Edinburgh crime writer Tony Black is an award-winning journalist, editor, and novelist.
He was the editor of the brilliant PULP PUSHER ezine and the author of three novels featuring punch drunk, boozy Gus Dury, an ex journalist turned Private Investigator.
Paying for It, Gutted & Loss see Gus sniff around the back streets of Edinburgh and follow the trail of crime and corruption to the top. They’re gruelling, intenese and exciting journeys - not without moments of humour and tenderness.
You feel as if you’d like to give Gus a smack every few pages but the pitbull proves himself again and again and it’s down to Black’s great writing that when you you finish one of his novels you feel battered and bruised but can’t wait for the next round!
I asked Tony some fairly rubbish questions and he gave some cracking answers;
PDB) Gus Dury sees Scotland from inside its bowels. You're an outsider. How do you get into his way of thinking?
Tony B) I'm not much of an outsider ... I was born in Australia but left there when I was about nine-weeks-old to come to Scotland, my parents were ten-pound Poms who lasted ten years in the sunshine before the dreich shores drew them home. So, yeah, I'm Scots more than anything so I'd be a bit worried if I couldn't get into the national mindset.
PDB) Does it take it out of you living with Gus so much?
Tony B) He can be hard work, no shit. He's a real glass-half-empty kind of guy and I definitely wouldn't want to hang with him, just in case any of his bad luck rubbed off. But, y'know, I don't have that much trouble separating my life from his ... I close the laptop and he's away.
PDB) Do you see the world with a journalist’s eyes? Tony B) I was a hack for over a decade so you do get into that way of thinking a bit, yeah. It's kind of hard to stop yourself coming over stories for the papers and muttering, 'good yarn', and so on ...
I remember when I started as a cub reporter, I was green as grass and my first editor said, give it time you'll be seeing stories all over the shop and he was right.
It's a shame the journalistic world is in such a bad way because that way of thinking has little value these days, the state newspapers are in.
Ironically, we need people who can sift through the smoke and mirrors more and more ... it's a heavy weight to be putting on bloggers' shoulders!
PDB) Did you ever own a 'I Came In Eileen' T-shirt?
Tony B) No. But Christ, I wish I did! For the record, I never owned a Makin' Bacon one either ... remember those?
Makin' bacon - advertised at the back of 'Sounds' magazine in the 70’s.
... which brings me to
PDB) If Ken Bruen is the Iggy Pop of the new crime writers who are you?
... which brings me to
PDB) If Ken Bruen is the Iggy Pop of the new crime writers who are you?
Tony B) You're obviously not catching the Iggster's new adds for life insurance here in the UK ... man's sold out. Ken has way too much class for any of that caper, he's more a flat-out genius of the John Lennon variety ... I'd be the bloke that carries his guitar to the gigs, if I was lucky!
PDB) If there was a chance to adapt the Gust stories for films or TV, how would you feel? Would you be worried that they'd be bolloxed up like Brookmyre's Quite Ugly One Morning?
Tony B) I wouldn't be letting that Cold Feet geezer anywhere near anything I did ... he's well over exposed and has only one way to act - pish. So, yeah, I'd be against that ... but like I'd have any say. To be honest, if anyone from TV or film got in touch, I'd be too busy turning cartwheels to care what they did with it.
PDB) I liked the story I Want Candy that you wrote for Thuglit. Was it weird writing in 'American'?
Tony B) No, not really ... I think here in the UK, and elsewhere, we're so exposed to US cinema and music and culture in general that it's almost like a default gear for a lot of writers. I've spent a lot of time in the States, visited over 20 cities, and I'm pretty well immersed in their music scene so it comes quite easily.
In fact, I'd really like to work on a US-based novel one of these days ... maybe that's the way to get the US deal that's evaded me so far.
PDB) What's on the cards now?
PDB) What's on the cards now?
Tony B) I've just finished the fourth in the Dury series, LONG TIME DEAD, and it's out in July. The paperback of LOSS comes out at the same time through Arrow/Random House here in the UK. I'm taking a bit of time off for the next few weeks to do some catch-up reading and then I'll be down to work on the new standalone, MURDER MILE. This one's a police thriller and doesn't feature Gus, but it's set in Edinburgh as well. I'm starting out with a new character, a messed-up cop called Rob Brennan and I'm looking forward to that.
Have a snifter of Gus Dury in the short story Last Ordershttp://therapsheet.blogspot.com/2010/01/last-orders-original-gus-dury-story-by.html
Guest Blogger: Tony Black- Storm a Bruen
I don't have a blog. I don't do Twitter. Or Face-ache. Truth is, I'm far to busy making a living, writing, and updating - occasionally - Pulp Pusher. But, I'm all for penning the odd post for the likes of Paul ...
Well, tempting as that sounds, I figure discerning blog readers would see through it ... So, in a more subtle attempt at bumming myself up - and basking in the reflected glory of a more popular, far more prolific, and bollix it, much nicer author, I'm gonna write about one of my influences.
Bruen, I clocked very quickly, was a genius. His prose sparkled, jumped off the page. His characters burned into the imagination and their woes wretched the heart out of you. Here was a writer that had an uncanny ability to get under his readers' skin ... and stay there. It wasn't, for me, the story - not the story alone, anyway - but the sheer power of the writing. It was like being engulfed by a tsunami of talent - a writer with so many skills that the pages, every one of them, contained moments of breathtaking beauty, flights of linguistic gymnastics and ... real heart.
Bruen is a writer of enormous heart. The players that populate his fiction may be on the edge, but he never forgets to show us how they got there. Often, it's their journey - on paths taken long before the narrative begins - which illuminate so much of the human qualities the writer clearly understands so very well. When I wrote my first novel, Paying for It, Bruen was among the earliest readers - whilst most commented on the drama and the grit, it's hardly surprising that Bruen spoke of its ''moving and compassionate'' qualities. Traits not normally associated with crime fiction, but something this Saint of Galway knows all about.
When Bruen writes of Jack Taylor's trials and tribulations he never forgets to fill us in on how he reached such a low. The loss of a much-loved father, the battle-axe mother and the career sacrificed to a fiery temperament and the demon drink play their role in fleshing out a truly human character - one we know and understand as fully, if not more so - than any other in modern literature. What Bruen teaches us about characterisation is that what he, as a writer, doesn't know, isn't worth knowing.
Through two crime series, a stack of standalones, numerous awards and - as of next year - a bundle of new movie and TV adaptations Ken Bruen has soared to the point where his name is synonymous with artistry and achievement. 2010 deserves to be the year the wider world - beyond the crime genre - wakes up to the man himself's work. They say a prophet is never recognised in his own time, but I've got my ticket booked for the unveiling of the statue to Bruen in Galway, Ireland ... the flight is taxiing, we're ready for take off.
Tony Black's website http://www.tonyblack.net/
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