AFTER working as a journalist for 30 years, it is perhaps unsurprising that Linwood Barclay drew inspiration for his best-selling book from a local news story.

His first standalone thriller, No Time for Goodbye, published in 2007, gained critical acclaim international success.

Born in Connecticut in the USA, Linwood moved to Toronto, Canada, when he was a boy. He began writing stories when he was just eight years old – but quickly realised it was unlikely he would be signed up as an unknown author, so he found another way to get paid to write for a living.

The crime writer will be making his debut trip to Bolton next week to promote the launch of his new book Broken Promise.

Linwood said: "I don't write about terrorists and bombs. I write about ordinary people and ordinary events that go wrong. That's my starting point. I think I am quite an anxious person so I automatically look at how things could go wrong.

"With No Time for Goodbye I woke up at 5am and had the idea. There had been an incident in Canada where a woman had been abducted in the night. I remember thinking what it would have been like if she had woken up and everyone else had gone — what if I flipped it?"

As a journalist he held positions at the Peterborough Examiner, a small Ontario daily, before moving to Toronto Star, Canada's largest circulation newspaper. There he worked as news reporter, assistant city editor, chief copy editor, news editor, and Life section editor, before becoming a humour columnist in 1993.

He said: "I was a reporter from the age of 22. I only stopped so that I could work on my books.

"I went into newspapers because I wanted to get paid to write each day, and at that time my stories were not very good. I think journalism allowed me to see writing as a job and not just a hobby. Having to work to deadlines, for example, was important for when I became a novelist.

"The big difference between the two is that novels have to be quite a bit longer."

Writing is all Linwood has ever wanted to do.

Linwood said: "I was writing stories back when I was in the third grade — all I ever wanted to do was write. I started writing novellas when I was about 10 or 11 and into my teens. All I can say is, we can be grateful that they were never published.

"After working at newspapers for so long, when my first novel was accepted it felt very natural. Plus I had already written three humour books and a memoir which has been published in Canada, so it didn't feel odd to switch to writing fiction from news.

"I am pleased that I have reached the goal I had when I was younger but part of the nature of being an artist is that you're never satisfied and you always think you can do things a lot better. I'm certainly glad to be where I am but I'm always looking at the next idea."

Linwood will be signing copies of his new book Broken Promise at Bolton Central Library on Friday, September 11 from 1pm.