7 January 2015

Author Q&A Session #19: With Ann Cleeves

Good-day people,
Welcome to another new Author Q&A Session and today I present you with the best-selling British crime-writer, Ann Cleeves, on whose books Vera and Shetland TV series are adapted. So without wasting a minute, let's talk with Ann to know more about her, Shetland, crime and life beyond books!



Read the review of Raven Black
Read the review of Dead Water





Me: Hello and welcome to my blog, Ann. Congratulations on your new book, Thin Air from the Shetland series. Please tell us briefly about the story behind Thin Air.

Ann: Thin Air was triggered by an invitation to a wedding party in Shetland. The bride groom was Steven Robertson, the actor who plays Sandy in the BBC TV adaptation of the books. I thought it would provide a good first scene for the new novel. I was interested in exploring the response of a group of educated English people (the wedding guests) to the most northerly island in the UK. And because the island of Unst, where the book is set, has its own ghost, so does the book.



Me: What was your inspiration behind creating this Shetland series? Was it the location that intrigue you to create a series on Shetland or was it the idea of writing another thrilling and engaging mystery series?

Ann: I first went to Shetland nearly forty years ago after I'd dropped out of university. I worked as assistant cook in the bird observatory in Fair Isle - which is one of the more remote islands in the group. I fell in love with the islands and I'm still good friends with the people I met there- one of them is my husband! It took me thirty years to write about Shetland. It's a good place to set traditional mysteries because it's an enclosed community where people know each other's secrets. And there's something about the bleak landscape that provides a perfect backdrop to murder.



Me: How do you research before writing your books? Do your travel extensively for that purpose?

Ann: I go to Shetland three or four times a year to catch up with friends and watch the filming of the TV show. I live in North East England where the Vera Stanhope books are set. Most of my research is about chatting to people, listening to their concerns and preoccupations. I have two very good friends - one a Crime Scene Manager and one a forensic pathologist - who are happy to answer my technical questions.


 

Me: Vera Stanhope and DI Jimmy Perez are two of your protagonists. Can you tell us one trait of each character that intrigue you the most? And who is your most favorite character- Vera or Perez?

Ann: Vera is a loner. She has no family and her only real friends are police officers. Jimmy Perez's ex-wife called him emotionally incontinent - he's too prepared to take on other people's problems. I don't have a favourite. When I've finished a book featuring one of them I'm very glad to move on to the other. It stops me being bored.
 


Me: Your first book from Shetland series won the Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award of the Crime Writers' Association. How will you describe that moment when you first heard that your book won such a prestigious award?

Ann: It was astonishing! I was quite sure that the winner would have been notified in advance, so it came as a complete surprise when my name was read out at the awards dinner. Of course I was delighted and it really did change my career. It came with money so I could give up my day job.



Me: How will you describe your journey so far as an author? And was it always your one true dream to be a writer?

Ann: I always dreamed of writing but I never thought I could make a living at it. My journey started very slowly. I'd been a published author for twenty years before I gained any recognition. That was lucky because I could practice my craft away from the limelight.


 

Me: Name two English crime writers whose works influenced you a lot.

Ann: Dorothy Sayers and P D James



Me: How do you get away from your busy writing schedule?

Ann: I love writing! Now I spend a lot of time at library and bookshop events and literary festivals, but that's fun too. I have six young grandchildren and they keep me very busy.



Me: What are you currently working on and what are we expecting from you on 2015? Please tell us briefly about it.

Ann: I've just delivered a new Vera Stanhope book to my publisher. That will be published in September 2015.  There will be a new series of VERA on television and a new series of SHETLAND is in development. I'm programming chair of the Harrogate Crime-Writing Festival so that's taking up a lot of time too.


 

Me: Thank you so much, Ann, for sparing time to have this interview session with me for my blog. I'm highly honored with your presence. I can only wish you best in all your future endeavors and hope that you gift us with your master story-telling for another 100 years.

Ann: Thank you for your kindness and for asking such interesting questions.
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Ann's Bio:


Ann is the author of the books behind ITV's VERA, now in it's third series, and the BBC's SHETLAND, which will be aired in December 2012. Ann's DI Vera Stanhope series of books is set in Northumberland and features the well loved detective along with her partner Joe Ashworth. Ann's Shetland series bring us DI Jimmy Perez, investigating in the mysterious, dark, and beautiful Shetland Islands...
Ann grew up in the country, first in Herefordshire, then in North Devon. Her father was a village school teacher. After dropping out of university she took a number of temporary jobs - child care officer, women's refuge leader, bird observatory cook, auxiliary coastguard - before going back to college and training to be a probation officer.

While she was cooking in the Bird Observatory on Fair Isle, she met her husband Tim, a visiting ornithologist. She was attracted less by the ornithology than the bottle of malt whisky she saw in his rucksack when she showed him his room. Soon after they married, Tim was appointed as warden of Hilbre, a tiny tidal island nature reserve in the Dee Estuary. They were the only residents, there was no mains electricity or water and access to the mainland was at low tide across the shore. If a person's not heavily into birds - and Ann isn't - there's not much to do on Hilbre and that was when she started writing. Her first series of crime novels features the elderly naturalist, George Palmer-Jones. A couple of these books are seriously dreadful.
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Connect With Ann On: Facebook | Twitter | Author Website | Goodreads | Email

 

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