For the first of our Bloody Scotland podcasts - Scotland's International Crime Writing Festival - Ali spoke to four of the five shortlisted authors for this year's Scottish Crime Debut of the Year. They include Heather Critchlow (Unsolved), Kate Foster (The Maiden), Callum McSorley (Squeaky Clean) and Fulton Ross (The Unforgiven Dead) with the fifth, Heather Darwent (The Things We Do To Our Friends) unfortunately unable to join us.
They each give a brief summary of their shortlisted novels before the chat turns to the diversity in the list, approaching a debut, why they chose the genre of crime, or, in some cases, why crime chose them, the crime fiction community, and the importance of festivals such as Bloody Scotland.
There is also a fascinating chat about getting published, learning from rejections, the increasing importance of agents, conversations about covers, and many more tips on, and tales about, becoming a published writer.
It's a podcast which will be of interest to readers, writers, and book lovers of all kinds, but especially if crime is your thing. And Bloody Scotland is on between 15th - 17th September. Tickets are on sale now.
Click here to learn more about Bloody Scotland and get tickets Click here to learn more about the Bloody Scotland Scottish Crime Debut of the Year Prize
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