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Ian
Rankin is the creator of Detective Inspector John Rebus, the middle-aged
Edinburgh cop whose unorthodox approach to work and life often gets
him into trouble in both his job and his relationships.
Rankin's
latest book, Resurrection Men, continues his look at the
darker side of Edinburgh.
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Norfolk's Jim Cassidy interviewed the author when he came to meet
his fans at Ottakar's Bookshop in Norwich.
Jim
Cassidy: How do you feel about book signings - the more public
side of a writer's life?
Ian Rankin:
Well it鈥檚
about the only chance I get for feedback from fans so it鈥檚 very
useful. It鈥檚 useful if people tell me that I鈥檝e got things wrong,
so I can get them right next time. It鈥檚 also useful when people
tell me what I鈥檓 doing right.
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Just
for fun
Are you as moody and hard to live with as Rebus? Try the Rebus
personality test and find out how you compare to the character.
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here to begin
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And I鈥檓 always
testing; whether this character or that character works; do people
want to see more of Cafferty, the evil gang lord, do they like him,
don鈥檛 they like him?
What do they
think about me giving Siobhan a much bigger role in the books -
Rebus鈥檚 sidekick as was, who鈥檚 now his equal?
So I do enjoy
it. I enjoy the travel but you never get to see anywhere; you do
places and never see anything. I mean, I don鈥檛 suppose I鈥檓 going
to see very much of Norwich, apart from bookshops and a hotel.
Jim
Cassidy: Can you remember the first book signings you did? Were
they a bit daunting?
Ian Rankin: (laughs) I remember some of the very early ones
where nobody turned up! There was an extraordinary one where I flew
from Seattle to San Diego, which is about 3,000 miles, to do a book
signing and not one person turned up, so I hung around for an hour,
went back to the airport, got back on a plane to Seattle.
Yeah,
it was daunting. I mean, writers don鈥檛 become writers because they鈥檙e
great public performers. And when you first stand up in front of
an audience and you鈥檙e going to read your stuff out, it鈥檚 like when
you show your work to somebody for the very first time, I think
the biggest, most daunting step in a writer鈥檚 life is when they
pluck up the courage to show the poem, the short story, whatever
it is, to a complete stranger.
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