Carmel Shute
Love it or hate it, there comes a point in every writer’s life when we can’t ignore it – we as writers will probably need to engage in marketing at some point in our careers. We need to let people know about our book, or just to reach out to readers and other writers to say we’re out there looking for great stories to read (if you’re out there and you have a psychological thriller with a twist I haven’t read, let me know where I can find it). . .
The series begins with a young woman cycling round her home town. She has been released from prison after serving her sentence for killing another young woman from the town. Sound familiar? This is not Troppo. Savage River is set in Victoria, not in far north Queensland.
A few bad apples gathered on Thursday 6 October 2022, withas well as some ring-ins from New Zealand, to celebrate the new Tasmanian Chapter of Sisters in Crime Australia at Frank’s Ciderhouse in the Huon Valley. Dr Angela Savage, CEO of Public Libraries Victoria, and Lindy Cameron, Vice-President of Sisters in Crime Australia were on hand to officially launch the new chapter.
Sisters in Crime Australia held its 2022 Annual General Meeting on Friday 28 October, following its Felony and Fun event at South Melbourne’s Rising Sun Hotel. It had convened a delayed 2021 AGM on Zoom only five months earlier but needed to get back in sync with the schedule required by Consumer Affairs Victoria. Nevertheless, it has broken many records!
Minotaur Books has separate debut novel competitions – First Crime Novel (closes 16 December 2022) and Malice Domestic First Traditional Mystery Novel with Mystery Writers of America (closes 30 November 2022).
Janna Thompson, one of Australia’s most distinguished philosophers, and a long-time member of Sisters in Crime Australia, decided to turn her hand to crime when the pandemic hit Melbourne in 2020.The result is Lockdown (Clan Destine Press), a novel which explores how the invisibility of older women can provide the perfect cover for criminal investigations. Janna put the finishing touches to Lockdown before just before her death from multiple brain tumours in June at the age of 79.
To celebrate its 90th anniversary, the ABC is posting classic TV dramas. One of these is Corelli. It is on a square screen but otherwise is as relevant today as it was in 1995. It is so much more than the set where Deborra-Lee Furness met Hugh Jackman. The portrayal of prison life is spot-on. From the first scene, you get a visceral feel for a prison: the noise, the bravado, the underlying menace, and the need for constant vigilance. The psychologists’ offices are squirrelled into the thick prison walls – the only light from high-set windows.
Best-selling UK author, Lisa Jewell, doesn’t usually write sequels. But, from the day her 2019 novel The Family Upstairs was published, her social media inboxes filled up with messages from readers begging her for a sequel. She told them no, at first, but then, began to think maybe it could be fun. The result is The Family Remains.
Jacqueline Bublitz won an amazing two Sisters in Crime’s Davitt Awards on 27 August for Before You Knew My Name – Best Debut Book and the Readers’ Choice award. All 169 books in contention competed for this award as decided by the 500+ members of Sisters in Crime. Before You Knew My Name has the unusual distinction of being narrated by a dead woman. She spoke to Karina Kilmore, debut crime writer, journalist, and interviewer for Sisters in Crime Australia, about her novel approach and how she crafted her book.
Seven of Australia’s most popular female crime writers converged on the South Coast in August for a Sisters in Crime two-day writers festival on August 27 and 28. Candice Fox, Vikki Petraitis, Sulari Gentill, Fleur Ferris, Ilsa Evans, Professor Caroline de Costa, and Dorothy Johnston debated all matters crime before 100 people packed into the Cobargo Hall and a live-streamed global audience.