195. Linda Duncan Mclaughlin, Bloody Scotland Debut Prize Author

Hello again and welcome to another special series of Off the Shelf.

Long-term listeners will know that last year I did a spotlight on the debut fiction prize for the Bloody Scotland Festival and I'm back this year featuring those authors again.

Well, I should say a different set of authors as its debut prize, but people that are new to crime writing and I hope you'll enjoy there.

their insights.

So my guest today is Linda McLaughlin.

Now, Linda is a screenwriter, playwright, actor and workshop leader and has been writing professionally for over a decade alongside a much longer career as an actor.

She has written primarily for television.

She also writes and directs for the Good Life Group, collaborating with people with learning disabilities to create training programmes for service providers.

As an actor, she's worked across theatre, film and television in the UK and internationally, and she teaches both acting and writing.

She's based in Glasgow from where she joins me now.

And she's also the author of Original Sins, which is the reason why we're having this chat, which was recently runner up in the Grinstone International Novel Prize in 2018 and was nominated for the Crime Writers Association's prestigious Damien Dagger Award in the same year.

And this year has been shortlisted for the Bloody Scotland Crime Debut of the Year.

So congratulations, Linda, and welcome to the show.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

It's an absolute pleasure, but it sounds like you're a dab hand at writing.

Well,