“Ya Wanna Do It Here Or Down The Station, Punk?”: Nuala Ní Chonchúir

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?
REBECCA by Daphne du Maurier. I love its tension and atmosphere and that so much more is going on than we are being told. Manderley is such a creepy place but also beautiful; I love when a setting is as much a part of the narrative as the people.

What fictional character would you most like to have been?
Jane Eyre. She is so sure of herself despite her crappy childhood. I love her strength.

Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
I read so much for work (reviews) as well as for pleasure that I don’t have time to waste on silly books. I read THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY when it came out and enjoyed it. Does that count?!

Most satisfying writing moment?
When the writing is all going along well and the world is the fictional world I’m in (as opposed to my real world of laundry woman/Tesco shopper/dinner maker).

The best Irish crime novel is …?
I loved THE BLUE TANGO by Eoin McNamee, based on the murder of Patricia Curran, a judge's daughter stabbed to death in 1952. A very compelling read.

What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
Tana French’s IN THE WOODS – we need a nicely dark movie about Dublin crime, with a love story as side plot.

Worst / best thing about being a writer?
Worst: lack of income. Best: travel – this year alone writing has brought me to Croatia, Arkansas, London, Nebraska, Waterford, Dingle ...

The pitch for your next book is …?
21-year-old Irish woman in love with a 51-year-old Scottish man gets into difficulties in the Scottish Highlands. There’s sex, lies and paperweights.

Who are you reading right now?
Sarah Hall’s short fiction collection THE BEAUTIFUL INDIFFERENCE. That girl can write.

God appears and says you can only write OR read. Which would it be?
That’s a horrible question!! Read. I could write my own stuff in my head but it would be death not to be able to read other people’s work.

The three best words to describe your own writing are …?
Sensual, black, lyrical.

Nuala Ní Chonchúir’s MOTHER AMERICA is published by New Island.

“Ya Wanna Do It Here Or Down The Station, Punk?”: Tom Phelan

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?
REBECCA by Daphne du Maurier. Written long before all the modern digital props became available to modern writers, this is a book to sink into a very soft mattress with and to be savoured for story, language, and ingenuity.

What fictional character would you most like to have been?
Jim Hawkins in TREASURE ISLAND [by Robert Louis Stevenson]. God, the excitement when I was twelve. Long John Silver, Billy Bones, Black Dog, Hispaniola, the sails, the wind in the rigging, pieces of eight, the map, all the very evil and terrifying pirates, the ever-present danger …

Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
Mystery novels. Once I begin one I do not put it down. They are a sinful distraction and should be banned. All mystery writers should be taken up in the Rapture along with their books.

Most satisfying writing moment?
Blocked, I decided to write out a joke I’d heard from a priest in an elevator in Mineola in New York. As I wrote, new characters appeared and the joke lasted for three chapters. By that time a story had taken shape, and it became my first published novel, IN THE SEASON OF THE DAISIES.

The best Irish crime novel is…?
I’ve spent my life being modest, supposedly because it’s a virtue. I’m 70 now and it’s time for me to commit the cardinal sin of pride. My latest novel, NAILER, of course, is the best Irish crime novel.

What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
Again, let me take pleasure in a terrible sin. NAILER would make a great movie. I’m waiting for Godot to call me from Hollywood but he’s probably waiting for something to happen first.

Worst / best thing about being a writer?
Worst is the self-doubt (who out there gives a damn?). Best is when I read back over what I have written and cannot remember having written some of it, and it’s good.

The pitch for your next book is…?
After many years, two emigrants return to their native Irish village, one from India, one from the U.S. Both are insufferable elitists. The village people, always divided along religious lines, come together to conceal what befalls the two interlopers. The novel is called LIES.

Who are you reading right now?
THE FOURTH BOOK OF RABELAIS and THE BURDEN OF PROOF by Scott Turow. Rabelais for the language, the analogies, and his wonderful scatology; Turow to give me a break from mining Rabelais’s now (generally) forgotten 16th-century references.

God appears and says you can only write or read. Which would it be?
Read. All those wonderful books and so little time, as some basketball player said about blondes. I could read dozens of books a year, but it takes me at least a year to write one.

The three best words to describe your own writing are…?
Leaving myself vulnerable and naked to critics, I immodestly and trepidatiously declare that my own writing is funny, poetic, and unflinching.

Tom Phelan’s NAILER is published by Glanvil Press.