Despite being only partway through the 2017 programme, the Belfast Book Festival 2017 is already being widely heralded as a great success. This has been in part due to the myriad of events taking place in a variety of locations across the city, but also due to the quality of authors, guests and panelists who have signed up to be part of it.
Arguably the jewel in the crown of the festival, certainly for me anyhow, was Saturday’s, Trouble Is Our Business event, which saw journalist and author, Declan Burke, host a panel of multi award winning, best selling Irish Crime Writers including Julie Parsons, Louise Phillips and Belfast’s own Stuart Neville.
The trio were united initially because of their contribution to a book of short stories edited by Burke, which celebrates the ever increasing popularity and success of genre of Irish Crime Fiction, but as the conversation developed, it became more clear how each author in turn had been instrumental in bringing about this success and recognition through their respective contributions to the genre.
The readings from and discussions of their work were well received by the audience, as was the reference to the importance of Colin Bateman’s writing within the genre, which made said Mr Bateman who had slipped into the audience unnoticed by many, shift a little uncomfortably in his seat in front of me.
The best part of the day for me however, as a fledgling Crime Writer and would be journalist from Belfast , was having the opportunity to sit down with and interview Louise Phillips after the event.
This was not the first time I had spoken to Louise. I first met her around a year ago and via our connection on social media she has been encouraging and helpful to me in my writing journey ever since.
I was not surprised then by her warmth and friendliness as we talked. What was particularly nice about the conversation was that it quickly became a conversation between two writers, she equally as interested in what I’d been up to since we last spoke as I was about her imminent new release.
At this point it is worth reminding ourselves that one of us was perhaps one of the most important figures in contemporary Irish Fiction and that that person wasn’t me!
On behalf of Louise Phillips fans everywhere I had to ask if we should be worried that the much loved main protagonist of all of her books to date, Criminal Psychologist, Dr. Kate Pearson has been shelved following Phillips last publication,The Game Changer? The answer was a resounding, No, though she was clear that as an author she wanted to go in a different direction in her new series, the first of which, Dark Day in May will be scheduled for a 2018 release.
It certainly does seem to be a different direction, as the new series will be set in the US as opposed to Ireland and will move away from the Police Procedural style of writing and more toward the Legal Thriller style.
Knowing how immersed in research Phillips is and how that as a person she likes to be organised, I asked her about her preparations for the change in direction. What followed was a fascinating discussion about her time spent with US Law Enforcement Officers and Members of the Legal Profession, learning all about their systems and processes, including memorable quotes such as, ‘You’d be surprised how easy it is to get yourself locked up in a cell for an hour, if you explain the reasons behind why you would want to be’ and, ‘you need to understand fear to write about it’.
As a Teacher myself by profession and fellow Professional Member of the Irish Writers Centre, I was interested to find out more about Phillip’s role as a mentor with the centre and about her delivery of courses in writing crime fiction there. What came across strongly was her passion for and ability in nurturing and developing new talent, something which I have been lucky to have been subject to in the last year myself. What also, perhaps more importantly came across was the sense that writers must write with integrity and bear in mind their social responsibilities when dealing with difficult issues in society such as sexual violence, making the correct research and seeking advice from bodies such as the police and social services on how to correctly portray such a subject. A lesson worth learning for all budding writers out there, as I myself found when broaching the idea of teen suicide in my own writing.
Needless to say, as teacher, mentor, friend and most importantly, writer, it was again clear for me to see why Louise Phillips has come to be held in such high esteem by her peers, critics and fans, and I very much look forward to her continued publishing success.