Simon Maltman - An Interview

Simon Maltman is a Best-selling crime fiction author from Northern Ireland. 

Please check out the books available on Amazon and stay in touch through the links below.

Facebook.com/simonmaltmancrimefiction 

@simonmaltman on twitter

simonmaltmanblogs.blogspot.co.uk/

What are you writing at the minute?

1. I’ve just had my short story collection published last week, it’s called More Faces. That’s been taking up a lot of my time recently. I’m also working on the follow up to my novel, A Chaser on the Rocks, and have finished the first draft. The series is about a modern day PI with mental health struggles, who also writes about a 1940’s PI and the books function as a story in a story. I’m also trying to do anything but start the second draft because I start to lose interest and will eventually have to discipline myself to do it!

Can you give us an idea of Simon Maltman’s typical up-to-the-armpits-in-ideas-and-time writing day?

2. I’ve recently left my job as a health care manager and am looking after my kids full time during the day, and trying to write in the evenings. Usually I’ll get an hour or two at it most nights and I always have small goals in my head of what I want to get done. In-between tantrums and poo during the day, I try to do a bit of the networking and promo side of things. I keep a notebook and like to jot stuff down. I usually have a rough idea of where I want something to go, but the fun thing for me is definitely in the sitting down and writing and seeing where things end up.

What do you do when you’re not writing?

3. I like devouring TV series with my wife, though we usually take it turn about to fall asleep by about the second episode. I like writing and recording music and I love movies, particularly old Film Noir. I’m also very partial to going out for coffee and something sweet. Coffee, generally, is a big part of the day.

Any advice for a greenhorn trying to break into the genre fiction scene?

4. I think that once you have worked at it and think you have something decent, then the main thing is to put yourself out there. You have to also expect a ton of rejection, because that’s just the way it is. If you send enough emails and try enough times, you’ll get there if you have something in the first place that others will enjoy. You just have to put the work in, in every aspect.

Which writers have impressed you this year?

5. I’m not great at keeping up with the trends. I wish I found time to read more actually. Recently, I’ve been enjoying some of my favourites who I hadn’t read in a while- Raymond Chandler and Richard Stark. I read a couple of Rebus’s recently too. I’ve just finished the crime anthology Dark Minds, which I was very fortunate to be included in and there are forty great writers in that who I hadn’t read before. I have a huge list of authors I want to get into more.

What are you reading right now?

6. I’m reading an ARC of the indie author Frank Westworth’s new novel- The Redemption of Charm- I think it’s actually released today. He’s very good.

Plans for the future?

7. I need to start redrafting this novel and put it to one side haha. There’s a novella that I want to finish from a while back too and I’ve got the starting point for a new standalone novel. Hopefully I’ll be getting started on them in some way in a few weeks. I like to keep busy and don’t like things I want to do piling up in my mind!

With regards to your writing career to date, would you do anything differently?

8. I’m not sure, not particularly. I really think it’s all about building things up all the time and there’s a lot of pressure on authors now to manage every aspect of that. I’ve only really been writing fiction for about four years, so I just want to carry on and hopefully build up more of an audience as I go.

Do you fancy sharing your worst writing experience?

9. Haha I’m not sure what that would be. My pet hate is going through pages and pages of track changes from my publisher- I’ll do anything to avoid that! Maybe the worst experience was talking to my Nana and Aunties after they had read my novel with all those ‘naughty words!’

Anything you want to say that I haven’t asked you about?

10. No, I don’t think so, cheers. Thanks very much for having me along and thanks to everyone who has been supporting me along the way, take care!

Thank you, Simon Maltman!

Five Questions -- Brian McGilloway

Brian McGilloway was born in Derry, Northern Ireland in 1974. After studying English at Queen's University, Belfast, he took up a teaching position in St Columb's College in Derry, where he was Head of English.

His first novel, Borderlands, published by Macmillan New Writing, was shortlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger 2007 and was hailed by The Times as 'one of (2007's) most impressive debuts.' The second novel in the series, Gallows Lane, was shortlisted for the 2009 Irish Book Awards/Ireland AM Crime Novel of the Year. The third Devlin, Bleed a River Deep, was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of their Best Books of 2010. The first DS Lucy Black novel, Little Girl Lost, became an Amazon Kindle No 1 Bestseller in 2013. The follow-up novel featuring Lucy Black, Hurt, is published in November 2013.

Brian lives near the Irish borderlands with his wife and their four children.

Gerard: Preserve the Dead features Lucy Black, your PSNI series character. Now, I very much enjoy your Inspector Ben Devlin books (set on the other side of the Irish border), but I really do prefer DS Black. She has a little more grit in her belly, I think. Have you heard this often? Do you have a favourite yourself, or is that like ranking your kids?

Brian: Thanks Gerard. It’s strange because there's no consensus. The Lucy books have obviously done better in terms of sales and that, but I still get emails from people saying they like the books but would love another Devlin again soon. I suppose the books have different qualities. The Devlin books tend to be more reflective on account of being a first person narrative whereas the Lucy books move faster because they’re third person. In terms of which I prefer, I couldn’t say. I do miss Devlin, and I like writing in that voice which is, truth be told, not a million miles away from my own, with a few minor differences. But I enjoy writing the Lucy books very much and like her as a character and the way in which she’s developing across the series - and I do have a definite ending for her story. And I’m very fond of her mum, even if she isn’t. The Devlin books are constrained a little by his family life and by the fact that his kids are growing up and have to impact on the narrative; Lucy is freer to do things than Devlin is because there’s no one waiting for her to be home at a certain time. That probably means that Devlin would have a much healthier work/life balance!

Gerard: I suppose you could argue, though, that Devlin has a hell of a lot more to lose than Black... Time will tell, I suppose. So you've an ending in mind for Lucy? That's interesting. Are you able to project/predict how many more volumes it'll take to complete her tale?

Brian: To an extent, I guess. Devlin has mostly managed to keep his family and professional life separate - though what happens in one is normally reflected in the other. It’s a deliberate choice - it’s too much of a cliche to have the family in peril in every single story. It happened in Borderlands, which was my first, and I think that’s really it. Much more interesting for me is how he balances the two sides of his life, like plates spinning. As for Lucy, she does have her own network of sorts and, as the books go on, that will continue to grow. She was an outsider in Little Girl Lost. By this new book, she’s beginning to make friends, some in more forced situations than others and is having to be more honest with some others about her relationship with her mother. Lucy has withheld one too many secrets in this book and gets called out on them. She needs to learn to be more trusting. As for the ending, I had thought 5 books, but as I’m working on the fourth at the moment and I’m no much nearer the ending, that might change. Ultimately, Lucy’s story will be tied to the story of Mary Quigg, the little girl who is lost in the book of that name. From the start I knew where I wanted the Lucy books to end; I don’t have that with Devlin. I guess in both cases, they’ll end when I have no more stories to tell for those characters.

Gerard: Two multi-novel series seems like a hell of a lot of story to hold in your head. Do you ever wish that you could write a standalone just to take a break from the long game? Maybe even write in a different form?

Brian: Yes. To be honest, Little Girl Lost was intended as a stand lone for a break from Devlin, but I found that after I’d finished it, I wanted to find out more about Lucy and her story still had some distance to go. I do have an idea for a standalone that I started last year but the story wasn’t ready - I intend to revisit that when it’s more fully formed. I suppose the big problem with two series is trying to ensure that one does;t end up morphing into the other. Keeping them distinct, with the voices of the main characters clear and different is a major concern when I’m writing them. And at times I have an idea and think it’s great, then realise the next day that I already used something similar in one of the Devlins. As for writing outside of crime - I’ll write whatever the story is that I have to tell. If it so happens that that story isn’t a crime one, then so be it. In term of forms, I’m doing some screenwriting at the moment which I’m enjoying very much. It’s more concentrated than writing the novel as you have to know where it’s going from the start, whereas I rarely do with a book. The timeframe is much tighter, too, though it’s much more collaborative than a novel. Certainly its something I’d like to develop further if I can.

Gerard: Something I noticed about Preserve the Dead is that there seemed to be a little more tongue-in-cheek humour than in the prequels. You had a little fun at the expense of English teachers in an early chapter that made me smile. Was this intentional? Perhaps a way to further separate Lucy Black from Ben Devlin?

Brian: I think the first two Lucy books were quite cold - especially Little Girl Lost. Part of the reason for that was that both books dealt with crimes against or involving children. Nothing about that topic suggests humour to me and as a result, both books feel a little cold to me. The Devlin books, I think, have a warmth from Devlin’s voice and from his family life which, again, the Lucy books don’t have - her family is anything but warm, although there is a thawing between her and her mother. The other thing which struck me is that, by this third book, the various agencies and teams know one another now and would be fairly comfortable with one another, so that hopefully is reflected in the banter between them. Of course it’s also a Northern Irish thing - humour in the face of horror. The English teacher joke is about all poems being about sex or death from what I remember. I’ve used that line myself in class and I know of several other English teachers who subscribe to the same theory. The poem he mentions was one that was taught to me by my own teacher, who was a poet called Paul Wilkins. Paul was a superb teacher, a fine poet and a good friend. He died a few months before Borderlands was published, but he was hugely influential in my wanting to be a writer when I was at school. The scene with Fleming is a personal light hearted nod to Paul who I imagine would appreciate the joke.

Gerard: So who gets the next outing? Inspector Devlin or DS Black?

Brian: It’s another Lucy. To be honest, I started it as a Devlin - the book is about hate and complicity in crime; a religious pastor who makes some inflammatory comments about homosexuality in the wake of which a gay youth is killed. The problem was that I made it to chapter 15 and hit a brick wall. So many of the sub plots I wanted to introduce to parallel the main plot didn’t suit the border setting or Devlin’s family life. After three weeks of struggling to move it forward I started it again as a Lucy novel and it just seemed to work - the sub plots make more sense and the setting seems more appropriate to the storyline. I would like to revisit Devlin again when he has another story, but for now the next one is a Lucy. I had played with the idea of them meeting earlier in the series, and Jim Hendry appears in Little Girl Lost, so they exist in the same world. In fact, the first draft of LGL ended with Lucy phoning Devlin to ask for help in tracking down  Mary Quigg’s killer. Henry refers to a friend over the border earlier in the book. But the two series were optioned by two different TV companies and I was warned that they couldn’t appear in a novel together or it would cause all kinds of complications with who owned the rights to which character. They shared a one off story called The Sacrifice, which I wrote for Radio 4 as part of the Derry City of Culture celebrations, but I suspect that will be it with regards a crossover.

Brian McGilloway has a brand spanking new website that you've got to check out. Right now! Also, he can be found on Twitter, and the really privileged might be able to befriend him on Facebook.

What are you waiting for?

Five Questions -- Kelly Creighton

Kelly Creighton is a poet and fiction writer with work in literary journals The Stinging Fly, Long Story, Short, Wordlegs, The Galway Review, A New Ulster, The Boyne Berries and numerous other publications.

She was awarded second place in the Abroad Writers’ Conference Short Story Competition judged by Robert Olen Butler, long-listed for The RTE Guide/Penguin Ireland short story contest and shortlisted for the Carousel Writers.

Gerard: Brian McGilloway described The Bones of It as "A brilliant crime debut, chilling, compulsive and beautifully written." Being a fan of Mr McGilloway's work, I was very keen to have a look. Did you set out to write a crime novel, or was this a case of a literary text that veered into the crime world?

Kelly: I set out to write a thriller, even although nothing else I'd written up to that point was crime, and I wasn't really sure how The Bones of It would eventually be marketed. It is the direction I went because that's what the story called for. That said, I'm very happy to have wound up in the crime world.

Gerard: I'm happy too, especially since your contribution to the Northern Irish crime fiction scene has doubled the number of women writers in our wee community (shout-out to Claire McGowan). I have heard that Lucy Caldwell is writing a crime fiction novel too, which is more great news. Any theories on why it's taken this long for our female talent to shine in the crime world?

Kelly: Doubled! That's a depressing statistic! Lately I've been reading all these articles about how 'so many women read crime', and how 'female crime writers write gorier stuff than men', and 'why today's most exciting crime writers are women', and yet here in NI, where there's a recent explosion in emerging crime writers, there aren't many women writing in the genre.

I don't know why this is. I suppose we don't know what people are getting up to on their pcs until the work is out there for us to read. In The Bones of It, the narrator is a young man, so I'm making sure the next book is from a woman's point of view.

I hope some local women writers get in touch and let me know that they write crime too.

Gerard: I'm glad you mentioned your narrator. I thought you nailed the masculine voice. Quite an accomplishment given Scott's less than conventional personality. Did you have any difficulty writing from his perspective or did it come naturally?

Kelly: Thanks very much, Gerard! It was only after I'd started on the book that I heard a couple of people say, 'How can a woman write from a man's perspective?' and vice versa. The thought that it was strange hadn't occurred to me before that. I still don't know if it is. My stories are probably half and half. I love writing from different perspectives, different ages. That's a big part of what interests me - finding the voice. I think we all start in our own voice, writing semi-autobiographical stuff. As I go on I want to explore characters that aren't familiar to me. There has to be an emotional truth in there that I feel I understand. It doesn't have to be my truth, if you know what I mean. I knew Scott really well before I even started writing, that gave me the confidence to slip into his mindset. The book was written and redrafted in quick bursts, so that made it easier.

Gerard: Was the transition from poetry to prose difficult for you?

Kelly: It's more a back-and-forth between the two than a transition really. I write the odd poem but prose is more my thing. It's so hard to write a poem I'm ever really happy with. I'm in awe of 'proper' poets. Prose has much more freedom and it suits me better.

Gerard: So, what's the craic with the next book?

Kelly: I'm working on two books right now - one is a collection of linked short fiction and the other is a detective novel from the POV of a female detective. This summer is all about finishing the story collection because the house is full of noise and there isn't the headspace to give the novel the attention it needs. I should be wrapping up the novel by the end of the year, then I have the structure in place for the next one. If someone could just arrange more hours in the day, I'd be sorted.

You can follow Kelly on Twitter or send her a friend request on Facebook if you're feeling lucky. And you should get yourself a copy of The Bones of It. CSNI approved.

Five Questions -- Nigel Bird

Nigel Bird is the author of several novels, novellas and short story collections, including Southsiders, In Loco Parentis, Smoke, Mr Suit and Dirty Old Town.

His work has appeared in a number of prestigious magazines and collections, including 2 editions of The Best Of British Crime,The Reader, Crimespree and Needle.

He lives on the East Coast of Scotland in Dunbar (Sunny Dunny) with his wife and three children.

As well as writing fiction, he has been a teacher for twenty-five years and has worked in a number of mainstream and special schools.

Gerard: You've named the chapters after songs. Is this the unofficial soundtrack or simply the best title for each chapter?

Nigel: For Jesse Garon and his father, music is hugely important in their lives. They are lovers of the rock and roll of the 1950s in general and Elvis Presley in particular. This passion provides just about the only glue their relationship has. For Jesse it goes further in the sense that it gives his outsider status in the community an identity. He’s a modern day rockabilly rebel in a place and time that have forgotten about the king and about rebellion. Using song titles as chapter headings came as a natural extension of that. Essentially it became something of a game. I had a piece of writing in front of me and had to find a track to match it, which meant I had hours of fun working through my records and CDs and got to listen to some mighty fine songs while I was working. I also finally discovered that You Tube has a purpose.

Gerard: Well, one of those chapters, 'Suspicious Minds', contains an observation, one of many, that made this book stand out for me. The subject of the observation is Jesse's social worker, Wallace. If you don't mind, I'll quote it here:

"Swearing was another one of those things people like Wallace could get away with. Like using words like damned and buggered made him an all right guy. Just like the people he was sent to work with except for the job, the clothes, the posh accent and the lifetime of opportunities."

Jesse's ANGRY, isn't he?

Nigel: Oh yes. And he has every right to be. The violence and neglect that he has experienced at home has been overwhelming. Worse, the system that purports to save him when things get really heavy is just as bad in a different way. He’s young, but he already knows a huge amount about injustice. What I like about him is the way he doesn’t let it extinguish all his hope. Instead, he allows his love of music to carry him forward with a glimmer of optimism as a guiding light.

As an aside, there were some amazing figures published very recently about the proportion of children who have been in care who end up in prison. It’s ridiculously high and points to the need for a major reform in the way we operate.

Here’s a quote from The Who Cares Trust:

‘23% of the adult prison population has been in care and almost 40% of prisoners under 21 were in care as children (only 2% of the general population spend time in prison).’

I’m not suggesting there’s a simple answer to helping kids who have begun life in traumatic circumstances, but I imagine that money, the opportunity to explore enlightened attitudes and making this a real priority for our society might be a good thing.

Gerard: And then there's Jesse's dad, Ray. He seems to counterpoint Jesse's anger with a sense of defeat. I do think you've sown enough hints to suggest that there was a fire in him before this book. Will this be reignited? Perhaps in a follow-on tale?

Nigel:  Very astute. Ray has a violent past that was rooted in a gang culture. The change came when he went solo and met his wife-to-be. It wasn’t long before he became the victim of her violent outbursts. Something in his upbringing wouldn’t allow him to fight back against a woman and he became trapped by his love for her. Imagine the humiliation a hard man might feel after regular kickings from his missus. It alienated him from the outside world and led him to escape into the bottle. The fire was extinguished and he was wrecked.

This also relates to the previous question about Jesse’s anger. I think that his father’s helplessness and inability to protect his son are key ingredients in that emotional mix.

As for the next book, Ray is a major player and there’s certainly more of his frustration and defeat. Whether that leads to the reigniting of his fuse or not, I’ll leave that to the readers to find out.

Gerard: The chapters written from Jesse's perspective make him seem older than primary school age. It also seems intentional since you counterpoint his character with a lot of innocent notions. Is it safe to assume that you're aware that a tougher life can make kids think and act in surprising ways? Were you worried anybody would challenge Jesse's maturity?

Nigel: I was never too concerned about the question of Jesse’s maturity. You put it well in the question - a tough life can certainly give a child a range of experiences that may force them to grow up very quickly. That maturity is also a veneer that covers the other frailties and vulnerabilities of childhood. My intention was to find the balance between those points and I hope I succeeded.

I did have other concerns about Jesse’s age. I worried that it might be difficult for the book to find an audience. It may be about a young lad in a dysfunctional family, but it certainly isn’t a young adult or new adult book. It’s about darker areas of our world. I think there are people who find it difficult to view youngsters within that context. It might also put off readers who ordinarily enjoy stories within similar settings. The idea of having a twelve-year-old as a main character might suggest that it’s not gritty enough. Even when this was pointed out to me, I decided to stick to my original intention – Jesse was far too ingrained in me by then to alter who he was.

On the flip-side, keeping Jesse young has allowed me to take him on a journey towards adulthood. In my latest visit to his world he was fifteen and growing up extremely quickly. That’s been a real treat for me as a writer.  

Gerard: If you could spend a little time with Jesse and Ray, would you have any advice to impart on them?

Nigel: None that they’d accept. I think Jesse tends to make good decisions - his problem is more that circumstances keep turning against him. I’d tell Ray to stay in Belfast. See if he couldn’t carve out a life over there. That makes a lot of sense.

I do like the idea of spending time with them. They’d be good company. We could talk about music all night and I might be able to get Ray to throw in a few tales of his wild years. That sounds like a lot of fun.

Nigel Bird is published by the awesome Blasted Heath and can be found on Twitter and Facebook. Keep up with this guy!

Four Writers - On Writing...

There are three writers who have been very kind to me over the last year. Each of them has helped promote my books and have reviewed a number of my titles. Without them, my profile would have been noticeably lower. I really believe that. They’re also pretty good friends with each other, so I always think of them as a collective; and as friends of mine.

Now, the thing is, due to my lifestyle, I can’t read and review every book that I’d like to. I barely get the time to read the books essential to the PhD I’m currently working on. But I had an urge to show these writers how much I appreciate all they’ve done for me. Best I could come up with was this lousy four-way interview. But here, I think it turned out all right. So, without further ado, here’s what happens when Ryan Bracha, KeithNixon, Mark Wilson and I get together via a long-ass web chat.

GB - Keith: You're an active reviewer on Big Al's Books and Pals and Crime Fiction Lover; what have you learned from the experience?

KN - The two sites have a different focus - Al's is on self and indie published books, whereas typically (but not exclusively) CFL is on larger, more established authors and publishers.

It's hard to find good writers, I mean really good ones, skilled in their craft. There's a huge number of books out there, and more being added every day. Of the self publish stuff I see about 10% are top notch.

The indie published authors have already been in effect filtered and generally they are of a higher quality - they have a contract for a reason.

Having a traditional publisher contract doesn't guarantee the reader is going to pick up any better books, however. I don't suddenly find a huge step up over at CFL, for instance.

Finally, unless you're a major name like Ian Rankin, visibility is key.

KN - So Bracha, name the three best and one worst decision that has meant the most to your success as an author?

RB - Good question that. The best three decisions... Okay, first and foremost has been the decision to do everything myself. I've learned to create cover art, edit, publish and market it to my own standards, so if any part fails it's on me. If it's a success I get to congratulate myself. Plus it means everything I do is cost free, ensuring maximum return on investment, which goes only to me. Or the wife. Which is nice.

Second one, um, I suppose it lays with my decision to never revise my work other than for continuity issues or typos. It gives me a chance to hammer the work out and get promoting it. I reckon I've done well so far, in that the work has been greatly received and performed far higher than I ever hoped. The longer it goes on though, the more the expectation that the bubble's gonna burst with the next book when it turns out to be utter garbage.

The third one is to know when to take advice. I've been known to think I know it all, but with my writing I'm always happy to learn from more experienced hands and apply it to my increasing arsenal of skills and knowledge. It's been a huge case of slowly slowly catchy monkey. I want to make a real success of myself in the literary arena. The worst decision I made was to ignore my wife the first ten times she told me to self publish. I could be a year more experienced if I'd listened to her!

RB - Mr Wilson, your 4 main works of fiction have been 4 vastly different genres, each with various influences. Which one taught you the most about your art and why?

MW - In all honesty I only began to feel like I was becoming a competent writer by my third book, Head Boy. By the end of it I reckoned I was developing enough to start thinking of myself as a writer. Writing from the mindset of a sadistic sociopath brought me right out of my literary shell.

MW - Question for Gerry: For a writer who sets his books in Northern Ireland, you do a good job of focusing on issues that don't directly involve the sectarian aspect of the region. Ever feel like shining a literary light on any experiences you'll have had of this?

GB - Most of my Troubles experiences are now blurry memories. I remember British soldiers who emerged from a graveyard next to our house in Warrenpoint in the eighties at regular intervals. I remember being searched by prison guards at Long Kesh prison when I visited family members at the ripe old age of 6. I remember my mother handing her handbag over to security guards at the front door of Castlecourt Shopping Centre in Belfast and wondering why they were allowed to poke around in there when I wasn't. But there's also a stock-pile of primary and secondary source Troubles stories in my memory banks from lips lubricated by liquor; mostly from a Republican perspective.

It took a long time to get everything almost straight in my immature brain. And I'm one of the lucky ones. I was shielded by a lot of the shite by my father and his decision to raise his family outside of Belfast. I was still aware of the conflict and the roles that people I knew played in it, but those aren't my stories. I think if I wrote about the Troubles (and I probably will) it would be with the intention to explain my own opinions and experiences to my children, who will have as many questions as I had as they grow up. I just don't know when will be the best time to do that. I think I need a little more distance first. Until then, it'll remain peripheral to my work.

GB - Ryan: One of the things we seem to have in common is a pretty eclectic taste in music, at least according to the Facebook updates you've written that have caught my eye. Do you draw on music for inspiration in your writing? And do you listen to music when you write?

RB - Most definitely, is the answer to your first question. Music is one of my truest passions, and yeah I do consider my tastes eclectic. I love that feeling you get when you hear a band or artist for the first time and you just instantly know that you've found something that's gonna be with you forever, and then seeing it performed live is another level altogether.

As far as influences go, yeah, I take a fair bit of influence from artists who stretch themselves, and don't play it safe to compromise what they're trying to say. Scroobius Pip is one such artist. Or Beck, I love how he changes direction with every release. I like instrumental music to write to, because I find myself sidetracked by singing along otherwise! The soundtrack to Amelie, by Yann Tiersenn is a consistent favourite in the headphones when I'm tapping away.

RB - Keef! We're all authors who set our books particularly local to ourselves, as I'm sure most are, what is it about Margate that inspires you to set you work there?

KN - Ok several reasons. One is write about what you know. Margate is on my doorstep. But the biggest factor was the backdrop, ie a once successful town gone to seed, suited the narrative and characters.

KN - Wilson, you've produced work across a wide range of genres - memoir to superhero thriller to crime to dystopian. Are you a restless writer?

MW - Restless is a good way to describe my head, so, yes I suppose. I'm a bit of a slut to my brain's whims. The business side of my brain wants to pick a genre and stick to it. The writer part just wants to go with whatever story is tugging at my literary knickers. I can't sleep until I empty my head so I just crack on. I don't really think about what genre a particular book fits into until I'm about half way through the manuscript, then I start marketing to that genre and the business brain lets out a long fart of released tension.

In all honesty, despite the obvious benefits of sticking with a genre or style of writing, I don't think I'll ever be able to stay faithful to one. I'm quite happy to be a genre-tart.

MW - Bracha: More than once I've seen comments (and made them) noting your very 'Scottish' writing style. Even in your books that lack Scottish characters, a very Celtic humour and tone comes through. Explain yourself.

RB - I dunno mate. Maybe it's the Scots who have a very Bracha humour and tone? Nah, it's just the way I've always written, I think I've told this story before, but when I first started writing Strangers, I would hand out the first few chapters to anybody that would take them, and one fella who read it handed me a novel saying I'd probably enjoy the writing, based on my style, and it took me months to finally read it. It was Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs by Irvine Welsh and it blew me away. Superior to mine without a doubt, but it set me on course for a love affair with Scottish writing that shows no sign of abating, and has no doubt filtered into my own writing. I completely associate with the total disregard for convention, the foul mouthed humour and sometimes inhuman ability to be inventive with the language that the best Scots have. The short answer, though, is I dunno.

RB - Brennan: If you were stuck in the Andes with your characters, which would you eat first? Which would you kill in a fit of fury? And which would you be happy to chill out and shoot the shit with?

GB - Right; eat, kill, shoot the shit... I'll pick WEE ROCKETS as the basis for the answer since (judging by sales and reviews) it's my most popular book. So, I'd probably eat Liam Greene, as he's the meatiest and he deserves it. Feckin' parasite.

I'd probably kill Joe Phillips in a fit of rage, because he's pretty gormless and frustrating. He's not a bad lad, really, but I know how irritable I can get from time to time. Put me on the Andes with no food, you better not break wind.

And for shooting the shit, it has to be Wee Danny Gibson. He's the most likely to have remembered to pack a carry out and he's pretty funny. I should point out, that in my mind, these kids aren't 14 years old anymore. They're almost 20 now. That makes me a little less creepy, right?

GB - Mark... I imagine it took a lot of courage to write Paddy's Daddy. Reading the dedication alone almost broke my heart. How do you feel about your son reading this book in the future? I ask because I'm playing with a similar idea myself and I'm a bit scared of it.

MW - Good question Gerry.

I thought about that a lot in the months after I published the autobiography. Spent a lot of time worrying that my son would be disappointed when he grew up and realised his da' isn't who he thought he was. Two things happened to take that worry away. First I realised that every son gets to a point when they lose their illusions about the hero dad they believe in, and then they grow up and hopefully reconnect in a different way. 

Secondly, I spoke to my wife about it and she pointed out that I was forgetting who the boy is. 

He's only five but is a very self assured, confident, empathetic and funny as fuck wee dude. Seriously, my five year old is the best man I know. My Mrs reminded me of that and asked me what I thought Paddy's reaction would be when he was a grown man and understood the childhood I'd had and the resulting problems that followed.

Simple answer. He'll be well proud of his old man for changing his life for his kids.

Problem solved.

KN - Where the fuck did Fireproof come from? Quite different to your other books - religion, God and the devil none of which figures elsewhere…

GB – I’m actually surprised that this is the first time I’ve been asked that question. The answer’s pretty simple, though. FIREPROOF was published after WEE ROCKETS, but it was actually written before. Back then (about 2006, I think – other books were written and abandoned back in my earlier writing days and I didn’t keep date records), I considered myself a horror writer rather than a crime writer. But then I realised that I was actually better at writing crime. However, Al Guthrie, once my agent and now my publisher via Blasted Heath, thought that FIREPROOF was a decent read when I showed it to him. It needed work, of course, and Al helped me with that. Al’s input and reassurance made me realise that the book was a lot better than I’d originally thought.

The next thing was to decide whether or not to release it under a pseudonym, even an obvious one, like how the late, great Iain Banks put an ‘M’ in the middle of his name to denote when he’d switched to science fiction. My middle name happens to begin with an M as well, but I’d have gone with something a tad more original. However, after some thought, it seemed like I’d be making work for myself by trying to handle two writing careers side by side. So I let it come out under my name and waited to see if anybody called me on it. Two years later, and you’re the first to do that…

But yeah, why a supernatural book that’s heavy on religious and social piss-taking? It was just good fun to write, to be honest. I’ll return to that universe some time soon, I hope, because there are readers who prefer it to my other stuff and I think it’d still be fun to just let my imagination and mischief run riot again. But I’ve a bunch of crime stuff lined up first.

RB - (Round-up question)  So the film or TV show of one of your books has been made, and the opening credits are rolling, I don't care who made it or who's in it. What's the song that's playing over those credits? For me, I'm choosing Prodigy, Invaders Must Die for PAUL CARTER IS A DEAD MAN. Might be a bit obvious but it's frantic enough to cover that opening scene.

GB - I'm going with Thin Line by HoneyHoney to open BREAKING POINT.

KN - Flyswatter by The Eels for THE FIX.

MW - I'm having Brasco by Hopeless Heroic for dEaDINBURGH.

And there you have it. Enjoy the interview? Why not check out some of their work, then? They've got Amazon pages and whatnot, like proper pros:

Ryan Bracha Amazon Page

Keith Nixon Amazon Page

Mark Wilson Amazon Page

An Interview - Paul Nagle

Paul Nagle was born in Dublin to a large close-knit family of nine boys and two girls. After dabbling in a number of entrepreneurial businesses in the eighties and early nineties, he settled in Johannesburg in 1995 and began a career in computer software. At the time South Africa was taking a giant leap towards democracy, leaving behind its apartheid past, and the initial idea for Ironic was born. Paul now divides his time between his homes in London and the Algarve.

Q1. What are you writing at the minute?

I am writing a screenplay adaptation of my novel Ironic.

Q2. Can you give us an idea of Paul Nagle’s typical up-to-the-armpits-in-ideas-and-time writing day?

I only write when I'm in the 'zone', which is usually when I get a bit of free time away from the bedlam of the kids bustling around the house.

I find my most productive time is between 9pm and 1am, so I'm a bit of a 'night owl'

Q3. What do you do when you’re not writing?

My day job is in property development in the Algarve, in Portugal.

Q4. Any advice for a greenhorn trying to break into the crime fiction scene?

Don't take no for an answer from publishers. Keep trying and believe in your work.

Q5. Which crime writers have impressed you this year?

Kate Summerscale

Q6. What are you reading right now?

I am reading two books at the moment.

The Trillion Dollar Meltdown by Charles Morris, to understand how we got into this 'credit crunch' mess and The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, for some good quality whodunnit entertainment.

Q7. Plans for the future?

I plan to do a sequel to Ironic at some stage in the next 18 months.

Q8. With regards to your writing career to date, would you do anything differently?

I would have started writing seriously much earlier. My priorities were in business and you can never take back time!

Q9. Do you fancy sharing your worst writing experience?

Yip, my first draft of Chapter One of Ironic was terrible.

I had to leave it alone for about six months and start the whole story over again.

Q10. Anything you want to say that I haven’t asked you about?

I would urge your readers to support their local bookshops as much as possible. In these difficult times they will suffer more than most.

Thank you, Paul Nagle!

Linky-Dink And a Holiday Hup-Ya to All

Just a quick round-up of stuff. T'is definitely the season round my place, so a bit of laziness is to be expected. January depression should get me buried in this aul craic again and the posts will be flying out. Until then, here's this:

Declan Burke has me furthering my unexpected editorial experience with this new project (working title) With Dark Joy, The Madness. God bless him and his family. It's a collection of non-fiction essays on all things Irishly crime fictiony. And I get to contribute. You're all going to love it. Click the blooming link for more info on it, but come back here and read the rest of the stuff, okay?

Stuart Neville is fairly getting about the aul publicity trail. Read the guy's brilliant story on his journey to publishing The Twelve / The Ghosts of Belfast, courtesy of The Belfast Telegraph.

And a new magazine has added to my wee list on the right (scroll up or down depending on when you're reading this). Thanks to Elaine Ash for bringing Beat to a Pulp to my attention. Any others out there, get in touch. I'd like to keep my list as current and up to date as possible, but I'm too busy to go looking for these wonderful sites. And a bit lazy, okay? Oh, and on that topic, if you're in the mood for some speculative fiction, the first issue of Three Crow Press has just gone live. That's the e-zine affiliated with Morrigan Books.

Finally, it's all about me. Read a funky interview with me on A Twist of Noir. I'm very pleased to have been asked to spread my wondrous words of whining. But don't worry, Christopher Grant did a great job of shaping by blathering into something quite entertaining. Check it out.

I'm hoping to post a couple of reviews in the next few days, but if I don't get around to it in the Christmas melee, Happy Holidays, whatever way you take 'em. It's been a good year, and a lot of you fine folk out there have contributed to that. Cheers.

A Mini Interview - Allan Guthrie

ALLAN GUTHRIE (Kiss Her Goodbye)
Allan Guthrie’s first novel, Two-Way Split, was shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger Award and his short stories have appeared in a variety of magazines and anthologies. He is also the creator of the Noir Originals Web site and commissioning editor for both Point Blank Press and the Pulp Originals line of e-books. Guthrie lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, on whose mean streets his books are set

Q1. Hard Case Crime seems to have become almost a sub-genre over the last five years. To be involved in it must feel like you’ve become part of an exclusive club. What have been some of the highlights of this membership?

Any club that lets me in can't be that exclusive! But, yeah, when I signed my contract with Hard Case I was unpublished. For a new writer trying to kickstart a career, Hard Case was a godsend. Charles Ardai had a very clear vision of what he wanted to do, and the passion and expertise to make it happen. So although I was signed up very early on, I knew I was in safe hands. Highlights for me have to include being edited by Charles, who is one of the most insightful editors in the business, and the Edgar nomination that ensued. The latter would never have happened without the former.

Q2. It’s all about hardboiled, noir and pulp fiction at Hard Case Crime. The golden age of paperback novels in revival. What do you think the future holds for this type of book?

When I first started writing in 2001, noir was a dirty word. The market's a lot more inclusive now, and noir has become much sexier (that's a technical term used in marketing, btw). Hardboiled/noir/pulp is still a niche market, but it's a lively one and if it continues to attract good writers, it'll be around for a while yet.

Q3. One of the most striking things about the Hard Case novels is the beautiful cover artwork. How did you feel when you first saw the cover for your book? How did it compare to the conception of the characters you had in mind when you were writing your book?

I'd have to add seeing the cover for the first time as one of the highlights of my HCC 'membership'. Charles asked if I had any ideas for the cover, so I mentioned a particular scene that contained some interesting dynamics. And a few weeks later, he sent a mock-up of exactly that scene. When I first saw it, I couldn't believe how breathtakingly brilliant it was. The artist, Chuck Pyle, did a helluva job. The characters bear absolutely no resemblance to the ones I had in mind when I was writing the book, but that's not a bad thing.

Q4. What are some crime novels or authors, either within or outside Hard Case, that have impressed you this year?

I'll restrict myself to Hard Case-type noirs or we'll very likely be here till Hard Case's 100th anniversary. Bent cops have made quite an impact this year. Dave Zeltserman's SMALL CRIMES is his best novel to date, with the promise of even better to come next year with PARIAH. Another bent-cop noir is Anthony Neil Smith's YELLOW MEDICINE, with a sequel due out next year called HOGDOGGIN', which blew me away when I read it in manuscript. Tom Piccirilli's become one of my favourite writers over the last couple of years and THE COLD SPOT is a terrific noir about a getaway driver (check out last year's THE FEVER KILL too -- a modern Gold Medal if ever I read one). Debut Canadian author Mike Knowles wrote a hardboiled gangster novel called DARWIN'S NIGHTMARE that reminded me an awful lot of Paul Cain's THE FAST ONE (Knowles's book is intelligible, though!). Christa Faust's MONEY SHOT is a superb unsentimental hardboiled revenge story. SEVERANCE PACKAGE is another classic from Duane Swierczynski. Here in Scotland, Ray Banks continued to show why he's one of the best crime writers in the country with NO MORE HEROES, Edinburgh got a new voice in Tony Black's Gus Drury, who debuted in PAYING FOR IT, and Dundee finally got on the crime fiction map with Russel D McLean's dark and lean PI debut, THE GOOD SON.

Thank you, Allan Guthrie!

A Mini Interview - Peter Pavia

PETER PAVIA (Dutch Uncle)
Peter Pavia is a writer whose work has appeared in many publications, including GQ, The New York Sun, The New York Post and The New York Times, among others. In addition to Dutch Uncle, he is the author of The Cuba Project—Deception, Dirty Doings, and Double Dealing in Post-Castro Miami and co-author, with Legs McNeil and Jennifer Osborne, of The Other Hollywood: An Oral History of the Adult Film Industry. He has been a faculty member of The New School’s Writing Program since 2001. A Rochester, New York native, Mr. Pavia moved to Manhattan in 1984, where he currently resides with his wife and daughter.

Q1. Hard Case Crime seems to have become almost a sub-genre over the last five years. To be involved in it must feel like you've become part of an exclusive club. What have been some of the highlights of this membership?

I came to Hard Case Crime and to the series’ award-winning writer, editor, and publisher Charles Ardai through an overlapping series of events that were spearheaded by an old school publishing exec by the name of Larry Hughes. (Hughes's quote adorns the back cover of Dutch Uncle). From my very first conversation with Charles, I was convinced that he was totally with the novel in the way it was written, recognized its strengths and its shortcomings, its references and influences. I thought, finally, a kindred spirit. Everybody loved Dutch in manuscript, but nobody knew how to sell it. Charles had a strategy. His enthusiasm and know-how were extremely encouraging. He gave me a break when I needed one, and gave me the guts to write another day. I'm not a numerologist, but Dutch squeaked under the wire as the 12th Hard Case Crime novel on the original list of 12, the number of fullness, of completion. The publication of Dutch Uncle convinced me to stop attributing everything to coincidence and further persuaded me that there is some positive force in the universe. How's that for a highlight?

Q2. It's all about hardboiled, noir and pulp fiction at Hard Case Crime. The golden age of paperback novels in revival. What do you think the future holds for this type of book?

The whole idea of pulp bugs me. Tabloid newspapers are pulpy, formulaic westerns are pulpy. Chop-socky movies are pulpy. This doesn't mean that I don't love those things, but in terms of what I like to think of as crime fiction, 'pulp' suggests badly written books cranked out at a couple of pennies a word, and a complete manuscript that's dashed off in about a month. I'm not going to name names here, past or present, and this stuff has its place, but it is in the main, unreadable crap that isn't worth anybody's time.

Hardboiled is a style more or less invented by Dashiell Hammett and yes, Ernest Hemingway (and James M. Cain), in the 1920s. Go back and look at the stylistic similarities between say, The Maltese Falcon and The Sun Also Rises. These writers were craftsmen who created real literature; Hemingway won a Nobel Prize for Christ's sake. I could make the argument that Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is a crime novel, and some grad student probably should probably take up that mantle. (Are you listening, MFA candidates? I just gave you a thesis.) I think the future holds a healthy respect for the genre, but in the form of well-wrought books that strive to expand noir's (if you will) somewhat narrow parameters. This is precisely what I've set out to accomplish with my current novel, This Fallen Kingdom, and I'll be very curious to see what Hard Case fans make of it.

Q3. One of the most striking things about the Hard Case novels is the beautiful cover artwork. How did you feel when you first saw the cover for your book? How did it compare to the conception of the characters you had in mind when you were writing your book?

Hey, man. Close enough for rock n' roll. This guy Farrell is an artist, and what he sees in his mind is different than what I see in mine, or what you might see in yours. How did I feel? I was so gratified I almost cried. Maybe I did cry. "Awfully easy to be hard-boiled about everything during the day," Hemingway said, "But at night it is another thing."

Q4. What are some crime novels or authors, either within or outside Hard Case, that have impressed you this year?

Dirty little secret time: I don't read much crime fiction. I spend a great deal of time writing, and I tend to read non-fiction that's going to inform my own work. Having bloviated thusly, I'm a huge admirer of George V. Higgins, especially The Friends of Eddie Coyle. I think James Ellroy is wildly entertaining. As for my Hard Case Crimeys, Pete Hamill was my hero when I was a kid, and that's not an exaggeration. He was the guy I wanted to be when I was 14. I'm dying to read Charles Ardai's Fifty to One, and I'm curious about E. Howard Hunt's House Dick. I was fortunate enough to become friendly with Hunt near the end of his days, and the guy was simply larger than life, even in his 80s. There was almost nothing he hadn't done, and he had participated in so much dark history, including falling on his sword for the Nixon gang after the Watergate mess. Howard Hunt was a great American.

Thank you, Peter Pavia!

A Mini Interview - Seymour Shubin

SEYMOUR SHUBIN (Witness To Myself)
In 1953, Seymour Shubin published his first novel, Anyone’s My Name. It quickly became a New York Times bestseller and went on to be recognized as a classic of the field, published in numerous international editions and taught in college courses on both literature and criminology. Subsequently, Shubin wrote more than a dozen other novels, including one, The Captain, that was a finalist for the Edgar Allan Poe Award and selected for the mystery reference work 100 Great Detectives.

Q1. Hard Case Crime seems to have become almost a sub-genre over the last five years. To be involved in it must feel like you’ve become part of an exclusive club. What have been some of the highlights of this membership?

The first highlight that comes to mind is my experience with Charles. His editing was always right on target. He was quick to reply to whatever questions or comments I had. I was delighted too by the general reaction to the novel. I had wondered whether my story of a man who was tortured by the memory of a murder he'd committed when he was a teenager, whether that fit under the umbrella of noir. The reactions my book got--some the highest praise any writer could hope for--quickly put that concern to rest. Noir is not a stereotype of hardboiled characters, shootings, and so on. Among so many other things, it can include the horrors that the mind under stress can inflict.

Q2. It’s all about hardboiled, noir and pulp fiction at Hard Case Crime. The golden age of paperback novels in revival. What do you think the future holds for this type of book?

I think the future of the noir novel, in all its forms, is strong and bright. For one thing, to put it simply, these novels offer sheer entertainment. For another, and far more complex, they enable the reader to enter a world of emotions and action that he/she shares with the writer in a you-are-there way.

Q3. One of the most striking things about the Hard Case novels is the beautiful cover artwork. How did you feel when you first saw the covers for your books? How did they compare to the conceptions of the characters you had in mind when you were writing your books?

I was delighted with the cover. Although it did not specifically portray a particular scene in the book, it conveyed far more--the essence of the novel itself: entrapment and pursuit. I wish I owned it.

Q4. What are some crime novels or authors, either within or outside Hard Case, that have impressed you this year?

I'm afraid I've been so busy writing my own new novel, and haven't wanted to be influenced, that I haven't read any crime novels this year.

Thank you, Seymour Shubin!

A Mini Interview - Ken Bruen

KEN BRUEN (Bust, Slide, The Max)
The Galway, Ireland-born author of more than a dozen extremely dark crime novels, Ken Bruen was nominated for nearly every major award in the mystery field (and won the Shamus Award) for his book The Guards, the first in his series about Jack Taylor and his first book to be published in the United States. In addition to his work as a novelist, Bruen has a Ph.D. in metaphysics and spent 25 years as a teacher in Africa, Japan, Southeast Asia, and South America.

Q1. Hard Case Crime seems to have become almost a sub-genre over the last five years. To be involved in it must feel like you’ve become part of an exclusive club. What have been some of the highlights of this membership?

To really be part of the most innovative, exciting publishing event of the past 50 years, the covers, who wouldn't kill to see their name on one of those stunning collectors items and to work with Charles, not only fun but a great challenge.

Q2. It’s all about hardboiled, noir and pulp fiction at Hard Case Crime. The golden age of paperback novels in revival. What do you think the future holds for this type of book?

I think it will make the fat cats sit up and clean up their snotty act, to see that a real committed publisher, who obviosuly cares deeply about the readers is going to make them get off their ivory towers.

Q3. One of the most striking things about the Hard Case novels is the beautiful cover artwork. How did you feel when you first saw the covers for your books? How did the art compare to the conception of the characters you had in mind when you were writing the books?

I went...Holy Fook...still do, and the third cover is the most stunning of all.

Q4. What are some crime novels or authors, either within or outside Hard Case, that have impressed you this year?

Richard Aleas, and here's rooting for that Shamus award; Brian McGilloway, he knocks me out; Tony Black, Megan Abbot, Adrian McKinty, the guy is a friggin genius; Christa Faust; Jason Starr, with his new standalone due soon.

Thank you, Ken Bruen!

A Mini Interview - Max Allan Collins

MAX ALLAN COLLINS (Two For the Money, The Last Quarry, Deadly Beloved, The First Quarry)
Author of Road to Perdition, the acclaimed graphic novel that inspired the movie starring Paul Newman and Tom Hanks, and of the multiple-award-winning Nathan Heller series of historical hardboiled mysteries, Max Allan Collins is one of most prolific and popular authors working in the hardboiled field today. He is also a filmmaker whose work includes "Shades of Noir," "Real Time," and the documentary "Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane."

Q1. Hard Case Crime seems to have become almost a sub-genre over the last five years. To be involved in it must feel like you’ve become part of an exclusive club. What have been some of the highlights of this membership?

I knew from the start that I wanted to be part of Hard Case Crime -- it reflected exactly the kind of book I grew up on, the quarter/35-cent reprints of Spillane, Hammett, Chandler, James M. Cain, and the Gold Medal and Dell originals, Jim Thompson, Richard S. Prather, John D. MacDonald. Those books, with their vivid sexy covers, connected with me as a teenager, and led me to where I am, for good or ill.

Frankly, some people advised against getting involved, at least doing originals, because I can get better money elsewhere. But Hard Case has given me the opportunity to write whatever I choose, essentially -- getting to re-visit my Quarry character, for example, or do a Ms. Tree prose novel. The bonus has been that these books of mine have connected with both readers and reviewers, and have attracted attention to my work in general. THE LAST QUARRY is now a film called THE LAST LULLABY, from a script co-written by me.

Q2. It’s all about hardboiled, noir and pulp fiction at Hard Case Crime. The golden age of paperback novels in revival. What do you think the future holds for this type of book?

There will always be a place for the noir novel -- the crime novels that have heists at their center, or murderous love triangles, or private eye novels with vengeance and/or femme fatales as their engines. They may change physically -- although I think the retro look, recalling not just old paperback covers but movie posters and the films themselves will have enduring appeal. Beautiful women and masculine guys in provocative situations, both in the stories and on the covers, have a lasting drawing power.

Q3. One of the most striking things about the Hard Case novels is the beautiful cover artwork. How did you feel when you first saw the covers for your books? How did they compare to the conceptions of the characters you had in mind when you were writing your books?

I was disappointed in TWO FOR THE MONEY, because I'd been keen to have a really strong, old-fashioned paperbacky cover and I got a fairly stilted design with a guy as my Nolan character (who was overtly described as Lee Van Cleef) looking like Nick Nolte. And I only did my first original because I dared Charles Ardai to get me Bob McGinnis. I said, "Get me a McGinnis cover, and I'll do a new Quarry novel." By God, he came through. The subsequent covers have been fabulous, including the Ms. Tree cover by her co-creator, my longtime collaborator Terry Beatty.

But striking covers aren't enough. Hard Case would be gone by now if the books themselves hadn't been worthwhile.

Q4. What are some crime novels or authors, either within or outside Hard Case, that have impressed you this year?

I read very little fiction. I am almost always researching for the historical crime novels I'm doing or hoping to do. And when I do read crime fiction, I often pick out a series and read straight through. I did that with Perry Mason, Poirot and Nero Wolfe, and not long ago did the same with the Inspector Morse novels, having loved the TV series.

The mystery stuff I've loved in recent years has been TV series, mostly British -- LIFE ON MARS and its sequel ASHES TO ASHES, FOYLE'S WAR, the MORSE spin-off LEWIS, SPOOKS (M1-5), HUSTLE and one American show, VERONICA MARS, which is one of the great PI series.

Thank you, Max Allan Collins!

An Interview - Tom Bale

Tom Bale is the author of SKIN AND BONES, a fast-paced thriller set in the Sussex countryside. He lives in Brighton with his family.
www.prefacepublishing.co.uk/skinandbones

Q1. What are you writing at the minute?

I’m just finishing the first draft of my next book, provisionally entitled TERROR’S REACH, which introduces a possible series character, a former undercover cop. The book is set on a fictional island in the vicinity of Chichester harbour in West Sussex, and the story can best be summed up as “DIE HARD on Sandbanks”!

Q2. Can you give us an idea of Tom Bale’s typical up-to-the-armpits-in-ideas-and-time writing day?

I drag myself out of bed in time to take my daughter to school, then go for a walk around my little corner of Brighton. During the morning I do my best to write but often seem to lose a few hours on household chores, surfing the Internet, drinking coffee and watching Homes Under The Hammer (oh, the shame!) When the kids get back from school I flee to my study and usually fare a bit better. And recently I’ve developed the habit of returning to work late at night, sometimes till one or two a.m., which doesn’t seem quite such a good idea when the alarm goes off a few hours later.

Q3. What do you do when you’re not writing?

A lot of reading: mainly crime and thrillers, plus some non-fiction and dozens of crime-related websites and blogs. I really do spend far, far too much time on the Internet. Other than that, I try to give my family the benefit of my scintillating company (ha!); in the summer I swim in the sea as often as possible, and I have something of a love/hate relationship with DIY. I’m putting up a fence at the moment, which so far has entailed fewer tantrums and a lot less swearing than usual. Perhaps I’m finally getting the hang of it…

Q4. Any advice for a greenhorn trying to break into the crime fiction scene?

Only the tried and tested. Read voraciously. Write what interests you. Rewrite again and again. And when you come to submit, make use of the incredible wealth of information about agents and publishers that can now be found online.

Q5. Which crime writers have impressed you this year?

I really enjoyed SHATTER by Michael Robotham, Mo Hayder’s RITUAL and KING OF SWORDS by Nick Stone.

Q6. What are you reading right now?

I usually have several books on the go at once, and I’m currently reading Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s THE BLACK SWAN, I SEE YOU by Gregg Hurwitz and NO KISS FOR THE DEVIL by Adrian Magson. I’m also re-reading John Sandford’s PREY series featuring Lucas Davenport. They’re a masterclass in thriller writing.

Q7. Plans for the future?

I hope to go on writing and being published, but I’m taking nothing for granted. It’s a very precarious industry, so best to approach it one book at a time.

Q8. With regards to your writing career to date, would you do anything differently?

Going back to my teens, when I first started submitting work, I’d do a lot of things differently. Seek more advice, for a start. Submit more widely is another thing – but this was the era of the typewritten top copy and a carbon. After just one or two submissions the top copy was battered, so I would simply ditch it and go on to the next novel, the next short story. I sound like a terrible old fogey, but the advent of home computers and printers has made it so much easier to get your work out in the market.

Q9. Do you fancy sharing your worst writing experience?

I had my fair share of heartbreak over the years. One of the worst occasions was when I submitted the opening chapters of a novel to an agent, who replied very quickly by email, saying she was loved it and wanted to see the whole book. I sent it off, thinking I’d made a significant step forward and was in with a good chance, but after waiting six weeks I was woken one morning by the thud of a parcel on the doormat. It had been returned with just a pre-printed rejection slip: not so much as a scribbled signature or comment. I was devastated.

Q10. Anything you want to say that I haven’t asked you about?

Just to thank you for the time and effort you put in to Crime Scene NI. Sites like this are an enormously valuable resource for crime writers and readers alike.

Thank you, Tom Bale!

An Interview - Andrew Pepper

Andrew Pepper is the author of a series of crime novels set in mid nineteenth-century London featuring Pyke including The Last Days of Newgate (2006), The Revenge of Captain Paine (2007) and Kill-Devil and Water (2008). He lectures in English and American writing at Queen’s University Belfast.

“It is a problem with literary imitations that they can never be as untypical or as groundbreaking as their originals… But Andrew Pepper’s Kill-Devil and Water is unusually successful as Dickensian narrative…. Pepper’s novel, like the best crime writing in a contemporary setting, is tough on the institutional causes of crime: slavery, pornography, prostitution. Set partly in nineteenth century Jamaica, partly in London, its intricate plot hinges on mistaken or mislaid identities, something which almost all faux-Victorian crime novels, set in an era before DNA testing and computerized data, exploit, and the relationship between identity, family and race is especially well done. In its urgency and rawness – and the disturbing moral ambiguity it shares with the original Newgate novels – Kill-Devil and Water goes further than simply clever and diverting appropriation.” TLS (13.08.08)

Q1. What are you writing at the minute?

A new Pyke novel that I’m provisionally calling London Descending (though this has yet to meet with publisher approval!). Pyke has joined the Metropolitan Police’s newly formed Detective Branch as Inspector and his new role, and a violent robbery-gone-badly-wrong, eventually bring him into confrontation with figures in the police force and the shadowy links between church and state.

Q2. Can you give us an idea of Andrew Pepper’s typical up-to-the-armpits-in-ideas-and-time writing day?

When I get a whole day to write, which is a rarity, I like to be at my desk, and PC, by nine in the morning and write until I can’t see straight anymore; could be mid-afternoon, could be sometime into the night. I have two or three note books on the go, where I scribble down ideas, passages, plot structure, character notes etc., together with files of notes on particular subjects I’ve had to research (i.e. for the current novel, the Metropolitan police, the Irish in London, the Anglican and Catholic churches in London, witchcraft, Satanic practices etc.) and piles upon piles of books that I might need to consult. I tidy up when things start to smell.

Q3. What do you do when you’re not writing?

My real job is lecturing in English at Queen’s so I have to fit in my writing as and when time becomes available. I suspect it’s like that for a lot of writers, at least the ones who aren’t up there nudging the Pattersons and Connellys off the shelf space. When I’m neither at work nor writing you might find me in the pub.

Q4. Any advice for a greenhorn trying to break into the crime fiction scene?

Publishers are odd, fickle creatures: they seem to want new crime novels and authors to be both wholly original and just like so-and-so. Since this is technically impossible, it’s to try and forget what publishers want and try and write something that excites you, because if it doesn’t excite you it won’t excite anything else. I’ve tried to learn to listen to my instincts: when the writing is going well, you can just feel it – it can be very exhilarating. But when it isn’t, you have to stop and try and figure out what has gone wrong. Oh, and get an agent. Obviously. Which is almost as hard as finding a publisher.

Q5. Which crime writers have impressed you this year?

Denise Mina & Brian McGilloway. I’ve just finished Derek Raymond’s I was Dora Suarez which was re-issued this year by Serpent’s Tail and is insanely brilliant. The trio of U.S. crime writers who contributed to The Wire – Pelecanos, Lehane and Price – deserve a mention but generally I think the assumption that American crime writing is necessarily better, more innovative, more daring etc. than British and/or Irish and/or European crime writing needs to be consigned to the waste bin.

Q6. What are you reading right now?

The Terrorists by Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo.

Q7. Plans for the future?

I’m going to write two more Pyke novel; one, provisionally called London Descending (described above) set in 1844 and the other, set two years later in 1846 in which Pyke returns to Ireland. From the year, you can perhaps guess the context. As an English writer with an English character, I step into that particular arena with extreme caution.

Q8. With regards to your writing career to date, would you do anything differently?

I’d like to have more time to write the novels. I know I’m incredibly lucky to be published at all but the notion that a-book-every-year is sustainable for a writer in the long term seems an absurdity to me, as the quality will inevitably diminish over time. I’d also like to devote more time and energy into marketing and publicising my novels but unfortunately writing them, and doing my job, takes up every working hour.

Q9. Do you fancy sharing your worst writing experience?

No writing experience is intrinsically ‘bad’ but carrying on with a bad idea and trying to write through the pain can feel like pushing a fat man in a shopping trolley through a bog. I’ve written some dire novels (unpublished of course) in the past but as terrible as they are, nowadays with the passing of the years I can even look at them with some modicum of affection.

Q10. Anything you want to say that I haven’t asked you about?

That just about covers it.

Thank you, Andrew Pepper!

An Interview - Ruth Dudley Edwards

Born in Dublin in 1944 and educated in University College Dublin, Ruth Dudley Edwards has worked in England as a teacher, postgraduate student, marketing executive and senior civil servant, before becoming in 1979 a full-time biographer, historian, freelance journalist and broadcaster. Her non-fiction includes biographies of Patrick Pearse and James Connolly and The Faithful Tribe: an intimate portrait of the loyal institutions.

The targets of her eleven satirical crime novels include the civil service, gentlemen’s clubs, a Cambridge college, the House of Lords, the Church of England, and a literary prize and an Indiana campus. The Anglo-Irish Murders is set in Ireland and is a satire on the peace process.

Favourite review extract: ‘This blithe series puts itself on the side of the angels by merrily, and staunchly, subverting every tenet of political correctness.’ Patricia Craig

Q1. What are you writing at the minute?

Since early 2000 I’ve been involved with victims who decided to take a civil case against the Real IRA and five men they allege bombed Omagh. At first I helped raise money and then I became the chronicler of the case, which after innumerable delays went to court in April. Aftermath: the Omagh bombing and the families’ pursuit of justice will tell the story of ordinary people who took on not only terrorists but all those powerful figures who wanted them just to shut up.

I’m also writing Killing the Emperors, a crime novel about the lunatic world of contemporary art.

Q2. Can you give us an idea of Ruth Dudley Edwards’ typical up-to-the-armpits-in-ideas-and-time writing day?

As my journalism, non-fiction and fiction all feed upon each other, I have enough ideas to keep me writing for decades: my major frustration is not having time to see more than a few of them through.

Once upon a time I could write a book and do nothing else: my first crime novel was written in fourteen days. Now, owing to my having three jobs, an excellent book-writing day would be when I’m not in court in Belfast or Dublin watching legal squabbles, spend only three hours or so answering emails and reading newspapers on and off the net, have no more than an hour or so on the phone, do no socialising and don’t have to write an article. Then I might manage four or five hours on the main project.

Q3. What do you do when you’re not writing?

Mostly carouse with my many delightful friends, or, when I’m beyond doing anything useful, watch brain-rot reality tv: Big Brother or Celebrity Big Brother are my favourites and have been a great inspiration for my next crime novel

Q4. Any advice for a greenhorn trying to break into the crime fiction scene?

Life and the publishing world is unfair, so avoid exaggerated expectations; sit down and get on with it; and get to know crime writers, whom you should find a constant source of encouragement and diversion. More importantly, just because it was Ernest Hemingway who said it, don’t ignore the truth that you should write what you know. What’s more, unless you have an exceptional imagination, you need to live in order to have anything to write about.

Q5. Which crime writers have impressed you this year?

I have almost no time to read for pleasure and when I do I often head for comedy. I recently particularly enjoyed the mordant Suzette Hill (A Load of Old Bones), the hilarious Donna Moore, whose Go to Helena Handbasket is a parody of the whole crime-writing genre, and the old master, Reginald Hill (The Roar of the Butterflies).

Q6. What are you reading right now?

I’ve just finished and hugely enjoyed Christopher Marsh’s A Year in the Province, which is brutally funny about Belfast academics and paramilitaries.

Q7. Plans for the future?

When I’ve finished being rude about contemporary artists and critics and gallery owners, I’ll be going after lawyers. Yes, yes, I know it’s been done often, and yes, yes, I have some very good friends in that line of business, however……………

Q8. With regards to your writing career to date, would you do anything differently?

I like adventure and variety, so I’ve much enjoyed the unexpected twists and turns my writing career has taken and wouldn’t change anything.

Q9. Do you fancy sharing your worst writing experience?

Getting repetitive strain injury while working on the history of The Economist. I hit the deadline of the 150th anniversary with about five minutes to spare.

Q10. Anything you want to say that I haven’t asked you about?

After a quarter-of-a-century on the crime scene it’s a joy to see the explosion of Irish talent. I’ve met John Connolly in Indiana, Declan Hughes in Alaska, Declan Burke in Bristol, Brian McGilloway in Bangor and the same crew and several more in Dublin. For years I’ve been on Brit panels in the US (I regard myself as British and Irish, so that doesn’t bother me), but next July I’ll be chairing an Irish panel at the Harrogate festival. The Irish are on a roll: go for it, lads and ladettes, and put two fingers up to the pretentious literati who despise us (see Carnage on the Committee - where I give contemporary literary fiction a good kicking).

Thank you, Ruth Dudley Edwards!