ALINE TEMPLETON

SATURDAY 16th JUNE

12.00

 

 

CRIME AND PLACE

How a chance visit produced a series

of crime novels.

 

Aline Templeton will talk about her

Galloway books, characterised by an

intimate relationship with a rural

community in a beautiful, unspoiled

part of Scotland.

Aline says,

‘I  began writing at the age of six with a rather steamy novella entitled ‘The Adventure of Mr Wiz and Mrs Woz,’ two elf-persons who went off together for a weekend in Paris. Deeply offended by my mother’s uncontrollable mirth, in later life I turned to crime.

Like many another Scottish writer, I was first published by DC Thomson, writing stories for a girls’ magazine. After that I wrote freelance articles for national newspapers and magazines; and had stories published here and abroad. I had always liked reading crime novels, so it was perhaps natural to think of writing one. I'm now working on my tenth.

I've always had a strong sense of place, and in the first six, stand-alone books the settings tended to be dictated by the plot and were very varied, ranging from the Thames Valley to Wales and Derbyshire. However, when I decided to embark on a series, I wanted to set it in Scotland and after a visit to Galloway during the foot-and-mouth epidemic, my detectives DI Marjory Fleming and DS Tam MacNee came into being.

My two children are now grown up, so I am able to work office hours. After breakfast my Dalmatian, Lucy, leads the way to my study and sits down on her rug. If I don't immediately follow (having found some wonderful excuse to put off getting started) she comes to look for me reproachfully and once she has got me herded to my desk lies down and goes to sleep until she reckons it's time for a coffee break. When I’m writing, I usually start with a very rough draft of the section in longhand, then put it on to the screen to work on it. I don't do a complete rough draft; once I get to the end of the book, I go back and tidy up, but having polished each chapter as I go along there isn't a great deal more to do to it. When I get to about two-thirds of the way through, I am already starting to plan out the next one in my head.’ 

 

BOOKS BY ALINE TEMPLETON

 

Death is my Neighbour  (1984-Hale)

Last Act of All  (1995-Constable/Hodder)

Past Praying For  (1996-Constable/Hoddder)

The Trumpet Shall Sound  (1997-Constable/Hodder)

Night and Silence  (1999-Hodder)

Shades of Death  (2001-Hodder)

Cold in the Earth  (2005-Hodder)

The Darkness and the Deep  (2006-Hodder and Stoughton)