Gerard Brennan's latest novel is Undercover, a Belfast cop
thriller. His short stories have appeared in a number of anthologies;
including three volumes of The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime and
Belfast Noir. He co-edited Requiems for the Departed, a collection of
crime fiction based on Irish myths which won the 2011 Spinetingler Award
for best anthology. His novella, The Point, was published by Pulp Press
in October 2011 and won the 2012 Spinetingler Award for best novella.
His novels, Wee Rockets and Fireproof, were published as ebooks by
Blasted Heath in 2012. He graduated from the MA in creative writing at
Queen's University Belfast in 2012 and is currently working on a PhD.
What was the first short story you ever
published (and when)? Were you paid for it?
I wrote a
story called ‘Pool Sharks’ after I spent a weekend in Wexford. We were lucky
enough to score a lock-in at the local pub and things got a bit messy. I became
obsessed by the fact that we could have gotten away with murder that night.
Then the hamster wheel started spinning and the story was born. This was back
in 2007, when I’d started to get serious about writing. The story got accepted
into a horror/crime anthology titled ‘Badass Horror’. And yes, I got paid! I
still get paid for it from time to time, in fact. The publisher, Tim Lieder, is
passionate about compensating his writers. Fair play to him.
Did you find it hard to transition from
short stories to longer works?
Not really.
I just needed to catch an idea that wanted to be a novel. Then I sat down and
put the hours in.
