Her other jobs "come in bursts." She does "bits and pieces of teaching at the university and I get quite a lot of opportunities to do some speaking; visiting lectures and things." As there are "so many writers in Glasgow" in follows that Glasgow should take advantage of it, hence writing groups are prevalent and she often gets speaker jobs. "I think this is because of the James Kelman effect, but I am trying to cut down on the smaller jobs to concentrate on my writing."

All of these smaller jobs became a burden to her early on. Seiffert and Louise Welsh has quickly organised themselves agents and Zoe admits that: "it would have taken me a long time to figure out that literary agents existed without the MLitt course." N.B. MyVillage didn’t go through an agent to get in touch with Zoe this time round, such is our networking expertise!

Her influences are varied: "I try and read lots of books but I am often tempted to ditch them pretty quickly if they’re bad." She cites Alan Warner as a local influence. On top of that she said: "The Beat Generation I was really interested in from a philosophical and a woman’s perspective." Angela Carter she "found very funny, and she’s influenced by lots of other writers too." Principally she reads a lot of crime novels. "I read anything really as long as it’s not Mills and Boon."

It follows that as her philosophical studies have influenced her work, her archaeological experience should also play a part, and not just as the Orkney setting for Negative Space. When talking of Glasgow she reels off a wealth of information about its architectural history: "Glasgow has lots of interesting buildings but they are quite.crumbly! But it is an incredible city of architecture."

She can obviously talk at length about the city having gotten to know it implicitly for her novel. "In general I suppose the West End is changing, especially the atmosphere. Visiting second-hand bookshops in the West End is a great way to spend and afternoon. Also, King Street has so many galleries, as has the area around the art schools."

"I think anyone who comes to Scotland goes to Edinburgh but it is worth the short trip to Glasgow. It’s well worth it. It is very different and the people are so friendly. If you ask someone directions they’ll take you there themselves. Everyone would love it."