Interview with Allan Guthrie

Allan Guthrie is the award-winning crime writer from Scotland. Author of 'Slammer' and 'Two-Way Split', Allan is also an editor and a literary agent. On top of this, as well as having books in print, he's also a prominent Ebook supporter, self publishing his work at the moment. Despite having enough to do with all the above, Allan also runs the excellent Criminal-E blog which features interviews with other writers constantly! It's amazing he has any spare time, but he kindly joins us for a chat here...

In honour of your interviewing skills on your excellent Criminal-E site, my first question is usually your first question. Sum up ‘Two-Way Split’ in less than 25 words.

An ex-pianist with serious mental health issues discovers his wife is sleeping with his business partner two-and-a-half hours before the three of them are due to rob a post office.

So Mr Guthrie, ‘Two-Way Split’ is set in 2001, first released in 2004, won the Theakston's crime novel of the year in 2007 and is now released on Kindle in 2011. Would you say it’s a bit of a timeless entity?

Seems a bit like that! Yes, it was nominated for the CWA Debut Dagger award (for unpublished novels) as long ago as 2001. I hadn't written it all at that point – the competition is judged on a partial manuscript plus synopsis. But the judges thought it had something. That was my first objective thumbs up – up to that point only about three people had ever said anything encouraging about my writing and I was related to all of them.

Does it surprise you that people are still discovering your work?

Ebooks have been a total boon in that regard. I've been able to offer my books at affordable prices that allow potential readers to take a punt on an unknown. Still, I am extremely surprised by how many ebooks I've sold. I'm also surprised at how many people have read the books as a result (there's an argument you hear a lot that says that cheap ebook buyers are hoarders and don't read what they buy – that's not my experience by a long shot). But most of all I'm surprised by how many people seem to like what they read. That's been a huge boost.

I’ve read a few Scottish crime writers books, but yours felt different in a way to their work. Is it a conscious effort to write differently?

That's interesting. My first efforts were very much in the style of Douglas Lindsay and Christopher Brookmyre. (Charles Higson, too, but he's not Scottish). Those were the writers I was reading at the time.  I discovered American noir soon afterwards, though, and that definitely seeped through to Two-Way Split. I suspect most of us just write the kind of books we enjoy reading.

I’ve read that ‘Two-Way Split’ will maybe hit the silver screen sometime in the future. How is that going?

Don't believe it! I've been saying that for years! No, no, it's true this time, honest. Well, it's as close as it's ever been. We have some financial backing from various quarters, and we need just a little bit more and we'll have enough to go ahead and shoot it. Which would be very cool indeed.

Who would you cast in the roles if you had unlimited choice?

We have an LOI from Kevin McKidd to play Pearce, the ex-con you don't want to mess with, so it's okay for me to say that McKidd was the obvious go-to guy. I also think Tony Curren would do a bang-up job if it doesn't work out time-wise or financially with McKidd. And I'm a big fan of Mark Strong, too. He can do a great Scottish accent (see Low Winter Sun). The other main role, Robin Greaves, the psycho-pianist-armed-robber, is harder to cast. My  first choice would be a fantastic actor from Shetland called Steven Robertson. Check out INSIDE I'M DANCING (aka RORY O'SHEA WAS HERE). Phenomenal performance. I like him a lot.

  

You’re also a literary agent yourself. Any exciting releases coming up?

Some summer reading highlights: Helen FitzGerald's THE DONOR is out on 21st July. The mass market paperback of Doug Johnstone's SMOKEHEADS is out 4th Aug, as is David Belbin's BONE AND CANE. Look out for those, they're all excellent.

What are your feelings regarding self publishing, do you think it’s a good or possibly bad thing in the long run?

For authors? Hard to see how it can be bad. At worst it'll be ineffective. I suppose you could publish some hideous drivel and put a few people off ever buying your books again. But you can always change your name. No, I think all authors should self-publish. You learn a lot. And it's great to have no one but yourself to blame when your books don't sell. There's no hiding place.

What books did you read as a child?

Oh, stacks of Enid Blyton. But when I was nine my primary school teacher told me I was too old to be reading that puerile muck and recommended Agatha Christie. I borrowed all my teacher's copies, read them back to back, and then hit the library. Went through all they had too, including all the large print editions. Don't think I understood half of what I read, but that didn't stop me. That teacher was great. She encouraged me to read more adventurously, but she also let me write in the afternoons twice a week while everybody else was drawing. I never thought about it before but she probably wasn't too happy when I turned in my novel at the end of the year (yes, I was a precocious wee shite). It was called THE FABULOUS FOURTEEN, a tad more Blyton than Christie. Although it was about a series of killings.

What authors do you read now?

Here's the dozen or so books I have nearest to hand in my to-be-read pile: Duane Swierczynski's FUN AND GAMES, Sara Gran's CITY OF THE DEAD, Jean-Patrick Manchette's FATALE, Ricardo Piglia's MONEY TO BURN, Rubem Fonseca's THE LOST MANUSCRIPT, and Jorg Fauser's THE SNOWMAN. And on Kindle I have James Henderson's BABY HUEY, Snubnose Press's SPEEDLOADER and Crime Factory's THE FIRST SHIFT anthologies, Eric Beetner's ONE TOO MANY BLOWS TO THE HEAD, Lenny Kleinfeld's SHOOTERS AND CHASERS, and CJ West's THE END OF MARKING TIME. I have a whole stack of manuscripts awaiting editing first though. I really need to sit down and do nothing but read for a couple of weeks. God, that's such a lovely thought. If only...

And what are your future plans, in terms of writing?

Hmmm. It's very hard to plan when the future's up in the air the way publishing is at present. You can only plan for things that are within your control, and print publishing isn't right now. Not for me, anyway. So any planning has to take the form of e-publishing. But that's fine. Better than fine. I like the freedom eBooks bring. I think they might allow me to write the sort of books I'm suited to write but which maybe don't have the same easily found audience as, say, police procedurals. I feel as if I can carry on with those more difficult books, which isn't an option with print. I have a couple of new novels that I've been working on for a while and which I might even finish one day. And a novella that's previously published but which I've done a page-one rewrite on. But I'd like to explore other areas too. Might even venture outside the crime genre.

And now 2 questions I always ask of writers…

Describe your perfect writing environment.

23-hour lock-up in my own cell in prison. With a laptop that's not connected to the internet. Constant good strong coffee. And a view of the sea through the bars in the window.

Describe your actual writing environment.

I write in my study. My laptop is always connected to the internet. I drink a lot of good strong coffee. There are no bars on the windows but I have a beautiful top-floor view across the Firth of Forth. 

'Two- Way Split' is available on kindle here for the incredible price of just 99p.

You can find my review of the book here. Excellent book, highly recommended!