I first discovered Catriona McPherson through her cozy Dandy Gilver series – give me a light historical any day! But soon I was drawn into her dark and sinister standalone, books like the new Go To My Grave, out this month. It’s no secret that I admire her range – as well as her talent – and after this one, I’m looking forward to her second Scot-in-California book, Scot and Soda (following last year’s hilarious Scot Free).
How does a book start for you?
For me it starts with something like a pebble in my shoe. A tiny idea – place, name, quirk, face – that I can’t winkle out and can’t ignore. I hobble around on it until another little pip suddenly appears from somewhere else and they touch and spark. That metaphor is a mess but it’s the only way I can describe it. For instance, I was thinking about a trumpeter with pneumonia and how much he would hate another jazzman taking over his band and then I met a little old lady in the street in her slippers and apron, looking for a party. Bzzzt!
AS SHE LEFT IT was born.
Who in your latest book has surprised you most – and why?
Ha! In my next standalone
GO TO MY GRAVE (out in October) I had a real gasper of a surprise. Two characters are walking across a beach to what they think is a corpse. They also think they know who it is. So did I. We were all wrong. I remember sitting typing and saying aloud “Aw, come
on!”
When and/or where is your latest book set and is there a story behind that setting?
GO TO MY GRAVE is set in Galloway, as many of my books are. I lived there for fifteen years before moving to the US and it’s where I became a writer. That landscape is where I started really drilling for stories as a daily habit. Also, it’s empty and has wild bits still. And – best of all – atrocious mobile phone reception, so people can be in peril. Mobile phones really suck for psychological thriller purposes.
What are you working on now?
I finished book fourteen in the historical Dandy Gilver series yesterday – it has no title; I sent it to my agent with this on the title page “Cramond Book. I don’t know what to call it.
Rough Magic (????)” so there’s an outside chance it’s called
Rough Magic but I doubt it. Today I’m having a day off and doing fun things like this questionnaire. Tomorrow I’ll start the edits that have come back from Minotaur in the US and Little,Brown in the UK for next year’s standalone
THE CUTS. It was called that from the day the pips bzzzted and both editors are fine with it. Woot!
Which question didn’t I ask you that I should have?
What else do you write, Catriona? Why Clea, I’m so glad you asked. Earlier this year, I turned in the second book in a
comic mystery series set in California,
SCOT AND SODA. At some point I’ll have copy edits to do, but the structural edit note that came back (from Terri Bischoff at Midnight Ink) was “It’s perfect”. Do you hate me now? I still love you.
Thanks for this. It was fun.
Thank you, Catriona!
Catriona McPherson is the multi-award-winning author of the Dandy Gilver novels, set in Scotland in the 1930s where but not when she was born. The series is currently in development at STV in the UK. She also writes darker (that’s not difficult) contemporary standalones, including HOUSE.TREE.PERSON and, which have been Edgar and Mary Higgins Clark finalists. Catriona immigrated in 2010 and her first US-set mystery, SCOT FREE (the lighter side of the dark underbelly of the California dream), came out earlier this year. LJ said “laugh-out out loud whodunit, comparable to early Janet Evanovich”. Catriona lives in northern CA with a black cat and a scientist, where she writes full-time. www.catrionamcpherson.com.
Oh happy days . . . THE CUTS has lost its title since I write this. It’s now STRANGERS AT THE GATE (actually a much better title. Thank you Editor of Wisdom.) On the other hand, I thought of a title to give THE CRAMOND BOOK before we handed it in. Phew.
Excellent titles, Catriona! Thanks for sharing!
I love learning that there will be another stand-alone next year. Go to My Grave was so outstanding! I have the ARC for Scot Soda to read, and I’m so excited about that new series. I hate to admit that I’m still trying to fit in Dandy Gilver books when I can, but I will catch up eventually. Everything you write is special, Catriona, and I don’t want to miss any of it.