Dreaming BIG with Joyce Woollcott

HALLIE EPHRON: Joyce Woollcott has big dreams, and why not?

The Belfast-born mystery writer who lives in Canada hit it big with her debut novel, A Nice Place to Die. It won the RWA Daphne du Maurier Award and was short-listed in the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence and was a Silver Falchion Award finalist at Killer Nashville.

Now she's out with a second novel and even more good news. I'll let her tell it...

                                

Joyce Woollcott: It’s one thing to dream about writing a book, another thing entirely to write two books and have them picked up by a publisher, have strangers read them, and hopefully like them.

My dream came true, and I can now call myself a published author. Although, probably like a lot of new authors I’m a little embarrassed to admit to it when asked. Still, it’s a wonderful thing to have happen and I thought, how amazing, what more could I want?

Well, I admit I did envy those writers whose titles were snapped up by audiobook companies, but I thought, no, no way would I ever get that lucky, imagine having a professional actor read your words––not going to happen.

But it did happen! Both my titles, A NICE PLACE TO DIE and BLOOD RELATIONS were sold to Tantor Audio, a huge audiobook publisher, and now A NICE PLACE TO DIE is out in the world, read by a fabulous LA-based Irish actor, Alan Smyth. BLOOD RELATIONS is coming in the next months. My goodness, how fantastically exciting.

Right then, I actually don’t expect anything else to happen, I’m not James Patterson or Colleen Hoover and I’m not buying a home in the Hamptons or a private yacht anytime soon, but as I said at the beginning, A Girl Can Dream, can’t she?

And, here is my dream—a TV series.

We all want that don’t we? Everyone who has written a mystery I’m sure has fantasized about a movie or tv show. It’s fun to imagine what actors would populate your world.

Now––to be clear, I know this is not going to happen, not a chance, too many fabulous mystery books out there are not on TV, and seriously, how can this be? Dervla McTiernan, Sarah Stewart Taylor, Adrian Mckinty, just to name a few.

Still, it’s fun to pick actors and actresses you would like to play roles in your book.

Since most of you won’t have read my novels, I have just a few main characters to tell you about and who I’d like to cast. My hero/protagonist is Detective Sergeant Ryan McBride––and he’s easy––In more ways than one. Tall, with dark hair and navy eyes. A typical brooding Irishman, as one of my other characters described him.

Let me see… Jamie Dornan? Too obvious? Although, he would be perfect—no? Three years older than Ryan (who was born in 1989). Or another candidate, David Caves, he plays Jack Hodgson in the British crime series Silent Witness. He even, and totally by coincidence, attended the same school as Ryan, Campbell College in Belfast. He is quite a bit older though, ten years. As is handsome Aidan Turner of recent Poldark fame. He was born in 1983. Allowances could be made, seriously.

Ryan’s partner, Billy Lamont, is tall too, and skinny. Light brown curly hair and freckles. A family man to the core. I’d love Domhnall Gleeson to play him, he would be perfect. And Rupert Grint of Harry Potter fame would be fabulous too. Eddie Redmayne would work, yes he’s a little older, but he looks young…so, I’ll pencil him in.

As for Ryan’s boss, Inspector Girvan, I’d have to narrow that one down to either Brendan Gleeson or Liam Cunningham. Obviously Kenneth Branagh would work but he’s probably busy. I’ll pencil him in too, just in case…

Detective Constable Maura Dunn. She’s serious, well organised and once she starts an investigation, she’s all consumed by it, she won’t let go. She’s focussed on the job and when she started in the police she cut her long hair to a no-nonsense bob. Aisling Franciosi seems to fit the bill, and Sarah Greene would do nicely too, she’s a little older but a terrific actress.

My latest book, BLOOD RELATIONS, has a couple of secondary characters I would love to see on screen. Gracie and Doris, two older ladies who get into big trouble and then manage to get out of it again. And Chief Inspector Sheila Howells. She swears like a trooper and is outrageously politically incorrect. My pick for her? Siobhán McSweeney. (The headmistress nun in Derry Girls.)

Do you have favorite books you would love to see as a TV series or movie? How would you cast them?

BLOOD RELATION

Belfast, Northern Ireland: early spring 2017. Retired Chief Inspector Patrick Mullan is found brutally murdered in his bed. Detective Sergeant Ryan McBride and his partner Detective Sergeant Billy Lamont are called to his desolate country home to investigate. In their inquiry, they discover a man whose career with the Police Service of Northern Ireland was overshadowed by violence and corruption. Is the killer someone from Mullan’s past, or his present?

And who hated the man enough to kill him twice?

Is it one of Patrick Mullan’s own family, all of them hiding a history of abuse and lies? Or a vengeful crime boss and his psychopathic new employee? Or could it be a recently released prisoner desperate to protect his family and flee the country? Ryan and Billy once again face a complex investigation with wit and intelligence, all set in Belfast and the richly atmospheric countryside around it.