8 culture JUNE 05 book s F move forward or you die.’ pursued by a ‘Writing is just like being vrsnecsi h oesa ihthe with as novels the in sentences over care less no take I characters. and story the about excited so were they because had never noticed my prose they style before, but they years, for books how my me read had told people and event an obvious,” Val explains. “I read the story at translating be never would contexts, it so it, transforming and other with in relationship father my my about written I had expect. of normally would outside people wanted, what I whatever do could written directly ever about has her Val father and her roots. time first New the is it for personal, Intensely North. commission Writing in new a The Dundee, to radio. online, for standout story is The Road and written the Miles or published magazines previously point the in love.” of hate, Much harm we love. do to one another has a starting of into states the perverted and are transformed These be jealousy. envy, positive violence, can both love be the emotion, powerful most the As negative. to has emotion potential powerful “Any and Alnmouth, says: in straight lives who Val, lesbian, cyber-sex. relationships, in The love. for is stories embrace sexual betrayal, violence do they things the do things they do.” Itryandunderstandin interested am writing about I humanity and compassion. hook. the of all us lets The monsters. attitude of ‘we can’t do anything evil about it’ terrible as or acts acts emotional whypeopledothe criminal commit who beings or distance as social beings. and doesn’t take us further distaste forward as human with murderers to Responding response. emotional an have inevitably should we And lives. our sense no in emotional. are deeply are stories killings rewardsStranded’s gratuitous. these But Stranded chunks. bite-sized in murder collection with readers Short bank. the in story bullion like up stack discusses her delicately-crafted tales of death with death of tales delicately-crafted her discusses She consequences. darkest love’s on draws stories short of collection first Valnovelist Best-selling obsession. McDermid’s and jealousy envy, Passion, Te omsin a ieaig s I as liberating was commission “The stories together draws collection This people reason the often Stranded, In people dismiss to lazy and easy is “It of part are murder and “Death says: Val ope. Poisoned, bodies Val’s stabbed; bludgeoned, and electrocuted, in is corpses. currency McDermid’s Val mu frhr rm fiction, crime her for amous s osbe I is It possible. as concisely as it story tell to writer a short requires The think. makes and stop and them reader the grabs to has It which heart its at something have place. unexpected in up a an ends which with tail a the idea in twist straightforward either is a or “It breeds. crux, a with moment a of snapshot two of one usually is story short the that argues She Henry. O. and Flannery Chekhov O’Connor,Anton Mansfield, Katherine Rendell, Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Ruth it, but it may just have been practice.”It took me a while before I realised I had got to stories ended up short being how sub-plots Possible in books. out work. story short figure a make really of couldn’t point I writing the view, from But not. or good stories. Icouldsensewhetherastorywas took me a long time to get there with short was the novel that I wanted to write, and it work non-fiction a over a career and spanningnovels 18 19 years. written skill, has she not stories, of book one For one-off. has writing furious story come easily, short which makes this collection a but a her, suit does It jealousies”. with and flaws highlighting apart relationships pick to her “allowing story Val, suits short form the that notes who Rankin, Ian friend good and crime-writer Scottish the into drawn are you s t o r as y. ” prose the notice crime to not of tend you lot authors; a fiction of true is This art. a case of the artist concealing the don’t read them for the people prose. It is novel, crime the of nature be should literary novels classed as “good” or crime, “bad”. and romance horror, the sci-fi, into books dividing than rather that jokes She fiction”. by “genre are as establishment books her classed as often is overlooked, style prose her that feels and no bugger sentences has I noticed’.” these crafted years bloody have these ‘all thinking, prose in the short story. So I was left a ie aort hr tr rtr as writers story short favourite cites Val it fiction, with started I “When says: Val Stranded’sforeword fellow by written is the of “Because says: She Val novelists, crime many Like shark Norris in Wire Love bites: Val in the Blood. shows us the Hard wired: short stories darker sides collection of M c D e r m i d ’s Green and of passion. Hermione Robson Tamzin Lewis. Tamzin scooia hilrwt t ot nthe in roots its with thriller psychological talk, they how by how theyshaped act, is how they are.”story the great as is “It story. Stranded working with a a character you know so well in up crops also novels, Val’scrime of six in appears book same again and again.” the write and down bogged energyget great with writers of lot a seen shark. You move forward or you die. I have makes what is better meit carry make on writing. to about trying way of that less feel I challenge story,”“The short says. the she one. last the of mistakes make the on to better,based trying book each of process a constantly is narrative and the way I of develop learnt character. process The the novel have I about something thinking away come I novel writing novels than short stories. “For each difficult novel- gift for for me to comehead by.” my morearea stories short but fiction, length of back the in of flood stories constant a is There tell. to story queue in the back of my head orderlywaiting for an a form voices “These says: She 8hCnuy ikn h uiyo The on mutiny the linking Century, 18th a swiig e 0hnvl a novel, 20th her writing is Val who Brannigan, Kate PI Manchester a by pursued being like just is “Writing from more learns she that feels also Val She promises bodies: old and new. ony iha undiscovered an Wordsworth. William by with manuscript Bounty xrsin r xli themselves. explain or expressions ❊ which people structure narrative, use ocs r nprd y h a in way the by inspired are voices tm rm ellf ncoe, Val’s anecdotes, real-life from stem quite unpleasant characters.” ae t rt a oe.Sm are Some novel. a write to takes in your head for the length of time it time of length the for head your in a novel. Others, you wouldn’t want wouldn’t you Others, novel. a of a Manchester criminal. the Law is written in the vernacular the in written is Law the wall. Keeping on the Right Side of Side Right the on Keeping wall. Stranded is launched on June 9 at ovrain caldo toilet a on scrawled conversations Writing on the Wall is told through told is Wall the on Writing Val to exercise different voices. The voices. different exercise to Val stand-up comic routine.” h oelnr s poe t a to opposed as one-liner the n hl e soismynot may stories her while And “Some narrators couldn’tnarrators “Some sustain You . 6pm at Newcastle’s Literary and hr tre poiewy for ways provide stories Short published by ’s w Philosophical Society. It is w w. w. Flambard Press, £7.99. f l a m b a rd p re s s . c o . u k Hermione Norris. starring and ITV’s Wire in the Blood, gained a TV audience with psychologist Tony Hill. Val introduced clinical , which the Year in 1995. It was for Award for Best Crime Novel of Association Gold Dagger includes the Crime Writers’ published in 2006. 1987. Her 20th will be first novel Report for Murder in for 16 years and published her in Glasgow and Manchester L u m p u r. ” exotic dancer in Kuala spent my teenage years as an pack of lies and actually I going to reveal that it was all a says: “I am not suddenly age of 16 to read English. accepted into Oxford at the High School. Val was talented children at experiment to hot-house part of an educational and, like Gordon Brown, was good’. She grew up in Fife ‘working class kid come Val , left, describes herself as a Biography Her string of awards She worked as a journalist Of her background she

9 cculture u l t u re JUNEJUNE 0505