If you want to ask questions of Murder Squad, please let us know what they are. We'll publish the replies here.

Question: There are many writing groups and associations around, but most of them have such uninspired names. Where did this group come up with the name "Murder Squad" and how did you determine the criteria for members of the squad?

Stuart Pawson: I was invited to join the group by Margaret Murphy, whose brainchild it was. After accepting I discovered that the other six members were already in situ, so I guess I just sneaked in. We are all members of the Crime Writers' Association, so we knew each other and had a certain affinity. We all suggested a variety of names and at one point there was a danger that we might be called something like "seven unlawful-killing persons". We either held a ballot or gave Margaret executive power, I can't remember, but the result was Murder Squad and it has proved a good choice.

Cath Staincliffe: We wanted something memorable but it took some time to agree. We e-mailed lots of suggestions and then chose the one that appealed to the majority. It was definitely the best choice - the name itself makes people sit up and listen and when they receive e-mails from Murder Squad it's eye-catching to say the least.

John Baker: The name came out of an e-mail discussion between all of us; we came up with lots of uninspired titles before we settled on 'Murder Squad'. We were all Northern writers, high on reputation and generally very well reviewed, but we wanted to sell more books, and each of us felt that we could and should do something to raise our profile.

Margaret Murphy: It's hard to know exactly who came up with the title - this has been very much a team effort, and so many had been put forward over the weeks -- but Murder Squad seemed to sum us up. By the way, we have a tag line: 'Crime fiction to Die for…' There were nineteen others proposed before we settled on that one - by democratic vote. As Cath says, it's a title that makes people take notice. I was in Cambridge with John Baker for a bookshop event in the summer. We decided to go into Waterstones to see if they would be interested in a copy of our brochure. We asked to speak to the manager. 'Who shall I say?' the assistant asked. 'Murder Squad.' Admittedly she sussed us out from the safe distance of the staircase before coming down, but if we had introduced ourselves as Margaret Murphy and John Baker, I've a feeling we might have been told politely to make an appointment. As for criteria, Stuart Pawson mentions that Murder Squad was my idea, which meant that I could choose the people I wanted. All are exceptionally good writers, all have been very well reviewed and they are as diverse as the crime genre. Beyond those criteria, I asked people I thought I could work with - hell, at that stage we weren't yet a team - I could afford to be selfish!

Question: Writing is usually a lonely profession. Does it help to have a group of peers to share the frustrations and achievements? How do you support and encourage each other, or is this just a professional association?

John Baker: We are very much individual writers with different styles and different places within the genre, but we have identified an arena, i.e. Murder Squad, in which we can co-operate together. We support each other through talking and listening, through co-operating in the organization of Murder Squad, and we bounce ideas and suggestions around the group before coming to a concensus on our next move. We are not a professional organization (We are all members of the Crime Writers Association for that reason) we are a loose group of people with (fairly widespread) geographical connections and we find that our ideas about writing are similar enough for us to co-operate around public discussions, and to enjoy each other's company and the occasional meal together.

Chaz Brenchley: Writing is still a lonely profession. Promotion has become a part of the profession of authorship, which is a very different thing. That's where Murder Squad comes in, though it's far from being just a professional association. We were all friends before we were squaddies, through the northern chapter of the Crime Writers' Association. We used to kvetch at quarterly lunches, now we can kvetch incessantly; Murder Squad and e-mail between them have changed our working lives entirely. But we still have to write alone, and no, we don't discuss work-in-progress beyond the odd pungent epithet and the e-quivalent of a mordant glare if anyone's fool enough to ask...

Stuart Pawson: Unfortunately we are rather far-flung, and don't meet as often as I would like to. I cherish the little time I spend talking to fellow writers. We communicate ceaselessly by email and probably couldn't have existed without it. In the writing business you quickly learn that setbacks are as readily available as pats on the back, so there is some consolation in knowing that others are having the same problems, if in varying degrees. More importantly, the success of a Squad member reminds you that the rewards are still there for the taking.

Cath Staincliffe: Being able to exchange news about the highs and lows is great and sharing the frustrations and achievements is good. To some degree I think the Northern Chapter of the Crime Writer's Association gives us that opportunity anyway but there's more regular contact with Murder Squad so it happens even more. When we hear about opportunities and initiatives that others in the group might be interested in we pass these on so we work as a network for each other.

Martin Edwards: I'm very much a part-time writer - in terms of hours worked - simply because I have a day job as a partner in a firm of solicitors. So it's tremendously motivating to me to link up with fellow crime writers. I'm constantly learning from friends who are also colleagues. Rivalry doesn't come into it, because we all face the same challenges and there's much consolation to be gained from sharing experiences. There's also the benefit of sharing ideas about ways of marketing one's books as well as the fun of sharing a platform with people who may be very different from each other in many ways, but are equally passionate about writing.

Ann Cleeves: We write very much as individuals. I can't think of any occasion when I discuss a work in progress. The support and encouragement comes afterwards, in discussion about relationships with publishers and sellers. If there's been a small audience at an event, there's someone to go to the pub with later. If a gig's been a great success we can celebrate together. I don't think of this just as a professional association. I like the squad members and admire their work.

Margaret Murphy: Writing is as lonely as you choose to make it. Sure, you have to sit down on your own to write, and because you work from home, it can be isolating, but you don't have to lock yourself away for the rest of the time. In fact, I think that writers must stay in touch with people if they want to stay in touch with their subject matter. My research means that I am constantly meeting people I would never have met when I was teaching full time, and the advantage of being a writer is that you can ask lots of questions without causing offence. This said, it is always helpful to talk to other writers - as in any profession - I feel the Squad really understand the frustrations and the pressures, and it's good to let off steam when you're going through a sticky patch, knowing it will go no further. We read each others work, and will recommend the books of Squad members to the public. It's really nice to hear someone whose opinion you value, extolling the virtues of your novels to an interested audience.

Question: Tell us a bit more about each individual member of the group.

These are the brief biogs you will find in our first brochure.

Cath Staincliffe: was brought up in Bradford and moved across the Pennines to work as a community artist in Manchester. She lives in Didsbury with her partner and their three children. Looking For Trouble launched private-eye Sal Kilkenny; a single parent struggling to juggle work and home in the rainy city. It was short-listed for the CWA best first novel award and serialised on BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour. Dead Wrong, her most recent paperback from Headline, centres around a terrified woman, an unknown stalker and a schoolboy accused of killing a friend in a summer of terror which sees Manchester's Arndale Centre bombed by the IRA.

John Baker lives and works in York, which is also the setting for the Sam Turner novels. Sam is a private eye with a dark sense of humour and a collection of eccentric helpers. John's novels, which are published by Gollancz/Orion, have been called 'Why-done-its' rather than 'Who-done-its'. Walking with Ghosts was conceived as an exploration of the idea of the ghost in Western culture. Sam Turner is a haunted private eye at the centre of a political scandal and a familial tragedy. The black humour and the streets of York, as in the previous novels of the series, are forever present. His latest novel, entitled The Chinese Girl, is set in Hull and introduces a new series character, Stone Lewis. John's first novel, Poet in the Gutter, has been optioned for television.
"I wouldn't go so far as to say we specialize; though we do take up different stances within the wide genre of crime writing. Some of us write police procedurals, while others work with private detectives or within the tradition of the psychological thriller. Some of us are heavy on plot, while others rely more on character. For myself, I am mainly interested in language and ideas and my novels tend to reflect this, the plot often being a skeleton on which I hang the development of character and relationship while cogitating about identity or fiction or sexual politics or anything else that wants to be involved in the text."

Chaz Brenchley: has made a living as a writer since he was eighteen; this year marks his twenty-third anniversary in the job. He is the author of nine thrillers, most recently Shelter, and has also published fantasy, poetry, children's books and over five hundred short stories, three of which have been shortlisted for the Gold Dagger of the Crime Writers' Association. He was the recipient of the 1998 British Fantasy Award and lives in Newcastle on Tyne, with two cats and a famous teddy-bear.
"My work has always occupied a slightly uncomfortable hinterland, an area hard to define; I'm constantly having conversations like, "I know 'Dispossession' has a fallen angel in it, but it's still a crime novel, damn it...!" We all specialise in making people uncomfortable, crime readers expect that; I just don't see why I should pander to their other expectations. My books are largely character-driven, which is unusual within the genre; I've been heard to say that I'm bored with plot, which is tacky but true. Plot is just the things that people do; why they do them is the stuff of fiction, it's what storytelling is for."

Margaret Murphy: was born in Liverpool and now lives on the Wirral. In addition to her writing, she works freelance as a teacher of creative writing and tutor of dyslexic children. Her suspense novels, published by Macmillan, explore the psychology of the killer and the effects of violent crime on the victim. The first, Goodnight My Angel, was short listed for the 'First Blood' award for debut crime writing. Her work has sold in translation to six European countries, and her latest, Past Reason, has been optioned for TV adaptation.
"My own writing definitely has a psychological slant. I've written about stalking on the internet (Goodnight, My Angel), child abuse (Past Reason), and drug abuse and homelessness (Dying Embers). I don't set out to 'address' issues when I write - I simply write the story that wants to be told at that time and won't go away until I've written it. Well, maybe it's not quite that simple: I was interviewed by Counselling News a while back, and the interviewer asked me did I realise that I wrote about people who don't have a voice in society. I didn't realise, but I guess she was right; I write about what I care about."

Martin Edwards: has written seven novels about Liverpool lawyer and amateur detective Harry Devlin. The first, All the Lonely People, was nominated for the CWA John Creasey Memorial prize for best debut crime novel of 1991. It has recently been reissued in paperback by New English Library, as has Suspicious Minds. The latest Harry Devlin books are The Devil in Disguise and First Cut is the Deepest (Hodder & Stoughton). The series is optioned for TV. Martin was commissioned to complete the late Bill Knox's last novel, The Lazarus Widow, in 1999, and has also edited eight crime fiction collections, including the CWA anthology Missing Persons (Constable). He is a partner in a firm of solicitors and the author of six legal books and many articles.
"I was a fan of crime fiction long before I became - in 1991 - a published crime writer. My books are set in contemporary Liverpool with a lawyer as detective but the tough urban setting is combined with complicated whodunnit plots of the sort that I used to enjoy when I read the likes of Christie and Sayers years ago. Creating an ingenious mystery puzzle is important to me, but I'm also focusing increasingly on the character of my hero, Harry Devlin, and the supporting cast in the series, which now runs to seven books. In the latest, First Cut is the Deepest, there is much more about his family secrets and personal life than in the earlier books. I'm learning about him as the series develops and it seems to me that part of the appeal of a crime series is that it offers a very broad canvas on which to paint in the details, over the years, of both the characters of the stories and the society they inhabit."

Stuart Pawson: started writing seriously after a career as an engineer followed by five years with the probation service, mediating between offenders and their victims. His first book, The Picasso Scam, was well received by the critics, and that difficult second one was described as being 'actually better than his excellent debut', which gave him a great deal of satisfaction. He has now written a total of six and likes to think that the momentum has been maintained. Stuart and his wife live in Fairburn, Yorkshire. They have no children and no cats, but reluctantly confess to owning five extremely lustful tortoises.
"The seven of us - and every other writer - are probably striving for a different approach to the art of crime writing with every book we produce. Plus we are different people with differing experiences, attitudes, tastes, etcetera. The search for a new angle never ends. That said, we all have certain characteristic traits. My books, for example, are regarded as police procedurals, although I call them crime novels. I put quite a bit of humour in them, but try not to let this detract from the seriousness of the subject matter."

Ann Cleeves: grew up in North Devon and moved north after dropping out of Sussex University. Then it was very far north - to Fair Isle - where she worked as a cook in a bird observatory and met her ornithologist husband Tim. Ann started writing when Tim was warden of Hilbre, an otherwise uninhabited island in the Dee. Her first series features an elderly naturalist who solves conservation crime. Then came the Ramsay books set in Northumberland. The recent novel The Crow Trap stands alone. As part of the National Year of Reading Ann was Northern Arts reader in residence, promoting reading in libraries in Cumbria and the North East. While there, she devised a murder mystery evening which has attracted large audiences into libraries. She has written stories for CWA anthologies and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and a short film for Border TV that won a TV Society Award.
" Until recently I've been a traditional crime writer with a series character. In the last book The Crow Trap and Bringing It All Back Home, the new novel which will be published in the new year I've had the confidence to try something new. Landscape and the environment always feature though. And the north east of England, which I consider home though I wasn't born there and don't even live there any more. Within the Squad I suppose my specialization is working with librarians to broaden people's reading. I worked as Reader in Residence for a year and built up lots of contacts. I'm part of a pilot project setting up readers groups in prisons - it's very enlightening listening to offenders discuss crime fiction."

Question: Does each writer have a specialization area, especially when it comes to discussing crime writing, and how formal are your gigs?

We can offer experience in different areas when it comes to events, workshops and residencies. Ann has worked a lot with libraries and prisons, and we have had a number of bookings through her library contacts. Martin is experienced in editing short story anthologies, and has an encyclopaedic knowledge of crime fiction. John has run writing workshops and master-classes for many years and also had the skills to design our website, Margaret has experience of work within education, teaching dyslexic students, as well as tutoring creative writing students for the Open College of the Arts. Cath has worked extensively with groups new to writing, Chaz is writer in residence for Newcastle University, and has lots of experience encouraging young writers to develop their skills. Stuart's dry wit and deadpan reading style has proved popular at readings, conferences and after dinner speeches. Need we go on?

Cath Staincliffe: The gigs have a definite structure but they are tailored to the event. Our most formal would be where we present a rehearsed collage of readings linked by narrators and designed to show off the range of our writing, that type of performance works well at gatherings with a larger audience. Smaller events might see two or three member read excerpts and then talk with each other and the audience about the process of writing or influences on our work, answer questions and let the discussion develop according to the interests of people attending. As a group we cover a number of sub-genres; psychological thrillers, police procedurals, private eye stories so sometimes that will dictate who talks about what. With my Sal Kilkenny series I love the challenge of working within the private eye tradition but also making my own mark on it; bringing my individual style and my concerns to the genre. I'm particularly interested in reflecting contemporary life and raising questions about how we live and a crime story is a brilliant vehicle for exploring that. Though ultimately all the stories are about Sal, her life, home and work and her reactions to the cases she investigates.

Chaz Brenchley: If I have a speciality within the Squad, I guess it's playing devil's advocate, taking an extreme position so that we can bounce an argument about. I think those are the gigs that work best, they're certainly the ones I most enjoy. Formal structures are easier to work with, but spontaneity is more rewarding. It is of course true that spontaneity is best prepared well in advance, but that's a Squad secret...

Martin Edwards: The gigs aren't formal. In fact, it's fun to try out different ways of presenting ourselves to different audiences. It's also nice to mix and match sessions with different members of the Squad. This helps to keep our gigs fresh, entertaining us as well as the audience. The 'collage' of readings we have put together works very well and shows the diversity of our work, but 'conversation' style events involving perhaps only two or three members are, to me, at least as enjoyable because they help project the different personalities and enthusiasms of those involved.

Question: As a group of writers in the same genre, do you find that combining your efforts and talents helps you market your writing, and what kind of marketing initiatives do you have as a group?

Cath Staincliffe: Dead right we've improved our marketing! And this was the main impetus behind our formation. A well produced brochure, our website and e-mail newsetter are the main initiatives we've developed so far and we're still in our first year. And the fact that there are seven of us means we all have particular contacts and networks who we can interest. In our first 6 months we got 50 bookings for appearances in bookshops, at literary festivals, for reader's groups and writing events, so we knew we were onto a winner. It's still early as far as assessing the effect on sales but it can only be positive. There's been keen interest from the press and media too with people impressed at our efforts to market and promote our work as a group.

Ann Cleeves: We do what we're asked to - creative writing workshops, readings in bookshops, in schools and in work places, appearances at festivals. My murder mystery script, devised with a friendly crime scene examiner, came as a response to a librarian who wanted to attract younger people and families into her building. It's great fun, especially when High School kids do the acting. The Murder Squad certainly seems to be effective in helping us become more widely known outside our geographical area. It's hard to tell how that will feed through into sales.

Margaret Murphy: Time will tell if our sales have been positively affected by our association. We do know that libraries have bought in multiple copies of our books, and have actively promoted our work with their reading public. We also know that bookstores have asked us to sign copies (and a signed book is a sold book!) of our titles. Our profile is certainly higher after six months as a group than we had achieved as individuals over a period of years. Apart from the strategies Cath has already mentioned, we provide posters and fliers to organisers of events, where they request it, and our website, which is updated weekly, has a list of all our gigs.

John Baker: This is difficult to answer because we don't have numbers. Our aim is and always has been to raise our profiles and that is why we come together and why we provide forums in which our work can be discussed. We hope that the spin-offs will make us rich and famous, but none of us has advertized for a housekeeper yet.

Question: What kind of advice do you give to aspirant crime writers?

John Baker: Develop a taste for porridge. Do your own thing. Don't listen to the advice of other writers.

Chaz Brenchley: The best general advice a would-be writer can listen to is never to listen to general advice, except in the presentation of work to agent or publisher. Anyone propounding rules or principles that are supposed to apply to everyone is a charlatan. Every writer is unique, or ought to be, and so your problems are unique. If you can find a mentor, someone who'll work over your manuscript with you one-to-one, then you've found a treasure - so long as you remember that even a guru can be wrong.

Stuart Pawson: Advice to aspiring crime writers? Rob a bank. This will give you first-hand experience and lots of free time. Otherwise, stop aspiring and get typing.

Martin Edwards: The two things an aspirant writer needs are determination to keep on writing, whatever the setbacks - and an ability to overlook well-meant advice that conflicts with what they truly believe is right for their own writing career.

Cath Staincliffe: Enjoy. And don't give up the day job - yet!

Ann Cleeves: Finish the book. Having brilliant ideas isn't enough.

Margaret Murphy: It's difficult to give general advice, because writers by nature are so individualistic. Ask the Squad how they write and some will tell you that they compose directly onto the word processor, I can't. I have to do a hand written first draft, chapter by chapter, no matter how rough it may be, before I can commit anything to the computer. Some of us write early in the morning, others are night owls. Some plan meticulously, while others believe in the 'organic principle'. I will say - and it's a truism - you learn about writing by writing. It's no good saying how you would write, but you just don't have the time. If you care enough about it, you'll make the time. Read - a lot - and eclectically. As for the question of whether or not to take advice. I think Kipling said it more eloquently than I could: 'If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you But make allowance for their doubting, too…' And that's the paradox.