Q&A – Mød Stav Sherez

Den britiske krimiforfatter Stav Sherez gæster Krimimessen 2020 med den neglebidende og velskrevne thriller “Elleve dage”. En bog i serien med politimakkerparret Carrigan og Miller.

Vi har forud for messen stillet Stav Sherez et par spørgsmål omkring forfatterskabet og omkring det kommende første møde med danske læsere.

Krimimessen:  Your writing career started back in 2004 when you published your first novel ”The Devil´s Playground”. And since then you´ve written several novels and short stories and in 2018 you won UK´s finest Crime Fiction Award – Theakston´s Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year Award for ”The Instrusions – congratulations bye the way!

Do you remember what inspired you to become a writer in the first place and why Crime Fiction?

Stav Sherez: “I guess the simple answer to what inspired me to be a writer is books! Ever since I can remember, I loved getting lost in novels. They were both an escape hatch from my life and a way to imagine other lives and places. I was spellbound by how words on a page could transport you from your own life and leave you better off. So, naturally, since the age of 12 or so, all I ever wanted to be was a writer. It, of course, helped, that writers seemed to lead exciting lives (though of course the truth is we sit behind a desk nearly all the time). There was also nothing else I was good at or that I wanted to do.

Why Crime Fiction? My first novel was both a crime novel and a literary novel – my favourite writers always mixed the two genres, whether it was Faulkner, Ellroy, DeLillo, Pynchon or Auster. I love the sense of mystery in a crime novel – the thing that makes you keep turning the page. I also love the nature of investigation, the deductive process whereby clues and signs are pieced together and interpreted as narrative and meaning. It seemed to me to be a metaphor for the way we make sense of our lives. And a lot of my favourite books are crime fiction, and we always, hopefully, write the kind of books we would like to read“.

Krimimessen: There are as many ways to complete a book as there are writers. At least as far as the process of researching and writing is concerned. What is it like with you? Do you have certain rituals and do you research before writing or as you go along?

Stav Sherez: “Indeed. Every writer I know seems to have a very different method and yet we all end up with the same result – a book. I tend to do some preliminary research once an idea has coalesced in my mind. Then I write the first draft. This tells me which particular areas I need to research further and then I go back to the books and fill in what I need. I spend 90% of my time not writing, but re-writing. I write a first draft then redraft it about 8 or 10 times until it falls into shape. I can’t plot in my head so when I start I only have a basic theme and opening idea. The rest is exploration, and like all exploration some of it is fruitful and some not; hence all the drafts. It takes me longer this way, but it is the only way I know how”.

Krimimessen: I understand that your visit at the Crime Writers Festival – Krimimessen will be your first trip to Denmark. What are your thoughts about getting to Horsens, staying in prison for a weekend and meeting your danish readers?

Stav Sherez: “Well, the one thing that has always scared me more than anything is prison! So it is both exciting and a little terrifying, but that’s good; we should always face up to our fears. As long as you let me out at the end of the weekend, I will be happy! 

On another note, I am very excited as I’ve never been to Denmark and I am very much looking forward to meeting new readers. That’s what makes a writer’s job worthwhile – we sit at home all year behind a desk and the book goes out and that’s it; you start the next book. It is only when meeting readers that you get to see how what you’ve written has been received. I love hearing from readers what they liked – and what they didn’t like – about my books. Without readers, there is no feedback and it hard to tell if you have gone wrong”.

Om Stav Sherez

Stav Sherez (f.1970) er en britisk krimi- og spændingsforfatter. Hans første bog The Devil’s Playground blev shortlisted til Best First Novel-prisen i 2004. Hans serie med efterforskerne Carrigan og Miller, har modtaget stor opbakning i krimi-verdenen, da alle tre bøger i serien blev shortlisted til årets Crime Novel of the Year. Serien tæller: A Dark Redemption (2012), Eleven Days (2013) og The Intrusions (2017). Den sidstnævnte endte med at vinde.

Mød Stav Sherez på Krimimessen 2020

Lørdag kl. 15.15 i Gymnastiksalen. Simon Kernick, Stav Sherez og Paul Cleave taler sammen. Forlaget Jentas præsenterer

Søndag kl. 11.30 i Teltet. Police Investigation. Cara Hunter, Stav Sherez og Simon Kernick. Moderator: Abby Endler

Søndag kl. 13.00 Rød scene. Stav Sherez taler med Niels Lillelund om Elleve dage