Los Angeles native Danny Bell took a break from his career in human resources to kickstart writing novels—a gutsy decision since he’s always felt the world of publishing fiction was not for him. But as he says, “It was essential that I…write this story.” That story is Empty Threat: A Novel of the Black Pages, the first volume in what is planned to be a 20-book fantasy series.
“This is ultimately a series about how everyone matters, not just the people whose lives look the best or the most exciting,” says Bell. “Too many people feel like if they’re not perfect, they’re worthless, [which is] something I see all too often in the [age of] social media.”
Empty Threat starts with narrator Elana Black, a demension hopper, due to her social anxiety, is hiding out at a friend’s party. In its review, Kirkus says the novel has “an entertaining premise, effective voice, and underlying warmth.”
The novel centers around a knowingly flawed protagonist who, despite her fears, anxieties, and spiraling thoughts, chooses to show up and fight for the lives of others because she believes in the value of each and every person. To hear Bell talk about Elana is to recognize someone in tune with a complex character, a writer who allows space for that character’s shortcomings and evolution. “She is extremely rough around the edges, and far more often than not, she’s wrong and foolish.”
But who among us can’t relate to having stumbling blocks, some embarrassingly poignant, while we traversed young adulthood? A wallflower, Elana’s concern with background characters in the media she consumes feels on brand. For it’s the introverted, often inhibited observers among us who are most likely to notice and empathize with others like themselves. “Elana is effectively Tonks,” says Bell, referencing J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series to bring home his point of secondary characters also leading lives as full and meaningful as their “chosen one” counterparts.
Elana’s worldview is shaken when, upon meeting Paolo, she realizes she is not the only one who can travel through the timelines of fictitious worlds of her own creation, and that the people she imagines who populate those worlds are, in fact, real:
Paolo had shaken me. How could he not? The idea that everything was real was more than enough to…I don’t know. Freeze me? It’s just too big. Put aside even more personal things like the tragic death of a side character or something along those lines, what does this say about every disaster movie or zombie TV show?….If you were a writer and you knew what you wrote would actually happen to someone, somewhere, how could you tell those stories?
Elana is drawn into action when she begins to wonder how one can justify allowing, much less penning, the suffering of others, especially as a casualty to a bigger story. Asked if this central motivation and trigger for Elana’s hero complex made him reconsider killing off his darlings, Bell says, “I felt it was utterly essential for Elana to understand that actions have consequences.”
Despite all her worldly experiences from traveling through various realities, Elana is still a young person who, like most of her contemporaries, has a lot to learn. Her relationships with close friends prove to be pivotal to the story and the catalysts for the important lessons she needs to learn. This is a commonality that Bell shares with his main character: He admits to suffering from “imposter syndrome” and feeling like he “didn’t deserve to be writing a book, let alone starting a series,” despite how inspired and motivated he was. He shares that it was the combination of the encouragement of his friends and his mentor and his wanting to write Elana’s story so badly that helped him overcome his insecurities regarding the project.
Bell mentions two storytellers who have also had strong influences on his writing, both of whom he sees as underrated: First, “Enzo Barboni, who wrote a series of Italian movies starring the duo of Bud Spencer and Terrence Hill.” Barboni’s combination of slapstick and tension in his stories had Bell tracking down all his movies in high school to study the way Barboni made it all work.
“The [second author] that I really wish more people knew by name is P. L. Travers, who is most notable for writing Mary Poppins,” Bell says. Travers’ organic way of evoking wonder through seamlessly told tales of magic stuck with Bell. Merge the impact of these writers with Bell’s love since childhood of the Doctor Who television series, and the quick transitions between Elana’s everyday life and her surreal adventures in alternate realities almost seem inevitable.
The one flaw, Bell notes, to writing this series the way he has, is that it will ask new readers to have patience with it to see the whole picture. With two books already published in 2017, Empty Threat and Warning Call, the third, Playing Dead, which introduces a change in narrator, is due to be available soon. Bell is currently working on the fifth installment; he already knows how he plans to end the series and hopes readers will stick around for the entire journey.
Nastassian Brandon is a writer, reviewer, videographer, and storyteller with Jamaican roots and branches stretching outside of the Caribbean.
Photography by Kate Elliott