Squee! My awesomely smart and talented friend, Donna Hancox, is in conversation with Michael Connelly in a couple of weeks:
Michael Connelly
Brisbane Wednesday 25 May 6.30 pm
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane Writers’ Festival and Brisbane’s Better Bookshops present: Michael Connelly in conversation with Donna Hancox
Venue: QUT Auditorium, Kelvin Grove
Cost: Free. Bookings: Not required
A journalist and crime writer, Michael Connelly is an articulate and hugely successful author. And Dr Donna is just the person to stimulate a fascinating discussion with him. Can’t wait!
Great news! The Brisbane chapter of Sisters in Crime is re-forming.
Women who love crime writing and live within cooee of Brisbane are welcome to come along to our first meeting.
NEW BRISBANE SISTERS-IN-CRIME MEETING
Where: Avid Reader bookstore, 193 Boundary St, West End
Date: Saturday 7 May 2011
Time: 12.30pm
Cost: FREE! (Lunch available for purchase from Avid Reader café)
Come along to chat about what you are reading, what you are writing, and what you would like from your local chapter of Sisters in Crime Australia.
Sisters in Crime Australia (SinCOz) was inspired by the American organisation of the same name, founded in 1986 by Sara Paretsky (creator of Chicago PI VI Warshawski). It exists to celebrate and promote women’s crime writing.
SinCOz has been running since 1991. It produces fantastic events and opportunities for crime writers, such as the Davitt Awards, the Scarlet Stiletto Awards, and the SheKilda Conventions. The Sisters in Crime Australia website explains what SinCOz is all about:
To bring together women crime writers, screen-writers, producers, booksellers, publishers, lawyers, judges, police, forensic specialists, librarians, academics, and critics but in the main, readers and viewers.
To discuss and analyse books, film and television shows, law and justice issues, new trends and critical issues of the crime genre.
To explore the contemporary issues at the heart of much crime fiction as well as dissecting its rich history.
To promote the professional development of women crime writers, especially emerging writers.
To provide opportunities for networking between writers, publishers and producers and between writers and their readers and viewers.
To have fun – and lots of it.
For more info, leave a question in the comments here, or like our page on Facebook.
There is a great interview with talented speculative fiction author and all-round good egg, Trent Jamieson, over at fangbooks.
Trent talks about setting stories in your home town:
We’re all here, as writers to tell the stories that are important to us, and Brisbane is very important to me. From the brown, and slightly ominous coils of the Brisbane River to the flashing transmitters atop Mt Coot-tha, and the knitting needle bunches of the Kurilpa Bridge Brisbane is full of stories (and the possibility of adventure, explosions and love).
Certainly, one of the striking features of Trent’s Death Works series is the amazing sense of place: from the awesome and ominous One Tree underworld stemming from Mount Coot-tha, to the white-shoe brigade business culture informing the management of Death, Trent draws on his hometown to create rich and fantastic realities.
You can also win copies of Trent’s terrific books. All you need to do is leave a comment ON THE FANGBOOKS BLOG by Friday afternoon 15 April explaining why you think Australia makes for an interesting setting for a book (or not!).
Awesome workshop for crime thriller writers coming up at QWC this Saturday 16 April!
JJ Cooper
Grip It and Rip It: Successful author and former military interrogator JJ Cooper shows you how to develop credible plotlines, dialogue, artful suspense, and the all-important pace for a great thriller.
It has been a whirlwind year of teaching for this crime fic tragic!
So far, I have devised and conducted a full day workshop on research for crime fiction, including hands-on session with the heritage collection at the John Oxley Library. I have tutored a four-week course on creative writing at QWC, and am about to tutor a similar course for the AWM Online Learning Centre.. I am also tutoring in the Genre Fiction course at The University of Queensland.
And to top it off, last night I gave a lecture on research for crime fiction to hundreds of students at UQ!
I love working with students of creative writing – everyone has a fresh take to offer, and it is a privilege to walk alongside writers for awhile as they develop skills and confidence.
And of course, my first love is teaching crime fic research and development. I cover the historical development of the genre and its many sub- and sub-sub- and hybrid genres. I share heaps of visual, textual and personal research sources, like the Howdunit series for writers, and the websites for the Australian Federal Police, and the Queensland Police Museum. And I look at research in action, discussing character, context and conflict in excerpts from fantastic writers like Katherine Howell, Leigh Redhead, and Shamini Flint.
Awesome Gruesomes!
A wise friend told me years ago that people usually find success by doing what they are passionate about – I didn’t believe her at the time, because allowing myself to pursue my dreams of crime writing seemed so impossibly unachievable.
So I encourage everyone to dedicate some time this weekend to doing what you love – you never know where it will lead!
There are many commonly held misconceptions about the life of a writer. That we need divine inspiration and a sacred writing place for the muse to visit. Or that we all live as starving artists, sacrificing the most basic life skills for our craft. And of course, the big one: that we are solitary beasts, locked away from the world in our garrets.
My gregarious nature combines with a background in community work to challenge that stereotype. I love connecting with other writers and readers. There’s nothing more motivating than the knowledge another writing buddy is slaving away over the keyboard alongside me.
Writing Race 2009
So I am totally psyched about the big social writing event happening tonight at QWC and AWMonline from 5.30-7.30pm (Australian Eastern Standard time). A bunch of writers, from beginner to established, are getting together in person or online to cheer each other on to awesome wordage. How often do you get the chance to write alongside the likes of Kim Wilkins, Katherine Howell, Michael Gerard Bauer, and Simon Groth, as well as all the other cool beginner and emerging writers who’ll be there tonight?!
It’s free to join in – just head over to www.AWMonline.com.au and click on the big FORUM button.
That’s what we tell people at QWC, and it’s a lesson I need to take to heart today. I’m encoutering *obstacles* in submitting my application for Varuna House’s Publisher Parternship program. Which obstacles?, you inquire. Well, thanks for asking: I’m far too busy to develop my submission package, plus my book totally sux, and of course there’s my perennial favourite, distraction.
Look – a squirrel! Sneezing! On youtube!
I have encouraged several of my wonderful talented writer friends to apply, and they have done so. The irony of my not submitting would be crushing. It’s no excuse that my first draft is a fairly raw w-i-p; the first 50 pages are polished, and the pitch and other required materials are good to go.
So the only thing holding me back is: me.
Last weekend I completed my first ever (mini) triathlon. I nearly didn’t make it. I stacked it a beauty on the bike leg, badly injuring my knee . But I laughed it off, got straight back on the bike, and even made it through the run. It hurt. It was hard. I didn’t think I could do it.
The red badge of courage.
The key was: no matter what I thought or what I felt, I didn’t stop until I finished.
Are you procrastinating about an important goal today? Limp towards the finish line with me now!
One of the things I love about writing crime is that I am compelled to consult with some of the coolest, most adventurous experts on the planet. One such expert who very generously gave me his time for a couple of phone calls outlining the basics of his work has now written a book of his own!
If the brief conversations I had with Keith Schafferius are anything to go by, this book will be a gripping read, providing insight into the high-stakes and sometimes heartbreaking work of retrieving abducted children.
Keith Schafferius, Child Retrieval Detective
“Schafferius once posed as a Hollywood movie mogul, using a forged British Honduras passport and fake ID to win the confidence and support of Middle East officials, while trying to retrieve two abducted children.”
Keith helped me understand some of the ways in which an investigator might trace an international skip, so that I could construct a credible series of steps for my protagonist to follow as she tracked down an absconded fraudster (and possible murderer).
I am thrilled Keith has put his experiences into a book of his own, with the able assistance of journalist Grantlee Kieza, and I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy!
I’ve spent years watching my kids have a blast at singing-swimming classes, tiny tots gym, music and movement lessons, etc etc. I’ve had it. Much as I love to see them learn and giggle and grow, I wasn’t put on this earth just to chauffeur other folks around to the fun.
So when I finally green-lighted their campaign to study martial arts, my boys were amazed to find mama standing next to them chanting the ‘Hana-Dool-Sets‘! I feel strong, throwing out those punches. I feel balanced, sending out those kicks. I feel only a little bit silly, blocking with my knife hand.
It’s not research for my book as such – like when I went for my Recreational Marine Driver Licence, and found myself grappling a twin-hulled, twin-throttled beast of the sea. (I am now legal to captain a vessel up to 50 metres in length – yikes!) But my family martial arts sessions are definitely helping with a feisty state of mind – my protagonist shero is as determined as she is preggers. I love experiencing and embodying the powerful opportunities available to women today.
So bag-snatchers beware – I am going to be one kick-arse old lady, one day!
I’ll blog about this fabulous Criminal Brief overview of self-publishing over at Speakeasy, but it is so useful I want to share it here as well – for two reasons.
In itself, it is a sage warning about the pitfalls of vanity publishing for writers (‘Neither authors nor readers are well-served by self-published fiction’), while outlining the usefulness of self-publishing for certain projects.
But also, the site is one for crime buffs to watch, being A Mystery Short Story Web Log Project. Super cool!
~
Fictional or in real life, Melbourne’s upcoming Crime and JusticeFestival has it covered. I am crying into my beautiful Pulp Fiction Press edition of Cocaine Blues that I won’t make it to hear Kerry Greenwood. If someone in the blogosphere is going, can you please tweet the highlights? Let me know so I can follow you!
Meg Vann 