Author Q&A with Anne Randall author of the gritty Wheeler and Ross series set in Glasgow

I've reviewed a couple of Anne's books and we've been FB friends for a while so it was lovely to meet up with her in person at Crime Fest this year ... she's such a lovely person, it's quite difficult to imagine her writing such gritty books... but she does, and she does it with aplomb.  Lovely to have you hear at The Crime Warp HQ.

Liz:  So, Anne, tell us a bit about Torn.

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Anne: TORN is the third title in the gritty Wheeler and Ross series, set in Glasgow. It begins with a harrowing court case involving a man with obsessive sado-masochistic fantasies who is accused of murder. While fourteen of the jurors are repulsed, the fifteenth is secretly enthralled and a new world of possibility opens for him. Later, when a porn actress is found dead DIs Wheeler and Ross uncover a deeply disturbing industry and a private club frequented by some of Glasgow’s most influential citizens -people who will do anything to block Wheeler’s investigation and destroy her career.

Liz: How long did TORN take to write?

Anne: My books take, on average, a year to write, but TORN took a little longer. I needed to make sure that the research was thorough and that the story was authentic. I was quietly pleased (if a little amused, given the BDSM research) when a reviewer commented that ‘Once again I was moved to wonder whether the author had a personal acquaintance with the work she describes…’. It is very important to me that the setting and the characters are believable

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and credible. If they’re not the reader loses faith in the story. I was glad I’d taken a bit longer and covered the research properly. When I wrote the first book in the series, RIVEN, I tried hard to get the police procedural right, so when a Glasgow cop contacted me to say how much he’d enjoyed it, I was super delighted! (Not to mention relieved😊)

Liz: Could you describe how the germ of an idea develops into a full-blown novel?

Anne: I write in a very long-winded, organic way. I take an idea or a character and work from there. In TORN it was Skye Cooper, Scotland’s latest indie-rock sensation. Skye is on the cusp of stardom but he has a dark obsession and it’s the trajectory of his ambition, together with his obsession that leads to a collision course. I write all the various scenes for every character and then stitch the whole book together. Sometimes that means some scenes, even ones I’m very happy with, get cut. It’s a long laborious way to write and I am fascinated by writers who write in a very linear way and plot every move. But its just not my way of working and I have to go with what works for me.

Liz:  That's so true.  As a writer you have to go with what works for you.  Where is your favourite place to write and why?

Anne: I’m very lucky in that I can write practically anywhere. Long

bus or train journeys can be good. I also write in cafés and hotels. I remember a long while ago, being on a creative writing course and one of the participants said in disgust, ‘What kind of a person writes in bed?’ I love to write while propped up on a few pillows (usually with a cat sprawled beside me, occasionally the dog), I don’t need a specific place to write although I do have a ‘study’ at home. It’s a tiny bedroom/box room but its mine, so let’s call it a study. It’s crammed with books and paintings and bits and pieces that I have collected over the years and it’s my favourite place to write.

Liz: Do you ever suffer from writer’s block and if so how do you overcome it?

Anne: I run a creative writing group and see first-hand how writer’s block can affect people. My advice is to treat writing as a job. I was lucky in that I came to writing after having been a teacher and now I work as a psychotherapist. It would have been unheard of to turn up at school and say to the pupils, ‘Sorry, I don’t feel the muse today, so we’re not having a class.’ It just wouldn’t have been an option. Likewise, psychotherapy. So, for me, I don’t engage personally with having writer’s block. Writing is a job and some days it’s easier than others. That said, if I’m exhausted emotionally, physically or psychologically then I experience a feeling of being drained and it’s very difficult to write or do anything creative.

Stephen King has a lovely take on this, ‘…sometimes it feels like shovelling shit from a sitting position.’ which pretty much sums up the bad days. I’m very fortunate in that I live at the foot of Glastonbury Tor and have a collie dog, so if I feel blocked a walk is a great way to get some perspective on life in general and writing in particular!

Liz: Who are your writing heroes and why?

Anne: A long, long list! When I was in my teens J.D. Salinger was a big influence. I loved all his writing but especially The Catcher in the Rye. The character of Holden Caulfield really resonated with me although we had massively different backgrounds. Holden was

from a very privileged background and I grew up in a council estate in the east end of Glasgow, but I think that’s what great writing does, it connects us with characters and their situations and we feel that we’re on a shared journey.

The Hannibal Lecter series by Thomas Harris is great and Cormac McCarthy’s A Child of God is also a favourite. Both writers have an incredible gift for creating memorable and disturbing characters. Hannibal Lecter and Lester Ballard, make for uncomfortable but

Thomas Harris

fascinating reading.

Raymond Carver, Margaret Attwood and Mo Hayder are all fantastic. There are too many Scottish crime writers to mention but the list would include McIlvanney, Rankin, Irvine Welsh, Louise Welsh, Denise Mina and loads of others.

Liz:  It must be the Scots angst in us but I too was obsessed with Holden Caulfield in my teens.  If you were to host a ‘Come dine with Me’ party, who would you invite from the Crime Fiction fraternity and why?

Anne: I’d love to chat to Thomas Harris and ask him about Hannibal, McCarthy to talk about Lester. I’d invite Joel and Ethan Coen because they are such immense talents and I’d love to hear how they created Fargo. Ian Rankin is always entertaining. Mo Hayder and Louise Welsh would also be good company.

If it were characters, it would have to be Kat Wheeler and Hannibal

Cormac McCarthy

on one side of the table and Ross and Clarice Starling on the other. I’d also make room for Marge Gunderson from Fargo.

I don’t think I’d invite Lester Ballard though, Kat Wheeler would have him pinned to the floor in seconds. Ross on the other hand, would allow him the opportunity to make conversation.

Liz: Could you describe the book you are working on at the moment using only five words?

Anne: Deceived: Wheeler & Ross, four.

Liz:  Intriguing.  Can't wait!   Do you have competing ideas for future projects and have you ever worked on more at the same time?

Anne: I have an idea about a stand-alone novel set in the Somerset Levels. I’m working on it in conjunction with Deceived, (#4 in the Wheeler and Ross series). It’s quite difficult jumping from Glasgow to Somerset but the ideas keep coming, so I’ll keep going with them. The stand-alone is a crime novel but it isn’t a police procedural which will be interesting for me as I’ve been in ‘police procedural’ mode for four books now. I used to write short stories and I have quite a few ideas for new ones. I hope to have some time to work on them.