J.F.Penn

Thrillers, Dark Fantasy, Crime, Horror

desecration

How Does The Physical Body Define Us In Life … And In Death? My Research For Desecration, London Psychic Book 1

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DesecrationIn this video, I go through some of my research for Desecration, London Psychic Book 1. You can also see it in slideshow format at the bottom of the article.

Death isn’t always the end.

Desecration3DResearch and Inspiration behind Desecration, London Psychic Book 1 by J.F.Penn

The idea for Desecration came from a visit to the Hunterian Museum in London, where anatomical specimens line the walls. It made me wonder about how the physical body defines us in life … and in death.

Jamie Brooke is a British police detective who struggles against the rules and yet remains passionate about bringing justice to the dead. Jamie’s escape into tango comes from my own obsession with this ‘vertical expression of a horizontal desire.’

Blake DanielBlake Daniel, the reluctant psychic who helps Jamie on the case, works at the British Museum as a researcher. My writing always has an edge of the supernatural …

The anatomical Venus figures, like the one found at the crime scene, were popular teaching devices as well as pieces of art.

Teratology is the study of ‘monsters,’ abnormalities in physiological development, often caused by genetic or environmental factors. The Victorian ‘freak shows’ were made up of people born misshapen and the medical museums are full of their remains. But what if they were created deliberately?

The Bodies exhibition in New York gave me the idea for Rowan Day-Conti and his macabre corpse art sculptures. Researching that alternative world led me to body modification and the Torture Garden nightclub. It’s fascinating to see how people use the body as a canvas to define themselves.

This tattoo was the inspiration for the exotic dancer, ‘O.’ Seen at the National Gallery, London, Seduced by Art Photography exhibition.
Richard Learoyd's Man with Octopus Tattoo II, 2011

A visit to the Hellfire Caves of West Wycombe, rife with rumours of Satanic ritual and sexual depravity, inspired some of the climactic scenes.

Desecration is available in ebook, print and audiobook formats. More images at pinterest.com/jfpenn/desecration/

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Writing Dark Fiction, Research, Travel And Books I Love. Interview With J.F.Penn On Scenes And Sequels

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This interview transcript is from the Scenes and Sequels Podcast with Dave Kearney, recorded in May 2014. We talk about my research process, obsession with travel and what inspires my stories, as well as discussing my darker side! I also read an excerpt from the Prologue of Desecration which you can listen to below.

Writing dark fiction.
Dave: Welcome to the Scenes and Sequels podcast for readers and writers of genre fiction. I’m your host, Dave Kearney, and on today’s show, I chat with New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, J.F. Penn about her new book, “Desecration,” the first in her new London Mystery series.

Dave: Hi, all, it’s Episode Seven of the Scenes podcast, and that was the opening passages from “Desecration,” read by the author, and my guest on today’s show, J.F. Penn. Now, it’s just brilliant to be able to chat with Joanna today, because she shares some just amazing insights into her writing process, and in particular, we talk a bit about theme and just the level of research that Joanna does when she’s writing her stories. And I really think it shows in a story like “Desecration,” because as a reader, it really sort of forces you to ask the question of where fact ends and fiction begins, and that’s really cool, because it gives that story a level of believability, which I think is really important.

And, with that in mind, we also talk a little bit about Joanna’s views on challenging readers. And Joanna believes that writers have the responsibility to tackle difficult themes and to examine difficult issues from a character’s perspective, and by doing so, it challenges readers to be thinking about the story long after they’ve finished reading it. And I think that’s really cool as well. Perhaps it doesn’t hold true for every story; it’s definitely something to think about, because, certainly from my perspective, after reading “Desecration,” it definitely had me thinking for some time afterwards, certainly about some of the themes underpinning the story, and that definitely comes through in our conversation today.

Just quickly, one other thing that we chat about today is some of the challenges for writers in switching between genres, and anyone who’s familiar with Joanna’s work would know that she also writes the ARKANE thriller series, and so we chat a little bit about the different approach that she’s taken to writing her ARKANE thrillers, and the London Mystery stories.

[Read more…] about Writing Dark Fiction, Research, Travel And Books I Love. Interview With J.F.Penn On Scenes And Sequels

An Interview On Corpse Art, Genetic Science And Body Modification

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My latest crime novel, Desecration, is definitely darker than my previous books, and it tackles themes of corpse art, body modification and genetic science.

corpse art and body modificationI was interviewed about some of my thoughts around these areas by author Dan Holloway, who is himself a connoisseur of the dark side.

Here's an excerpt:

Dan Holloway: There’s a wonderful scene in Hannibal where Thomas Harris describes Dr Lecter standing amongst the exhibits of a collection called Atrocious Torture Instruments. The real horror, he says, is to be found not in the exhibits but in the gawping fascination on the faces of the crowds. I wonder if something similar could be said about the Hunterian Museum.

J.F.Penn: When I first visited the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons, I felt physically sick as I studied the medical specimens in their jars, and I try to capture that revulsion in Desecration. The display of historical medical instruments could certainly be categorized alongside torture, used as they were before anesthetic and before antibiotics. It’s true that visitors stare into the cases with fascination, but I think it is more about looking within ourselves, than some kind of schadenfreude at someone else’s pain, as the Lecter example.

I felt the same way at the Von Hagens’ Bodies exhibition, where corpses are plastinated, partially dissected and posed in various tableaus to illustrate aspects of life. The descriptions of the corpse art within Rowan Day-Conti’s studio in Desecration are straight out of that exhibition. As I looked at the figures, examining the muscles and veins, the displayed organs, it was both obscene and fascinating. The most disturbing thing was a room full of foetuses, of all ages right up to full-term still-born with its eyes open. Those desecrationimages haunt me and that definitely comes through in the book.

You can read the rest here at Dan's blog: Desecration: Twisting bodies out of shape.

You can read more or purchase Desecration here.

Image: Flickr Creative Commons Phossil