“Ya Wanna Do It Here Or Down The Station, Punk?”: Marsha Swan

Yep, it’s rubber-hose time, folks: a rapid-fire Q&A for those shifty-looking usual suspects ...

What crime novel would you most like to have written?
Leonardo Sciascia’s EQUAL DANGER.
What fictional character would you most like to have been?
The baby in Percival Everett’s GLYPH.
Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
Chester Himes, Daniel Pennec, Barbara Kingsolver.
Most satisfying writing moment?
Self-publishing my first novel and seeing a terrifying wall of them arrive from the printers.
The best Irish crime novel is …?
THE BIG O—it's the only one I loved enough to publish!
What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
Aside from THE BIG O, you mean? Ken Bruen’s THE KILLING OF THE TINKERS.
Worst / best thing about being a writer?
I can’t think about anything properly without writing about it. (Best & worst both).
The pitch for your next book is …?
Two novellas about a young Roma Gypsy and a middle-aged American teacher who move to Dublin, where they quickly find themselves fighting against shadows: a culture they don’t understand and don’t have access to; bullies on the schoolyard and in the staffroom; a mysterious stranger and a mysterious disease.
Who are you reading right now?
Sherman Alexie.
God appears and says you can only write OR read. Which would it be?
This question upset me so much it put me off answering the Q&A for a week. I wish I could say read, but it’d have to be write.
The three best words to describe your own writing are …?
Not too long.

Marsha Swan’s THE PUNCHING MAN / BOYS ARE ELASTIC, GIRLS ARE FANTASTIC will be launched in Toner’s of Baggot Street, Dublin, on Thursday, September 18 at 6.30pm.