Peter Swanson
The Girl With A Clock for A Heart is a book that tells two separate but linked stories, happening twenty years apart. In each story, there’s mystery, danger, several murders, and a central romance between my two main characters, George Foss and Liana Decter.
Please tell us about the characters of Liana and George.
George and Liana first meet as freshman students at a college in Connecticut. They fall in love, and become inseparable. When Liana doesn’t return to college for the spring semester, George travels to her hometown of Florida to discover what’s happened with her. He finds out she’s a very complicated, possibly dangerous person. In that way, she is the opposite of George, who is a very regular guy, uncomplicated, but simply madly in love with Liana.
The book has already been optioned for a movie, so how did this make you feel when you found out?
Thrilled, obviously, but well aware that an option is no guarantee that the film will actually get made. I think I was just happy that James Marsh, the writer/director attached, had read my book and liked it. I had already seen his excellent documentary, Man on Wire, but I did check out his recent films, including Shadow Dancer, and Red Riding, and was very impressed. If he does make the movie, I think it will be great.
What is the appeal of the thriller genre for you as a writer?
You know that cliché, that writers should “write what they know,” well, I think it should really be that writers should “write what they read.” I’ve always loved thrillers and mysteries, and about ninety percent of my book-reading time is spent reading them. So when I decided to try my hand at writing novels, all my ideas were thriller-ideas. I’m plagiarizing Kingsley Amis here, I think, but I just don’t trust a book that doesn’t kill someone off in the first chapter.
How much has your degree in Creative writing helped you to write this book?
My degree in creative writing was primarily focused on poetry, so not much, actually. I took a couple of short fiction workshops and they were helpful—just getting feedback—but the most help I got was from my screenplay-writing workshop, in which the professor focused on story and plot elements. These are so important in writing genre fiction. You can create great characters, and write beautifully, but neither of those will save a dull storyline.
You regularly blog about film, so what is your favourite movie?
I’m so tempted to cheat here, and mention a few, but you only asked for one, so I’ll pick Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes from 1938. I think it’s perfection. It has an ingenious plot, a romance with chemistry, huge laughs, and technical mastery—it really is one of Hitchcock’s great achievements. It was filmed in the studio but the viewer never doubts they are watching characters on a moving train. Film snobs would argue that the film has no subtext, and they are correct, but who needs subtext when you have Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave.
To what extent does your passion for movies translate to your writing?
My passion for movies is very tied in with my passion for reading. I love to be told stories, and there is nothing better than watching a film that totally transports you, or reading a book that makes the rest of the world disappear. As a writer, I’m just trying to create a book that will grab a reader and entertain them.
Your also write poems, so do you have a preference between this and novel writing?
To be honest, I don’t write many poems these days. I’ve run out of ideas, I think. I’d like to get back into it, but it’s a hard thing to force. So, right now, writing novels is hugely preferable because I’m able to do it, and I do like spending a whole year or so in the same fictional universe.
What is next for you?
I’ve finished a second thriller. It’s called The Lonely Lives of Murderers, and it’s about what happens when a man and a woman meet on a plane and start confessing their darkest secrets to one another.