Who am I?

I'm Gerard Brennan, a fan of dark fiction and an emerging writer. You like that? Emerging writer. Yup, that means I don't make enough money to quit my dayjob. I can't even introduce myself as a writer at social gatherings without feeling like a bit of an eejit.

"Oh, where can I buy your books?" the party-people ask.

"Um, I've published some short stories and a wee collection of Belfast horror tales, and I have this website, gerardbrennan.co.uk, and..."

"No. I mean, what shop? Waterstones?"

"No, just on the internet at the moment. But my stuff is quite good. And I've a few manuscripts out there. I could be on a bookshelf this year, if I'm lucky."

"Right. Still, everyone's got a good book in them, eh?"

"Ah, fu..."

Ahem, I digress.

Here's what I'm trying to say. I write horror and crime fiction, usually set in Northern Ireland. I'm concentrating on crime fiction at the moment, and reading tonnes of it. Especially anything I can find that is written by Northern Irish crime writers, such as Colin Bateman, Jason Johnson and Brian McGilloway.

I've found Crime Always Pays a great place to track down these Irish knaves. After emailing the Grand Vizier over there, Declan Burke, we realised that a whole blog could be devoted to the booming scene of Northern Irish Crime Fiction.

"Why don't you do it?" Mr Burke says.

"Why not?" says I. *

So here it is. Crime Scene NI. Northern Irish crime writers beware! If I can track down your email address, I will be bothering you soon with interview requests.

* This conversation was paraphrased to improve pace. How slick am I?