Author Chat with D.H. Dublin

Author Chat with D.H. Dublin

Do you have a background in medical science? Your descriptions of the forensic DNA process is so exact, where did you learn this?

Thank you. I try very hard to be as accurate as possible. I don't have a background in medical science, but as a writer I take the research part of my job very seriously.

I do work with a forensics professional, but the vast majority of the research I do myself. Research is important to most fiction to one degree or another, because even if you're writing about something that is not particularly technical, it is still important to get it right. Sometimes the smallest factual inaccuracy can do a lot of damage to the reader's relationship with a book. It can really take the reader out of the book. With forensic thrillers, research is hugely important, because a technical error can undermine the whole premise of the book, and that can be disastrous.

I do a lot of research throughout the writing process: researching the initial idea, fleshing out the specifics, and then also researching not just the techniques and principles involved, but also the mundane details that are essential to realistically depicting a process or technology -- does it ping or buzz, how much time is there between step three and step four, what color are the reagents that are added, things like that.

The research usually starts on the internet, then leads to other texts, and ideally that leads to interviews with experts, professionals in the field, and manufacturers, and sometimes visits to facilities. There's usually at least a little bit of first hand research, and in Freezer Burn there was quite a bit. I found myself with an excuse to go out and buy a huge container of liquid nitrogen. That was a lot of fun.

One of the best aspects of all that research is that often when I am researching something specific for one book, I come across something unrelated that sparks an idea for a separate book. It's fascinating stuff and a lot of fun, but it is a lot of work.

Author Chat with D.H. Dublin

Author Chat with D.H. Dublin

How about police/investigative work? You seem to have a knack for writing very realistic law enforcement interactions, from crime scenes down to jurisdiction disputes.

Again, thanks. I have done research and interviews in that area as well, and you take what you learn from real cops and from fictional cops and you temper that with what you know about people. I think it's extremely important for a writer to be able to put themselves in other people's shoes, whether it's cops or criminals, or men or women, to be able look at the situations they face and the baggage they bring with them and create a realistic reaction.

Author Chat with D.H. Dublin

Author Chat with D.H. Dublin

So I have to be honest, I had trouble at first getting into the book because it was extremely graphic. I actually had to put it down and think about unicorns and princesses for a couple of minutes in order to find the gumption to keep reading. You definitely achieved a strong reaction from me! The thing is, I knew that if I could "suck it up" so to speak and get through the gore, the story behind it would be worth my while. And it was! What I'd like to know is why you chose to start off with such graphic detail? Shock value? Preparing the reader for the "anything is possible" attitude? Give us some insight behind being a "blood bard" as you've been dubbed by Philadelphia Weekly.

Frankly, unicorns and princesses scare the bejesus out of me, but to each his own. I was actually a little conflicted about the gore factor myself when I started writing the series. I knew that it might turn some people off, but after talking to my editor about it, we agreed that certain scenes had to have impact, and for better or worse, the level of what it takes to have an impact has changed over the last few years. Something that would have been really pushing the envelope not that long ago would be considered quite tame today. One of the biggest shocks to me when I first started doing readings after Body Trace came out was how unaffected most people were by scenes that I thought were pretty intense. And I do think it is important to establish a tone and set some ground rules and convey the idea that yes, death is icky and unpleasant, and even though these characters have become inured to it to some extent, it is still pretty intense. One of the things that I like about writing from Madison's point of view is that, even though she has a background in medicine, and is used to cadavers, etc., she is still fairly new to this, and it affects her. She might not run away screaming, but she's no grizzled veteran, either. If those scenes weren't as graphic, it would be more difficult to convey that distinction.

Author Chat with D.H. Dublin

Author Chat with D.H. Dublin

I find it very intriguing that you chose to write from a females perspective. What motivated you to do this? You write Boone and Johnson just as well as Madison so it can't be that you do one better than the other.

That decision actually came from conversations with my editor at the time, Katie Day at Berkley. I was a little nervous about it at first, but definitely intrigued by the challenge. I had written passages from female perspectives before, and secondary plotlines, but not an entire book. I thought it would be interesting and it has been.

From a process standpoint, one thing that I think helped me a great deal in establishing Madison's voice and her point of view is the fact that I tend to outline extensively before I start writing a first draft. When you are writing something with a mystery at it's core, especially when forensics are a key element, it is important to have a solid outline. In addition to the structural benefits, putting in all that preliminary work meant that by the time I started writing the first draft, I had already spent a lot of time getting to know Madison and thinking in terms of her point of view, enough that I really felt like I knew her well.

I didn't get bogged down wondering "Is this what a woman would think or do?" – I was already thinking in terms of what Madison would think or do, and I understood her well enough that I could answer those questions.

It helped a lot that Madison was the kind of woman that made sense to me. It would have been much more difficult for me if she had been fashion-obsessed or a domestic diva, it would have been much harder, because I don't share any of those reference points. Just like with the male characters, it would be harder for me to write from the point of view of someone who is super macho and totally unconflicted. It's a much bigger shift from my personal point of view. That said, I think if you're a writer, you really have to be able to think from points of view that are different from your own. If you can't write from a certain type of character's point of view, how can you get inside them enough to depict them from the outside?

Author Chat with D.H. Dublin

Author Chat with D.H. Dublin

Madison is a great protagonist. She's strong and almost gruff when necessary but definitely feminine and soft at the core. I like that you didn't get detailed in your description of her physical appearance. We know she's good looking but that's not what her character is all about. She seems conflicted about her past, unsure of where her future lies, but one thing is clear - she has a knack for the job. Are any of these traits based on someone you know? How did Madison evolve in your mind?

Thanks. I'm very fond of Madison. I tend not to base my characters on specific people, they are informed by a lifetime of people, so there are probably lots of bits and pieces of different people in there. You're right, she is attractive and she knows she is, but only in a matter-of-fact way, and you're right, that's not what she's about. She is also confident in her intelligence, yet she is wracked with enough insecurities that she is likeable and sympathetic.

One of the things that I find compelling about her as a character is that in many ways she is unaware of what is going on beneath her surface, and I think to some extent she has preferred it that way. She has endured some pretty awful things in her life, and she has built some pretty solid defenses. She is starting to deal with some of that, but she has a long way to go. In some ways she is very self-aware, but there are parts of her that she keeps at a safe distance from herself and from everyone else.

As for her evolution as a character, I had a pretty good idea of her back story, and that's a big part of it. I think Madison was pretty well-formed from the beginning, and again, the time I spent outlining and preparing, and even researching with her in mind, that whole time I was gaining deeper and subtler understanding of who she was.

Author Chat with D.H. Dublin

Author Chat with D.H. Dublin

My favorite secondary character is Spoons. He was so real to me that when he "waddles" from his exam room after first seeing "the mummy" and heads off to a bar to drink away his spook, I thought I could reach out and hug him. Do you have a favorite character in this story?

I have a lot of affection for Spoons as well. He's a guy who has all these problems, but he cares about Madison, and she cares about him, too. I like the way their friendship has developed, the way they kind of look out for each other.

I also like Tommy Parker. His relationship with Madison has developed a lot, too. His first interaction with her, on her way to her first day on the job, he totally hit on her. Then as a coworker, he was initially one of the hardest on her, and I could understand why he was, too; from his point of view, it made sense. But she has proven herself and now he thinks of himself as kind of a mentor. He'd like to be a mentor "with benefits," because he is still a dog.

One thing that I like about both Spoons and Parker is that they can both be pretty funny. It's interesting how once you develop a voice for a character as having a sense of humor, you start to channel their quips and think of remarks in their sense of humor. I tend to be a bit of smart-ass, but the remarks that Tommy Parker comes up with are just different from what I would come up with in the same situation.

Author Chat with D.H. Dublin

Author Chat with D.H. Dublin

Spoiler alert! Spoiler alert! Do NOT Read THIS BOX of the Dublin author chat unless you don't mind knowing the end of the book!

One of the underlying themes of this story is father-son relationships. Ralph is the illegitimate son but is obviously closer to his father's heart while Toby on the surface appears to be the favorite with the big house and more money left to him in the will. In the end turns out Ralph seems to be the better of the two. Did his father know this? What does it say about our perceptions of "monsters" like we assume Ralph to be?

That's a very interesting question. It's not an unusual theme in crime fiction, but I think it's always fascinating when you scratch at the surface and start finding that things are a lot different from how they seem.

I also like how Madison's perception of people changes. Someone might turn out to be more sympathetic, but still a sociopathic killer.

I found Donny Craig to be a really interesting character, even though he is a minor one. Madison initially sees him as a monster, and he does have a lot of blood on his hands, but still, at the end, Madison can see some redeeming qualities and feel some sympathy toward him.

I had a lot of fun with the whole with the whole MacClaren family dynamic. Ralph is definitely closer to his father's heart, probably in large part because he grew up knowing his father for the man he really was; he knew Robert MacClaren before he developed the veneer of respectability, when he was still being true to his thug nature. Also, I think Ralph grew up in a world that was pretty similar to the world his father grew up in. When Robert MacClaren tried to give Toby all the things he never had, he was creating an environment in which they had totally different frames of reference.

One of the things that intrigued me about that whole relationship was how, even though Toby had all the benefits and the legitimacy, he was still kind of on the outside, because he didn't share that bond that Ralph had with their father. I think that's where Toby's resentment starts that, combined with his sense of entitlement, leads to him being able to do the things he does. And Robert definitely didn't trust Toby, but it's hard to say entirely if that was perceptivity on Robert's part, or if that mistrust was initially based from an early age on their different frames of reference, and if that mistrust was self-fulfilling.

Author Chat with D.H. Dublin

Author Chat with D.H. Dublin

Is Philly really like it is in your books?

Philadelphia is a great city, and it's a great city to write about. I love the history and the grittiness and the unique flavor of Philadelphia.

From a writing standpoint, one of the best things about the city is that it has such a variety of locales within city limits. When you are writing any kind of police procedural, you have to be cognizant of jurisdiction, and certain things have to happen within city limits in order to be the in the proper jurisdiction. One of the great things about Philadelphia is this amazing variety of neighborhoods and settings, all within city limits. If I picture one scene on a tree-lined street with big houses and another scene on a block that is bighted and run down, I can find both of those things within a couple of miles, or sometimes just a few blocks, and it's all inside the city limits

Author Chat with D.H. Dublin

Author Chat with D.H. Dublin

You write under a pen name. Why did you choose to do this?

I also write under my own name, but my other fiction is not forensic in nature. Even though my other books have not yet been published, I use the pen name to keep them distinct from the D. H. Dublin books.

Queenie D: What projects are you working on right now?

D.H. Dublin: I'm working on some Jon McGoran stuff right now.

I just finished a stand-alone thriller, tentatively titled Kill Code, and I'm talking to some publishers about that. I've also been writing a few short stories, which is something I hadn't done in a long, long time. I had a kind of noir crime/sci-fi short story called "Grounders" that was recently produced as a podcast for the website www.variantfrequencies.com and that was a great experience. They have some great fiction on their site, so it was an honor to be included, but it was also great hearing my work being read and interpreted by someone else. I'm also working on a couple of other projects, including another thriller, and a couple of other ideas. It's tough sometimes when the ideas start piling up and there's just not enough time to write everything you want to write, but it's a lot of fun trying.

Author Chat with D.H. Dublin