A St Patricks Day Special: the Irish 9mm interviews

Well, it may not quite be St Patrick's Day in Ireland itself, time-wise, but here in the first country to see the sun, the celebrations are already well under way, with parties and events at Irish pubs and many other places throughout the day and night here in New Zealand.

St Patrick is of course the most well-known patron saint of Ireland, and over the centuries the day of celebration that was originally more about feast and tied to religion, became a wider celebration of Irish culture in general. It's a public holiday for our friends in Ireland, but is also widely celebrated elsewhere in the English-speaking world, especially in places like Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, which each had large numbers of Irish immigrants over the years.

For Crime Watch's celebration of all things Irish today, I thought I would revisit the 9mm author interviews I've done with writers from the Emerald Isle. So grab yourself a Guiness (or Kilkenny if you're that way inclined), kick back, and scroll through the thoughts and comments from a trio of terrific Irish crime writers: Rob Kitchin, Declan Burke, and John Connolly.

9MM: An interview with Rob Kitchin

Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?
Hmmmm. I have soft spots for Bernie Gunther (Philip Kerr), Jack Irish (Peter Temple), Harry Bosch (Michael Connelly), Omar Yussef (Matt Benyon Rees), De Luca (Carlo Lucarelli), Hap Collins and Leonard Pine (Joe Lansdale) and John Rebus (Ian Rankin).

What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?
Oh God, this is tricky. I've no idea what this book was! I got hooked on fiction in my early teens. I remember I went through a spy thriller phase working my way through Ted Allbeury, Len Deighton and John Le Carre. The Cold War was still live at the time and I was taken by the cloak and dagger plots, the underlying politics, and the intertextuality vis-à-vis real events and people.

Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?
I'd had quite a bit of academic writing published in journals and edited books, and I'd had 17 academic books published. Writing is something that improves with practice, and although it's a very different kind of writing, there's no doubt that my fiction writing has benefited from my academic work.

Outside of writing, and touring and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?
Read. Mostly crime fiction, but also some history, travel writing and popular science. Writing fiction is actually a big part of my leisure time - I have a full-time job that my writing has to be fitted around.

What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?
If hometown is where I presently live, then it's a small, Dublin commuter town that has half-a-dozen pubs, a couple of restaurants, a GAA club, and not much else. You could take a walk along the canal.

If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?
If my life were a movie, the audience would be asleep in the first five minutes.

Of your books, which is your favourite, and why?
My favourite is 'Saving Siobhan', a comic crime caper set in Ireland, which is unpublished and has been rejected a fair few times by agents and publishers as either being (a) too quirky and niche to gain sufficient sales, or (b) too mainstream that it'll disappear in the pack. What's frustrating about the letters is that they all start with, 'I really enjoyed this, but ...'

The fact that they really enjoyed it, and perhaps other people would enjoy it, seems to somehow disappear from their decision making. I think increasingly publishers want guaranteed mega-sales for no risk, and small town Ireland is seen as too parochial to capture attention and sales and is therefore a potential investment risk. Oh well. I like the characters, I'm happy with the plot, and it rattles along at a good pace. The few people who've read it agree that it's my best piece to date. I'm not really sure what to do with it right now. I'll probably have another go at getting it out there once THE WHITE GALLOWS is published in a couple of weeks time.

What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?
The first thing I had published was an article in an academic journal.

The initial feedback consisted of three reviews - one basically saying to accept the paper as it was, another that it needed major revisions but would be okay after those, and the final one saying it was hopeless and it should be rejected. It was a very sweet and sour moment.

Interestingly, it is by far my most cited paper, which suggests everything has been downhill since then! Receiving my first book, and seeing it in a bookshop, was a bit of anti-climax to be honest. The exciting bit, I think, was getting the proofs and the realisation that it was definitely going to see the light of day. I did get a kick seeing a pile of THE RULE BOOK in a bookshop in Dublin Airport. That was a 'perhaps there might be a future in this' moment.

What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?
Since I've only done a couple of signings and I've not yet been to a book fair or literary festival, I've not had much in the way of unusual experiences. When we launched the encyclopedia for which I was co-editor in chief, one of the panelists we'd invited to push it off into the world gave it a good thrashing in front of the 200 or so people who attended. That was quite sobering, especially after it had taken five years to put together and involved 840 writers from over 40 countries! The lesson is to be careful when picking someone to launch a book.


The Crime Watch 9mm Author Interview: Declan Burke

Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?
That would have to be Philip Marlowe. The first time I read the opening paragraph of The Big Sleep, it felt like coming home. Odd, really, because I’ve never been to LA. Generally speaking, I’m more a fan of standalones rather than series heroes, but I’ll be first in line if they ever discover an unpublished Marlowe manuscript. I reread at least one Chandler per year, just to remind myself of (a) why I love books, (b) why I want to write, and (c) how far I have to go to get to where I’d like to be.

What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?
Very tough question. You can love books for all sorts of reasons, not all of them to do with the story or the writing. And when you’re young, you tend to read indiscriminately, without worrying about whether you actually like or love a book - I doubt very much if I ever stopped to think about whether I was enjoying the Enid Blyton books, for example, as I wolfed them down. But I do remember having my socks blown off by Watership Down when I was about 10 or 11. A story about rabbits, from the POV of rabbits? And heartbreaking to boot? I even loved the General, Woundwort, when he went for the dog’s throat …

Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?
I’d been working as a journalist for about eight years or so before Eightball Boogie was published in 2004, mainly writing about arts and cultural stuff - movies, books, theatre. I’d also written a novel-length story set in the Greek islands that was utter rubbish, but which was important to me (and possibly one of the most important things I ever wrote) in that it meant I at least had the stamina to write a book-length story. Starting a story is the easiest thing in the world. Seeing it through is tough, tough, tough.

Outside of writing, and touring and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?
Writing is really only a hobby to me; I’ve only had two books published (Eightball Boogie and The Big O (2007)), both of which were very low-key affairs. And in these straitened times, working a full-time job as a freelance journalist, and with a young family to co-support, I don’t get much time to write, let alone tour and promote. For leisure, I’m lucky in that my job involves going to movies and theatre, and reading quite a bit for review. So there’s a lot of cross-over there between work and leisure. For strictly leisure time, I like to spend as much time as possible with my little girl, Lily, who has just turned two and is brilliant fun. I watch a little TV - football, Family Guy, science and history documentaries - listen to some music, potter in the garden a bit, do some blogging … Any spare time after that is spent reading, though.

What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?
I live in Wicklow now, which is called ‘the Garden of Ireland’, but I’m originally from Sligo, in the northwest of Ireland, which is renowned for its association with WB Yeats. It’s a beautiful place: there are mountains, forests, bogs, the Atlantic, good surfing, good fishing … in fact, it’s a great place to set a novel, because practically any kind of urban or rural setting you need is available within five or ten miles of Sligo town centre. What visitors do tend to overlook is Sligo’s ancient history. There are perfectly preserved settlements at Carrowkeel, for example, that predate the better-known Newgrange by about 500 years, and the Egyptian pyramids by about 1,000 years.

If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?
If my life was a movie, it’d be stuck in development hell. Who would I like to see play me? George Clooney, one of the very few interesting movie stars with real screen presence. Who would be likely to play me? Steve Buscemi.


Of your books, which is your favourite, and why?
Now that’s a tough bloody question. It’s like asking which of your kids you love most. And the honest answer is that I love them all equally, and I’m including those that haven’t been published when I say ‘all’. Eightball was magic because it was my first, and I’ll never replicate that shining, incandescent moment when I first held the book - an actual book, written by me - in my hands. It happened on a street in Galway, and I believe I kind of blanked out for a few seconds. I’d waited a long, long time to see that book … The Big O I love because it was a co-published deal with Hag’s Head, I and my wife put our mortgage money where my mouth was by paying 50% of the costs, and it ended up a modest success, from a co-published little effort (880 copies in Ireland) that ended up getting a pretty decent deal in the States, and allowed me go to the States for a road-trip to promote it. Bad for Good (which is currently out under consideration) I love because it’s radically different to the previous books, and I’m still not sure where the voice came from, or where the notion of having a hospital porter blow up his hospital came from. But even the books that will never see the light of day, I love them too, because they’re me at my most me. Which is the main reason why I write, I think.

What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?
I can’t really remember, to be honest, possibly because I very probably went out drinking. But it’s a strange, strange thing hearing that your book is going to be published - you’re delighted, of course, because for me I’d had that monkey on my back for nigh on 20 years, having subconsciously set myself that much as a target in order to have a life worth living (!), and the relief that it was finally going to happen was immense. So there’s shock, and relief, and delight … and ten minutes later you’re worried if people are going to like it.

I had a bizarre experience, actually, in that a couple of months before Eightball was published, I read a Ken Bruen novel, I think it was The Guards. And I remember vividly putting it down and realising that Eightball was going to be evaluated on the same criteria, and having a panic attack of sorts, and then wondering what Ken Bruen would make of my book. And the very following morning, I got a letter from the publisher, via my agent, containing a blurb from Ken Bruen, in which he claimed I was the future of Irish crime fiction. That was a pretty good morning.

What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?
Most unusual event at a literary festival? Sorry, Craig - what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Generally speaking, though, the most unusual thing that happens at my book signings is that people actually turn up to have their books signed. That never ceases to amaze me.


The Crime Watch 9mm Author Interview: John Connolly

Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?
Ah, probably it’s a tie between Ross Macdonald’s Lew Archer - because of that capacity for empathy, that’s important to me - and James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux, who taught me that writing can be very poetic, I think.

What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?
It was a Secret Seven book by Enid Blyton, which I remember reading at the dining table in our sitting room, and I remember struggling because I hadn’t been reading for very long, and I struggled through with words phonetically, and for years afterwards I thought the word ‘cupboard’ was pronounced ‘cup board’ - and my mother must have thought I was like little Lord Fauntleroy, “can we get something from the cup board?”

Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?
Nothing. I’d written for the Irish Times, so I’d been a journalist, but I’d not written fiction. Lots of articles but nothing in terms of fiction, no.

Outside of writing, and touring and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?
It doesn’t leave a whole lot of time, to be perfectly honest (chuckling). Ah, I go to the gym because it’s good to get out of the house and to do something so I don’t turn into some kind of vegetable. I actually find - somebody once said that the secret to happiness is to find something you would do as a hobby, and convince somebody to pay you to do it. And given that I’m doing what I probably would have done as a hobby had I been given the opportunity, and had I had ‘a proper job’, I actually don’t begrudge the time I spend doing it. So most of my time, it’s a bit like that Raymond Chandler thing - he was asked what was his writing day like, and he said he spent 6-7 hours a day sleeping, 3 hours a day eating, 4 hours a day writing, and the rest of it thinking about writing. And that’s kind of what my day has become.

What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?
They should go to the crypt of St Michan’s Church on the north side of Dublin, where there’s these preserved bodies of these nuns, but also this huge Crusader Knight - they had to break his legs to get him in the coffin - and you can touch his finger. Touching his finger is supposed to be good luck, so you can touch the finger of this mummified Knight... Don’t go kissing rocks...

If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?
Um... my girlfriend is convinced I look like Colin Firth, and I’ve met Colin Firth, and I really don’t, you know (chuckling). So I don’t know - I suspect that they’d pick somebody bug-eyed like Steve Buscemi, you know, “we’re trying to capturing your character not so much your looks” - and I’d think “no, not Steve Buscemi...”


Of your books, which is your favourite, and why?
THE BOOK OF LOST THINGS, simply because it was very personal, and also because I finished it and thought “that was a good day’s work”. And if you’re - I hate people who separate art and craft, any kind of art, you’re not going to get to judge it, but art comes out of craft. And as a craftsman, sometimes you put the finish, and think “that’s as good as I can do”, and you sleep well after doing that.

What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?
I did really mundane things... I paid off my credit card bill. That was how I celebrated, I paid off my credit card bill. I was so fearful that it was all going to be taken away from me, that I think I was afraid to spend any of the money. So I paid it off, and I got an apartment that I could live in and work in. Very mundane things - I don’t think I ever ... now when I send off a book I take my family out to dinner, we’ll do something really simple. It was funny, there was no great splurge of buying things. No Ferrari, I’ve got a second-hand Ford Mondeo.

What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?
I had a woman come up to me once at a signing at a festival, saying ‘I love, I just love your books - I’ve been looking for you all weekend and if you’d please just stay there, I will come back and get my book signed. And she did, and she came back and handed me a copy of Ian Rankin’s BLACK AND BLUE, and said “there you go Mr Rankin, will you sign that for me please?”

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So there you have it, an Emerald trio for St Patrick's Day. Hope you enjoyed it. There are some terrific Irish crime writers out there (I have recently read and really enjoyed BORDERLANDS by Brian McGilloway, and have a Ken Bruen and a Declan Hughes book in my TBR pile too), so get out there and get amongst some Emerald Noir to celebrate St Patrick's Day. With a nice Irish beer of course.

Have you read any Rob Kitchin, Declan Burke, or John Connolly novels? Are you a fan of Irish crime writing or crime writers? What do you think of the 9mm interviews above? Comments welcome.