“Ya Wanna Do It Here Or Down The Station, Punk?” # 1,594: Felicity McCall

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?
THE BIG SLEEP / Raymond Chandler. Great novel, iconic B/W film.
Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
My 17-year-old daughter Aoife’s collection. HOW I LIVE NOW / Meg Rosoff is brilliantly original.
Most satisfying writing moment?
Seeing a book of mine displayed in the same window as a seminal work by my journalist hero, Robert Fisk.
The best Irish crime novel is …?
THE BOOK OF EVIDENCE / John Banville, and I loved the combination of readability and fine writing in FAREWELL TO THE FLESH / Gemma O’Connor.
What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
Brian McGilloway’s Benedict Devlin is made for a long-running television series. I’ve urged him to think in that direction.
Worst / best thing about being a writer?
Switching mentally between the world of the work-in-progress and the basics of everyday life, during the intensive writing stage.
The pitch for your next novel is …?
A mother’s legal battle against a judgment-by-morals to win back custody of her daughters after she’s cleared of assaulting her infant. And the solicitor who fought her case to the highest court in the jurisdiction, and won – making legal history. Based on real-life events.
Who are you reading right now?
Alice MacDermott, archive news material for an inquest this week, and a collection of scripts from emerging playwrights. With Eoin McNamee’s 12:23 PARIS saved for Christmas.
The three best words to describe your own writing are …?
Intense, perceptive, cynical. Or maybe that’s me.

Felicity McCall’s FINDING LAUREN is published by the Guildhall Press.

Don’t McCall Us, We’ll McCall You

An intriguing prospect from Derry’s Guildhall Press, people – Felicity McCall’s FINDING LAUREN was only published on November 6 and but is already optioned for development by the movie wallahs. Quoth the Guildhall Press blurb elves:

Regina Monteith must ensure two things before she surrenders to cancer in her eightieth year – that the fortune she has quietly amassed is passed on as she wishes, and that she takes the secret which could threaten this to her grave. Across Ireland, her estranged niece, Cordelia Harcourt, stumbles on evidence that Regina’s policeman son, William, fathered a daughter during a clandestine affair and was involved in the controversial killing which overshadows her own life. A conspiracy of blackmail, corruption and family intrigue is about to be exposed as Cordelia sets about ... Finding Lauren.

Oooh, spooky. Meanwhile, the Derry-based publishing house is in the process of expanding and is on the look-out for ‘exciting, innovative works of fiction’, to wit:

Derry publishing house Guildhall Press is expanding its horizons and has plans to compete with the giants of the book industry. And a first step is to attract new creative writing talent and challenge them to produce exciting, innovative works of fiction. To this end, Guildhall Press is inviting writers across the spectrum of literary fiction to submit their work for consideration. We are looking for confident, fresh, spiky writing from authors who have something to say and want to be heard (and read). Please go to [their interweb page yokeybus] first to ensure correct presentation of material.