{"id":109579,"date":"2019-09-10T12:03:41","date_gmt":"2019-09-10T01:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/?p=109579"},"modified":"2019-09-10T12:03:42","modified_gmt":"2019-09-10T01:03:42","slug":"read-a-qa-with-ann-cleeves-author-of-the-long-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2019\/09\/10\/read-a-qa-with-ann-cleeves-author-of-the-long-call\/","title":{"rendered":"Read a Q&A with Ann Cleeves, author of The Long Call!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"The<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Ann Cleeves is a British author who has written over twenty-five novels, and is the creator of detectives <\/em>Vera Stanhope<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Jimmy Perez<\/em><\/a> – characters loved both on screen and in print. Her books have now sold over 1 million copies worldwide, and her latest book is <\/em>The Long Call<\/a>, the first in a brand new series.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Ann’s on the blog to answer a few questions about <\/em>The Long Call!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n
\"Ann<\/a>

Ann Cleeves<\/p><\/div>\n

Tell us about your new book, The Long Call<\/em>.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

AC: The Long Call<\/em> is set in North Devon, a beautiful, but slightly remote coastal region in the UK\u2019s West Country. I lived there until I left for university and had very idyllic childhood and teenage years. The book begins with a body on a beach where two rivers join the sea and as we learn more about the dead man, we learn more about The Woodyard, a community arts\u2019 centre where he was a volunteer. Then a young woman with Down\u2019s Syndrome, who also attends the Woodyard, disappears and the case becomes more complex and sensitive.<\/p>\n\n\n

You\u2019re the author of the hugely popular Vera Stanhope and Shetland series, and The Long Call<\/em> is the start of a brand new series. Do you ever feel the pressure to top the success of those books and write something even better?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

AC: No, I don\u2019t feel that kind of pressure, probably because I\u2019d been writing for twenty years before I had any kind of commercial success and I know how big a part luck plays in a writer\u2019s popularity. Obviously, I want to write the best book that I can, but that\u2019s for me not because of any pressure from outside. I\u2019m extremely fortunate with my team at Pan Macmillan; they were very encouraging when I explained that I wanted to try something new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You also have a new protagonist – Detective Matthew Venn. What can you tell us about him?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

AC: Matthew grew up in a fundamental Christian sect, the only child of loving parents, destined to be a great preacher. When he lost his faith, he was cast out by the fellowship and he finds the sense of order and justice that he experienced in his youth, in his work as a police officer. At the start of the book he\u2019s just returned to the North Devon of his childhood with a new partner. The murder on Crow Point is his first case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you\u2019re contemplating a new book, do you start with plot or character?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

AC: Neither. Place always comes first. I think setting is much more than a pretty backdrop to the action. It explains character and very much feeds into the plot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there any other crime writers who you feel have had an influence on your own work?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

AC: My reading passion is crime fiction in translation and I think the sense that people are where they come from, developed from that. The concentration on complex family relationships grew from writers like Karin Fossum<\/a>, and I love that spare Nordic writing style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What is the best piece of writing advice you have ever received?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

AC: This isn\u2019t writing advice, but it\u2019s great for newly published authors and it came from a publisher\u2019s rep: \u2018Never give a book to someone who would otherwise buy one.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What has been the best book you\u2019ve recently read?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

AC: Silver<\/a><\/em> by Australian writer Chris Hammer, the follow up to his hugely successful Scrublands<\/a><\/em>. A second novel is notoriously tricky, but I think this is better than the first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you have any unusual writing or reading habits?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

AC: I don\u2019t think so. I write very early in the morning, still in my pyjamas, drinking lots of tea, but don\u2019t all authors do that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What book do you most often recommend\/give as a gift?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

AC: To aspiring writers, I recommend the Inspector Maigret<\/a> books by Georges Simenon. He is brilliant at summing up a character or a place in just a few words. Each book is a masterclass in crime fiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And finally, what\u2019s up next for you?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

AC: I\u2019ve just finished the first draft of a new Vera Stanhope novel. I\u2019m waiting for the reactions of my UK and US agents, so it\u2019s a slightly nerve-wracking time. Now, I\u2019m starting to mull over ideas for a new Matthew Venn story, but nothing has come to me yet \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks Ann!<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Never give a book to someone who would otherwise buy one.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":109595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[6676],"tags":[8932,1447,4383,10443,10441,10442],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/AnnCleeves-Social.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109579"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109579"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109625,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109579\/revisions\/109625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}