1. Why do you write novels?

I’ve always loved reading – voraciously, constantly. And then as I’ve gone out into the world from Northern Ireland, living and working in different countries, especially as a journalist and broadcaster, I’ve picked up all sorts of real-life behind-the-scenes stories that are too good not to share. But some stories are more safely told via fiction. And sometimes fiction allows you to tell stories that are more real. As a journalist I always had to play by the rules, now my imagination can run free. My crime thriller Blackwatertown is a mix of true stories that never made the newspapers or history books and my own imaginings. Writing novels also means that after years of telling other people’s stories, and helping them have their voices heard, I can now tell my own stories.

2. Who inspired you?

So many people, especially writers, have inspired me, but I’ll name three. The country Antrim author Maurice Leitch convinced me with the sense of place, urban or rural, he creates in books like Stamping Ground, The Smoke King and Silver’s City. The county Down author Eoin McNamee gripped me with the claustrophobia he evokes in The Blue Tango – one of my favourite books. That’s two Irish writers – my third choice comes from sunnier Sicily. The late Andrea Camilleri wrote the entertaining Inspector Montalbano series, full of rich food and comedy. I’ve try to keep space for farce and comedy even when I’m writing about the darkness of life. Light and dark are both real. There should be room for both.

3. What’s the essence of your style? The part, if removed, is not your voice anymore?

It’s a combination of pace, darkness and sometimes mordant humour, and – I hope – an appreciation that we’re all humans trying to find our way in a complicated world. Maybe other reviewers put it better. David Roy in the Irish News newspaper described my style as “r_iveting, dark-hearted and darkly humorous…” _The Scottish Field magazine said it’s _“charming, but with an underlying sense of menace.” _I’m happy with either of those.

4. What was your dance-around-the-kitchen moment in writing?

So many. Finding the right place to start. Finishing the first draft. Finishing the final draft. Getting cover quotes from authors Frederick Forsyth, Peter May, the Rev Richard Coles, Brian McGilloway, Tony Kent and Gerard Brennan. I admire them all for different reasons and recommend you read their excellent books. Holding the print copy in my hand. Seeing it on bookshop shelves. Hearing from people I don’t know that they’ve read it.

5. What do you want to accomplish in your writing career?

So much, with so little time and so many distractions. I have follow-ups to Blackwatertown to complete. I’ve begun a cosier mystery series set in contemporary India – featuring an Irish nun and a Delhi hotelier. And I live in a very pretty English village which is crying out for literary murder and mayhem.

Apart from writing, I love talking and hearing about books and other people’s writing. I host a books and authors podcast called We’d Like A Word with my friend and fellow author Stevyn Colgan. We’ve had wonderful authors from around the world, from bestsellers to complete newbies, as well as insiders from the book industry. You can stream We’d Like A Word wherever you get your podcasts.

I enjoy book or literary festivals and talks. I was recently at the Khushwant Singh LitFest in Kasauli in the foothills of the Himalayas. Such a breathtakingly beautiful setting, so well-organised and such a diverse and rich variety of authors and other speakers. I shared the stage with Amitav Ghosh whose fiction and non-fiction I’d strongly recommend.

And I’m organising a new national crime fiction festival called Chiltern Kills. It’ll be in Gerrards Cross in south Buckinghamshire (in the Chiltern hills – hence the name) on Saturday 7th October. Tickets via the website www.chilternkills.com Please joins us. All ticket sales go to Centrepoint, the UK national charity for homeless young people.

6. Can you ever envisage not writing novels - running out of ideas or energy?

Nope.

7. What advice would you give to your younger self?

Start sooner.

8. Away from writing, what are your passions, and what do they mean to you?

Our community – local and global. Life is better when you engage and lift up and are helped by other people in your community. Sartre wrote: “Hell is other people.” I disagree. Writing has to be a solitary pursuit a lot of the time, but I enjoy interacting with my neighbours. It’s what life is about. I have a book house – some people would call it a little free library – on my front fence. I like that passersby can pause, browse, choose a book, read it and keep it forever or pass it on. It’s called the Blue Bookhouse. I help organise festivals in the area – writing, books, beer and bands are recurrent themes. More globally, we need to change the way we think and behave to help get humanity through the climate emergency we have created.

I’ve always enjoyed wandering different parts of the world and chatting to people. I’m trying to immerse myself more in the vast variety of Indian culture at the moment. My wife’s from there. It’s a great place to be.

9. How would your best friend describe you?

Open to suggestion, especially if there’s a decent pub involved.

10. What’s a significant question to ask you, that no other interview has to date, and what’s the answer, only for New2theScene?

How’s your Hindi going? Don’t tell anyone, but yes, I am trying to learn Hindi. It’s hard. Going slowly. But I persevere!