A crime writing Fife farmer's works could soon be screened on TV, four years after a chance conversation stopped him quitting writing altogether to farm full-time.
James Oswald's representatives have opened discussions with several interested broadcasting companies.
The Newburgh-based author was the UK's biggest selling debut crime writer in 2013.
With Penguin releasing Oswald’s fifth Inspector McLean novel, ‘Prayer for the Dead’, today, it is hoped a deal can be struck to bring the Edinburgh detective to the small screen.
The development is a further milestone in the rise of the 47 year old, who has revealed it was only a passing conversation in 2011 that prevented him from ditching the keyboard completely.
Oswald, who runs a livestock farm in Newburgh, had seen all previous writing efforts kicked into touch by publishers and was considering giving up to focus more on his cattle and sheep.
However, with an appearance on the Late Late Show in America with Craig Ferguson under his belt, and talks on TV deals progressing, he is glad fortune had a different plan for him.
Speaking ahead of today’s official launch of ‘Prayer for the Dead’ in Edinburgh, he said: “It has been an amazing journey. My readers have been brilliant. We’ve sold nearly 350 000 books in Britain alone, even before the release of this one, and initial talks on TV rights have begun.
“It’s an odd feeling because, four years ago, I was ready to pack it in and ramp up the farm business. I had been writing for 20 years and had basically got nowhere.
“That’s when I bumped into an agent and writer, Al Guthrie, who told me about self publishing and that was literally the last throw of the dice for me. If I’d only sold a dozen a week, I would have been round all the agricultural shows with the cows and I would probably have drifted away from writing.”
Oswald’s 300 000 ebook sales saw him snapped up by publishing giant Penguin and his Inspector McLean books have now been published in 42 non-UK countries, 20 territories and 16 languages.Despite the phenomenal success, he has still managed to increase his herd of Highland Cows and Romney Sheep and continues to write in a static caravan under a Dutch barn on his farm.
Like late Scottish author Iain Banks, who switched between mainstream and sci-fi genres, Oswald has also penned a series of epic fantasy books, The Ballad of Sir Benfro, under the name JD Oswald.Publishers Penguin began releasing the books this year and, interestingly, the farmer turned author believes this new path has helped keep his crime storylines sharp and engaging.
“Working on series fiction, it’s very easy for the writing to get stale and repetitive, so I am very lucky, really. If I reach a tricky point in a plot with Tony McLean, I can go and write about dragons, warriors and all manners of weird stuff for a fortnight and then come back to the dark side. It works. It’s a great palate-cleanser.”
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