Interview with Val McDermid 
by Jon Jordan
Val's Web Site
Sept. 9, 2001

Jon: For people who have heard your name, but haven’t read any of your books yet, how would you describe them?

Val: Eclectic? Because I write different kinds of book, different in style and tone as well as in content, it's not easy to slot them into a neat corner of the genre. The Tony Hill/Carol Jordan novels are dark psychological thrillers, the Kate Brannigan series features a smart-mouthed Manchester PI, the Lindsay Gordon novels are actually classic British mysteries with a somewhat radical contemporary twist, and the two standalone thrillers, A Place of Execution and Killing The Shadows are also quite different in flavour and tone from each other. I guess if you want to be harrowed, stick to Tony and Carol and Killing the Shadows, if you want atmosphere, go for A Place of Execution, if you like the PI genre, try Brannigan and if you're interested in an alternative take on the amateur sleuth, give Lindsay a go.

Jon: Will Kate Brannigan or Lindsey Gordon be showing up again in the future?

Val: I'm sneakily writing a Lindsay Gordon as we speak, provisionally titled Hostage to Murder. It's set in Glasgow and St Petersburg, and it'll be published in the US by Spinsters Ink, who have done the previous five in the series. I want Kate to come back, but it's a question of slotting her into the schedule. I certainly have a strong plot idea for the character, but the thrillers take so much time and energy...

Jon: How much has your experience as a journalist helped your fiction writing?

Val: Less than you'd think... I suppose it gave me an entree into other people's worlds that I wouldn't have seen otherwise. But the main thing I took away from journalism was a very prosaic attitude towards writing. When you're a news journalist, you can't wait for the muse to strike. You have to write the news when it happens, no matter what's going on in your personal life. I learned pretty quickly that your heart can be breaking, the cat can be sick and the bathroom ceiling can be sitting in the bath tub, but you still have to write those 1500 words. So I treat what I do as a job. I sit down at the computer and I write, no matter what else is happening in my life.

Jon: Do you put any of yourself in to your books? Are there people who know you and see bits of Val while reading?

Val: You'd have to ask them that... Inevitably, who I am, what I believe and what I've experienced shapes what ends up on the page. But I don't think there's very much that's identifiably me in the books. Apart from the sense of humour. That's the one thing you can never make up.

Jon: You started writing with a protaginist who was a journalist, then moved to Private Eyes. And now you are writing about the forensic side of investigation. Is there a reason for the change?

Val: What can I say? I'm a Gemini, I get bored easily. Actually, the transition isn't nearly as clear as that, because I've written different kinds of books consecutively rather than writing one series then another. One of the reasons I love this genre is the opportunity it provides as a writer and as a reader to explore different styles and different approaches. Writing across the range means I never get bored, and I constantly have to push myself to get better.

Jon: What prompted you to write your non-fiction work, A Suitable Job For A Woman?

Val: Too many drinks at a publishing party... No, really, that's the truth. I was talking to a non-fiction editor who asked me if there were really any women PIs, and I said, 'Dozens, darling.' Next day, she called me and said she'd like to commission the book. Now, how often does someone give you a wad of money to wander round the US and the UK talking to interesting women for four months? The only drawback was that at the end of all the fun, I actually had to write the damn thing... But I learned a lot in the process, and I have to confess that a few of the stories that never made it into the non-fiction book have ended up as subplots in the Brannigan novels.

Jon: Do you have any decision in the marketing of your books? Book covers, touring, advertising?

Val: These days, I have a lot of input about the process of marketing. I see draft covers and my comments are taken seriously and acted on. We have meetings once a year with the sales and marketing and publicity people at HarperCollins in the UK to discuss the strategy for the next book. We talk about what went well and what didn't work on the last campaign and make changes accordingly. My US publishers also consult pretty extensively with me about promotion and publicity.

Jon: What is your favorite of the books you’ve written?

Val: Well, none of them matches up to my dream of how I wanted them to be. I have a very soft spot for Crack Down, because I wrote it at a very happy time in my life and structurally, it had to conform to a very tight timeline, and I think it works very well. The Mermaids Singing was the book that changed everything for me, opened me up to a wider readership, and it gave me the confidence to keep pushing my range. But A Place of Execution is probably my personal favourite, because I'd wanted to write a book about the Derbyshire landscape for about twenty years before I finally came up with the right story. It gave me the perfect excuse to spend a lot of time wandering around one of my favourite pieces of countryside!

Jon: If you weren’t writing for a living, what do you think you would be doing?

Val: I have no idea. I suspect I am unemployable.

Jon: I read that you were once attacked by a wrestler when you were a journalist. What brought that on?

Val: I was unaware when I knocked on his door that other papers had been chasing the same story I was after -- namely that this very butch 300lb wrestler's wife had left him for another woman. So I guess he was feeling pretty raw by the time I arrived on his doorstep. Which is no excuse for what happened. Anyway, he opened the door, I managed to say who I was and he just came at me, fists and feet flying. Not the most pleasant experience of my life. I always maintained I got somebody else's kicking, but that didn't
make it hurt any the less.

Jon: Is there any chance of seeing something on the silver screen or television that says Based on a book by Val McDermid ? ( And if there already is... How did I miss it!!??)

Val: Next month, filming begins for a TV adaptation of The Mermaids Singing, The Wire in the Blood and a third film based on the characters of Tony Hill and Carol Jordan. Starring Robson Green, the three films, under the series title of Wire In The Blood, will be shown on the ITV network next spring. Everything else is in option at present apart from the Lindsay Gordon series. And I have a TV drama in development that is not based on any of the novels. It's not even a crime drama; it's a science-based film.

Jon: Are there any downsides to writing for a living?

Val: I'll tell you if I find them... Seriously, I love it. I love to write, I love going on the road because it takes me to places I'd never have seen otherwise. I love meeting people and I also love the solitude of working for myself. I guess the hardest part is delivering a new book and waiting for the reaction, but even that has its positive side, because I know that working on it with my editor is going to mean I end up with something better than I started with. Oh dear, that does sound very Pollyanna-ish, doesn't it?

Jon: Around people who know the mystery/crime genre, your name is spoken with a kind of reverence. Does this surprise you? Does it have an effect on the way you get treated by people?

Val: It astonishes me, frankly. I mean, there are a lot of people out there doing very good work in this genre, a lot of them profoundly underrated. I don't see myself as someone who should be on some kind of pedestal. Like many of my colleagues, I'm simply trying to write the best books I'm capable of and mostly I feel like I fall far short of my goals. I also feel profoundly grateful that I've had the success I have had, because, as I said, not everyone who deserves it makes that breakthrough. And to be honest, I haven't noticed too many people kissing my feet or spreading their jackets over puddles for me! I've always thought people found me reasonably approachable, and I wouldn't like to think that had changed because I've sold a few more books or won some awards. But I guess publishers are a little nicer to me these days...

Jon: If you were able to talk to the 17 year old Val, what advice would you pass along? And would she listen? :)

Val: Of course she wouldn't listen... I guess I'd say something like, "Don't listen to the people who say you can't. Oh, and when you meet that drop-dead gorgeous blonde on your 33rd birthday, WALK AWAY."

Jon: What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

Val: Read, sleep, cook, go walking in the hills, spend time with friends.

Jon: What are some of your favorite books? Or favorite authors?

Val: Robert Louis Stevenson, Iain Banks, Margaret Atwood, Reginald Hill, Denise Mina, Ian Rankin, James Lee Burke, Sara Paretsky, Laurie King, Andrew Greig, Ruth Rendell, Jeanette Winterson... how long have we got?

Jon: How about Movies?

Val: The Big Sleep, The Sound of Music, Seven, Ran, The Big Clock, Dr Zhivago, Billy Elliott. And for chasing the blues: Passport to Pimlico and What's Up Doc?

Jon: If you had a month with no deadlines, no commitments, what would you do with it?

Val: Three weeks in Tuscany with my partner and our son and a pile of books, a week in Moscow and St Petersburg with my Russian buddies and a couple of other close friends and a judicious amount of vodka...

Jon: Is it harder to break into the American market with your books? It seems that we Americans are really missing out on a lot good books and television.

Val: The American market is tough for Brits. Partly it's because you produce such a vast wealth of material yourselves. But partly it's because America does tend to be quite self-absorbed. Some American readers cherish a mythical picture of the UK and Europe, and they aren't comfortable with the more realistic picture painted by the best of contemporary British crime fiction. And of course, culturally, we are very different. Although superficially we have a lot in common with the US, because of the common language, we are far closer to Europe politically, socially, historically. All of these factors combine to make it pretty hard for Brits to break out in your market. But thankfully, there are enough discerning readers out there to make it happen for some of us!

Jon: Is there anything about you that people would be surprised to learn?

Val: Yes, but I'm not going to tell you what it is! Seriously, though... probably they'd be a little surprised to know what a quiet, domesticated soul I am when I'm not out there in public.

Jon: Any thoughts on electronic publishing? Or books on demand?

Val: I think it won't really take off till the electronic readers are lightweight, portable, cheap, resistant to sand and bathwater and as easy on the eyes as the printed page. But when that happens, and happen it will, I think they'll become very popular among people like me who want to take 14 books on holiday... Books on demand seem to be working well as a way of making backlist accessible again to readers, and that's got to be a good thing, given how many series there are where the early books are unobtainable. But I'm very suspicious of sites that make available anything offered to them, without editorial moderation. Usually, there are good reasons why a novel hasn't been accepted by a publishing house. It may sound harsh, but there is no democracy of talent.

Jon: What’s the one thing that is always in your refrigerator?

Val: Diet Coke.