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

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.

2)Will Kate Brannigan or Lindsey Gordon be showing up again in the future?

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...

3) How much has your experience as a journalist helped your fiction
writing?

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.

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

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.

5) 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?

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.

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

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.

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

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 inthe 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.

8) What is your favorite of the books you’ve written?

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!

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

I have no idea. I suspect I am unemployable.

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

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.

11) 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!!??)

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.

12) Are there any downsides to writing for a living?

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?

13) 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?

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...

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

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."

15) What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

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

16) What are some of your favorite books? Or favorite authors?

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?

17) How about Movies?

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?

18) If you had a month with no deadlines, no commitments, what would you do
with it?

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...

19) 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.

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!

20) Is there anything about you that people would be surprised to learn?

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.

21) Any thoughts on electronic publishing? Or books on demand?

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.

22) What’s the one thing that is always in your refrigerator?
Diet Coke.