Interviews

Rapid Fire: A Chat with Author Daniel Pyne

From time to time we like to ask authors some pretty quick, pretty personal rapid-fire questions. Today, author Daniel Pyne is in the hot seat. His new book, Water Memory, is out now!

AM or PM?

Wake up and go, or gotta get your motor running?

Wake up and wonder if I have a motor.

TV, Books, Movies or Podcasts?

Books and movies. Podcasts while cross country driving. TV is for watching sports, mostly.

Quiet night in or big night out on the town?

Big nights in, quiet nights on the town.

Favorite writing drink?

Café latte.

Must-have snack for writer’s block?

Snacks don’t help.

Lounge by the pool or hike a mountain?

Both. Either.

Hike, run, walk, nap?

Hike or walk … then nap.

‘Personal revenge’ or ‘karma will get them’?

Life is unfair, move on.

Favorite way to sweat?

Skiing.

Online shopper or gotta try things on?

Not a shopper.

No. 1 Bucket List wish?

Not ever needing a bucket list.

All-time favorite comedy movie?

I really don’t do all-time favorites but, okay: Dr. Strangelove.

All-time favorite drama movie?

8 1/2. Tentatively.

Dark, milk or white chocolate?

Dark.

Favorite crunchy snack?

Salt and vinegar potato chips.

Do you have a nickname?

Pyne-o, in college.

Least favorite holiday and why?

Halloween: performance anxiety.

Best alcoholic beverage?

Gin gimlet.

Favorite meal ever?

Dinner in Venice, Italy with director Jonathon Demme and his wife Joanne.

Something no one knows about you that you feel you want to divulge?

I can’t roll Rs.

Any tattoos?

Not that I know of.

Aside from phone, laptop, writing device (or charger!) what is something you can’t function without on a day-to-day basis?

Love.

Best way to relax?

Watching soccer, listening to music, the sun setting anywhere.

Title of your next book or work-in-progress?

Vital Lies.

About the Author:

Daniel Pyne was born in Chicago, raised in Colorado, educated at Stanford University, and now lives in Los Angeles and Santa Fe with his wife, brown dogs, fat cat, and an extremely sullen box turtle his grown children left in their wake. He is the author of three novels: Fifty Mice, Twentynine Palms, and A Hole in the Ground Owned by a Liar. A fourth, Catalina Eddy, is scheduled for publication in March of 2017. Among Pyne’s film credits are the remake of The Manchurian Candidate, Pacific Heights, Any Given Sunday and Fracture. His latest movie, Backstabbing for Beginners, will be released next year. Pyne’s television work spans from the seminal hipster cop show Miami Vice to the new Amazon TV series Bosch. Pyne has worked as a silk screen printer, journalist, cartoonist, advertising copywriter, screenwriter, director, and occasionally teaches writing at UCLA’s graduate school of film. Learn more at www.danielpyne.com.

Water Memory by Daniel Pyne, out now!

A fast-paced, page-turning thriller that contemplates the consequences of motherhood, memory, and crime as a commodity.

Black ops specialist Aubrey Sentro may be one concussion away from death. But when pirates seize the cargo ship she’s on, she must decide whether to risk her life to save her fellow passengers.

Sentro’s training takes over, and she’s able to elude her captors, leaving bodies in her wake. But her problems are just getting started. Her memory lapses are getting more frequent, symptoms of serial-concussion syndrome.

As she plays a deadly game of cat and mouse with the pirates, she pushes herself to survive by focusing on thoughts of her children. She’s never told them what she really does for a living, and now she might not get the chance.

While her memories make her vulnerable, motherhood makes her dangerous.