The Intel: Sam Millar

At the fag end of last week we reviewed Black’s Creek, Sam Millar’s heady, atmospheric journey into the dark heart of adolescence. And, by god, we liked it. Belfast-born Millar is the author of the Karl Kane detective series and other crime novels, and has racked up all sorts of literary awards along the way.

They say you’ve got to live a little bit if you want to be an author. Well, Millar’s an writer with a fascinating back-story. His membership of the IRA earned him a lengthy stay in the Long Kesh prison, known as The Maze — and in American penitentiaries.

In 1993, $7.4 million was stolen from the Brink’s Armoured Car Depot in Rochester, New York. It was the fifth largest robbery in US history — and Sam Millar was a member of the gang who carried out the heist. He was caught, found guilty and incarcerated, before being set free by Bill Clinton’s government as a part of the Northern Ireland Peace Process. He writes about his life and the aftermath of the raid in his memoir On The Brinks.

I’m chuffed to say that Millar gives us the intel on Black’s Creek, his extraordinary life and, of course, his writing process…

Tell us about Black’s Creek…

Black’s Creek is about revenge and perceived injustices, some real, some imagined. The story tells about three young friends setting out to avenge the death of their mate, in the belief he was sexually molested by the town loner. Their actions will not only have devastating consequences for themselves, but also their loved ones, and some of the town folk.

It’s a hugely atmospheric novel – part Jim Thompson, part Stephen King.  What was the inspiration?

Stand By Me by Stephen King and Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon were the main influences for the book. Both are classic stories, and for me ultimate coming-of-age tales told by two masters.

As well as a crime novel, it’s also very much a coming-of-age-tale – how much of you as a teenage boy is in the novel?

Quite a bit. One of my friends was murdered at a very young age (16) and I remembered the last summer we spent together, not realising it would be our last. His death had a profound effect on me, and changed my life forever.

There aren’t many crime writers who have been pardoned by President Clinton.  How have your own experiences, in the republican struggle and among  armed gangsters, shaped your writing?

They say you should write from experience, but I wouldn’t wish my experience on my worst enemy! Seriously, though, I have used it in all my novels and stage plays. People were shocked when they read my best-selling memoir, On The Brinks, which has just been acquired for film rights. All my novels contain elements of my life, warts and all, frightening yet told with very dark humour.

When did you first know you wanted to be a writer?

I was very lucky growing up as a young lad in Belfast. My father was a merchant seaman and was always travelling to America. Upon every trip, he would bring back a suitcase of American comic books, which I devoured and became totally addicted to (and still am!). Stan Lee, the Marvel comics creator, was a great influence in my young life, and I probably learnt more from his writing and stories than I did at school. I always wanted to be Stan Lee and finally got to met the great man, and other heroes of my childhood, when I lived in New York.

Take us through a typical writing day for you?

Usually up by 6am each day, sometimes earlier. Cup of coffee to set a spark to my battery. After that, I will sit and type whatever comes into my head, never stopping. After a few hours, I’ll halt and do the usual mundane chores about the house. I have a stray cat, and she keeps me pretty busy looking for attention. I was never a cat person, per se, and had little time for them. Then one rainy and stormy night, she entered my life, and things have never been quite the same since. Afterwards, I will start to go through what I wrote earlier in the day, hoping to come across something worth keeping. It’s a bit like prospecting for gold, hoping to come across a nugget or two.

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

It’s a tough profession, with plenty of hard work and dedication needed if you want to survive. The flip side is that I am living my dream, and wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.

How do you deal with feedback?

Depends on what the feedback is. Sometimes it can good, bad, or downright ugly. Sometimes it can be very positive, but other times rather negative. Initially, when starting out, I took negative feedback very personally. Now, it’s all in a day’s work. I take it in my stride, and appreciate the fact someone has stopped to think about your work. Even if they didn’t like it, they felt strong enough to take time-out to write a comment about it.

Who are the authors you admire, and why?

Cormac McCarthy. His writing is so beautifully dark, original and haunting. Stephen King, a master storyteller. Robert McCammon, a natural storyteller, one of the rare breed.

Give me some advice about writing…

Write… there is no wrong way to write, but always try be yourself, with an honest voice. We need new voices in writing, not ones that are already out there. Don’t try to be someone else. Oh, and never give up. Never.

The Intel: Matt Cairns

As you know, the world is our oyster where writers are concerned, and in this global marketplace, you don’t have to be in the US or the UK to make an impact. Matt Cairns is a writer from the Bay Of Plenty whose crime-horror mash-up Cold Blooded has been picking up terrific reviews. You see how easy it is? You can can check it out right here.

A former soldier and cop, Matt’s first novel is set in the spectacular surroundings of New Zealand’s north island. Right now, for your reading pleasure, Matt gives us the intel on the masters of the genre, the menace of small, isolated towns and the dreaded ‘E’ word that writers don’t use often enough… exercise.

Tell us about Cold Blooded…

Cold Blooded is a supernatural thriller/horror about a guy named Tom Jade, who wakes up on a bus in the middle of nowhere with no idea of how he got there, where he’s going, or who he is. He winds up in a small town, cut off from everywhere by a harsh winter, and before he knows what’s happening; everyone is trying to kill him. There’s lots of snow, lots of blood, and plenty of full-on action.

Cold Blooded is a thriller – but it also has fantasy elements. Have you always enjoyed mashing up genres?

I grew up reading all sorts of genres—Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Wilbur Smith, Tom Clancy; fiction and nonfiction, real and unreal—but my preference (passion, I suppose) was for horrors and thrillers with an element of fantasy or the supernatural. I enjoyed straight fantasy—Tolkien, Terry Brooks—but what I really liked was the modern everyday world (our own world) combining with an otherworld element. The idea that our safe, predictable, realistic lives could come under attack from the unrealistic—mastered in believable fashion, of course, by the likes of King and Koontz. And then there’s the added bonus of some dark disturbing humor. Perfect.

The novel is set in the town of Waiouru on the north island of New Zealand – how does the landscape inform the story of Cold Blooded?

I always knew my first novel would centre around a small isolated town coming under attack from an evil overwhelming force. Waiouru was the perfect place for me to set the story, not only because it really is a small country town that gets snowed-in during winter, or because it’s attached to a military base (a key element of the story), but because I spent a good part of my childhood and working life in the place. In other words, everything was already there—the church, the tavern, the woods and police station, even the “Desert Road”. All I had to do was picture it from memory. Who knows…if Cold Blooded ever makes it to Hollywood, maybe they’ll film it there. I can’t see the locals complaining.

You’re a former cop and a former soldier – how have your experiences influenced your writing? 

The helpful part in terms of my writing is that I don’t have to do much research into aspects of policing or soldiering: procedure, lingo, equipment and vehicles, weapons use and handling. So from a technical point my personal experience comes in handy. Another practicality of having that past is the pride and discipline both jobs teach.

Writing a novel is tough, and I believe the learned ability to stick to a routine and work hard, even when your mind and body have had enough, has definitely helped me through the process. It also helps, when I’m struggling, to remind myself that it could be worse; I could be back digging holes in the rain, or humping a pack up a mountain, or picking up teeth and brains from the roadside. A ‘no-brainer’ really.

Take us through a typical writing day for you?

I like to be at my laptop as early as possible. I write until lunchtime, then eat, check emails, deal with my social media commitments, get some fresh air, then back to writing. I work solidly ‘til around 4 or 5, then pause for a ‘mental assessment’. If I still feel like writing, then I carry on. If I feel like stopping, then I stop…my writing day is done. I then recheck emails, social media, and relax for the rest of the evening, which invariably involves still thinking about the work, and making notes if something comes to mind.

I do look at the day’s word count but for me it’s more about the full day of writing. If you put in the hours, the word count usually looks after itself anyway. And yes, I did say usually. At some point during the day I also try and fit in some exercise. It’s important. Trust me on that one.

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

Overcoming doubt. Easily the biggest challenge (and not just during the first book) is to continue in spite of the constant fear and self-doubt. What am I doing? I’m not a writer? This isn’t going to work. I’m going to fail. I’m gonna look stupid in front of everyone. I want my old job back! I might have hated it, but at least I had an income.

You have to believe in yourself. Trust your instincts, trust your passion, not the voices of doom in your head. (Or the voices of doom from friends and family). As Stephen King said: ‘…you can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.’

How do you deal with feedback?

If it’s good, I print it out and keep it, and refer to it now and again. If it’s bad, I allow myself a moment to feel like crap, then I go over it again and decide whether or not the person who gave it knows what they’re talking about—whether or not they have a point. If I think they do, I take it on board and use it to improve my writing. Otherwise I shrug it off and forget about it.

Who are the authors you admire, and why?

This sounds lame, but I admire all authors, especially now that I understand the incredible effort involved in writing a book, or any writing of some length. Having said that, I particularly admire Stephen King, not only because I’ve been reading his books since I was about eight, and love his writing, but because of his attitude to his work; his passion toward writing in general, and his willingness to pass on what he knows. Anyone learning the craft, regardless of chosen genre, should listen to what he has to say. I may stand corrected, but I do believe he’s still considered the hardest working writer in the world today.

Give me some advice about writing…

Ask yourself why you are doing it. Are you writing only for yourself, with no intention of making any money, let alone giving it to someone else to read? Is it a personal release perhaps? Or just something to do, something to pass the time? If so, then you don’t need any advice. Enjoy.

But if you are doing it with the intention of making money, perhaps even making a living, then you need to ask yourself a second question: What is my ability? If you’re supremely confident that your writing is perfect, that you don’t have anything to learn, then write your piece and send it out. Best of luck. As for the rest of us mortals, I suggest you learn everything you can.

You’re obviously already a reader (aren’t you?), so keep doing that, but also read every book you can find on how to do it right. If you want to, do a course. When you think you’ve learnt enough, go for it. Then rewrite it. And rewrite it. And rewrite it again. When you think it’s perfect, that there’s nothing more you can do with it, get it professionally assessed.

 Of course, you don’t have to do any of this. I’m just telling you what worked for me. You’ll find your own way, whatever suits you. Best of luck.

What’s next for you?

Keep writing, while continuing (hopefully) to improve my work. Keep fit. Stay mentally and physically healthy. Enjoy life. Read more King, Koontz, St Clair Butler. Watch movies. Listen to The Eagles.

That’ll do it.

The Intel: Catriona McPherson

Catriona McPherson’s first novel about debutante sleuth Dandelion Dahlia Leston nee Gilver, After The Armistice Ball, was shortlisted for the Ellis Peers Historical Dagger.

Nine books later and Dandy Gilver is as popular as ever. The latest, Dandy Gilver And The Reek Of Red Herrings – available in hardback and on kindle right now! – is set on the windswept Banffshire coast, where Dandy and her trusty sidekick Alec Osborne investigate murder in a picturesque fishing village.

So Crime Thriller Fella is tickled pink that former university lecturer Catriona has agreed to give us the intel on Dandy, the Golden Age of detective fiction and how having your book edited is a bit like being stripped to your knickers…

Tell us about Dandy Gilver…

Dandy’s gently born, carefully brought up, suitably married off  . . . then it all went a bit pear-shaped. Bored witless with the life of an upper-class lady after WWI, she took up detecting. She’s getting pretty good at it.

What gave you the inspiration for your latest Dandy novel, The Reek Of Red Herrings, set in a remote Scottish fishing village?

Haha! I actually know the answer to this. You’ve no idea how rare that is.  I was leafing through a glossy book on Scottish architecture  and came across a chapter on the cottages of Crovie, which sparked a childhood memory of having been there. Crovie (pronounced Crivvy) is tucked into a notch of north-facing coastline that you might think was barely big enough to spread a picnic blanket. The people who built their homes there were almost literally swept off the land during the clearances and all but fell into the sea.

There’s one road – very steep and twisty – and it struck me that a single tree coming down in a storm would cut the whole place off in just the way locked room murders require.  Needless to say, the story took on a life of its own and most of it happens along the coast a mile or two in the comparatively enormous village of Gamrie. I managed to hang on to the storm.

As a writer, what attracts you to the 1920s and 30s?

Well, not having to know about forensics and ballistics certainly doesn’t hurt.  I wrote the first Dandy Gilver story to entertain myself in between viable professional writing projects. This is a perfect example of my career planning. I love the British golden-age and it seemed that all the writers of it – Sayers, Allingham, March, Tey, Innes – were dead and unlikely to provide any new stuff. Of course, Kerry Greenwood, Jacqueline Winspear, Carola Dunn and more are alive, kicking and writing wonderful golden-age-style fiction, but I didn’t know that.

Your stand-alone books tend to be more serious affairs – is it important to you that you exercise different writing muscles?

That’s got an impressive ring to it, but I’d be lying if I claimed so. I think what it is is that we can accept a level of bonkersness in 1930 that’s a lot harder to swallow in the present day. So when I write a contemporary story it naturally takes a more realistic turn than Dandy Gilver sleuthing in a circus or a boarding school with her Dalmatian at her side.  Mind you, the darkness is leavened with humour in the modern stories too. I can write harrowing (apparently) but I can’t write solemn. Broadchurch with a touch of Dinnerladies just about captures it.

I’m fine with that; life is funny even when it hurts.

Take us through a typical writing day for you?

I used to write first and do everything else once my daily 2K was out. But then I moved to California and two things went wrong. First, it’s stinking hot in the afternoon in the Sacramento valley and it makes sense to do any running about early on. Also, my agent and my editor at Hodder are eight hours ahead so I have a tight window every morning to deal with anything they send me before everyone in London goes home for the day.

So, these days, I ease into my writing with chores, emails, blogs and social media and then get down to it just as the lizards move into the shade. I work at home most of the time but when I’m having trouble I go to a coffee shop in my little college town. All those exhausted  students trying to jam more physics and statistics into their aching heads makes me feel lucky to be writing stories.

How do you deal with feedback?

The process of having your book edited is a bit like being in the changing room of a posh department store. You’re stripped to your knickers with wrap-round mirrors, while someone brings you either a. exactly what you knew you were looking for or b. purple hotpants with an integral boa or c. something you never would have thought of but can recognise as pure genius. If I don’t get a. I look hard for c. and try not to experience any edits as the hotpant-boa-combo.

I think the most important thing I’ve learned about negative feedback is not to defend my writing. If Editrix Lestrange (Suzie Doore) says it’s confusing/boring/implausible then it’s confusing/boring/implausible. If I disagree it’s because I didn’t put the things in my head onto the page.

Who are the authors you admire, and why?

Oh, Stephen King.  First and last, Stephen King. And Joyce Carol Oates in between. Those are my two living heroes. They’re both expansive, confident and, above all, big-hearted writers whose voices sing out to me. A paragraph from either one of them couldn’t  be mistaken for anyone else.

Give me some advice about writing…

Finish the book. Keep going when it’s gets ugly. Don’t skip bits. Don’t polish as you go and don’t ever – ever – put it away half-made and start another one. You never know what you’ve got until it’s out of you. (Then polish like crazy and scrap it if it’s hopeless (but finish the book.))

What’s next for you?

I’m going to be researching the setting for the next Dandy Gilver while I’m in Scotland this autumn. I might start writing it before I go home in November, but more likely I’ll wait and then I’ll be the jammy besom in Mishka’s coffee shop in Davis, CA, getting to make up stories instead of studying for exams.

The Intel: Barbara Nadel Reloaded

Crime Thriller Fella is taking a much-needed summer break. But don’t get down – we’re going to meet up again right here very soon. However, do keep coming back. Over the last year there’s been all sorts of stuff we’ve enjoyed plonking on the internet, and which you may have missed. This Intel interview with the excellent Barbara Nadel, for example…

We love writers here — I may have mentioned that before. With Barbara Nadel’s second Hakim and Arnold mystery, An Act Of Kindness, due to be published in paperback, Barbara kindly tells us about her new series of East End thrillers, her writing and why variety really is the spice of life.

Photo credit: Teri Varhol

As well as the Hakim And Arnold books — the first is A Private Business – Barbara has also written fifteen Inspector Ikmen novels, set in Turkey, and four books about undertaker Francis Hancock, set during the Blitz.

There’s a real sense of place in An Act Of Kindness. How would you describe the contemporary East End?

The contemporary East End I write about is a place that is changing fast. In a way this is in the tradition of the area which has always embraced new industries, innovation and immigration. However since the middle of the last decade and the coming of the Olympics, change has been very rapid and in some cases divisive. New cracks have appeared in the human make up of places like Newham which now run less along ethnic rather then income and social class lines.

You live in Lancashire now. How do you keep up with the extraordinary changes in the Upton Park area over the last few years?

I spend a lot of time in the East End and of course I have many contacts there. But it’s hard work and I’m moving much closer, to Essex, in June this year.

There’s a very real sense that the characters in the Hakim and Arnold books are struggling to keep their heads above water. How important is it to you that you address the grinding poverty in that part of London?

Addressing issues of poverty in my old home is very important to me. Newham has always been poor. When I was a child in the 1960s and 70s it was appallingly shabby and some people, including my own grandparents, lived in the kind of poverty that is more usually associated with Charles Dickens London.My own family had no proper heating, most people had outside toilets and we were all, often sick. But that was a long time and many advances in medicine and social care ago. Or is it?

One of the reasons I write the Hakim and Arnold books is to flag up the fact that for a lot of people in Newham very little has changed. In some cases things have got worse. And that offends me to the soul. If my stories can raise awareness of these issues as well as being good crime novels then I can feel I’ve done my job.

You’ve now three different series under your belt – the Inspector Ikmen, Francis Hancock, and Hakim and Arnold books. Do you thrive on the variety?

Yes I do thrive on variety. I’m a restless somewhat hyperactive person and I like to spread myself around. Crime is my first love but I have a fair few horror, magical and saga novels in my head (and some in an old drawer!) too. I’d also, at some time, like to take the Blue Badge London guide course as well. I’m told my unofficial tours of the East End are really great.

Take us through a typical writing day for you?

I generally get up early (about 6.30am) and then, if I can I go to the gym for an hour. I arrive home pretty wrecked if I’m honest but I have a shower and start writing at about 8. Then it’s straight through until 1 with about half an hour for lunch. I’ll usually work until 5 or 6 in the evening. Long hours and strict discipline for one so disorganised as myself but I do write two books a year and so it has to be this way.

Who are the authors or you love, and why?

I’m quite left field and so I don’t tend to read a lot of hugely famous and successful crime novelists with the exception of Ian Rankin, James Lee Burke and Jeffrey Deaver. I love Rebus, adore James Lee Burke’s southern American vibe and just admire the hell out out Deaver’s plotting. But my read favourites include Lee Jackson’s London Victorian novels which remind me so much of the weird world of my death obsessed ancestors, Anya Lipska’s East End Polish novels which just reflect that world so accurately and I love the Hull novels of David Mark.

Outside crime I am a huge fan of Stephen King and I am an absolute Charles Dickens obsessive. Crime or not I like tales that include vignettes of everyday life and the struggles that afflict so many people in our apparently tidy world of Ikea and the school run. Not all lives include those things including my own!

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

That I’m not Marcel Proust. When I first wrote my first book ‘Belshazzar’s Daughter’ I thought  it was literary fiction. It wasn’t and isn’t and that’s OK but it was a shock at first!

How do you deal with feedback?

I like to be edited as it is my belief that an author can become too close to his or her work to be objective. I’m lucky inasmuch as I have always been edited sensitively and well. Predictably I take praise well and criticism less so. Although in my defence I have to say that I take constructive criticism well.

What I don’t like is when someone gives one of my books one star on Amazon reviews and then fails to review the book. To my mind that is cowardly and shows lack of courage of conviction. I would never do that to anyone however much I didn’t like their book. Every book has been written in good faith and deserves a truthful review even if it is negative.

How have your own experiences shaped your writing?

With regard to the Hakim and Arnold books the experiences that have most affected my writing are growing up in Newham and being poor. I’ve lived in damp, cramped slum landlord owned accommodation I’ve been a poor, far too young parent, I’ve been threatened by violent neighbours and exploited by criminal landlords. I know what it is like to be hungry and, like Mumtaz Hakim, I have been through the experience of being at risk of losing everything.

On another level as a graduate in psychology  who has worked for social services and in mental health services I  have met and worked with a vast range of people down on their luck and in poor health. I’ve worked with sexually abused teenagers, mentally ill in patients and offenders, drug dealers, prostitutes, immigrants (including those traumatised by the war in the former Yugoslavia) and of course social workers, doctors and the police.

Give me some advice about writing…

Don’t wait for the ‘muse’ to strike before you put pen to paper. Writing, except in very rare cases, really is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration. Get going!

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

Find your own niche and make it yours. Don’t try to be the next anyone, be yourself and write what you care about. If you care enough then that will transfer to the reader.

What’s next for you?

Next for me is building my Hakim and Arnold series and putting those parts of Newham that are not the Olympic stadia or Westfield Shopping Centre on the map. I’d like to see my headscafed detective on TV or film – it’s about time that happened. As an aside I did some tour guiding for one of the script writers on the new Newham based fire service drama The Smoke last year, and so we’re getting there.

Apart from that I’m working on a new Ikmen novel set in Turkey last year during the Gezi Park protests. That’s a challenge! And then of course in a couple of months I have to move.  As I said before, I’m hyperactive…

***

We’ll be reviewing An Act Of Kindness at Crime Thriller Fella next week — look out for that.

The Intel: Mason Cross Reloaded

Crime Thriller Fella is taking a much-needed summer break. But, chin up – we’re going to meet up again right here sooner than you could possibly hope. However, in the meantime, do keep coming back. Over the last year there’s been all sorts of stuff we’ve enjoyed plonking on the internet, and which you may have missed, such as this Intel interview with one of the talented new kids on the block… Mason Cross.

We love it when there’s a buzz about a new author. Thriller writer Mason Cross is picking up all sorts of great reviews for his gripping story of a FBI manhunt for a deranged sniper.

Crime Thriller Fella reviewed The Killing Season only last week and now, as promised, Cross gives us The Intel on new-hero-on-the-block Carter Blake, and on his own path to publication. If you’re a writer quietly plugging away at your craft, I strongly suggest you take a read…

Give us the lowdown on Carter Blake – he’s kind of a mysterious guy…

Ahh – that would be telling! He is indeed a mysterious guy. Suffice to say that he has a past that has furnished him with the skills and experience he now calls upon to do his job. That past occasionally comes back to haunt him, and we’ll find out a little more about it in the next book…

Blake hunts for a deranged sniper in The Killing Season – what is it about random killers that so fascinates us?

I think we do have a morbid fascination with serial killers. It’s probably because, while we can perhaps understand acts of violence committed in the heat of the moment, the impulse to cold-bloodedly take a human life is utterly alien to most of us. Thankfully, most of us don’t have that faulty gene. A sniper is particularly chilling, because they can strike from afar and you’ll never see them coming. It’s also the only type of cold-blooded killing that can be a legitimate profession: the military will actually train you up and pay you to do it.

How do you get inside the head of a man like that?

I suspect there may be some crossover in the psychological profiles of serial killers and crime writers; a little more overlap on the Venn diagram than is normal. Again, there’s a grim fascination for a writer in the idea of plotting and getting away with murder, although fortunately for society, we tend to keep our murders on the page.

In The Killing Season, I found that writing the villain was similar to writing the hero in a lot of ways: both are very driven, very methodical, very professional. They’re intelligent, capable men doing what they do. Blake would probably make a very good serial killer if he was that way inclined.

How did the idea of The Killing Season come about?

The initial idea was to pit two equally matched adversaries against one another. A hunter who can find anybody versus a lone wolf who’s adept at evading capture. I was interested in this idea of a very personal one-on-one contest amidst the backdrop of a massive multi-agency manhunt. The rest of the plot developed from that.

What kind of research did you have to do?

I read widely about serial killers, snipers, and police and federal manhunts. I read a book about the Washington Sniper case from 2002, and a couple of other books that dealt more with the history of snipers and the psychological warfare aspect of killing from a distance. A book I happened to read on J Edgar Hoover and the birth of the FBI turned out to be unexpectedly useful. I did a lot of local research into the locations I wanted to use. I spoke to my American friends to pick their brains and run ideas past them, and called on my own experiences visiting the States.

Perhaps as importantly as any of the direct research, I read a hell of a lot of thrillers, from the old masters to the authors who are in the bestseller charts today. I got to know the clichés to avoid, I stole some techniques I liked, and generally learned to avoid some of the common pitfalls. It’s interesting that the core elements of what makes a great thriller haven’t changed too much over the course of a century.

The Killing Season is your debut novel – what was your journey to getting published?

It involved a huge amount of luck! I’d been submitting stories to various magazines and competitions for a few years with occasional success. My story ‘A Living’ was published in the Quick Reads Sun Book of Short Stories, which encouraged me to keep at it. Some of the stories I posted on Harper Collins’s Authonomy site. A few months later, they got in touch to tell me that an agent, Luigi Bonomi, was interested in getting touch with me based one of the stories I’d posted.

I was sceptical at first, as it sounded too good to be true. But when I did a bit of Googling, I quickly realised that not only was Luigi the real deal, he was one of the top agents in the business. Luigi and his colleague Thomas Stofer were really encouraging about my writing and suggested I develop a novel. Fast forward a couple of years and we were ready to send The Killing Season out on submission.

Fortunately for me, Jemima Forrester at Orion read and loved it, and they offered me a deal. I was particularly pleased about signing with Orion because they have such a great track record on thrillers, and publish so many of my favourite authors.

Take us through a typical writing day for you?

I have a day job, so I normally have to fit the writing in around my other commitments. Luckily, I’m able to do that fairly easily – I’ve trained myself out of the habit of sitting around waiting for divine inspiration. I can write anywhere: planes, hotel rooms, cafés, pubs, libraries, park benches… I’d say my ideal writing environment is actually a quiet train carriage with no wifi. I would be unbelievably productive if I lived on a train.

Who are the authors or you love, and why?

Too many to mention them all, but off the top of my head I’d have to include Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Raymond Chandler, Michael Chabon, Ian Rankin, Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Tom Wolfe. All of the above have one thing in common – it’s a physical effort to stop reading them once I’ve started.

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

Sometimes you have to get rid of the bits of a book you really like, either by editorial mandate or because you know it just isn’t working. It’s tough, but often necessary. The other really difficult thing for me is, once I’ve got what I think is a reasonably finished version of the book, to let anyone else read it. That’s the most terrifying moment, because you’ve spent months flitting between thinking the book is fantastic and thinking it’s terrible, and you know you’re about to get an outside opinion on exactly where it falls on that scale.

How do you deal with feedback?

Generally pretty well, as long as it’s someone who knows what they’re talking about. I’m possibly unusual in that I quite enjoy the editing process – stepping back from the book, messing about with it, deciding what works and what doesn’t and reassembling it so that it runs as smoothly as possible.

I’m lucky to have an agent and an editor who both have excellent instincts about what makes a thriller work. It’s rare that what I’ve written can’t be improved by listening to some knowledgeable advice and having another go at it – it’s always better after a rewrite. I also like to get reviews from readers – a book either works or doesn’t for someone, and it’s useful to know why in either case.

How have your own experiences shaped your writing?

Friends, family, work, travel, death, love, children, good experiences, crappy experiences – it all feeds in. Another writer told me it’s essential to have spent some time doing a regular job and having a life before you can be a writer, and I’d definitely agree with that. It all comes down to writing convincingly about people and places, and to do that you need experience of as many different kinds of people and places as possible.

Give me some advice about writing…

Keep going. Try to write every day, even if it’s only 500 words. Finish things. Invest some time in plotting, but be open to change – it’s important to have a path from which to wander. The internet should be avoided during writing and embraced during research.

And read a lot! Everybody says that, but that’s because it’s true – not just to learn from the best, but to learn why some things don’t work so well so you can try to avoid making the same mistakes.

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

Be lucky! I’d definitely recommend trying to get an agent, as mine has helped me so much beyond the usual business of dealing with the publisher; giving me support and encouragement and invaluable feedback on early drafts. Think about the market, but try not to over-think: don’t write something you don’t like just because you think it will be marketable, because it probably won’t end up being very good. Play to your strengths. Try to be pleasant to work with and professional – it only started to happen for me when I began treating writing as a job. Read a lot.

What’s next for you?

Right now, I’m really looking forward to launching The Killing Season at Waterstones in Glasgow and doing the whole reading and signing thing. The next Blake book – called The Samaritan – is just about done (there’s an excerpt in the back of the first book) and I’m thinking a lot about book three, where we’ll learn more still about his shadowy past.

Aside from that, I’m really excited that one of my stories is going to be published in a forthcoming issue of Ellery Queen, which was one of my long-standing ambitions. I’m going to be on three panels at Crimefest in Bristol, and I have a couple of other festival appearances later in the year that I’m not allowed to talk about yet. When I get the okay, I’ll be sure to let people know at my blog.

 

The Intel: Rachel Howzell Hall

 

My memory’s not the best, but I’m pretty certain we reviewed Rachel Howzell Hall’s LA thriller Land Of Shadows earlier in the week — and, boy, did we like it. You’ll find that review further down the page or -I’m always happy to make things easier for you – you can click here.

I’m really pleased to say that Rachel’s here to tell us about her protag Elouise Norton, about her precinct of LA  – and, of course, about her writing regime. Sadly, I neglected to ask her whether she always writes in the car.

Tell us about Elouise Norton…

​Elouise ‘Lou’ Norton is a homicide detecti​ve with the Los Angeles Police Department. She initially stands out because of demographics — she’s black and female. But she stands out mostly because she’s committed and honest, haunted and funny. Her sister Tori has been missing for more than twenty years, so she’s driven to help other families find the closure that her family never had.

Norton is bold and funny, but also a complex and conflicted character –  how much did you enjoy being inside her head?

​I love this woman. Yes, some of her is me — we came from the same poor neighborhood and went to the same university. She and I also are in the same sorority and have some of the same sensibilities. But she’s missing two of the most important relationships in her life — her father Victor deserted his family and sister Tori was kidnapped her senior year in high school. (I’m blessed to have everyone in my family alive and well.) But these losses combined with her upbringing, and her failing marriage to a man who can provide the economic stability she never had as a child…

Her views are skewed — she’s dedicated to fighting crime but that means returning to her old neighborhood where the good and bad live very closely together. She knows that her marriage is in trouble but she holds on because she’s already lost two people she loved. She knows she must move on in her work — so many murders in Los Angeles — but she’s devoted to helping families heal, especially since she cannot.

And because of these conflicts, she’s wonderful to write and I love dropping her in new cases just to see what she’d do!​​​

We’re familiar with LA from plenty of crime books and movies, but you grew up there. Tell us about your Los Angeles?

​ My Los Angeles is southwest of the LA the world sees in TV and film. It’s predominantly Black with a growing Hispanic community. There are very rich people living there and very poor. We have crime and cops and police helicopters, but President Obama has attended fundraisers in very posh homes. It’s a wonderful mix of everything… and a terrible mix of everything. ​

What were the rules you set yourself when writing Land of Shadows?

​There were rules! I didn’t want this to be just an ordinary murder — for me to write 80,000+ pages, I needed to be passionate about the people in this book!

And then, I didn’t want Lou Norton to be the same detective you meet in other mysteries. For one, she’s not — as an African-American woman, she couldn’t mouth off like her white male peers. She had to follow the rules of the world we live in right now — she can color outside the lines every now and then, but she has to work harder to prove that she deserves that gold badge on her hip.​ And I wanted her to be a fully-realized woman — not a male detective with boobs or a clumsy airhead with a Glock.

I also wanted Lou to have a full personal life — a family, even if it’s not all blood and even if it’s a bit… raggedy. Even though her father and sister are no longer there, she still has her mom, her husband (in his own way) and two best friends. She can be alone, like other detectives in the genre, but she isn’t lonely.

Take us through a typical writing day for you?

​I wake up six days out of the week at 5:40 a.m. If it’s Monday through Friday, I get to my day job at 6:15 and I’ll write until 7:00 a.m. And that’s it for the day — because I do have a full-time job and I’m a mom. Throughout the day, I jot down thoughts that occur to me, plot holes, clever things for a character to say, but I don’t return to writing-writing until the next morning at 6:15. Not a lot of time, right? But when I do sit down and pick up the pen, the words come out concentrated and quickly because they’ve been brewing for 24 hours. Sundays, I wake up early and write until it’s time for breakfast!

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

​Writing is re-writing. That it may take six drafts to get it right. You can get discouraged in the early drafts because it all STINKS. I try not to read my favorite writers during this time because I think I’d just give up. But then, you go back and you cross-out and write in margins and find that right word and hone some more and soon… There it is! And it shines and you can’t believe that came from you!

​How do you deal with feedback?

I like feedback but only if it’s from someone who knows what they’re talking about and who has a stake in what I’m doing! 🙂 Like every writer, I’m in the weeds and can’t see the garden, so I miss things. Stories or issues that I clearly understand may not make sense to others, and so I’m always grateful for someone tapping my shoulder, and saying, ‘Umm… I don’t get it.’ My husband is my first reader/listener, and he can be hard on me. Sometimes, his observations make me a little huffy, but an hour later, I come to see his point of view. Most times, he’s right (ssh, don’t tell him I said that).

​Who are the authors you admire, and why?

​I admire Stephen King the most — his storytelling style and his ease of language fools you. As someone who wants her stories easy to understand, I know that it takes some skill and patience to achieve this. And also, the world knows Maine because that’s where he primarily sets his stories. We’ve met the people there, people in an environment completely different from mine… but who experience the same things. Loss and love, fear and the unknown.

How have your own experiences shaped your writing?

​I tend to use writing as therapy — like I mentioned earlier, I have to be passionate about a subject if I’m to spend more than a day with it. And so, my thoughts on identity, race, class, sex, all of it — it definitely informs my writing.​

 What’s next for you?

​I’m currently writing the third novel in the Lou Norton series. A young photographer is found  on a trail in a park and… SPOILER ALERT… she’s dead.​ You’ll have to read it when it comes out!

 

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.

Guest Post: William Shaw On Writing

In this tiny part of the internet we like to get between the ears of novelists.

We absolutely love doing The Intel Interviews because it gives us a sense of how writers sit down and, well, write – and it’s different every single time. There’s no right or wrong way to do it. Take a look down the sidebar – down, down, thats it, there, you got it – and you’ll see there are a million ways to write a book.

So I’m very pleased to say that William Shaw is contributing a guest post on how to expect the unexpected when writing. As you know, we reviewed Shaw’s second Breen and Tozer novel,  A House on Knives, earlier in the week – scroll down, a bit further, that’s it – and by crikey, I believe we liked it a lot.

Here’s William’s experience on how to catch literary lightning in a bottle and, at the same time, keep writing fun:

William Shaw © Ellen Shaw

Whatever you do, write a plan before you start on a thriller. That’s what they say.

It seems to be the right way to do it. Plots are complex. You need to control them, so the reasoning goes. “Plan your novel thoroughly in advance” comes the advice from all quarters. Why wouldn’t you use a map when setting out on a difficult journey?

A successful thriller writer friend once was struggling with a particularly complex book a couple of years ago, he showed me his outline for the novel. It was about twenty pages long, each page divided into five or six columns.

“It’s fantastic,” I said.

Just looking at it made me feel ill. Carefully outlined, there were scenes, descriptions, character lists, plot points, mood notes and estimated word lengths. The whole thing was practically a novel in itself. It was forensic in detail and the end result was destined to be a chart-topping best seller.

And I was intimidated by its thoroughness, because the truth is, I don’t plan. I’ve tried, honestly I have. But every time I do I tear up my plan and write something else.

For the first Breen and Tozer book, A Song from Dead Lips, there was no plan. In fact, I hadn’t even planned on a book. I simply started writing the first scene and then a second, and before I knew it, one of the characters was a detective. Up to a third of the way through, I had no idea who had killed the victim. Really. It was as much of a surprise to me, as hopefully, it will be to you.

I was slightly more disciplined when I came to the second; A House of Knives. I had written a one page précis for my editor. I knew who had done it, at least. But again, but beyond that, there was no actual twenty-page plan.

I’m currently finishing the third in the series. Determined to be more like my successful friend I wrote a long plan this time; three pages, at least. But as I near the end of the book, I have to admit, what I’ve ended out writing bears little resemblance to those pages.

There is a reason for this.

For a start, thrillers have to surprise. That’s part of their job description. And if they surprise the writer, I think that’s a start.

But it’s something else too. Despite all the screeds of advice you’ll hear about writing, there is no right way to write a book. Michael Crichton hit a mind-boggling 10,000 words a day. Graham Greene managed about 600. Tom Wolfe? A paltry 135. Some write first thing in the morning; others late at night. Some people edit as they go along. Others leave all that to the end. Everybody does it differently.

Planning works for some. I start asking colleagues about how they write. Michael Ridpath, whose Traitor’s Gate received lavish praise last year, tells me, (entirely disengenuously) that he isn’t clever enough to think of brilliant situations, “So I plan a lot.”

Likewise, Peter May, whose superb Lewis Trilogy I’m currently reading, says he has to have a clear idea of structures and characters before he starts. Why? His background was TV, he says. “So I imported the techniques. If I know the story, I write better.”

But this doesn’t work for everybody. Stephen King famously shies away from the process of plotting. He just writes. “I distrust plot for two reasons,” he wrote in On Writing. “First, because our lives are largely plotless, even when you add in all our reasonable precautions and careful planning; and second, because I believe plotting and the spontaneity of real creation aren’t compatible.”

It’s the second reason in particular that I like. Any writer I know soon becomes aware of the strange unconscious process of writing. You find a character suddenly says something totally unexpected. A minor event suddenly takes on a major significance.

For me, that’s the real fun of writing. In A Song from Dead Lips, my character Sergeant Cathal Breen suddenly abandoned his investigation to climb a tree catch a cat that was stuck in the branches. Why? At the time, I had no idea. None at all. He wasn’t doing what I wanted him to. But I realised, as I typed, that it was useful to give him the broken wrist he had from falling from that tree, because it made him more dependent on the brash young WPC Helen Tozer who had been assigned to him. I certainly hadn’t planned it; but I really liked what I’d written. Months later, my US editor liked the tree incident so much too, he made me expand it.

A House Of Knives has just come out in hardback and ebook, and the first in the series, A Song From Dead Lips is now out in paperback.

It’s the age old writing divide, isn’t it – there are plotters and there are pantsers. So how do you guys sit down to write stories? Do you write notebooks full of notes before you start, or pin up a complicated graph over your desk, or do you sit and wait for what Stephen King famously calls ‘the boys in the basement?’

 

The Intel: Mason Cross

We love it when there’s a buzz about a new author. Thriller writer Mason Cross is picking up all sorts of great reviews for his gripping story of a FBI manhunt for a deranged sniper.

Crime Thriller Fella reviewed The Killing Season only last week and now, as promised, Cross gives us The Intel on new-hero-on-the-block Carter Blake, and on his own path to publication. If you’re a writer quietly plugging away at your craft, I strongly suggest you take a read…

Give us the lowdown on Carter Blake – he’s kind of a mysterious guy…

Ahh – that would be telling! He is indeed a mysterious guy. Suffice to say that he has a past that has furnished him with the skills and experience he now calls upon to do his job. That past occasionally comes back to haunt him, and we’ll find out a little more about it in the next book…

Blake hunts for a deranged sniper in The Killing Season – what is it about random killers that so fascinates us?

I think we do have a morbid fascination with serial killers. It’s probably because, while we can perhaps understand acts of violence committed in the heat of the moment, the impulse to cold-bloodedly take a human life is utterly alien to most of us. Thankfully, most of us don’t have that faulty gene. A sniper is particularly chilling, because they can strike from afar and you’ll never see them coming. It’s also the only type of cold-blooded killing that can be a legitimate profession: the military will actually train you up and pay you to do it.

How do you get inside the head of a man like that?

I suspect there may be some crossover in the psychological profiles of serial killers and crime writers; a little more overlap on the Venn diagram than is normal. Again, there’s a grim fascination for a writer in the idea of plotting and getting away with murder, although fortunately for society, we tend to keep our murders on the page.

In The Killing Season, I found that writing the villain was similar to writing the hero in a lot of ways: both are very driven, very methodical, very professional. They’re intelligent, capable men doing what they do. Blake would probably make a very good serial killer if he was that way inclined.

How did the idea of The Killing Season come about?

The initial idea was to pit two equally matched adversaries against one another. A hunter who can find anybody versus a lone wolf who’s adept at evading capture. I was interested in this idea of a very personal one-on-one contest amidst the backdrop of a massive multi-agency manhunt. The rest of the plot developed from that.

What kind of research did you have to do?

I read widely about serial killers, snipers, and police and federal manhunts. I read a book about the Washington Sniper case from 2002, and a couple of other books that dealt more with the history of snipers and the psychological warfare aspect of killing from a distance. A book I happened to read on J Edgar Hoover and the birth of the FBI turned out to be unexpectedly useful. I did a lot of local research into the locations I wanted to use. I spoke to my American friends to pick their brains and run ideas past them, and called on my own experiences visiting the States.

Perhaps as importantly as any of the direct research, I read a hell of a lot of thrillers, from the old masters to the authors who are in the bestseller charts today. I got to know the clichés to avoid, I stole some techniques I liked, and generally learned to avoid some of the common pitfalls. It’s interesting that the core elements of what makes a great thriller haven’t changed too much over the course of a century.

The Killing Season is your debut novel – what was your journey to getting published?

It involved a huge amount of luck! I’d been submitting stories to various magazines and competitions for a few years with occasional success. My story ‘A Living’ was published in the Quick Reads Sun Book of Short Stories, which encouraged me to keep at it. Some of the stories I posted on Harper Collins’s Authonomy site. A few months later, they got in touch to tell me that an agent, Luigi Bonomi, was interested in getting touch with me based one of the stories I’d posted.

I was sceptical at first, as it sounded too good to be true. But when I did a bit of Googling, I quickly realised that not only was Luigi the real deal, he was one of the top agents in the business. Luigi and his colleague Thomas Stofer were really encouraging about my writing and suggested I develop a novel. Fast forward a couple of years and we were ready to send The Killing Season out on submission.

Fortunately for me, Jemima Forrester at Orion read and loved it, and they offered me a deal. I was particularly pleased about signing with Orion because they have such a great track record on thrillers, and publish so many of my favourite authors.

Take us through a typical writing day for you?

I have a day job, so I normally have to fit the writing in around my other commitments. Luckily, I’m able to do that fairly easily – I’ve trained myself out of the habit of sitting around waiting for divine inspiration. I can write anywhere: planes, hotel rooms, cafés, pubs, libraries, park benches… I’d say my ideal writing environment is actually a quiet train carriage with no wifi. I would be unbelievably productive if I lived on a train.

Who are the authors or you love, and why?

Too many to mention them all, but off the top of my head I’d have to include Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Raymond Chandler, Michael Chabon, Ian Rankin, Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Tom Wolfe. All of the above have one thing in common – it’s a physical effort to stop reading them once I’ve started.

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

Sometimes you have to get rid of the bits of a book you really like, either by editorial mandate or because you know it just isn’t working. It’s tough, but often necessary. The other really difficult thing for me is, once I’ve got what I think is a reasonably finished version of the book, to let anyone else read it. That’s the most terrifying moment, because you’ve spent months flitting between thinking the book is fantastic and thinking it’s terrible, and you know you’re about to get an outside opinion on exactly where it falls on that scale.

How do you deal with feedback?

Generally pretty well, as long as it’s someone who knows what they’re talking about. I’m possibly unusual in that I quite enjoy the editing process – stepping back from the book, messing about with it, deciding what works and what doesn’t and reassembling it so that it runs as smoothly as possible.

I’m lucky to have an agent and an editor who both have excellent instincts about what makes a thriller work. It’s rare that what I’ve written can’t be improved by listening to some knowledgeable advice and having another go at it – it’s always better after a rewrite. I also like to get reviews from readers – a book either works or doesn’t for someone, and it’s useful to know why in either case.

How have your own experiences shaped your writing?

Friends, family, work, travel, death, love, children, good experiences, crappy experiences – it all feeds in. Another writer told me it’s essential to have spent some time doing a regular job and having a life before you can be a writer, and I’d definitely agree with that. It all comes down to writing convincingly about people and places, and to do that you need experience of as many different kinds of people and places as possible.

Give me some advice about writing…

Keep going. Try to write every day, even if it’s only 500 words. Finish things. Invest some time in plotting, but be open to change – it’s important to have a path from which to wander. The internet should be avoided during writing and embraced during research.

And read a lot! Everybody says that, but that’s because it’s true – not just to learn from the best, but to learn why some things don’t work so well so you can try to avoid making the same mistakes.

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

Be lucky! I’d definitely recommend trying to get an agent, as mine has helped me so much beyond the usual business of dealing with the publisher; giving me support and encouragement and invaluable feedback on early drafts. Think about the market, but try not to over-think: don’t write something you don’t like just because you think it will be marketable, because it probably won’t end up being very good. Play to your strengths. Try to be pleasant to work with and professional – it only started to happen for me when I began treating writing as a job. Read a lot.

What’s next for you?

Right now, I’m really looking forward to launching The Killing Season at Waterstones in Glasgow and doing the whole reading and signing thing. The next Blake book – called The Samaritan – is just about done (there’s an excerpt in the back of the first book) and I’m thinking a lot about book three, where we’ll learn more still about his shadowy past.

Aside from that, I’m really excited that one of my stories is going to be published in a forthcoming issue of Ellery Queen, which was one of my long-standing ambitions. I’m going to be on three panels at Crimefest in Bristol, and I have a couple of other festival appearances later in the year that I’m not allowed to talk about yet. When I get the okay, I’ll be sure to let people know at my blog.

 

The Intel: Barbara Nadel

We love writers here — I may have mentioned that before. With Barbara Nadel’s second Hakim and Arnold mystery, An Act Of Kindness, due to be published in paperback, Barbara kindly tells us about her new series of East End thrillers, her writing and why variety really is the spice of life.

Photo credit: Teri Varhol

As well as the Hakim And Arnold books — the first is A Private Business – Barbara has also written fifteen Inspector Ikmen novels, set in Turkey, and four books about undertaker Francis Hancock, set during the Blitz.

There’s a real sense of place in An Act Of Kindness. How would you describe the contemporary East End?

The contemporary East End I write about is a place that is changing fast. In a way this is in the tradition of the area which has always embraced new industries, innovation and immigration. However since the middle of the last decade and the coming of the Olympics, change has been very rapid and in some cases divisive. New cracks have appeared in the human make up of places like Newham which now run less along ethnic rather then income and social class lines.

You live in Lancashire now. How do you keep up with the extraordinary changes in the Upton Park area over the last few years?

I spend a lot of time in the East End and of course I have many contacts there. But it’s hard work and I’m moving much closer, to Essex, in June this year.

There’s a very real sense that the characters in the Hakim and Arnold books are struggling to keep their heads above water. How important is it to you that you address the grinding poverty in that part of London?

Addressing issues of poverty in my old home is very important to me. Newham has always been poor. When I was a child in the 1960s and 70s it was appallingly shabby and some people, including my own grandparents, lived in the kind of poverty that is more usually associated with Charles Dickens London.My own family had no proper heating, most people had outside toilets and we were all, often sick. But that was a long time and many advances in medicine and social care ago. Or is it?

One of the reasons I write the Hakim and Arnold books is to flag up the fact that for a lot of people in Newham very little has changed. In some cases things have got worse. And that offends me to the soul. If my stories can raise awareness of these issues as well as being good crime novels then I can feel I’ve done my job.

You’ve now three different series under your belt – the Inspector Ikmen, Francis Hancock, and Hakim and Arnold books. Do you thrive on the variety?

Yes I do thrive on variety. I’m a restless somewhat hyperactive person and I like to spread myself around. Crime is my first love but I have a fair few horror, magical and saga novels in my head (and some in an old drawer!) too. I’d also, at some time, like to take the Blue Badge London guide course as well. I’m told my unofficial tours of the East End are really great.

Take us through a typical writing day for you?

I generally get up early (about 6.30am) and then, if I can I go to the gym for an hour. I arrive home pretty wrecked if I’m honest but I have a shower and start writing at about 8. Then it’s straight through until 1 with about half an hour for lunch. I’ll usually work until 5 or 6 in the evening. Long hours and strict discipline for one so disorganised as myself but I do write two books a year and so it has to be this way.

Who are the authors or you love, and why?

I’m quite left field and so I don’t tend to read a lot of hugely famous and successful crime novelists with the exception of Ian Rankin, James Lee Burke and Jeffrey Deaver. I love Rebus, adore James Lee Burke’s southern American vibe and just admire the hell out out Deaver’s plotting. But my read favourites include Lee Jackson’s London Victorian novels which remind me so much of the weird world of my death obsessed ancestors, Anya Lipska’s East End Polish novels which just reflect that world so accurately and I love the Hull novels of David Mark.

Outside crime I am a huge fan of Stephen King and I am an absolute Charles Dickens obsessive. Crime or not I like tales that include vignettes of everyday life and the struggles that afflict so many people in our apparently tidy world of Ikea and the school run. Not all lives include those things including my own!

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

That I’m not Marcel Proust. When I first wrote my first book ‘Belshazzar’s Daughter’ I thought  it was literary fiction. It wasn’t and isn’t and that’s OK but it was a shock at first!

How do you deal with feedback?

I like to be edited as it is my belief that an author can become too close to his or her work to be objective. I’m lucky inasmuch as I have always been edited sensitively and well. Predictably I take praise well and criticism less so. Although in my defence I have to say that I take constructive criticism well.

What I don’t like is when someone gives one of my books one star on Amazon reviews and then fails to review the book. To my mind that is cowardly and shows lack of courage of conviction. I would never do that to anyone however much I didn’t like their book. Every book has been written in good faith and deserves a truthful review even if it is negative.

How have your own experiences shaped your writing?

With regard to the Hakim and Arnold books the experiences that have most affected my writing are growing up in Newham and being poor. I’ve lived in damp, cramped slum landlord owned accommodation I’ve been a poor, far too young parent, I’ve been threatened by violent neighbours and exploited by criminal landlords. I know what it is like to be hungry and, like Mumtaz Hakim, I have been through the experience of being at risk of losing everything.

On another level as a graduate in psychology  who has worked for social services and in mental health services I  have met and worked with a vast range of people down on their luck and in poor health. I’ve worked with sexually abused teenagers, mentally ill in patients and offenders, drug dealers, prostitutes, immigrants (including those traumatised by the war in the former Yugoslavia) and of course social workers, doctors and the police.

Give me some advice about writing…

Don’t wait for the ‘muse’ to strike before you put pen to paper. Writing, except in very rare cases, really is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration. Get going!

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

Find your own niche and make it yours. Don’t try to be the next anyone, be yourself and write what you care about. If you care enough then that will transfer to the reader.

What’s next for you?

Next for me is building my Hakim and Arnold series and putting those parts of Newham that are not the Olympic stadia or Westfield Shopping Centre on the map. I’d like to see my headscafed detective on TV or film – it’s about time that happened. As an aside I did some tour guiding for one of the script writers on the new Newham based fire service drama The Smoke last year, and so we’re getting there.

Apart from that I’m working on a new Ikmen novel set in Turkey last year during the Gezi Park protests. That’s a challenge! And then of course in a couple of months I have to move.  As I said before, I’m hyperactive…

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We’ll be reviewing An Act Of Kindness at Crime Thriller Fella next week — look out for that.