I am thrilled to have interviewed author Daniel Kowalski, who shared with us details of his writing life, his book ‘Suicide Bridge‘, which was released on 13th June 2023, and answered a few fun questions. This post contains affiliate links.

Daniel Kowalski is a novelist and screenwriter based in Virginia. In 2023 his novel ‘Suicide Bridge’ debuted which is going to be followed up with ‘Family Feud’. Several of his screenplays have been optioned by Hollywood production companies with two set to go into production in 2024.

The idea for Suicide Bridge came from a newspaper article I read but the only part my novel shares in common with real events is the opening image of an abandoned car found on a bridge with everyone assuming that the owner jumped. In my story this event kicks off an amateur investigation with our main character Michelle having doubts that her friend Sarah killed herself and what she discovers is a giant conspiracy that’s worse than she imagined.

This novel is based off a screenplay I had written a couple years ago that received positive feedback but never made its way into production. When I work on my plots, I tend to get my inspiration for the structure from the screenplay discipline of three-act structure with an event in the middle that raises the stakes and changes the direction of the story.

I’m usually bad with creating titles but for this novel it was easy because the bridge was a central plot point and long with the suspected suicide.

There usually is not a specific method or formula that I do to come up with a character’s name. The only rule I go by is that everyone’s name should start with a different letter. This makes it easier for the reader to follow.

It depends what I am working on but if it’s a story set in modern times with normal-everyday people then I think it’s most important to just write it. Create an outline and see the big picture. Only research something that serves that plot. Otherwise you can get lost in research, procrastinate and not get any writing done which is no good because writers write.

I always found thrillers to be the most exciting fiction to read and watch which is why I gravitated towards it. I enjoy other genres too but I think that authors and writers are like brands and we need to have a core genre that we work in. Especially from a marketing perspective. If I write a great thriller novel then it’s easier to get a reader to try out another thriller that I have written.

I tend to work on a project in blocks and then put it down for a month or more to get some distance to be more objective with rewrites. I do the outline, put it away for a month, rework it, put it away again, do the first draft, put it away, revise it, put it away, get outside feedback, etc.

As a screenplay, I worked on Suicide Bridge between 2019 and 2020. In the fall of 2022, I used the structure of the book and created the outline which was quick. The first draft took about a month to write from there with my daily writing goal to be one chapter per day.

Then I revisited it in the winter of 2023 and revised a draft that I sent to a development editor who I found online. The notes seemed really intimidating at first and I put the project aside as I was busy with other stuff. I got back to it this summer and realized that the notes were not too intimidating at all I just needed to go through it chapter by chapter. In less than two months I had a fixed-up draft that I sent to a line by line editor and had a cover designed. The book was completed before the end of August.

Female driven thriller

I would have to go with marketing. Writing is a creative outlet that I really enjoy and it doesn’t cost me anything except my time to create something new. Getting someone to actual read what you have written is a bit harder because people are busy. And it’s even more difficult when you’re asking a stranger to spend money for the opportunity to read it.

Suicide Bridge is a fast-paced and entertaining novel that has been described by reviewers as feeling like a movie. Here’s the one-sentence pitch:

After hearing that a coworker has committed suicide by jumping off a bridge, a recovering drug addict begins investigating the case on her own and she starts to suspect that her boyfriend might be a murderer.

It’s been tedious getting the book out there and even more tedious to get the readers to leave a rating and review but as of right now Suicide Bridge has over four star average ratings on Amazon and GoodReads. So if you like the genre and the idea seems interesting, know that there are people out there who have read the book and enjoyed it which means there is a really good chance you will do the same if you pick it up.

I do not. It’s usually just me in my home office without any music or ambient noise.

It depends on what phase of the project I’m in but mostly I just write in the mornings. I usually have pretty busy days so I try to schedule a solid one to two hours to sit and write away from others and in my own solicitude before the rest of the day’s tasks compete for my attention.

I also believe in writing every day and it’s become a habit. Some days things pile on and I can only devote half an hour or less but I still do it.

At home. It alternates between my home office and the kitchen table.

I’d like to be a featured extra where I’m prominent on camera during a scene but don’t have any lines. Like how Alfred Hitchcock made cameos in his movies.

“I’ll be sure to pass it along to parliament.”

According to Wikipedia, a group of owls is called a parliament.

A big thank you to Daniel Kowalski for sharing his writing life with us and for a wonderful interview.