Where authors talk directly about their life, their books and many more things.
Stripped down to its most basic form, crime fiction is about concealing information from the reader, and then gradually revealing it. This is one of the reasons why the genre tends to favour telling its stories through a single point of view character, often the detective, in first person or close third person.
Writing is a craft, and like any other craft, it needs to be learnt. You would never pick up a paint brush for the first time and expect to be the next Picasso, and yet for some reason, we feel a sense of failure when we first start writing and it doesn’t read like Hemmingway (or, rather, Harper, Moriarty or McTiernan).
We are taught to fear the monster out there. What I find compelling and possibly more chilling is the monster hiding in plain sight in our homes, in our trusted institutions, and in our social circles. He/ They seemed like such a nice/ quiet man/ family.
I’ve researched just about every plausible way to murder someone– and how to get away with it. At least, that’s what I tell my husband from time to time. Generally, when he’s annoying me.
I often liken writing to a painting … rough sketch through to finished oil painting and it is the attention to detail in the background that brings a painting to life.
Metaphorically speaking, the creative habits of writers and birds aren’t so far apart: our storytelling is a form of singing, our flights of imagination a simulation of the real thing.
Maryrose Cuskelly didn’t set out to be a crime writer. She actively avoided it because she says,”I wasn’t sure I had the writing chops for it.” Time has proved her wrong!
Love ’em, hate ’em: Melbourne author Laura Elizabeth Woollett says writing unlikeable characters can be cathartic.
Actor-turned-author Anna Downes tells us how she now uses drama techniques in her written storytelling.
Author Rebecca Freeborn shares her very intimate experience about the highs and lows of being a writer.