’t need to own so Ebooks are great for that.

If you were a fictional character, how would you write your own death?

Sacrificing myself to save a school of children… and kittens.

And what would your last meal be?

I would drink champagne and eat really good Indian food.

To view the original, go to: http://www.deadgoodbooks.co.uk/index....

"I want to make the audiobook of my novel."
"You mean you want to read it?"
"No. I want to make it. I want to cast all the characters who speak in my head: Dani, Patty, Jim and Tom. I want to cast amazing actors who will bring them to life."
"You sound crazy. No author produces their own audiobook - and budgets don't allow for that. You get one reader. Maybe a minute of non-copyright music."
"Oh."

I have just got home after my final day in the studio, recording the enigmatic Marcus Keyson. Once his voice is cut into the montages it will all be finished. I have produced the audiobook of my own novel, The Last Winter of Dani Lancing. I have cast some great actors including Michael Maloney who I first loved almost 25 years ago in Truly, Madly Deeply.
I also have amazing music from a very talented man, Oded Fried-Gaon and have even included my 5 year old daughter as an actor.

I will post chapter one in the next 48 hours so you can have a listen. Now I just want to sleep.

I sold my novel, The Last Winter of Dani Lancing, last October (2012). Since then I have eagerly been anticipating the day that I would be a published author. But that day is today... but it is not for my novel. Why? Well, when I sold The Last Winter of Dani Lancing, I told my editor (the lovely Gillian Green) that I had done all this research for the book and created decades of back-story for the main characters, including sketching out the case that makes the career of Detective Superintendent Tom Bevans. Gillian said she would love me to write it as a short story and I did - though at 30,000 words and 110 pages it is more of a novella (and took some considerable time to write).
It was released today as a download on Amazon.co.uk as a taster for the novel. And it is FREE. I am really proud of it and (even though I would rather people read it after the novel) it is a great introduction to my writing and the universe of Dani Lancing and Tom Bevans, aka The Sad Man. Here is the blurb.

Police officer Tom Bevans is nicknamed the Sad Man by his colleagues. As a Family Liaison Officer he is always the bearer of bad news - it is his job to tell the friends and family of victims the fate of their loved ones.

But Tom is weighted down by crimes both old and new - haunted by the death of his best friend Dani, whose murder has never been solved.

When a rare opportunity emerges for Tom to take the lead in a horrific murder investigation, he is determined to get justice for the victim. A young girl has been found in her own home, cut so badly - and so carefully - that she has bled to death, leaving a deliberate pool of blood in the shape of angel wings...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Sad-Short...

"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairytales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairytales." Albert Einstein.

This is a great quote and it features in a very good article by Philip Pullman from the Guardian this week, about how reading Grimm's fairytales can stretch a child's imagination.

The reason I have singled it out is that my novel, The Last Winter of Dani Lancing, came directly from reading a fairytale. It was a writing exercise suggested by my friend, the poet, Catherine Smith. I was to read a fairytale and update it to the modern day. Well, I read two stories back-to-back that had someone murdered and in hiding the body, three drops of blood fell to the floor and shouted and screamed that there was a murder. It seemed to me that they bore witness to the crime just as DNA does today. So I began to write about a woman, Patty, who is desperate to discover the man who hurt her daughter twenty years before and so she kidnaps him in order to take a sample of his blood. It was a 500 word short story - maybe I will post it here so you can see it. Three years later it was 101,000 words and about to be published.

So if you want smart kids, and if you want ideas for writing - then read the Brothers Grimm. That is my tip.

Here is the link to the Pullman article:
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandsty...

I am new to goodreads - just today so I am cheating a little by using a blog post I already wrote for read it forward.

I am writing this as I bid a sad farewell to the beautiful town of Harrogate in Yorkshire, England.

A town where 200 acres were set aside, by law, in 1770 so that the residents could enjoy natural beauty in the very heart of the town and appreciate the health-giving properties of the natural springs that bubbled just below the surface.
It is the greenest and cleanest town I have ever visited, and this weekend was home to Europe’s biggest Crime Writing Festival. The hotel that plays host to the heart of the event is the very hotel from where, in 1926, Agatha Christie went missing for eleven days.
So, I have just had four days of delicious murders, forensic dissection and labyrinthine mystery. My own book, The Last Winter of Dani Lancing is due for release on October 8, 2013 and I felt a bit of a fraud – a crime writer still in his cocoon waiting to emerge as a butterfly (or a death’s-head moth).
But I was amazed by the warm welcome and generosity of the other authors, and the incredible knowledge and questioning minds of the other crime readers. It was truly inspiring and I had the ultimate honor of the great Ian Rankin shaking my hand and saying: “Your book’s sitting on my bed stand – I’ve heard great things about it.”
I almost died – but then Ian Rankin would have been my killer! But it did lead to the question: What’s on my bed stand?
Well, as of tonight, it is all change as I have been inspired this weekend to buy a truck load of new books. So here is what now sits at the top of my MUST READ pile.
Mark Billingham’s Rush of Blood. What happens when a couple get friendly with another couple on holiday and later wish they had never met them?
Lauren Beukes’s The Shining Girls. Time traveling serial killer. It will either be brilliant or silly – I am betting on brilliant.
Belinda Bauer’s Rubberneckers. Narrated, both by a man with Aspergers and a cadaver. Last week it won the CWA Dagger in the Library Award and this weekend the author strangled me to death for a photo shoot (she seemed to enjoy it a little too much).
The most inspiring talk of the week was given by the godfather of Tartan Noir, William McIlvanney, who has been out of print for years and his Laidlaw series is now re-issued. All three are in the pile now, and I was totally charmed by the man.
His advice to new authors was: “We all serve our private Gods and have strange loyalties.” Yes we do.
The last book on the bed stand is one that has been there for many months and I read it at least once a week. Duckling Gets a Cookie by Mo Willems. My daughter loves it and I love reading it to her.
It is a crime novel . . . of sorts. Okay, time to read some more.

Here is the link to the original post: http://www.readitforward.com/whats-on...