Oisin McGann
About Author
Oisin McGann was born in Dublin in 1973 and spent his childhood there and in Drogheda, County Louth.
Art college ruined any chance he had of getting a real job, so when he left in 1992, he set himself up as a freelance illustrator. In 1998, he moved to London and through no fault of his own, he ended up working in advertising as an art director and copywriter.
After three and a half years he began to fear for his immortal soul. He returned to Ireland in the summer of 2002 much as he had left - with no job, no home and some meagre savings.
Ever the optimist, he now works once more as a freelance illustrator and mercenary artist by day and escapist writer by night. Oisin has published seven titles with O'Brien Press including the Mad Grandad series, The Gods and Their Machines, Under Fragile Stone and The Harvest Tide Project.
Small-Minded Giants was Oisin's first novel published by Random House Children's Publisher in July 2006.
Small-Minded Giants is a futuristic thriller, in which one boy's search for justice uncovers the sinister forces at work in his dying world.
Oisin's second book for RHCP, Ancient Appetites, contains wild mechanical creatures, explosions, deceptions, twists and turns with a host of fantastic otherworldly characters. It was shortlisted for the 2008 Waterstone's Children's Book Prize.
Strangled Silence was Oisin's next teen novel and had been described as The Manchurian Candidate meets Black Hawk Down.
Strangled Silence is a gripping story about a young journalist, a war veteran who has just won the jackpot in the lottery and a conspiracy theorist. They stumble across what seems to be the biggest and most terrifying government cover up in history but can they uncover the truth before it's too late?
Rat Runners, about a society dominated by surveillance and run by criminal gangs, sees four young people set a task by their criminal masters - to find a mysterious box that belonged to a murdered scientist.
Author link
www.oisinmcgann.com; www.kidsatrandomhouse.co.uk
Interview
RAT RUNNERS
CORGI CHILDREN'S BOOKS
MARCH 2013
In Watchworld, everyone is under suspicion and everything people do can be surveyed and assessed. Those aged under 16 have a little more freedom enabling a small group of young people - 'rat runners' - to take on 'projects' for local crime lords. But when Nimmo and a small band of 'rat runners' are asked to steal a mysterious box from a dead scientist, things start to get complicated.
Author Oisin McGann talks about the world he has created in Rat Runners, and what inspired it.
Q: In Rat Runners you have created a world where everyone is watched - why did you decide to write a novel based on a surveillance society?
A: My feeling was that we take all the surveillance cameras around us in our stride, but I wondered how we would react if instead of a camera, someone was physically there watching you? That would be a lot more threatening than cameras.
So I started the fantasy idea of this surveillance world where actual people are the 'cameras'. The watchers are called 'Safe Guards' and I thought it would have more impact if I brought it closer to home by using a real setting and making it quite near to our time. Then I really cranked it up so that the watchers can not only see you but follow you and examine you in detail; they can stand in front of you with cameras that see you with X-ray vision, they can smell your chemical make up and check your heart rate.
It didn't feel that far from today's world where, if you pass a policeman, you start to think about what you are up to. So I thought it would need a fantasy setting and when you are writing fantasy, you can go into any genre including horror or thriller or romance and I liked the mix of crime and sci-fi that I could work with.
I didn't want this to be just about surveillance but I made that the setting and brought in a crime plot.
Q: What was the attraction of writing a crime novel, and what makes a good crime story for you?
A: I like good plotting; it's one of my pet hates when you have a book that is beautifully written but badly plotted. I like the pace to clip along and I like to be satisfied by the ending and for that to happen, the story needs a good plot.
Writing a crime novel means you can introduce very dark characters and nice dialogue which move the story along and keeps things tense, so there's a lot of meat to work with.
In the world I create, those under 16 can't be tracked so the young people can do things that adults can't. The setting is like a police state where the kids have more freedom while adults are quite restricted - they can't carry guns, for example, because the watchers would see them. But even without the violence you can still have aspects of crime novels like the nice dialogue, dark characters and that tense undercurrent that keeps the story moving along.
Q: There's a lot of technology in the plotting, from the surveillance system all the way through to molecular implants. How much of it is based on reality?
A: I actually had to tone down the technology I mention from the reality of what is already available. All the technology in the novel, apart from the Brundleseed (a kind of molecular implant), is used already.
There are X-ray cameras being used in airports, chemical analysis of what's in your system, as well as high tech microphones that are used to hear conversations from 100m away. The police are even using ariel drones in the UK to catch criminals.
And if you could see the amount of online technology that is used to track us, well you can't mention it all. I had to simplify the technology otherwise all the action would have been done by hackers!
The Brundleseed is to do with molecular assembly - in this story there are implants that can build things inside people's bodies. Molecular assembly is out there and when you're writing a near-future sci-fi novel, you have to assume that someone has already figured out your inventions. Every time that someone writes something, you find that the scientists are nearly there in reality.
Q: If you had access to a Brundleseed, what facilities would you like it to give you?
A: If I had a Brundleseed implanted inside me? The most powerful application of the Brundleseed is probably what FX has done, which is the ability to hack into any wireless system at will. But how much of this would you want tangled up in your own life?
Q: Did it take a lot of research to find out about all these gadgets and developments?
A: I already do that kind of research anyway as I'm interested in the relationship between people and technology for its own sake and how it changes things. For example, how e-books are changing how people read. I look at how we relate to technology and how it becomes a part of our lives, like the mobile phone. Once people accept Google Glass, where you wear a computer like a pair of glasses, I wonder how much of what you see will be recorded and my question is, what can Google see? Instead of using cash we use cards and everything we purchase can be tracked.
Q: So are you concerned about the amount of surveillance that goes on in today's world?
A: Personally, I don't think you can get too worked up about the amount of surveillance in our society, I don't believe we live in a police state and I do believe this is a democracy - that not everyone is power-mad. But if you set up the structures and then there's a shift in power, then those systems can be abused; you have given the abusers the tools they need to hold on to that power. We have technology now that the Stazi in Germany could only have dreamed of!
Q: How hard was it to plot this crime thriller, especially as you have several lead characters and lots of bad guys?
A: It's the same as with any plot, you have fundamental rules and before I start writing the book, I have to have the ending in mind. I can change it but I have to be deliberate about where I'm going, I need a climax to aim for, and I have to have a decent title because it helps to think about the shape of the book.
The story starts with a few loose themes, this society is full of surveillance, but I also wanted a mystery story plus a crime within it rather than working to bring down the system. With crime novels, it's best to start with a body or a big question that needs to be solved. It all starts very quickly, too - like being at the top of a roller coaster.
Q: What was it like having four main characters?
A: I have written a promotional e-book which is told only from Scope's point of view but I like having four main characters as none of them are indispensable. Plus it gives you freedom with the plot; when a book is told from one person's perspective you can only see things from their point of view. Having more characters keeps the action going, it's all happening there and then.
Nimmo started as the lead character but as the other characters developed they steered the story themselves. Scope is a little more fixed in her approach than the others but she's probably the smartest one of the lot, she's a bit of an oddball and she's not a career criminal while the others are, so I picked her point of view for the ebook as shes more of an outsider.
Manikin is like the undercover agent, she is good at manipulating people and can mimic behaviour but she's also a bit of a pain in the neck. She actually wanted to be on the stage and to have an audience. Nimmo is more of a ninja and a bit harder to read, you can't give much away because he's so controlled so you need the others to stretch things out and to make him vulnerable.
Q: Can we have a couple of tips for budding writers?
A: When I am teaching the thing that seems to trip most people up is how to structure a story. So I would say, you need to work out your plot in bullet points before you get into narration, know your ending before you start. Also write what you enjoy writing - you may as well have a good time while youre doing it. If you don't enjoy it, your reader won't, either.
