The Intel: Deborah Bee

The Blog Tour for Deborah Bee’s startling debut The Last Thing I Remember starts right here, right now, at Crime Thriller Fella.

Deborah’s debut is a fascinating, twisty tale of two women:

Sarah is in a coma. She was mugged. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She didn’t deserve any of it. She’s a nice girl from a nice family. She’s a victim. That’s what they say.

Kelly is in the waiting room. She’s just a kid. A typical schoolgirl. Bullied a bit, probably. She doesn’t know anything. That’s what they say. So why is she there? Why does she keep turning up?

Can Sarah remember what happened to her, and work out who is it that keeps coming into her room at night?

Published in ebook next week by Twenty7 – with the paperback to follow in July – The Last Thing I Remember has already been snapped up by the telly people. Deborah’s background is in fashion. She’s worked at various magazines and newspapers including Vogue, Cosmopolitan, The Times and the Guardian as a fashion writer and editor, and she’s currently a Creative Director in luxury retail.

In this terrific intel interview, Deborah gives us the lowdown on her women protags, Locked-In Syndrome and why to avoid top-stitching.

 

Tell us about Sarah and Kelly…

From the start, Sarah is our victim – unable to move, see, keep herself alive without life-support, but she can hear. She has Locked-in Syndrome. Kelly is a sassy 14 year-old who looks like a geek. Sarah has no history that she can remember, not even her own name. Kelly knows what’s what, but no one bothers to ask her, because she’s a kid. And she looks like a geek. They have an unusual relationship that unfolds as Sarah starts to remember, and as the police are called in to investigate Sarah’s mugging and the murder of her husband – something Sarah only discovers through overhearing conversations between her family and the medical team.

The publishing team seem to focus on Sarah. The TV company looking at turning the story into a 3 part drama (don’t hold your breath – these things apparently take ages) is more interested in Kelly.

The Last Thing I Remember has got a terrific high-concept hook – where did you get the inspiration?

I didn’t start out with anything high-concept. I just wanted to tell a story and the only way to maintain interest for a character in a coma, was to have a dual narrative, with two protagonists. It was only afterwards when I read up on the ‘rules of writing fiction’ that I realised that it was an unusual approach. It was a massively complicated structure. I got lost all the time. I had to do charts and all sorts just to make sure I hadn’t given away too much. And I had to rewrite Kelly’s dialogue to make her voice sound entirely the opposite of Sarah’s.

What kind of research did you do for Sarah’s condition?

I read every book I could find on real-life experiences of comas and Locked In Syndrome. Many of them are not particularly well-read books – but they are written from the heart, which is what I needed. I also watched a load of Emergency Room fly-on-the-wall style documentaries, which show a truer picture of intensive care situations than hospital dramas, and the way relatives try to cope. The proper medical research is evolving all the time.

The latest research is getting volunteers to sleep and dream while monitoring brain activity. When the volunteers wakes up they are asked what they were dreaming about so that the scientists can match the areas of activity in the brain with places, objects and emotions. They hope to use the research to increase the possibility of communicating with Locked In Syndrome patients.

Why are readers so fascinated by characters who have amnesia?

I guess we are all shaped by our experiences and rely on them to make choices. It was even part of Blade Runner – when the Rachael character who was a replicant was given false memories in order to make her feel more human.

The novel is a long way from fashion journalism, do you ever imagine yourself setting a crime novel in the ruthless world of couture?

I’m not sure I agree that the world of couture is ruthless. The fashion industry can be pretty competitive, but the actual ‘couture’ is done by amazing artisans in tiny rooms dotted around Paris. They are usually devoted to their art. There’s definitely something in the fashion world though. I’ll dedicate the book to you if I ever come up with a good story.

What’s the hardest lesson you ever had to learn about writing?

Writing is all about confidence. If you believe in yourself then you can keep going for all those thousands of words. There’s a massive temptation to tell everyone about it or worse still, get them to read it – and then suffer their criticisms going round and round your head. The first person to read my book was my agent. When she said she liked it, I gave it to my husband to read. My son is in the middle of it now. If he says he hates it, I can live with it. Although, clearly I’ll be devastated.

Who are the authors you admire, and why?

I love a great story so my favourites are the ones that everyone loves – sorry to be boring. I think John Irving weaves a great tale – A Prayer for Owen Meany has the best twist at the end that takes you right back to the beginning. I like circular stories like that. J.D.Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye is similarly circular. I think a clever structure can make a novel – Pierre Choderlos de Lacios’ Dangerous Liaisons is told through letters between two hugely manipulative characters.

Paula Hawkins Girl on a Train has the most brilliant unreliable witness.  Nora Ephron’s Heartburn makes you laugh and cry at the same time – it’s an autobiographical account of the breakdown of the author’s marriage and she somehow makes it funny. F.Scott Fitzgerald is a bit of a hero – The Great Gatsby is perfect – a protagonist who is not what he makes out – love that.

Give me some advice about writing…

Never forget who your audience is. Never forget that they don’t have to read it – you have to entertain them. Don’t try to sound cleverer than you are. Never start a paragraph with the weather (courtesy of Oscar Wilde – “Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”) Go easy on exclamation marks (Elmore Leonard). And finally from my fashion journalism tutor at Central St Martins, Felicity Green – “If you find yourself describing pleats or top-stitching – you know you’re in trouble.”

What’s next for you?

I have two stories that I’m working on. Both are waiting for some time off for me to decide which one to go ahead with first. One is commercial – an easier read than The Last Thing I Remember, the other is difficult – a psychological thriller full of time lapses and flashbacks. The difficult one is easier to write. Weird but true. More my style.

***

Published by Twenty7, the ebook of The Last Thing I Remember comes out next Thursday, March 3rd.

The Intel: Andrew Shantos

Andrew Shantos has turned to some of the biggest names in show business, Elvis, Jimi, Marilyn, that fellow from The Doors, to populate his debut novel – but wait, you cry, surely they’re, you know, deceased.

Turns out they’re not. In Dead Star Island, they’re living in blissful anonymity on a remote island and still partying like there’s no tomorrow. That is, until someone starts killing them off for real. Greece’s former top cop Mario Gunzabo is called in to solve the mystery of the Déjà vu Killer. But can the part-time tennis coach and full time alcoholic stop the killer in time to save the rest of the superstars?

Andrew’s comic thriller is a high-concept romp and a rock ‘n’ roll rollercoaster which combines his love of music, dead rock stars and ferrets.

In the the latest stop of his Blog Tour, Andrew gives us the intel on his one-armed detective, which music icon he’d love to perform on stage with – and he earns some extra Intel brownie points by mentioning the undisputed king of high-concept, Ira Levin…

Tell us about Dead Star Island…

It’s a spoof murder mystery. Dead Star Island is home to sixteen superstars the world thinks are dead, but who faked their deaths to live in tranquil anonymity on a secret island paradise. Until now, that is, because there’s a killer on the loose, taking them out one by one in repeats of the deaths they staged to leave the real world.

Your alcoholic, one-armed detective Mario Gunzabo comes with a ferret up his sleeve – tell us about him!

Gunzabo came about from a silly game on holiday in Cyprus. My wife and I were trying to outdo each other with ideas for outlandish detectives. I suggested a one-armed detective called Mario Gunzabo. And she immediately said, with a ferret up his sleeve.

So that was the starting point, but Gunzabo evolved into a fully formed character over many drafts and rewrites, and in him is a mixture of many relatives in Cyprus, long dead, that I remember vividly from my childhood. An important part of the backstory is how he lost his arm, why Didi exists (or not), and how this continues to affect his life and the investigation.

Dead Star Island is a fascinating idea – where did you get the inspiration?

About five years ago, I was listening to LA Woman by The Doors, feeling a bit sad and thinking, “Oh, I wish Jim Morrison wasn’t dead.” Then I thought, “Maybe he isn’t. Maybe he’s hanging out with Elvis on a desert island somewhere… Of course, Jimi would be there. Marilyn too…” And I found I couldn’t stop thinking of people who’d be there with them – basically anyone who was on my bedroom wall as a teenager.

So that’s how the idea came to me. But I’ve been thinking about this quite a lot, in particular about why I had the idea, which I’ve written about in more depth on another leg of my Blog Tour, in a piece called ‘The Psychology of an idea’.

On your website, there’s a quiz you can do about the island, a music playlist, a map and even a graph on which details how many hours you spent writing the novel – how important is it for authors to provide extra content for readers?

To begin with I just had the idea to put an application form on my website, so that people could apply to go and live on the island. It was just a bit of fun, but it made me laugh doing it and I kept on adding new pages, like the quiz to try and guess who the residents are, based on the crazy caricatures my mate Joel did (it’s a tough quiz, no one’s managed full marks yet, not even anyone at my publisher).

But yes, there is an ulterior motive: I want to find and engage new readers, so my hope is that when people see the website, they’ll want to come back, and they’ll tell their friends that they’ve found something worth reading – hopefully much like the book itself.

Mostly though, I just really like the idea of a book living outside the confines of its pages. So that what you’re reading is an excerpt, a particularly interesting episode in the universe someone has created.

You’ve played the Hammond organ in lots of bands – which deceased musical icon do you wish you could have played alongside?

Jim Morrison, every time! The keyboard player I look up to the most is Ray Manzarek of The Doors, so I guess the ultimate would to have been in his piano stool, shaking my head in a stoned trance while playing a ten minute solo during Light My Fire at the Hollywood Bowl, Jim shrieking and doing some kind of crazy tribal dance in front of me. At the after party we’d hang out with Jimi, probably get drunk (definitely get drunk), sing a few sea shanties, and talk pseudo-philosophical nonsense. This would last several days until one of us got taken to hospital.

What’s the hardest lesson you ever had to learn about writing?

Probably what I talk about in my blog post “How many hours does it take to write a novel.” I remember finishing my first draft (written at night in the odd hour when our newborn baby actually decided to sleep), and giving it to carefully selected friends and family, naively thinking that the concept alone would be enough to wow everyone. That most definitely was not the case, and slowly, realisation dawned: I had only just started. I suddenly knew how much work was ahead of me, and I nearly didn’t carry on.

Who are the authors you admire, and why?

There are loads; it’s tough to pick out any in particular, like it’s tough to pick your favourite bands. In general I’d say the authors I admire most are those who write with economy and clarity, but also with flair and imagination. I’m never that bothered about genre, I’ll read anything by anyone, so long as they meet these criteria.

As for names, well of the old favourites, I like Hemingway and Orwell best. They’re the literary equivalent of The Stones and The Beatles for me. I’m gradually working my way through Elmore Leonard’s work (I finished Freaky Deaky last week, which I loved and recommend to any crime lover).

Someone who is slightly forgotten these days is Ira Levin, who was massive in the fifties and sixties. Pretty much every one of his novels has been made into a film, some of them several times over. Most are absolute classics: A Kiss Before Dying, The Boys From Brazil, The Stepford Wives, Rosemary’s Baby. They often have a crime element, all are amazing ideas, full of tension and suspense, and inevitably you find yourself devouring them in a single sitting.

Give me some advice about writing.

Work hard and be open to criticism. These two things make you a better writer.

Writing is one of the few crafts people expect to be good at immediately. There’s the old joke about asking an Australian if they can play the violin, and the Australian replying, “I dunno, I’ve never tried.” But really, you have to practise, practise, practise, and you have to actively seek criticism. Plus you have to read lots too. I often forget that, and have to remind myself: read, read, read!

Mostly we’re blind to our own faults, but see them more easily in others. It’s like anything: if you want to be good at it, you have to work hard. Above all though, have fun. Enjoy it. Otherwise what’s the point?

What’s next for you?

I’ve got lots of ideas. If anything too many. It’s a nice problem to have though, so I’m going to use a few of them in a collection of short stories, which will have the additional benefit of being good practice for the next novel.

I do have three or four ideas for full-length novels, but knowing now how much work it is, I’m taking my time and want to let them stew away in my head for a few months. I read a fascinating piece in the Guardian the other day, where author William Boyd talks about his writing process. He spends about three years writing each of his books, the first two years of which is research and planning.

That’s a long time, and I hope I’ll be quicker, but then again Dead Star Island took three years… can I book a slot in autumn 2018 for my next blog tour?

***

Dead Star Island, published by APP, can be ordered through Amazon priced £4.99 for Kindle and £8.99 paperback right here.

To get in touch visit Andrew at his website andrewshantos.com or on Twitter @andrewshantos

The Intel: Tom Callaghan

Earlier in the week we walked the charming streets of Bishkek in Tom Callaghan’s excellent debut, A Killing Winter, which features the debut of Inspector Akyl Borubaev. Callaghan’s brutal post-Soviet noir is brutal and muscular and funny. In a corrupt state full of bad eggs, Borubaev is as hardboiled as they come.

We promised you Tom Callaghan would give you the intel on Borubaev, Kyrgyzstan and his writing, and here at Crime Thriller Fella, we deliver. Born in the North of England, Callaghan is quite the gadabout. An inveterate traveller, he divides his time between London, Prague, Dubai and Bishkek. Me, I get a nose-bleed crossing postcodes.

Tell us about Akyl Borubaev.

Inspector Akyl Borubaev of the Bishkek Murder Squad in Kyrgyzstan is tough, honest and dedicated. Having recently lost his wife to breast cancer, he is in mourning, unsure that he does any good, caught in a deep depression. But the murders continue, and he has to solve them.

Where did you get the inspiration for A Winter Killing?

I’ve always loved crime fiction, hard-boiled noir for preference, and so that was always going to be the kind of book I’d write. But who needs another crime book set in NYC, or LA, or Miami? Kyrgyzstan is an unknown place, with a lot of problems – what more could a crime writer ask for? As for the plot; (whispers) I made it up.

In the novel, Kyrgyzstan is a state engulfed by gangsters, corruption and sleaze – what do you think the good citizens of Bishkek would make of it?

After two revolutions in ten years, it’s clear that the Kyrgyz will put up with a lot as long as there is food on the table, but when corruption becomes too overt, they act.

What’s your own relationship with the country?

I was married to a Kyrgyz woman, I have a Kyrgyz son, and a home in Bishkek. It’s a country I love, for its beauty, for its culture, for its people. It’s a unique place, in an increasingly homogenised world.

It’s a very timely novel, what with many of the post-Soviet satellite countries afraid that Russia is flexing its muscles again. What do you think the future holds for Kyrgyzstan?

Now that the US air base at Manas has closed, following troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, and with Kyrgyzstan signing trade agreements with Russia over import and export tariffs, people are worried about a decline in living standards. Only time will tell. But I don’t see Putin moving eastwards.

How did the spellchecker on your computer cope with some of the more challenging, consonant-heavy names?

I ignore it: I know how to spell, to parse a sentence and the rules of grammar. Orwell’s rules are ones I live by.

What’s the hardest lesson you ever had to learn about writing?

Laundry and doing dishes always seems more important when you stare at a blank screen.

How do you deal with feedback?

As a professional writer, I have no problems with other people reading what I’ve written. I like to think I’m reasonable and open-minded to fair comment. At the same time, I’ll defend my work if I think I’m right. If I can improve my work through someone else’s suggestions, I will.

Who are the authors you admire, and why?

The Classics: Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Jim Thompson. Murder taken out of the drawing room and put down a dark alleyway, where it belongs.

The Hard-Boiled Americans: Lawrence Block, James Lee Burke, Robert Campbell, Michael Connolly, Robert Crais, James Ellroy, Carl Hiassen, Joe R. Lansdale, Elmore Leonard, Ed McBain, George Pelecanos, Peter Spiegelman, Andrew Vachss. Crisp dialogue, more twists and turns than an electric eel, great locations.

The Bold Brits: Mark Billingham, John Connolly (alright, Irish, but I had to list him somewhere), John Harvey, Mo Hayder, Simon Kernick, Val Mcdermid, Ian Rankin, Peter Robinson. Murder doesn’t just happen in the USA, you know.

Foreign Settings: John Burdett (Thailand), Sebastian Fitzek (Germany), Stieg Larrson and Henning Mankell (Sweden), Jo Nesbo (Norway), Mike Nichol (S Africa). Because murder happens to non-English speakers as well.

What’s next for you?

The sequel, A Spring Betrayal, is with my agent and publisher, both of whom are very encouraging, and I’m plotting the third book now. Both of them feature Akyl Borubaev. A Killing Winter is already out in German, UK paperback and US publication is in the autumn, and Spanish and Portuguese editions follow next year.

Give me some advice about writing…

Don’t talk about it  –  nothing diminishes the desire to write as quickly as having told everybody the story. Read a lot. I mean a LOT. Read every day. Write every day. Ask for criticism, not praise; that’s what mirrors are for.

Follow Kingsley Amis’ advice: apply the seat of your trousers to the seat of your chair. Learn to spell and use grammar correctly; if you can’t make yourself clearly understood, how is your reader going to cope? Love one genre, but explore others; everything is an ingredient, to use or not, as you see fit.

Try not to be afraid of the blank page/screen, but don’t be over-confident either.

The Intel: Tom Grass

We reviewed Tom Grass’s high-octane re-imagining of Twist last week. It’s a clever heist thriller full of jumping and climbing and driving set on the streets and rooftops of London, as Twist, Fagin, Dodge and the gang take down some greedy art dealers.

We described it as Oliver Twist meets GTA, Grass describes it as Oliver Twist meets Point Break — we’ll split the difference.

Grass is a fascinating man, with a career in movies and computer games, and he’s got some interesting things to say about updating a classic novel, about the evolution of London — and about reimagining The Smoke all the way from Rwanda,

And, of course, he gives the lowdown on his writing process. Tom Grass gives the intel on Twist…

Where did you get the idea for a contemporary version of the Dickens classic?

While I was working at Pure Grass films with my brother, TV producer Ben we were always looking for good stories to turn into web series and films. At that time we met a pair of young creatives called the Lynch Brothers who had had the idea of combining ‘Oliver Twist’ with ‘Point Break.’ I worked with them brainstorming how that could actually work. Substituting the big wave surfing of the with parkour and armed bank robberies with art heists was the easy bit. Far harder was bringing Dickens characters to life in contemporary London in a way that made sense.

What is it about those characters – Twist, Dodge, Fagin, Sikes — that makes them ripe for updating?

Jaguar cars did an ad recently that asked why the best Hollywood villains are played by Brits? No surprise that my favourite actor in the ad is Ben Kingsley who played Fagin in Roman Polanski’s film version of ‘Oliver Twist.’

In Sebastian Faulks’ book on fiction, he selects a whole section on villains and chooses Fagin, that “loathsome reptile” as his favourite because he displays those traits that he finds most despicable in himself;  the laziness, the greediness, the lies, the squalor…

So there’s something in that self recognition but also in the relationship the boys have with their false father figure which transcends national boundaries so that the archetypal British villain has become a template for gang masters everywhere (just re-watch Slumdog Millionaire if you don’t believe me!).

And he’s one of our best loved villains because he’s not all bad (as compared with say; Sauron or Richard III). A survivor/scavenger whose function is to redistribute wealth in a grossly unequal society.

The counterpoint to his low down ways in the original story is Oliver. As a character Oliver is too young in the original to be much more than a foil. An innocent child whose innocence and good nature act as a touchstone to the villainy around him.

But by making him older I had to be sure that the audience would identify with him. Not by making him a cool graffiti kid but as someone who is alone and hungry and desperately wants to belong. To be part of a gang – to be a member of a family.

Who hasn’t needed a father figure at one time or another to bring us in out of the cold and give us a job and put a bottle of gin in our hand?

As in the Dickens original, the London in your novel is a place of huge contrasts in wealth – the action roams from Newham to Mayfair. Do you seem many similarities between modern London and the city from Dickensian times?

I was nervous about setting Oliver’s squat in an abandoned council estate in Newham because I didn’t want to upset anyone, but a year on my choice seems to have been vindicated.

The young mothers of Focus E15 who are fighting for their right to live in decent, local social housing in Newham, the place where they grew up are not alone. People are being displaced every day from boroughs across London and being told that if they can’t afford to live there, they’ll have to go.

At the same time in Mayfair, you have big properties owned by foreigners who never live in them standing empty and artificially buoying house price rises while young people sleep rough on the street.

So to answer your question – has London changed? Yes, in many extraordinary and good ways (just think about the London Underground and the sewage system) but the song remains the same in terms of the gulf between the rich and the poor as those on low and middle incomes are being driven out in a relentless wave of gentrification.

Twist is also a heist thriller about the robbery of lost artworks – how difficult was it to come up with a clever scam?

Planning a good heist involves team work and I was lucky enough to work with a great British crime screenwriter called John Wrathall plotting the set ups in the novel.

Research was very helpful but also posed a big question of authenticity. I read an excellent book called ‘Hot Art’ which described the career of the character who most resembled Fagin, a poacher turned gamekeeper who now advises clients and police forces around the world when they seek to recover stolen works of art.

His own career describes a threshold of value for art work at around the £100,000 mark above which it’s impossible to sell on work without being detected on one of the international missing art databases.

The notion of stealing priceless works is a bit of a tall order in real life so when it does happen, like the theft of Munch’s ‘Scream’ from Oslo’s ‘Munch’ museum, it is rare and tends to be carried out by armed robbers who then try to either claim a reward or get the owner to pay a ransom.

And because I wanted to move away from violent crime we had to think about using confidence trickery to pull off something more subtle, the kind of thing audiences’ loved in ‘Ocean’s Eleven.’

Getting the plans for Losberne’s art gallery from the architect across the road was a good place to start and involved some play acting from Fagin and Dodge then Nancy seducing the gallery owner.

The actual parkour isn’t actually useful in breaking and entering the buildings but in getting away from the cops after the thefts have taken place. This is especially true of the end of Twist when Dodge and Twist have to use the elevator shafts to escape detection before zero jumping from the observation floor.

Take us through a typical writing day for you?

When I was working on ‘Twist’ I was living in Rwanda. I used to get up at 6am every day and be at my desk with a big pot of coffee by 7am at the latest. The work would carry on until mid afternoon when I’d clock off and send emails and manage my other projects.

What’s the hardest lesson you ever had to learn about writing?

Whereas in film, the director imposes his own vision on the script, in which character is expressed in action and dialogue, in a novel one is forced to describe everything in words (including the thoughts that are going on in your characters head).

This is hard work especially on bad days when what you put down on paper bears absolutely no resemblance to the idea that is in your head!

How do you deal with feedback?

Feedback from the publisher on Twist was amazing but sometimes it can be so unhelpful.  The worst kind is when you get lots of issues but no solutions to these problems.

Who are the authors you admire, and why?

When I started to write Twist I read a lot of Elmore Leonard. He’s a genius at dialogue. Read: Killshot.

I also read a lot of Lee Child as preparation. He says he never plots his books and writes each page fresh as if he were reading it for the first time. He also says he’s written all his books stoned, but please don’t try this at home kids.

I’m a big fan of Stephen Pressfield. An American military historical novelist who fought in Vietnam as a US marine and really understands how and why armies fight from the grunt’s eye view up. Read: Gates of Fire (the story of Thermopylae). Superb research that lets you into the mind of a Spartan warrior.

Give me some advice about writing…

When asked the secret of his success, the legendary Lancashire fell runner and sheep farmer Joss Naylor would say:

‘Just gid on wid it.’

A little regularly is better than big lumps late at night or at weekends. Of course not having children helps.

What’s next for you?

I’m working on a TV treatment for Twist. I’ve also just finished the script of my first comic – a Viking supernatural adventure called ‘STORM’ which I’m co-creating as a TV series with Jake Michie (creator of BBC’s ‘Merlin’).

History is full of stories. You just have to know where to look.

The Intel: Ed Chatterton Reloaded

Crime Thriller Fella is taking a much-needed summer break.  I know, I know – parting is always such sweet sorrow, etcetera – but, hey, we’re going to meet up again right here very soon. However, do keep coming back. Over the last year there’ve been all sorts of reviews and Intel interviews we’ve enjoyed doing, and which you may have missed, you fickle thing.

For example, we loved Ed Chatterton’s excellent procedural Down Among The Dead Men, so we were thrilled when Ed kindly gave us The Intel on his writing process.

Ed is the prize-winning author of more than twenty children’s novels (published under the name Martin Chatterton), and then turned to writing crime novels creating DCI Frank Keane. He was born and brought up in Liverpool, but is a serial traveller and has lived in Florida, Lyon, Australia and London.  A Dark Place to Die was his first crime novel in the DCI Frank Keane series. Down Among the Dead Men is Ed’s second novel in the series and is split between Liverpool, Los Angeles and Australia. He lives in the UK with his wife and two children. To find out more visit his website at www.edchatterton.com

What’s your writing process? What comes first – plot or character?

There’s a great quote from Raymond Chandler which, in essence, said that good books aren’t planned they are distilled. That really chimed with me as almost all my books (I’ve written about 35) start life as a rough idea based around one or two central characters and a couple of loose story possibilities. From there I start writing around a few key early scenes, gradually ‘distilling’ as I go. I always leave the endings unplanned as I believe that this makes the narrative less predictable. If I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen then it should be a surprise to the reader, right? That’s the theory anyway. In practice this means that I rewrite and redraft a lot. I’m continually refining and cutting and chopping until I’m happy. I know this is how a lot of writers work but I think I’m more ruthless than most. I enjoy working with editors and virtually never disagree with suggestions and cuts. Other people can see much more clearly what works and what doesn’t. A good plot should have a strong backbone but shouldn’t be in charge of the characters. Once a character starts doing something to help the plot I think the book starts to become hack work. Characters are the key.

Take us through a typical writing day for you?

It varies depending on what I’m working on but usually it would start with getting outside a coffee as quickly as possible. I’d then walk the dog or do something that takes me outside the house before starting work. After that it’s really dull: I just sit down and write. In recent years the rise in importance of social media has put huge time pressures on writers. Sometimes much of my day seems to be taken up with ‘selling’, which can be annoying when I know I’d rather be creating. I usually roughly work office hours, which is something I’ve always done. I’ve been a freelance creative for thirty years full-time and without being disciplined, or having some sort of routine, I’d have been out of work long ago.

Who are the authors or you love, and why?

Most of my kids books have been comedies and I’m a big admirer of good comedy writing. I think it’s by far the hardest type of writing. and I can tell you that writing drama is much easier. I love PG Wodehouse, Evelyn Waugh, Kyril Bonfiglioli, SJ Perelman and TV writers like Armando Iannucci, Larry David and Ricky Gervais. The best contemporary comedy writers are working in TV.

In crime fiction my heroes are Elmore Leonard, George Pelecanos and Patricia Highsmith. I love the way that these writers centre their books on character. Reading a good Leonard book you get the feeling that the narrative could move in unexpected directions. These writers also write beautiful dialogue. I don’t read much contemporary British crime fiction, to be honest.

What’s the hardest lesson you ever had to learn about writing?

Quality has no relationship to sales.

How do you deal with feedback?

I find that a cosh to the base of the neck usually does the trick. If the feedback’s from my editor I do listen closely and enjoy the experience. Feedback from readers can be a two-edged sword. Usually people are very positive but I try not to pay attention to reviews, good or bad. Every writer will tell you that in a good review we’ll pick out the one negative comment and dwell on that. I have a particular problem with reviews that pick up on the sexual element of my books. One mainstream reviewer called ‘A Dark Place To Die’ ‘sex-drenched’. It has one sex scene.

How has your own experience influence your writing?

I’m not a huge believer in the ‘write what you know’ thing but I do think that a writer is better for having had some life experience. When I’m writing children’s fiction, less of my own life experience comes into play, while when writing adult crime there’s more scope to bring in things that help the books. I’ve lived in a few countries and travelled a lot and this is probably the main thing that has been an influence. For instance, despite the series being anchored in Liverpool, I like to widen the story out to include places I know well or that have had an impact on me. In the first book (A Dark Place To Die) the story bounces between Australia and Liverpool, echoing what was happening in my life – without the body count and violent drug deals. In this book the story moves from Liverpool to Los Angeles and beyond. Having lived in the US helps enormously.

Another area of influence is knowledge of policing and the criminal world. While I’m not a cop or a criminal I’ve had a fair amount of contact with people on both sides of the fence in one way or another. I like to think this lends authenticity to the characters, many of whom are based on composites of people I’ve met or know. In terms of my career experience I think my background in design and illustration/film helps me to write economically and in a very cinematic way.

Give me some advice about writing…

The flip answer is: don’t start. I hesitate to say that because I know it’s not what aspiring writers want to hear. Sadly though, it’s the truth. Writing is an incredibly tricky road to take and simply writing well won’t help much (although that should be taken for granted.) If you do decide you absolutely have to write, then, for crying out loud do it in the privacy of your own home. And then, if the monstrous thing you produce still demands to be seen, coax it outside and then put it in front of someone with a bit of editorial experience. If you can’t find an amenable one at a publishing house – and you probably won’t – then there are a few decent editors for hire. This is a problem area (I believe) in that there are quite a number of  dubious editorial ‘services’ offered. Ask around and when you have found a good editor listen to them. Keep writing and keep re-drafting. Don’t be precious. The most precious writers – the ones who react least well to suggestions – are often the least experienced. What you think is gold usually turns out to be, at best, copper. Hopefully, if you keep at it for long enough then you may eventually produce something worthwhile. And if you don’t, then put the vile thing you’ve created back into a locked room and throw away the key. It’ll be for the best, in the end.

What’s your best advice for an author looking to get into the marketplace…

Didn’t you read that last bit? No? OK…then I guess that you need to be professional. I did a workshop last year at the State Library of Queensland on this subject. In preparation I asked a few friends and colleagues, all pros, to chip in their advice. There were a variety of responses but, in essence, they could all be boiled down to ‘be professional’.  By that they mean getting the basics right. Spell words correctly. Use decent grammar. Don’t submit ‘gimmicky’ manuscripts in violet-scented hand-made boxes. Have some idea of the market: if your book is a thriller submit it to a company that publishes thrillers, not cookbooks. Go further and try and find out who the publisher already publishes. If your stuff is like something they already publish it may be that they have that market share already ‘covered’. Use any personal contacts you can. Keep writing. Write anything. Write some more. Develop a skin like a rhino. Have a back up plan. Think about how you might sell your book. Do you have a good back story? Can you talk in front of groups of people? If not, you could be in trouble because authors have transmogrified (I’m not sure when, I had my back turned) into stand up comedians and dramatic actors. Perfect your performing monkey skills because you’ll need them. Above all, write something good that you have already shown to other people with critical abilities who have given you feedback that you have then acted upon.

Simple.

What’s next for you?

I’m writing book 3 in the Frank Keane series. I’m about two thirds of the way through. I’m also writing a YA novel called ‘Archangel’ which is about halfway through. That’s a sci-fi thriller based on ‘slavery’ as a theme. I’m also doing a PhD which involves writing a ‘big novel’. Mine is called ‘The Last Slave Ship’ (www.thelastslaveship.blogspot.com.au) and tells the story of the final slaver voyage from Liverpool in 1809, combined with a contemporary narrative involving race-hate crime and civil unrest. I’m working on a film project with an Australian film company writing a movie based around the memoirs of the son of a famous Sydney gangland boss. That should keep me busy.

The Intel: Paul Gadsby

Crime Thriller Fella this week reviewed Paul Gadsby’s novel Chasing The Game, about the true-life disappearance of the World Cup trophy – and it knocked our socks off. As a result, Paul has earned himself another free kick from a dangerous position. We immediately dug out the Intel Interview he did about the intriguing unsolved mystery surrounding the theft of the Jules Rimet Cup, and about his writing regime, and present it here for your enjoyment one more time.

Paul is a journalist and writer. Having worked in sports, news and trade journalism for 14 years, he’s the co-author of the seminal snooker book Masters of the Baize. Chasing The Game is his first crime novel, and you can buy it right here.

Chasing The Game is based on the true story of the disappearance of the World Cup trophy in 1966 – what happened?

It’s a fascinating story – one that has a dose of crime, shame, desperation and intrigue in roughly equal measures. The World Cup, or Jules Rimet Trophy as it was known, was on display in Westminster Central Hall in March 1966, three months before the World Cup tournament was due to begin. The stakes were high because the Football Association (FA) wanted the event to go very smoothly, it being the first – and so far only – time England have hosted the World Cup.

But one Sunday lunchtime the trophy was stolen from its display case. A few days later a ransom demand was made to the FA, and a note later delivered setting up a rendezvous where the trophy would be exchanged for the cash. But the plan fell apart, the switch never took place (despite coming tantalizingly close) and the thieves were never identified. The trophy, for reasons unknown, ended up under a bush in a London street where it was discovered by a dog named Pickles a week after the theft. Pickles briefly became a national hero, praised for sparing England’s blushes and saving the reputation of the World Cup tournament as a brand.

How closely is your novel based on true events?

Pretty closely in many ways, which is why I didn’t go into too much detail above! I always wanted this project to be a work of fiction, though, so certain elements – the nature of the theft in particular – were dramatised in order to drive the narrative. I kept certain characters such as the chairman of the FA (although I changed his name and created my own persona for him) while the gang of thieves was entirely down to my imagination. I’ve always felt the theft had an organised criminal element behind it, but not a large scale one, so it was fun creating a ‘firm’ who could carry out the raid but were under real pressure to collect the ransom because they desperately needed the cash.

Pickles is the only character that maintains his real-life name. In 1966 there was also a replica of the trophy made, commissioned by the FA but against FIFA’s wishes, and I exploit this conflict in the story. I’m a big fan of blending fact with fiction (David Peace and James Ellroy being the masters at this) and have always felt authors should be encouraged to use fiction as a vehicle to enhance intriguing factual narratives and sharpen the motivations of characters or historical figures.

What drew you to the story?

The curious nature of the theft, the bizarre discovery of the trophy, and the fact that the crime remains unsolved. Who were the gang of thieves? What went wrong between them to result in the trophy, worth a significant amount of money, ending up under a suburban hedge? I was surprised that no one had taken the Pickles story and done something exciting with it, so I thought I’d jump in there and weave my own narrative.

I also tied this in with a theme I’d been toying with basing a crime novel on for a while – leadership, and the pressures that come with fronting a criminal enterprise or firm. I’ve always been fascinated with the internal struggles and conflicts that crop up within a systemised criminal set-up, and seeing people try to take on the skillsets required to fill certain roles. So the tense and complex professional relationships that exist between members of the gang make up a central theme of the book.

Take us through a typical writing day for you?

I wish I had more of them! I write around a day job (I write copy for a marketing company) and am married with a three-year-old son, so my blocks of time for creative writing can be varied and unpredictable. On the occasions when I have a few hours to write, I begin by (and most writing guides advise against this) doing a light edit of what I’d written previously. I trained and worked in journalism for a few years and the editor in me just can’t resist, but I do enjoy ploughing on with a first draft knowing that the product behind me is a strong one.

Obviously the second draft stage is always an extensive one, but I don’t want a major re-structuring job at that point; I’d rather fix problems and enhance areas as I go along. I’m also a big fan of Stephen King’s theory of ‘write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open’ so I’m very much in my own head when unleashing a first draft, then liaising with friends and fellow writers for feedback on the second draft.

Chasing the Game is my first published novel but I wrote three crime thrillers before that; I’ve been writing seriously since about 2005 when I had a non-fiction book published and got the bug for writing full-length works.

Who are the authors you love, and why?

I adore Elmore Leonard’s dialogue, Adrian McKinty’s action sequences, Ken Bruen’s humour, the powerful prose of James Sallis, Jake Arnott’s deep characterisation, Patricia Highsmith’s ability to build drama, James Crumley’s sense of time and place and Graham Greene’s story structure. James Ellroy, David Peace and Don DeLillo do a glorious job of mixing fact with fiction while I also love Ian Fleming’s Bond books. As remarkable standout thrillers I really enjoyed Eddie Bunker’s No Beast So Fierce (which apparently inspired Tarantino to write Reservoir Dogs) and The Ice Harvest by Scott Phillips.

What’s the hardest lesson you ever had to learn about writing? 

Probably the fact that it’s incredibly difficult – and increasingly rare – to make a full-time career out of it. At a recent writing event I had a chat with an established, award-winning author who’s terrifically talented but told me how many copies her last book had sold and how many other things she had to do in order to supplement her time to write, and I thought that was a shame. The less time an author has to write, the fewer chances we have to enjoy them.

On a technical point, I like writing a synopsis but find it bizarre, frustrating and amusing that every agent and publisher appears to have a different idea about what they want to see in one. It’s an area that takes subjectivity to a new level!

How do you deal with feedback?

I embrace it during the editing stages of my writing. An interesting point is what to do with all the feedback you collectively receive. I know some writers who literally change everything that is recommended from all sources, but the danger of this is that the focus of the manuscript can then fragment and before you know it you have several half-realised themes and sub-plots going on.

I don’t think an author should ever lose sight of the initial purpose they had at the onset of the project. I think it’s best to take all feedback on board, apply a great deal of it if necessary, but to always consider that this is your book and the reader has to be convinced that it has come from one soul.

As for feedback from the industry, rejections are a familiar tale and for me have always been tempered by the fact that you know thousands upon thousands of writers are going through the same thing. Many writers collect their rejection letters but I’ve never really gone in for that. Positive responses from the trade, meanwhile, are obviously fantastic; it’s great to spend time speaking with agents, publishers and authors, and when you’ve had your work praised by such people it comes as a relief as well as a joy.

Give me some advice about writing…

Tough one. Any advice given by writers is obviously going to be very personal to them, but I’d say the most valuable way to spend your time is to focus on both finding your own distinctive voice (there’s no better way to make an impression on your first page) while at the same time reading as much of other writers as you can. If you’re writing a full-length novel you need prose worming through your brain pretty much all the time. The passion to write can only be driven by the passion to read.

What’s next for you?

I’ve written a first draft of another crime novel, which I’d like to polish and edit in the near future. It has another sports link, and is about the physical and mental struggles of a recently retired boxer who gets dragged by his former manager into a murky world of crime and an underground bare-knuckle fighting circuit, while also struggling to deal with his Alzheimer’s-stricken father. It’s called When the Roar Fades.

Who’s going to win the World Cup this summer?

All World Cups previously held in South America have been won by a nation from that continent, and I can’t see that pattern changing. It’s hard to see past the hosts, Brazil, but Argentina could be handy. I think England might sneak through their tough group but I’d be surprised to see them go beyond the quarter-finals.

The Intel: Paul Gadsby

We love writers with synchronicity. Paul Gadsby’s novel about the true-life disappearance of the World Cup trophy is released with the 2014 tournament just round the corner. Paul is a journalist and writer. Having worked in sports, news and trade journalism for 14 years, he’s the co-author of the seminal snooker book Masters of the Baize. Chasing The Game is his first crime novel, and you can buy it right here. Paul gives us the lowdown on an intriguing unsolved mystery – and, of course, his writing regime.

Chasing The Game is based on the true story of the disappearance of the World Cup trophy in 1966 – what happened?

It’s a fascinating story – one that has a dose of crime, shame, desperation and intrigue in roughly equal measures. The World Cup, or Jules Rimet Trophy as it was known, was on display in Westminster Central Hall in March 1966, three months before the World Cup tournament was due to begin. The stakes were high because the Football Association (FA) wanted the event to go very smoothly, it being the first – and so far only – time England have hosted the World Cup.

But one Sunday lunchtime the trophy was stolen from its display case. A few days later a ransom demand was made to the FA, and a note later delivered setting up a rendezvous where the trophy would be exchanged for the cash. But the plan fell apart, the switch never took place (despite coming tantalizingly close) and the thieves were never identified. The trophy, for reasons unknown, ended up under a bush in a London street where it was discovered by a dog named Pickles a week after the theft. Pickles briefly became a national hero, praised for sparing England’s blushes and saving the reputation of the World Cup tournament as a brand.

How closely is your novel based on true events?

Pretty closely in many ways, which is why I didn’t go into too much detail above! I always wanted this project to be a work of fiction, though, so certain elements – the nature of the theft in particular – were dramatised in order to drive the narrative. I kept certain characters such as the chairman of the FA (although I changed his name and created my own persona for him) while the gang of thieves was entirely down to my imagination. I’ve always felt the theft had an organised criminal element behind it, but not a large scale one, so it was fun creating a ‘firm’ who could carry out the raid but were under real pressure to collect the ransom because they desperately needed the cash.

Pickles is the only character that maintains his real-life name. In 1966 there was also a replica of the trophy made, commissioned by the FA but against FIFA’s wishes, and I exploit this conflict in the story. I’m a big fan of blending fact with fiction (David Peace and James Ellroy being the masters at this) and have always felt authors should be encouraged to use fiction as a vehicle to enhance intriguing factual narratives and sharpen the motivations of characters or historical figures.

What drew you to the story?

The curious nature of the theft, the bizarre discovery of the trophy, and the fact that the crime remains unsolved. Who were the gang of thieves? What went wrong between them to result in the trophy, worth a significant amount of money, ending up under a suburban hedge? I was surprised that no one had taken the Pickles story and done something exciting with it, so I thought I’d jump in there and weave my own narrative.

I also tied this in with a theme I’d been toying with basing a crime novel on for a while – leadership, and the pressures that come with fronting a criminal enterprise or firm. I’ve always been fascinated with the internal struggles and conflicts that crop up within a systemised criminal set-up, and seeing people try to take on the skillsets required to fill certain roles. So the tense and complex professional relationships that exist between members of the gang make up a central theme of the book.

Take us through a typical writing day for you?

I wish I had more of them! I write around a day job (I write copy for a marketing company) and am married with a three-year-old son, so my blocks of time for creative writing can be varied and unpredictable. On the occasions when I have a few hours to write, I begin by (and most writing guides advise against this) doing a light edit of what I’d written previously. I trained and worked in journalism for a few years and the editor in me just can’t resist, but I do enjoy ploughing on with a first draft knowing that the product behind me is a strong one.

Obviously the second draft stage is always an extensive one, but I don’t want a major re-structuring job at that point; I’d rather fix problems and enhance areas as I go along. I’m also a big fan of Stephen King’s theory of ‘write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open’ so I’m very much in my own head when unleashing a first draft, then liaising with friends and fellow writers for feedback on the second draft.

Chasing the Game is my first published novel but I wrote three crime thrillers before that; I’ve been writing seriously since about 2005 when I had a non-fiction book published and got the bug for writing full-length works.

Who are the authors you love, and why?

I adore Elmore Leonard’s dialogue, Adrian McKinty’s action sequences, Ken Bruen’s humour, the powerful prose of James Sallis, Jake Arnott’s deep characterisation, Patricia Highsmith’s ability to build drama, James Crumley’s sense of time and place and Graham Greene’s story structure. James Ellroy, David Peace and Don DeLillo do a glorious job of mixing fact with fiction while I also love Ian Fleming’s Bond books. As remarkable standout thrillers I really enjoyed Eddie Bunker’s No Beast So Fierce (which apparently inspired Tarantino to write Reservoir Dogs) and The Ice Harvest by Scott Phillips.

What’s the hardest lesson you ever had to learn about writing? 

Probably the fact that it’s incredibly difficult – and increasingly rare – to make a full-time career out of it. At a recent writing event I had a chat with an established, award-winning author who’s terrifically talented but told me how many copies her last book had sold and how many other things she had to do in order to supplement her time to write, and I thought that was a shame. The less time an author has to write, the fewer chances we have to enjoy them.

On a technical point, I like writing a synopsis but find it bizarre, frustrating and amusing that every agent and publisher appears to have a different idea about what they want to see in one. It’s an area that takes subjectivity to a new level!

How do you deal with feedback?

I embrace it during the editing stages of my writing. An interesting point is what to do with all the feedback you collectively receive. I know some writers who literally change everything that is recommended from all sources, but the danger of this is that the focus of the manuscript can then fragment and before you know it you have several half-realised themes and sub-plots going on.

I don’t think an author should ever lose sight of the initial purpose they had at the onset of the project. I think it’s best to take all feedback on board, apply a great deal of it if necessary, but to always consider that this is your book and the reader has to be convinced that it has come from one soul.

As for feedback from the industry, rejections are a familiar tale and for me have always been tempered by the fact that you know thousands upon thousands of writers are going through the same thing. Many writers collect their rejection letters but I’ve never really gone in for that. Positive responses from the trade, meanwhile, are obviously fantastic; it’s great to spend time speaking with agents, publishers and authors, and when you’ve had your work praised by such people it comes as a relief as well as a joy.

Give me some advice about writing…

Tough one. Any advice given by writers is obviously going to be very personal to them, but I’d say the most valuable way to spend your time is to focus on both finding your own distinctive voice (there’s no better way to make an impression on your first page) while at the same time reading as much of other writers as you can. If you’re writing a full-length novel you need prose worming through your brain pretty much all the time. The passion to write can only be driven by the passion to read.

What’s next for you?

I’ve written a first draft of another crime novel, which I’d like to polish and edit in the near future. It has another sports link, and is about the physical and mental struggles of a recently retired boxer who gets dragged by his former manager into a murky world of crime and an underground bare-knuckle fighting circuit, while also struggling to deal with his Alzheimer’s-stricken father. It’s called When the Roar Fades.

Who’s going to win the World Cup this summer?

All World Cups previously held in South America have been won by a nation from that continent, and I can’t see that pattern changing. It’s hard to see past the hosts, Brazil, but Argentina could be handy. I think England might sneak through their tough group but I’d be surprised to see them go beyond the quarter-finals.

The Intel: JR Carroll

We love writers here – east, west, north and south. JR Carroll was born and raised in Melbourne, where he still lives. He worked as a teacher before turning to full-time fiction writing. His first book, about the Vietnam War, was Token Soldiers. This was followed by a series of crime thrillers, including Catspaw, No Way Back, Out of the Blue, The Clan, Cheaters, and Blindside. His latest crime novel, 8 Hours to Die, was released by Momentum last month. JR kindly gives us the Intel on his writing regime.

How would you describe 8 Hours To Die to a potential reader?

8 Hours to Die is a ‘siege thriller’, a well-established sub-genre in which potential victims are attacked by outlaws in their own home. This is everyone’s nightmare: how safe am I in my own house? It is a gritty, ultra-violent story in which the home invaders are ruthless killers hell-bent on breaking in and wreaking havoc, told more or less in real time, to heighten the tension.

What’s the secret to writing a gripping thriller?

I think the secret to a gripping thriller is being able to produce a plot that moves along quickly and credibly and which shocks the reader with each twist and turn. And the characters – even the bad guys – have to be fleshed out and believable; we have to be able to get inside their skins as well as those of the victims. In a way, it’s classic battle between good and evil, and the reader can never be sure which way it’s going to go until the final page. Even when it’s over, it really isn’t over …

What’s your writing process? What comes first – plot or character?

I usually begin with a single idea, which is enough to get the ball rolling … a particular scenario, or a character who seems to me interesting or disturbing. After that, I make it all up as I go along. This approach always involves a lot more thinking than actual writing. I like to see the ending at about the halfway point, and work steadily towards out. Sometimes I write out the last paragraph well in advance. In the case of 8 Hours to Die, the plot definitely came first.

What are the themes you always return to in your writing?

I guess every writer returns to certain themes, and I’m no different. I like the idea of events that occurred in the distant past coming back with devastating effect. An unsolved crime, a secret that won’t go away … A character who returns after a long absence. I also like the idea of flawed heroes – or anti-heroes – as that makes for a much more complicated and interesting protagonist. My fictional world is one in which nothing is black and white.

Take us through a typical writing day for you?

I’m a late starter – maybe 10.30 or 11am, for an hour or so, then another hour in the afternoon. But as I say, I do a lot of thinking, and I can jump back on the computer any time if I come up with a good idea. I spend a lot of time trying to work out how a particular character can develop, and how I can move the plot along through a difficult patch. I’m always trying to think up ways of ratcheting up the tension.

Who are the authors or you love, and why?

I’ve always loved fiction, but when I got into the crime business I had little experience with the famous crime writers other than Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. But as time went on I got interested in Elmore Leonard, James Ellroy, James Lee Burke, Patricia Cornwell, Ruth Rendell, James Crumley, Michael Connelly, Michael Dibdin, Robert Crais. There are many more – but I suppose I owe more to contemporary American writers than anyone else. They seemed to be more visceral and stylish; a lot more of the noir qualities and the ability to place a story in a time and place that is absolutely convincing.

What’s the hardest lesson you ever had to learn about writing?

One of the hardest lessons I’ve learnt about writing is that with each novel, you have to start from scratch and invent something worthwhile out of nothing. It can be daunting, especially given that you can’t please everyone. So, with that in mind, you just have to push on and persevere with your own agenda. I’ve been rejected plenty of times early on, and I know how discouraging that can be. But if you believe in yourself enough, you’ll get there with hard work, persistence, and above all, a talent that sets you apart. I think Frederick Forsythe’s The Day of the Jackal was rejected by 27 publishers, so there’s a lesson right there!

How do you deal with feedback?

Feedback is very important, when it comes from editors or people who are involved in the business and know what they are talking about. You have to listen to feedback, including negative criticism, as no book is perfect. I have always been willing to make changes at the suggestion of an editor, even major ones. Nothing is precious in the book – I’ve cut out whole chapters, completely re-arranged the structure, deleted characters, etc, and it’s all turned out for the better. Uninformed criticism I take no notice of. The advent of the Internet has created a whole universe of online experts, some of them quite feral, so you have to be wary of that.

How have your own experiences shaped your writing?

I studied English Literature at University, was an English teacher for years, so I’m well-grounded as far as that goes. The writers who inspired me initially were Robert Penn Warren and Graham Greene, both of whom have very dark qualities to their writing … I think the idea of crime, with a strong element of romance and escapism that is associated with, came from All The Kings Men, The Power and the Glory, Brighton Rock etc. There is something about mystery, the loner trying to right wrongs, that is bewitching and very seductive. I’d also include Colin Wilson in that – some of his psychological thrillers are absolutely superb, but he’s out of fashion now.

My own life bears no relation to the brutal world of crime fiction that I write about. Friends say, ” How in the hell can you come up with stuff like that?” because really, there’s nothing of me in those stories. It’s all fantasy.

Give me some advice about writing…

The best advice I can give about writing – crime writing – is that first, you have to read a power of books, good and bad. Get familiar with the genre you’re working in. You can’t suddenly become a successful writer in a vacuum. Read voraciously, and don’t start writing a novel until you have a damned good idea, one that will go the distance. Remember: action is character. Cut back on description, which can kill interest. Avoid purple prose. Keep the plot rolling. Try not to be a ‘stylist’ – your own style will evolve in time, if you persist. I copied F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hemingway initially, before realising that was going nowhere. Don’t do what’s been done before if you can help it. When I’m stuck, I often read great authors to get some inspiration. That can work wonders.

What’s your best advice for an author looking to get into the marketplace…

That’s the tough part. So many people are writing novels now, it’s hard to break in. If you can, get an agent. That’s not easy either. Otherwise, make sure your book is as good as you can get it, then send it to numerous publishers simultaneously. Have a short synopsis prepared, and a sample chapter if that’s what the publisher asks for. Don’t take rejection to heart. Everyone’s been rejected. If you’re good enough, you’ll get there in the end with persistence. That can take a long time. Overnight success stories are few and far between. And, as I said earlier, be prepared to make changes.

What’s next for you?

Following 8 Hours to Die, I’m currently working on a crime story about some cold murder cases involving a detective who has his own demons from the past to contend with … he is a compromised character but utterly determined to get the job done. It’s an interesting project, and while I have a few ideas left at the half-way point, I’m not sure how it’s going to end. But then, that’s half the fun. And if it isn’t fun, why do it?

The Intel: Lee Weeks

I do believe we reviewed the page-turner Cold As Ice by Lee Weeks earlier in the week. As you know, we like writers here, and we’re keen to learn from them, and Lee has kindly agreed to allow us to take the temperature on her writing process.

Lee spent seven years working her way around Europe and South East Asia. She returned to settle in London, marry and raise two children. She’s  worked as an English teacher and personal fitness trainer and her Sunday Times bestselling books include the DI Johnny Mann series and her new DC Ebony Willis series. She now lives in Devon.

What’s your writing process? What comes first – plot or character?

Definitely plot for me. I think of the ending first. I tend to visualize things in a filmic way: scenes rather than chapters.

Take us through a typical writing day for you.

I’m up and showered between 7-8am. I check my emails first then I start writing. I write basically till I go to bed about eleven, but I will stop during the day to walk my dogs and to go to the gym.  When I stop to watch telly in the evening I will continue working on my Ipad.

Who are the authors you love and why?  

I find this such a tricky question because I don’t have particular favourites. I like John Burdett, Elmore Leonard, Jo Nesbo, Lee Child. So many people are good at certain things but not good at others. I think being an author has spoilt my enjoyment of reading.

What’s the hardest lesson you ever had to learn about writing?

When I tried to let a story grow organically – big mistake. I have too many ideas in my head! I need to stick to a strong outline and refer to it constantly. It’s another case of knowing your strengths and recognising your weaknesses.

How do you deal with feedback?’

If it’s constructive  I learn from it and welcome it. After all, I am striving to be the best I can be.

How have your own experiences shaped your writing?

I don’t think that I am even aware of the extent that they shape it. I have a massive resource library of emotions and physical experiences that I can call on. It is invaluable.

Give me some advice about writing.

Think of your book as a product rather than a baby.

What’s your best advice for an author looking to get into the marketplace?

Don’t wait to write whole books – send agents a well thought out synopsis and  few first chapters.

What’s next for you?

I have a contract with Simon and Schuster for at least two more Willis/Carter books. During which time I will resurrect Johnny Mann 😉

The Intel: Jim Ford

We’re never sick of saying it: we love writers here, and we’re keen to learn from them.

Jim Ford is the author of The Bug House series, featuring DCI Theo Vos and his Tyneside-based team of detectives. The trilogy is due for publication by Constable & Robinson in 2014.

Born and bred in Newcastle, Jim worked on local and national newspapers before turning freelance. Under another name he has published a four-book crime series set in Kenya as well as over a dozen non-fiction titles. He now lives in the north of England with his wife, daughter and ageing dog.

Jim has kindly agreed to answer some questions about his writing process.

What’s your writing process? What comes first – plot or character?

It’s usually the first scene! As a young journalist I was schooled in the art of writing an attention-grabbing opening paragraph, and I’ve stuck with it in my fiction work. Obviously I’ve got a pretty good idea of the plot in my head going into the book, but that opening scene tends to set things off on a path of their own.

Take us through a typical writing day for you?

I’m very much a night owl. During the day there are too many distractions – and in my other life I still work as a freelance journalist –  but after 7pm the email, Facebook and Twitter interactions tend to die down and I can get on with it. Trouble is, next thing I know it’s 2.30am and I’ve got to be up in four hours for the school run.

Who are the authors or you love, and why?

For my forthcoming Bug House series I have leaned heavily on Ed McBain for inspiration, but I can happily spend a couple of hours in the company of any of those stripped-down, hard-boiled American writers from the 1950s and 60s. Elmore Leonard said he left out the bits that readers skim through, and that’s become my motto too. I’m a big fan of Jake Arnott – I like the way he combines fact and fiction, and Harry Starks is a great recurring character in his novels. Like most teenage boys I began a love affair with Martin Amis’s tour de force Money which has endured to this day, and once or twice a year I always dip into my dog-eared Woody Allen anthology for a good laugh.

What’s the hardest lesson you ever had to learn about writing?

The beauty of writing is that you’re always learning, and I’ve been lucky that my career has been largely pain free largely because I love what I do. The blank page is always a challenge, but in a good way.

How do you deal with feedback?

I thrive on it. There comes a time in the course of every novel when a fresh pair of eyes is required, and for me the editor’s notes are an essential part of the creative process. I’ve also got an ace copy editor who is a whizz at untangling strangulated prose and making me sound better. In the past I’ve had some great reviews and some stinkers, but then in the past I’ve been a reviewer myself so I know how subjective it is. As long as they’re not all stinkers I don’t lose sleep over it.

How have your own experiences shaped your writing?

The Bug House series is set in Newcastle, where I grew up and worked for the local newspaper for many years – so I know the city, its people and its stories very well. But the journalistic discipline of being able to fill the empty page continues to prove invaluable.

Give me some advice about writing…

It should always be a pleasure, never a chore. And, in the words of Faulkner “In writing, you must kill your darlings” – in other words, if you’re stuck don’t be afraid to scrap it and start again.

What’s your best advice for an author looking to get into the marketplace…

Don’t take no for an answer. 

What’s next for you?

Crossing my fingers that the Bug House series is a success – and in the meantime  writing a stand-alone to keep me out of mischief.

Jim’s website is www.bughousefiles.com and he Twitters at @JimFordBooks