WHEN crimefighter-turned-crime-writer Karen Campbell started out as an author, she used her experiences as a cop for inspiration.
Her fast-paced thrillers featuring abrasive policewoman Anna Cameron reflected her years spent pounding the beat of Glasgow’s red-light district as a WPC.
But Karen’s latest novel Rise is set far from the big smoke in a fictional village in the Highlands, inspired by her own move to the country.
Three years ago, the author, 47, and her ex-cop husband Dougie, 49, decided to swap their hectic city existence for the good life in the Borders. They closed their eyes, stuck a pin the map and ended up in Kirkcudbrightshire, a move that Karen reveals has influenced her writing.
The mum-of-two said: “The first line of my new book starts, ‘I stuck a pin in a map’ and that is exactly what Dougie and I did three years ago when we decided to up sticks and move to the country.
“Our daughters had both left home for university and the nest felt empty, we needed a change. We’d had 18 years of having to be somewhere and fancied an unfettered life away from the city. We bought a bungalow
on a hill in the beautiful rolling Galloway countryside not far from the beach. Instead of cars whizzing past our house, we have trees, deer and red squirrels.
“After years pounding the pavements of Glasgow as a policewoman and working in such a busy city, bumbling about in wellies and a fleece came as a welcome change.
“Life is simpler, traffic is limited to cows, sheep and the occasional wheelbarrow.
“It was the best move we have ever made and inspired my latest novel.”
Karen, who was born in Paisley and brought up in Glasgow, is excited by her sixth book, which is published by Bloomsbury and available to buy now.
She said: “Rise is set in the run-up the referendum and is about a young girl called Justine, who runs away from the city to a wee town in Argyll. She chooses her place of escape, like we did, by sticking a pin in the map and just heading there. Living in such a beautiful place has untethered my mind and prompted me to write a different type of book, which I hope readers will enjoy.”
Karen, who gave up work as a policewoman when her daughters Eidann, 22, and Eorstan, 21, were born admits her writing slowed right down after the move.
She said: “I was worried when I couldn’t get back into my writing. I had to force myself to get my finger out. My mind thought it was on holiday. I became anxious that I needed the buzz of the city to write and resorted to tricking my brain into getting started by buying a roll-top desk. Opening it in the morning signalled the start of my working day and shutting it at night was my cue to shut up office for the night. It worked a treat.”
The Glasgow University graduate added: “When I need a break, I just take my collie Sam out for a walk across the fields or to the beach and come back in full of fresh ideas. In the country, there are no deadlines so I have to impose them upon myself. Writing a book is like doing a marathon, the more you chip away at it, the closer to the finish line.”
Karen, who met her husband on the first day of training at Tulliallan Police College, started writing Rise
in 2012 when news broke that there was going to be a referendum.
The author finished it long before a vote was cast but says she was not tempted to go back and change the story in light of the result.
She said: “The main character Justine becomes an au pair for a couple whose marriage is at breaking point. Everyone in the book is questioning which paths to take, just like Scottish voters before the referendum. The characters all learn they can’t outrun their shadow.
“When I started Rise, everyone was becoming switched on to the fact history was about to be made. I wanted to capture a country that was looking at itself in the mirror and trying to decide what it wanted to be.
“I set the novel in an ancient landscape against a modern backdrop, at a time when Scots were looking to the future knowing that even the geography of their country could change. I questioned whether I should go back and change campaign slogans and put in actual facts after the results were in but decided not
to as it isn’t a historical novel. The lead-up to September 18 was such an exciting time. Just capturing the momentum, I felt, was enough.”
Rise by Karen Campbell, published by Bloomsbury, is available now.
