Sisters in Crime’s WA convenor, Dawn Farnham, reports:
On 25 June, authors/convenors Lisa Ellery and Dawn Farnham along with our sister, Gerry Page, took a road trip to beautiful Bridgetown in WA’s Southwest to attend a crime workshop by convenor of Sisters WA, author Sarah Evans,followed by a Q&A with local solicitors and lawyers, Lindy Porter and Jeremy Scudds, who gave a very robust audience the inside information about the inner workings of the justice system.
On 27 and 28 July, there was a special event, a Weekend of Crime, a collaboration between Sisters in Crime WA and the Fellowship of Australian Writers WA at its HQ in Swanbourne.
The Weekend of Crime delivered exactly what it promised: expert insight, practical tips, and more inspiration for a group of murderers than should be allowed.
Saturday opened with a fascinating look inside our jails, from both medical and lived-experience perspectives.
Dr Catherine Gunsen, Deputy Director of Medical Services to the WA Department of Justice, and ex-prisoner Rose Manuli guided by convenor Dawn Farnham, shared the kind of detail writers love: surprising, sobering, and far beyond what most of us could learn from the outside. We were delighted that Geraldton Sisters’ convenor, Shirley McKinnon, and her daughter drove all the way to Perth to attend.
Dawn then changed hats and ran an efficient and enlightening workshop, that somehow had us walking out of her session with our book plan in hand.
Sunday raised the stakes with a peek behind the procedural curtain. Dr Alanah Buck, forensic pathologist, kept us enthralled, and we were doubly fortunate to have State Coroner Sarah Linton with us as an extra guest. Generous, sharp, and wonderfully brave, they even let us pitch our fictional murder scenes and receive expert feedback.
The final session brought us back to the writing desk with WA author Karen Herbert, again in conversation with Dawn. Karen spoke warmly about her new book, her process, her motivation, and the winding path of a writer’s life.
By the end, our presenters had been as generous with their time as they were with their knowledge, leaving a room full of would-be crime writers armed with facts, confidence, and a dangerously long list of ideas.
Website: www.dawnfarnham.com
FB: dawnfarnham/author
Instagram: @farnhamauthor
Sisters in Crime WA website: https://www.facebook.com/sistersincrimewa/