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| He was close, real close. I couldn't see him yet, but I could feel him. . . as if the boat were being sucked upriver and the water was flowing back into the jungle. Whatever was going to happen, it wasn't gonna be the way they called it back in Nha Trang. |
Normally when I have a book out I do a couple of blog interviews but since no one's asked this time around I thought I'd take a step down that narcissistic trail to insanity and interview myself:
Q. Hi, Adrian how are you doing?
A. Great. I'm working my way through a four pack of Ruddles County and Dog The Bounty Hunter is on the tube trawling through my old haunts in Denver in his not-exactly-covert fleet of black Escalades.
Q. Ok great glad you're focused...all right first question. With which fictional character do you most identify?
A. What a terrific question and of course I'm immediately tempted to name an obscure character from Robert Musil's two thousand page epic The Man Without Qualities just to prove that I've read and appreciated the book, but actually I have thought long and hard about this and I have a better answer: the goldfish in The Cat In The Hat. He's a very sensible goldfish and he wants to put a stop to the cat's shenanigans. I like that and I completely identify with his timidity and jaded killjoyism.
Q. What novel in the last year have you absolutely loved? A. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet. And although this is off topic, I commend Ruddles County to anyone who likes an older country style Midlands English beer. Its not hoppy or strong and there's a faint urine odour but somehow it all works. It's very hard to explain. It goes well with crackers and stilton too.
Q. Er...Ok. What novel in the last year have you absolutely hated?
A. The alleged comic novel that won the Booker Prize whose name escapes me at the moment. Look, I don't want to offend you but these questions suck. How about some good questions like what's my favourite shade of green or my favourite prime number or something.
Q. What is your favourite shade of green?
A. Great question. I've also thought long and hard about this one. I do like Irish Racing Green and a bright Kelly Green and even a slightly murky Seagreen, but I think my favourite shade of green is the dark dark dark green of the uniforms of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
Q. What's the highest prime number you can think of?
A. Off hand? Uhm, 243112609-1?
Q. If there's a heaven what would you like to hear God say at the Pearly Gates?
A. You stole that one from James Lipton didn't you?
Q. Well, yeah...but even so...go on.
A. God would say: "You were right about Battlestar Galactica, Adrian, Season 4 was terrible and the guilty people have been punished."
Q. And what would you say to God?
A. "Yo, Adonai, now that Liz Taylor and JG Ballard have both passed on is there any chance of seeing some kind of live action version of Crash? That would be frikkin awesome."
Q. That's what you'd say to God?
A. Not good? Sorry that's just the first thing I thought of and Dog the Bounty hunter just brought down his perp who once again is not the dangerous felon we had been promised but a just a meek dude in a vest who forgot his court date.
Q. What do you think of what many people are calling the Celtic New Wave in crime fiction?
A. Wait I have a better question for God, "The Marie Celeste...whats the story with that? That sucker's been puzzling me since I was 8."
Q. Ok maybe we can leave that to one side for the moment. E books, will they save or kill publishing? A. Nazi E Boats almost cost us dear on D Day. I should know I had an Airfix model of one. Fearsome looking machines.
Q. E books.
A. Or you know what I would ask God? I'd ask her how Qatar got to host the 2022 World Cup. How did that happen exactly? And for this answer I want her to assume the form of Christina Hendricks while she explains it.
Q. Ok, this is clearly not going anywhere, thank you Adrian McKinty.
A. Anytime Adrian, anytime.
23 comments:
Another nice review of Falling Glass...
Thank you Spinetingler Magazine
That is a great review!
Hmmm, Carlos K. Krinklebein. This analogy surprises me. I mistook you for a risktaker.
That was, er, interesting and I'd still like to hear your take on ebooks someday. My copy of FG should be here mid-month, I hope. It takes the Book Depository a little bit of time to deliver. Shocked no one asked you to do an interview on their blog. I'd be honored to post a Q&A if you were ever up for it sometime.
Nice interview.
I'm really surprised you haven't been asked for blog interviews, maybe put a sparkleing immortal in your next book to help get more publicity?
Trudy
That cat's a menace. Especially when he opens the box...
Sean
I hear all the time how e books will set us free and liberate us from publishers. I dont see it happening, except in very flukey circumstances. The big e book sellers will be the ones with the big marketing campaigns.
Glenna
If aint got vampires or zombies its toast aint it?
Well I wont ever be writing a book about vampires or zombies so I guess I'm toast too.
Well you'll at least have you're integrity as writer, that has to count for something right?
Glenna
I dont know if integrity is the right word. It would just be beyond tedious for me to attempt something like that. Its just not my thing. But for some (obvuiously a lot of) people it is their thing...
Adrian- Good answer and I'm pretty much in agreement with you. I do think that ebooks, for me at least, have made it very simple to get the books I want to read if they are available in that format, and in most cases less expensive. Good for the consumer, but not so much for the author. I do wonder if print vs ebook sales / royalties balance out in the end, if more sales come from the ebook versions.
Someone needs to get out more.
Nice article in McSweeny's about the future of books
The Future of Books
Also, talking of Denver, have you seen this:
Detroit in Ruins
Finished Hidden River this morning. Any more plans for the character?
Sean
Surely you agree with me that this is absurd:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/apr/04/ireland-furious-world-cup-shut-out
Rob
The Denver Post has a tradition of good photo stories.
I'm not surprised about Detroit. The census data is pretty clear. African Americans are moving back in huge numbers to the South. I imagine that by 2020 states like Mississippi and Georgia will again have African majorities which they had before the great migrations of the 30's.
You post this interview and then wonder why you have no interviewees in the blogosphere?
I wish Marco was still popping in--I'd love to see his interview questions.
In the absence of a true griller, here are my three questions.
1.Did you switch chairs as you did the interview so as to get some perspective on your subject? (It kind of seems like there was some chair moving and maybe even some chair falling over in the artistic process here...)
2. Are you planning on modeling a future protagonist on Dog the Bounty Hunter, bearing in mind that Janet Evanovich kind of has the whole bounty hunter thing covere? Or do you think there is still room for growth in this extremely lucrative sub-genre?
3.And probably the most important question of all, how do you manage to get so much great beer from abroad without bankrupting your family?
Nice Spinetingler review.
Seana
The switching of the chairs would have been a good idea but I didnt do that.
I think Dog has that market sewn up too. And I must say Dog's wife terrifies me. The rest of the family seem like a joke but she's scary.
And yeah I have a beer guy at the beer shop on Acland Street. He's a very good beer guy. He's got the Russian River stuff in, but that is a little out of my league price wise.
The chair switching would probably not be a good idea after the fourth Ruggles.
I haven't watched Dog, but maybe I should give him a try.
I just saw an ad last night that says the new Breaking Bad series will begin in July. They are reprising the rest of the series starting soon, so I guess I'll finally be able to see season three.
That was hilarious, loved the Crash reference, anytime I mention that film people only remember the Oscar nominated film of the same title. I prefer the Cronenberg film.
Dennis
I havent seen either film, but the book starts with a character called JG Ballard trying to crash his car into Elizabeth Taylor's in a kind of pornographic celebrity auto da fe.
Of course it is totally absurd. But nothing the ICC does suprises me. But compared to the USACA who run US cricket (into the ground) they do not seem so bad.
I'd say ruddles county was the star of that interview.
Lew
Cant go wrong with Ruddles.
I'd presume you could go very wrong with Ruddles, but never mind...
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