“God made man because he loves stories”

In the upcoming novel, On the Beach, Bo Danser struggles to find a reason to continue his trudge from the devastation of the city of Miami. Covered in filth and radioactive dust, he recalls the Jewish parable he once read in a used bookstore, when such things existed before the fiery gold blast of light.

“God made man because he loves stories”

 It is a Jewish parable famously shared by Elie Wiesel in the preface of his novel, The Gates of the Forest. For Bo Danser, it is the spark he needs to continue step after step, his path and choices telling his story.

 In my work on the Danser novels, those seven wise words also inspire. While I take them slightly out of context, I have the hazy belief that at times the spark of imagination I enjoy is a gift and has a purpose beyond book sales. Of course, it might also be true that I’m completely bat-guano nuts on this, but hey, it adds a lift.

All the best,

Greg

 

Building Roller Coasters

“The Girl in the Hotel” by Gregory French

“Wanna learn how to write an interesting story? Study haunted houses and rollercoasters.”

 – Bo Danser On the Beach

 

For “The Girl in the Hotel” there were months of researching and gathering Ingredients and writing background sketches before the book was started. All my books have begun this way. I recently unpacked the manuscript boxes from the 1988 novel, “Cream of the Wheat,” with its one hundred typed index cards (Yes, as in use of a typewriter). There it all was, the design for a wicked rollercoaster ride for the readers.

The writing of all the Danser novels (the construction of the coasters) can’t begin until I’ve reviewed the ten to twenty thousand words of the Ingredients and submerged fully into the story: its theme, its cast, its Skeleton, which is the initial blueprint of the story, of therollercoaster.

There is one distinct difference between novels and roller coasters. Books rarely circle back to where the ride started (in my works, only “Danser” did. Sort of).

 

With the Danser novels, the Skeleton is planned to a greater or lesser degree, it doesn’t much matter. Why? Because the rails, the story, always go off in their own direction as the cast and events take over.  This is one of the delights of the writing process – when the characters take the wheel and I’m reduced to a lowly member of their typing pool, another passenger along for the ride.

 

I hope you enjoy “The Girl in the Hotel.”

 

All the best,

 

Gregory