Daniel Pyle

This week’s author interview spotlights Daniel Pyle. Author of the crime fiction, suspense, and thriller novel, Dismember, Daniel brings a new twist to this genre.

Thanks for joining us, Daniel.

WCP: As I stated above, Dismember seems to twist the typical plot line for this genre. From Dave Abbott’s background, one would expect he’d be scarred. What person wouldn’t be after losing their entire family in a horrific car crash? But that he would recreate his family in the manner he does, is rather, um, frightening. What inspired this hair-raising tale?

Daniel: It all started with a trip to the ice-cream parlor… No, just kidding, but wouldn’t that be funny? In all seriousness, the idea started where the book does: with the car crash. My family loves Colorado; we go there any chance we get. While we drove those curvy mountain roads, I would sometimes wonder what might happen if we crashed and I was the only survivor. Later, I generalized the idea: what if a family crashed, I thought, and the youngest son was the only survivor, and there was no one around to find him? The idea stuck with me–I could really picture that poor kid out there in the woods, crying out for help, maybe dying from exposure or getting eaten up by animals–but it wasn’t really a whole idea. Not then. The thing didn’t gel until Mr. Boots popped into my head, and there wasn’t really enough material for a novel until I considered the possibility that maybe Davy was a little unbalanced before he ran into the man in the muddy boots.

WCP: How much influence did the man who found Dave have on Dave’s descent into what appears to be sociopathic insanity?

Daniel: In my mind, Davy would have grown up to be a little twisted either way. The quiet boy who wet the bed would have killed bugs and birds, escalated to the neighbor’s dog. Maybe he would have set a few fires or robbed a liquor store when he got older. But without Mr. Boots, I think that’s probably as far as it would have gone. In Dismember, I didn’t go into a lot of detail about the things Mr. Boots did to Davy because I felt that had all been done before. I didn’t want to rewrite Misery. But Mr. Boots does expose Davy to death and isolation very early in the kid’s life. He takes Davy’s natural differences and nurtures them into outright insanity. I also didn’t want the book to be a poorly disguised psychological study; I think that’s also been done. Instead of showing you the whole cause and effect relationship, I wanted to focus on the end results and how they, in turn, affected the rest of the book’s characters.

WCP: Unless this is a spoiler question, what was Dave’s breaking point?

Daniel: My gut instinct is to say that he doesn’t really have a breaking point, that he breaks over a long period of time spanning many separate events, but as I think back, I remember the flashback scene where little Davy finds his dead family rotting in the car (which Mr. Boots took from the scene of the accident and hid) and realizes their deaths are all his fault. If there is one specific moment that really shapes that kid’s life, I think that’s it.

WCP: Do you think there are any redeeming qualities to Dave?

Daniel: Honestly, although Dave often scared and sickened me, I found myself occasionally feeling very sorry for him. Which is only right. I don’t think I could write a character whom I flat-out hated. Dave’s loyalty to his family, although skewed by his madness, is something I can respect.

WCP: Do you share any of Dave’s traits? Or, does he share any of yours?

Dismember by Daniel Pyle

Daniel: The toothpick chewing. I have a filling in one of my molars that has a small gap. Food is constantly getting stuck in there, and I’m always on the lookout for a toothpick. I don’t remember for sure, but I was probably chewing a toothpick of my own when I first wrote one into Dave’s hand. Also, I love my family very much (I have a wife, a daughter, and a new baby on the way), and I think I might go a little crazy if anything ever happened to them. I probably wouldn’t go on any killing sprees, but you never know.

WCP: Before we move onto other questions, would Dave like to add anything?

Daniel: Hang on, let me see if he’s around. I think I heard him out back earlier, chopping some wood. Okay, here he is:

that wasnt wud I wuz choping

Okay, me again. Wow, our spelling lessons clearly haven’t been as effective as I thought.

WCP: This book combines three genres, combining genres is more and more common these days. What is it about these three genres that appeal to you? And have you ventured in your writing into other genres, or even considered it?

Daniel: If you’d asked me what genre Dismember fit into at any point in the writing process, I probably would have called it Suspense with a touch of Horror. It really wouldn’t have occurred to me to file it under Crime Fiction, although I can see how it fits. As far as what appeals to me, I’d have to say it’s the visceral aspect of those genres: the fear, the anger, the worry. To me, these are some of the baser emotions running through us all, but they’re the ones we don’t see every day, the ones people try to hide. That’s what I like to read and write about.

WCP: Crime fiction, at least, seems to be on the rise as far as popularity goes. Do you have any favorite authors in this field? Or ones that have influenced you more than others?

Daniel: I love Lee Child. His Jack Reacher books are some of the most well-written and entertaining novels I’ve ever read, and Reacher is one of my all-time favorite characters.

WCP: Before we move onto other questions, surely Dave would like to add something more?

Daniel: Hold on, he’s out chopping…whatever it was he was chopping again. Okay, here:

my lawer has informed me that I wuz in fact choping wud no more questuns

Poor Dave. But we can’t really blame him for his poor writing skills, can we? I mean, he never had any formal education. Plus, I think he’s worn out from all the chopping.

WCP: Do you have anything else in the works?

Daniel: Always. I have three short stories going, a young-adult project almost half finished, and I recently went to work on a new novel. My last publication was a flash fiction story called “Grounds,” and I have a poem that will be appearing in an anthology published by Shroud Publishing at some point in the not-too-distant future.

WCP: Now for some fun questions:
What about writing life/being an author took you by surprise?

Daniel: Probably the length of time it took to get to the point where I was writing publishable stuff. I started writing my first (unpublished) novel when I was 14 years old. Back then, I thought I’d be a New York Times Bestselling author before I got my driver’s license. Now, fifty years later…no, just kidding again, I’m only 27. But still, thirteen years–that was a long time to have to keep up my morale.

WCP: Of the following fictional characters, which do you think you share the most traits with: Sherlock Holmes, Freddie Kruger, Jack Ryan, or Peter Pan? And what are those characteristics?

Daniel: I have to go with a combination of Peter Pan and Sherlock Holmes. Like Pan, I don’t especially want to grow up. A lot of grown-ups seem to lose their sense of wonder, their imaginations. Those are things I cherish and want to hold to as long as possible. Like Holmes, I think a lot and don’t tend to be overly emotional. Plus, I’m wicked smart. =)

WCP: Chili dogs or pizza?

Daniel: That’s easy: chili-dog-flavored pizza. Mmmm.

WCP: If you could sit down and have dinner with anyone, living or dead, what would it be and what would you eat?

Daniel: Well, clearly we’d eat chili-dog-flavored pizza, so it would have to be someone who’s not a vegetarian.
Actually, I’d love to sit down and talk to Stephen King for a while. He seems like a very interesting person, and he’s a hell of a writer. I’m not crazy enough to think some of his magic might rub off on me, but I’d definitely like to hear his take on some things. And if you’re reading, Mr. King, we can even watch a Red Sox game while we eat/talk. Eh? What do you say? Pizza’s on me.

WCP: Any last words? Um, for the interview, that is. (grin)

Daniel: Rosebud…

Wild Child Books by Daniel Pyle:

Dismember by Daniel Pyle

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 11:09 pm and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.