Was writing a novel
something you have always aspired to do?
Definitely. I was a very bookish child and grew into a
bookish adult, so the idea of actually writing my own novel was always
something that held great appeal. I spent years hacking out weird and wonderful
short stories on a variety of clapped out old typewriters, but it only once I
got my hands on a Word Processor (Protext on the Atari ST – Yay! No more
Tippex!) that I finally went for broke and started my first novel, ‘Dreaming in
the Snakepark’.
How supportive were
your friends and family of your decision to become a writer?
These days anyone can shout I’M A WRITER and no one bats an
eyelid. Back when I started, writing was something pretentious and abnormal you
did in secret. When my friends and family discovered my shameful hobby they
weren’t slow to direct some friendly-fire in my direction. Happily I got my own
back when I forced each and every one of them to read my 500,000 word first
draft. That shut them up for a few months.
Is there any authors
in particular that have inspired you and if so why?
For me Stephen King will always be an inspiration. He
appeared on the writing scene when I was still a highly impressionable teenager
and swept me off my feet with his early work in the Horror genre. I suppose
what made him stand out was his direct way of speaking to the reader, his use
of contemporary song lyrics, and a very definite opposition to right-wing politics.
Most of all he’s one hell of a good story-teller.
You will be attending
Bloody Scotland this year, how important do you think it is for authors as well
as readers to attend events like these?
Readers also attend? Really? Whenever I go along to a
Crime-fest I’m always narrowly avoiding being trampled to death by hordes of
wild-eyed, drink-fuelled authors. I think it’s a great thing for writers to
meet up and swap war stories, commiserate on the latest rejection letters, and
lie through our teeth over how many Amazon 5 Star reviews we have for our
latest book. It provides a sense of community and fosters camaraderie. So much
better than my early days as an isolated writer, not ever meeting anyone else
with the same obsession. I even remember trying to join a writers club at my
local library and finding myself trapped in a small room with a group of mad
people whose idea of writing was penning lengthy articles for Caravan Monthly.
Each to their own, I suppose.
Can you tell us a bit
more about what a normal writing day for you is like?
I normally write in the evenings as I work during the day.
In fact, when I say evenings, I mean midnight is usually my starting point.
It’s a good time to work as I don’t normally get interrupted by phone calls
about car accidents I’ve never been in or people at the door wanting to Tarmac
my driveway or replace my guttering. It’s also an acceptable time of night to
drink lots of gin.
What would your dream
office/writing space be like?
My perfect writing space would be on a revolving spot-lit
stage in a huge auditorium filled with admiring fans. Whenever I write a
particularly pleasing piece of prose the audience will cheer and go crazy and
flash bombs and strobe lights go off. When I make a typo the audience will let
me know by sighing loudly and in extreme cases maybe throw Space-hoppers from
the balcony. Um… I guess I haven’t really thought this one through properly.
What made you decide
to write in the crime genre?
Peer pressure. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always enjoyed
reading Crime, but I preferred to write fiction that was darker and not necessarily
restricted to this reality. Unfortunately, that side of the fiction fence gets
branded with the big Horror tag and no one takes you seriously. A fellow author
recently pointed out that by simply sticking a policeman in the heart of the story
you can reinvent yourself as a Crime writer and suddenly everyone feels fine
about the unusual stuff going on the background. Personally, I feel there’s so
many books out there tagged as crime, especially all the serial killer
thrillers, that are basically just Horror dressed up as Crime. But these days
the public shy away from the ‘H’ word. Horror isn’t all about giant slugs and
mutant rats, you know.
For anyone who hasn’t
had the pleasure of reading your books, can you tell us a bit more about DI
Will Harlan, the protagonist from your series?
Will Harlan was once an ace detective who badly messed up a
high-profile murder investigation and lost almost everything as a consequence,
including his marriage. He’s spent the best part of five years being
marginalised at work, overlooked for everything except the most mundane cases.
He lives in a small hotel next door to the Glasgow City Necropolis. It doesn’t
help his fading reputation at work that his landlord is a retired old-school
London gangster. Redemption for Harlan finally comes along in the novel Heart
Swarm. In the second novel, Wasp Latitudes, Harlan has rediscovered his old
talents but still always looking over his shoulder for the next ambush from his
colleagues. I’ve been told he’s not terribly likeable.
Where do you get
inspiration from for the crimes you feature in your novels?
It’s very difficult to come up with a new crime that hasn’t
already been committed in someone else’s book, or in real life, come to that.
All you can do is apply a decorative touch to try and set it apart as
semi-original. I’ve stopped trying to come up with anything remotely unique as
the toy box has already been emptied. For me, the location of a crime can be
more shocking than the crime itself and that’s been my focus lately.
Finally, what are you
currently working on at the moment and what else can readers look forward to
from you in the future?
I’m currently working on the third book in the DI Will
Harlan series, a novel called ‘Nightingale Static’. After that I plan on changing
tack and writing something different. It’s still nebulous and shape-shifting
right now, but hopefully it’ll reveal itself when I need it to.