I took an MA course in creative writing a couple of years back, and I was definitely in the bottom of the class.

I try not to think about writers who came before me when I'm writing myself. If I did, given the abundance of literary talent Scotland - and Edinburgh in particular - has bestowed upon the world, I wouldn't be able to get as much as a sentence written.

Noir focuses on the criminal mind, not a whodunit: more why they did it and will they get away with it. The abnormal psychology is what fascinates me rather than the puzzle-solving aspect.

Music was something I was encouraged to do, which I appeared to be quite good at, but it was never a passion. Writing was always my first love.