Denise Mina
Denise Mina
Denise Minais a Scottish crime writer and playwright. She has written the Garnethill trilogy and another three novels featuring the character Patricia "Paddy" Meehan, a Glasgow journalist. Described as an author of Tartan Noir, she has also dabbled in comic book writing, having recently written 13 issues of Hellblazer. Since 2006, she has had two plays performed with successful reception...
NationalityScottish
ProfessionWriter
reading murder-mysteries people
People are interested in crime fiction when they're quite distanced from crime. People in Darfur are not reading murder mysteries.
people want sells
None of us know what is going to sell or what people want to read.
clever book writing
Most of the people who write to me are really clever, really engaged. They just want to say that they have read my book and liked it.
book mean writing
Because I write a book a year, I always want to do one other project every year that's stimulating in a different way. It means you can be working but not using up your prose juice, you know?
journalism process
Journalism is a Darwinian process.
wings guy fiction
I'd read so much right-wing crime fiction where they find the evidence and shoot the bad guy - I thought there must be another approach.
children book reading
There's always these giant baffling books, like 'The Da Vinci Code.' People say it's not as well written as 'Midnight's Children.' Why aren't people reading 'Midnight's Children?' Nobody knows why these phenomenons happen but they're great.
class parent odd
My upbringing was middle-class but my parents' families were both working-class so I had this odd combination of working-class background but in a privileged position.
gay married terrified
I'm terrified to get married. I'm not getting married till my gay friends can.
feet fiction crime
I respond very well to rules. If there are certain parameters it's much easier to do something really good. Especially when readers know what those are. They know what to expect and then you have to wrong-foot them. That is the trick of crime fiction. And readers come to crime and graphic novels wanting to be entertained, or disgusted.
strong opinion default
To have a very strong opinion all the time is corrosive to a person's intellect. It becomes your default position.
art brother dad
In the 'Garnethill' trilogy, people always forget that Maureen O'Donnell's dad was a journalist and she did art history at uni and her brother did law, but no-one ever thinks they're middle-class - they're just working class because they speak with accents.
believe few lives maybe obsessive quite saw signings sort state
I have had quite a few obsessive fans. They write to me and then they turn up at signings and look really sheepish. If I said 'boo' to them, they would run away. I think they maybe believe I could take over their lives and sort them out. If they saw the state of my kitchen they wouldn't think that.
applied bit degree job politics work wrote
I always wanted to work at 'Take A Break' magazine, you know, just to inject a little bit of politics into their stories. I applied for a job there after I'd done my law degree and didn't even get an interview. I only wrote 'Garnethill' because I didn't get that job!