Slammer Yammer - An Interview With Allan Guthrie

Allan Guthrie writes crime fiction. He was born in Orkney, but has lived in Edinburgh for most of his adult life. He is married to Donna.

His first novel, Two-Way Split, was shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger and went on to win the 2007 Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel Of The Year. His second novel, Kiss Her Goodbye, was nominated for Edgar, Anthony and Gumshoe awards. He is also the author of the novels Hard Man and Savage Night, plus a novella, Kill Clock, for emergent adult readers.

Visit his website at http://www.allanguthrie.co.uk/.

SLAMMER, Guthrie’s latest novel, will be released this month.

I caught up with Allan Guthrie and bugged him with a few questions. Knowing how busy he is trying to sell other peoples’ novels as an agent at Jenny Brown Associates, as well as writing his own, I kept it pretty short.

Enjoy.

Gerard Brennan: As the title would suggest, SLAMMER is a novel set in prison. You’re a law-abiding citizen (that’s the rumour anyway), so I imagine you had quite a lot of research to do. How did you go about it?

Allan Guthrie: Who’s been spreading rumours about me? I deny everything! Law-abiding or not, I was lucky with SLAMMER. To a large extent, the research came first. I’d always fancied writing a prison novel. I even wrote one – of sorts – when I was a teenager. A pile of bollocks it was, too. But since I’ve been writing professionally, the idea of a prison novel’s always been at the back of my mind. And that’s where it stayed until, one afternoon at the day job, I got talking to an ex-prison officer who’d joined the company as a security guard, and that conversation (and several subsequent ones) provided a lot of the type of details I look for – you know, the kind of killer detail that convinces the reader you know what you’re talking about. Got me enthused about finally writing that prison novel – one that wasn’t a terrible pile of bollocks, that is. I still didn’t have a story, but that came to me later. I did a lot of background reading too: Jimmy Boyle, James Campbell, Erwin James, Malcolm Braly.

GB: It’s inevitable that a writer who’s honest with himself can find areas to improve with each novel written. I have it on good authority that you care about the craft of writing, so I reckon you fall into this ‘honest writer’ category. That said, what pleased you most about this novel with regards to the writing, characters and plot? No spoilers, though!

AG: That’s a tough question to answer. I tend to keep rewriting until I hit my deadline, otherwise I’d probably keep writing the same book forever. I rewrote TWO-WAY SPLIT for about four years and I’ve even rewritten it since it was published. And SAVAGE NIGHT went through over thirty drafts. So it’s probably true to say that I’m rarely that pleased with much of what I write. There’s certainly always room for improvement. But if I had to choose the aspect of SLAMMER that I think is the strongest, it would probably be the way the narrative unfolds. It’s a tricky story to tell, and Nicholas Glass is a tricky character to tell it. But I think I just about manage to handle all the trickiness okay.

GB: Will SLAMMER be a standalone novel, or can you see potential in it for a sequel or beyond?

AG: It’s a standalone.

GB: What are you working on right now?

AG: A thriller called BLOOD WILL OUT.

GB: I’m going slightly off topic here, but this is something CSNI readers will find interesting – You edited the Ken Bruen and Reed Farrel Coleman collaboration, TOWER, which is due out this year. Good fun?

AG: It’s always a pleasure to work on a quality book with great writers. And a great publisher too in David Thompson of Busted Flush. There’s a lot to learn from reading Bruen and Coleman up close, and they’re both absolute gentlemen to work with. Very much looking forward to TOWER hitting the shelves later this year.

GB: Given the choice of any writer in the world (but let’s say living), who would you most like to collaborate with?

AG: Garth Ennis. I’m late to the party, only recently discovered him, but he’s a writer I could learn a lot from. And he makes me laugh my arse off.

GB: If you had to give SLAMMER, the 25 word Hollywood pitch, how would it go?

AG: When a group of cons use outside help to threaten young prison officer Nicholas Glass’s wife and daughter, Glass agrees to help them with a ‘favour’. But, as their threats escalate, and one favour leads to another, Glass grows ever closer to breaking point...

GB: Thanks for taking the time, Allan!

Piranhas Publicity

Ingenious marketing campaign or pure coincidence? You decide.



And in while your thoughts are on the subject, I'll mention once again that the first chapter of my novel PIRANHAS can be read over at Allan Guthrie's Noir Originals. It's quite good, and lacking an agent/publisher at this moment in time. So, you know, form an orderly queue and I'll hear each offer out in turn.

By the way, the schnapps tasted pretty decent. A bit sweet for my taste, but drinkable with a bucket of ice.

A Noir Original? Me? Really?

It’s been a good self-promotion week. Allow me to bask...

Just two days ago, Stuart Neville described my short story, King Edward, as an example of Norn Noir. I’ve no argument with that at all. I think it’s a killer tag. Noir fiction from Norn Iron. Cracker. There were more kind comments at the story’s venue, A Twist of Noir, and an actual (quite positive) review of it on Eastern Standard Crime. This all pleases me.

And speaking of Noir, a couple of submissions I made to Allan Guthrie’s Noir Originals have passed muster and are now available on the site. Click here to read my interview with Adrian McKinty, and click here to read the first chapter of Piranhas; the post-Troubles crime fiction novel I’m trying to house right now.

A Mini Interview - Allan Guthrie

ALLAN GUTHRIE (Kiss Her Goodbye)
Allan Guthrie’s first novel, Two-Way Split, was shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger Award and his short stories have appeared in a variety of magazines and anthologies. He is also the creator of the Noir Originals Web site and commissioning editor for both Point Blank Press and the Pulp Originals line of e-books. Guthrie lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, on whose mean streets his books are set

Q1. Hard Case Crime seems to have become almost a sub-genre over the last five years. To be involved in it must feel like you’ve become part of an exclusive club. What have been some of the highlights of this membership?

Any club that lets me in can't be that exclusive! But, yeah, when I signed my contract with Hard Case I was unpublished. For a new writer trying to kickstart a career, Hard Case was a godsend. Charles Ardai had a very clear vision of what he wanted to do, and the passion and expertise to make it happen. So although I was signed up very early on, I knew I was in safe hands. Highlights for me have to include being edited by Charles, who is one of the most insightful editors in the business, and the Edgar nomination that ensued. The latter would never have happened without the former.

Q2. It’s all about hardboiled, noir and pulp fiction at Hard Case Crime. The golden age of paperback novels in revival. What do you think the future holds for this type of book?

When I first started writing in 2001, noir was a dirty word. The market's a lot more inclusive now, and noir has become much sexier (that's a technical term used in marketing, btw). Hardboiled/noir/pulp is still a niche market, but it's a lively one and if it continues to attract good writers, it'll be around for a while yet.

Q3. One of the most striking things about the Hard Case novels is the beautiful cover artwork. How did you feel when you first saw the cover for your book? How did it compare to the conception of the characters you had in mind when you were writing your book?

I'd have to add seeing the cover for the first time as one of the highlights of my HCC 'membership'. Charles asked if I had any ideas for the cover, so I mentioned a particular scene that contained some interesting dynamics. And a few weeks later, he sent a mock-up of exactly that scene. When I first saw it, I couldn't believe how breathtakingly brilliant it was. The artist, Chuck Pyle, did a helluva job. The characters bear absolutely no resemblance to the ones I had in mind when I was writing the book, but that's not a bad thing.

Q4. What are some crime novels or authors, either within or outside Hard Case, that have impressed you this year?

I'll restrict myself to Hard Case-type noirs or we'll very likely be here till Hard Case's 100th anniversary. Bent cops have made quite an impact this year. Dave Zeltserman's SMALL CRIMES is his best novel to date, with the promise of even better to come next year with PARIAH. Another bent-cop noir is Anthony Neil Smith's YELLOW MEDICINE, with a sequel due out next year called HOGDOGGIN', which blew me away when I read it in manuscript. Tom Piccirilli's become one of my favourite writers over the last couple of years and THE COLD SPOT is a terrific noir about a getaway driver (check out last year's THE FEVER KILL too -- a modern Gold Medal if ever I read one). Debut Canadian author Mike Knowles wrote a hardboiled gangster novel called DARWIN'S NIGHTMARE that reminded me an awful lot of Paul Cain's THE FAST ONE (Knowles's book is intelligible, though!). Christa Faust's MONEY SHOT is a superb unsentimental hardboiled revenge story. SEVERANCE PACKAGE is another classic from Duane Swierczynski. Here in Scotland, Ray Banks continued to show why he's one of the best crime writers in the country with NO MORE HEROES, Edinburgh got a new voice in Tony Black's Gus Drury, who debuted in PAYING FOR IT, and Dundee finally got on the crime fiction map with Russel D McLean's dark and lean PI debut, THE GOOD SON.

Thank you, Allan Guthrie!