Write what you know.
This old maxim often acts as a reminder to authors: The best stories are built on strong foundations, and you should never dismiss your own experience.
But what if you want to write about a lot of different things? What if you enjoy mashing up genres, tropes, and plots? Author Dan Moren decided he ought to know a lot… or at least, a little bit about a lot of things.
“I had always known I wanted to be a writer,” Moren told The Portalist. “But where are the interesting ideas coming from? What things can I learn about that will bounce off each other and spark something creative and new? For me, that meant learning about as many things that I found interesting as possible.”
You can see those threads of interest come together in All Souls Lost, Moren’s urban fantasy, techno-thriller about a paranormal P.I. named Mike Lucifer. It’s a book about the history of Boston, Moren’s hometown; and about tech company conspiracies, referencing the author’s background in the tech world; and about the old-fashioned noir vibes he grew up loving (particularly Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett).
The novel, which received praise from bestselling authors like Simon R. Green and Helene Wecker, took Moren eight years to research and write. “When I started All Souls Lost, I was like, ‘Oh, I'll kick out this short detective story. Those things are really kind of formulaic. It should be easy. I'll do 80,000 words and it'll be a nice little book.’ It's never as easy as you think it is.”
If becoming a published author weren’t challenging enough, Moren had his sights set on another creative use of his broad interests. In 2010, he began the long and competitive process of trying out for the game show Jeopardy! After fifteen years of test-taking, auditions, and cautious optimism, Moren finally got his chance, and he made the most of it. He appeared in three episodes, winning the first two before a heartbreaking loss in Final Jeopardy.
Moren credits his success in both endeavors to a combination of luck, perseverance, and cautious optimism. “I knew I was going into a career where nothing is guaranteed. Even if I finish a book, it may not be good. Even if it's good, I may not find an agent. Even if I find an agent, I might not get a publishing deal. It might not sell well. So many things have to align. My wife would say I’m probably more pessimistic that nothing will come of it, but I just put it out of my mind. I think that was the same for Jeopardy! I took that first initial step many, many times over 15 years before I even got to the next stage in the process. It helps to say, ‘Hey, I did my best. I finished the thing and if something comes of it, that's great, but if not, I’ve got to move on to the next thing.’”
The next thing on Moren’s to-do list? The author can’t say much, other than this. “It’s a bit of a space heist. It’s a little different than anything I’ve written before. It involves a ragtag crew of thieves who have to go rob a temple in space… combining a little bit of sci-fi with my love of things like Indiana Jones, Uncharted, and Tomb Raider. I can’t stop smashing genres together. It’s what I do.”
All Souls Lost in the author's own words
“I've always liked detective stories,” Moren said on the origin of All Souls Lost (which is also available on Kobo and Google Play). “I read some really great books in that genre: supernatural but also a detective book. What makes this unique is that it's also about a tech company: something that seems so fundamentally antithetical to the supernatural. That was kind of the spark that kept me going.”
While that might have been the start, Moren points to his main character, Mike Lucifer, as one of the book's greatest strengths. “He's a lot like those classic detectives. He's very sassy. He gets in trouble a lot because he shoots his mouth off. He's not necessarily a tough guy, but he's the kind of person who, once he's got his teeth in something, is not going to let go. That's just a fun style of character to write. Because the book is written in first person, in his head, he sort of pulls you along with the story.”
And of course, it only makes sense that Moren's main character is something of a generalist himself. “He may dabble a little bit in some of the supernatural, but he's kind of a lay person in that regard. He's confronting all these things with mystical powers and he's just a guy. He's got to stand up in the face of that, too.”
Featured image: Dan Moren / Instagram
