MacBride is rather busy

“I would love to be one of those writers who floats about in their smoking jacket … before doing exciting things at night.” So says top Scottish crime author Stuart MacBride. Instead, he works 10-hour days and takes just four days off a year. Matt Meade spoke to Scotland’s busiest writer ahead of his visit to Dunfermline.

You have a busy January promoting new book ‘Close to the Bone’. Do you like touring?
It’s nice to get out and meet readers. It’s not like being an actor or musician where you get instant feedback after performing. When you’re a writer there’s 11-and-a-half months of the year where you have no idea if something’s going to work or not.

What are you reading at the moment?
‘Managing Death Investigations’. It’s known as the ‘murder manual’ from the National Crime Faculty. It’s a great, big wad of paper on how to run a murder investigation. It’s very interesting but very big.

Do the investigations in your book match those in the ‘murder manual’?
It’s more about capturing the spirit of things rather than getting a completely accurate representation of an inquiry – nobody would ever want to read it because it would just go on and on.

Do you listen to music when you are writing?
I used to work  in a ‘cubicle farm and the only way to get anything done was to put headphones on. Otherwise the noise of everyone else made it too hard to concentrate. I always write with music. If I’m in the back of a taxi, for example, I can stick my headphones on and write. But you do get some great stuff you can use from drivers. But you can’t always repeat the stuff they say.

What have they told you?
Well some of it is definitely not suitable for a family publication.

What kind of music do you listen to?
It tends to be my own collection of stuff if I’m writing. It has to be stuff I know. There will be albums that I just cannot listen to while I write because it distracts me. But with stuff I’ve been listening to for a chunk of time just blanks out the world. The tune will affect the flavour of what I write as well. If I’m going to do an action scene then I will put on something with a good, thumping rock beat.

What music would you use for a romantic scene?
It depends how ironic it is.

What’s your routine for writing?
I work more or less all day every day for 8-10 hours. I would love to be one of those writers who floats about in their smoking jacket and churn out a chapter during the day before doing exciting things at night. Trains are great places to get lots of work done. I don’t know what it is. If I’m on the train to Edinburgh or Glasgow. There’s some beautiful bits of countryside and ocassionally I will remember to look up from the keyboard and go ‘wow’. But then I’m back to the writing and it’s ages before I look up again. There’s just something about being on a train that makes it much more productive. I take four days off a year.

What do you do with those four days?
My birthday, my wife’s birthday, our anniversary and Christmas Day.

Can you tell how ‘Close to the Bone is doing on pre-orders?
It’s mostly wait-and-see. I would just worry about it if they told me what it was. I’ll just wait for a phone call to find out if we’ve placed anywhere in the charts next week.

Is Twitter a help or hinderence?
It’s both. But it’s nice to speak to readers…it’s nice to speak to nice readers.

Do you have some odd fans?
I’ve had some spectacular worshippers of the different, shall we call them.

Any weird gifts?
No, but my cat has. I used to blog quite a lot about our cat, Grendel – I dedicated a book to her. Someone turned up to an event at the Edinburgh Book Festival with a bag of catnip for her. That was lovely.

What can fans expect at your event in Dunfermline on Friday?
It’s an hour of me talking about…stuff. There may be a sing-a-long at one point. I don’t know yet. I really should figure it out what I’m going to talk about.

Are you taking the train here?
Yes, so hopefully I’ll get lots of work done.

An evening with Stuart MacBride is at Waterstones Dunfermline tomorrow (Friday), 5pm-7.30pm. Tickets £3. Refreshments available. Tel: 720237.