“Ya Wanna Do It Here Or Down The Station, Punk?”: Brian O’Connor

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 MALTESE FALCON has got to be the coolest ever. And it got the best movie adaptation too.

What fictional character would you most like to have been?
Has to be Sam Spade, right? I’d have to work on the Bogie lisp though.

Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
To hell with guilt: the Flashman series is the funniest thing on paper!

Most satisfying writing moment?
Re-reading bits of my first book ADD A ZERO recently and not having to do so though my fingers!

The best Irish crime novel is …?
Since my other half is Niamh O’Connor, I would say it has to be IF I NEVER SEE YOU AGAIN. Now, put that shovel and bag of lime down, dear.

What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
Any new book that features murder on the Curragh, racism and a tincture of tasteful sex against a background of Irish racing should be snapped up immediately by a major Hollywood studio for an obscene amount of money.

Worst / best thing about being a writer?
The worst is facing into a day when the pressure is on and you need a thousand words. The best is having managed to squeeze out that thousand.

The pitch for your next book is …?
“Seriously, Johnny Depp has agreed to play the main guy in a movie of it.”

Who are you reading right now?
I’m re-reading Groucho Marx’s autobiography, GROUCHO AND ME. He always was going to be the Marxist that would survive the test of time.

God appears and says you can only write OR read. Which would it be?
Read, every time.

The three best words to describe your own writing are …?
Very. Reasonably. Priced.

Brian O’Connor’s BLOODLINE is published by Poolbeg.

Funky Friday’s Free-For-All: Being A Dolly Mixture Pick-‘n’-Mix Of Interweb Baloohaha

We’re not sure if crime writers are even allowed to send in their grubby manuscripts, but RTÉ Radio 1 is calling for entries for the 2007 RTÉ Radio 1 Short Story Competition in memory of Francis MacManus. Closing date is Oct 29, so get scribbling … Any excuse to mention Vincent Banville is a good excuse, but hell – exactly how garish is this cover (right) for Sad Song? It burns, it BURNS! … Seth Harwood, author of Jack Wakes Up and This Is Life, is running an interesting experiment in interweb flummery – the novels are podcast-only, and available free over here. Is Harwood an evil genius destined to take over the publishing world? Only time, that notorious doity rat, will tell … The Indo’s Ciara Dwyer has an interview with Mary Rose Callaghan, author of Billy Come Home, somewhere in this direction … It’s not particularly Irish or crime fiction, but the Crime Always Pays elves are trampolining on their tiny little elf-beds at the news that Johnny Depp has picked up the option to Hunter S. Thompson’s The Rum Diary … Cora Harrison’s historical mystery set in the Burren, My Lady Judge, is a September Book Sense pick at the Novel and Short Story Writer’s Market blog … Nick Stone, who published King of Swords last week, guest-blogged at Sarah Weinman’s Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind yesterday … Finally, here’s a vid of a very short-‘n’-sweet Q&A with Ken Bruen at Bouchercon, in which Ken picks Mitchum over Bogie on the basis that Mitch once declared he had two ways of acting – with the horse, or without the horse. And that’s it for another week, folks. Thanks for dropping by, have a fabulous weekend and see y’all next week, y’hear?