Most writers return from retreats with renewed enthusiasm rather than finished manuscripts. But enthusiasm is underrated. After months of struggling with that Gothic novel, I’d forgotten that writing could feel urgent and exciting. Sometimes the most valuable thing about a retreat is how much it changes your perspective on the writing life itself.
Over 140 Sisters in Crime and Brothers-in-Law gathered at the Hotel Windsor’s Grand Ballroom on Sunday (28/9) for Fabulous, feisty, fun & Phryne to pay tribute to the life and legacy of Kerry Greenwood. It was a grand location and a grand occasion. Almost everyone was ‘frocked up for Phryne’ – or ‘suited up’, as the case may be. As the host of the event, Sisters in Crime’s Ambassador Sue Turnbull remarked, Kerry would have been proud, and jealous she could not be there.
For Murder Monday Sisters in Crime’s Jacq Ellem spoke to award-winning copywriter, content writer and author, Meeti Shroff Shah, who is based in Mumbai and is the creator of the Temple Hill mystery series.
Sisters in Crime WA will debut at the Big Sky Readers and Writers Festival in Geraldton in October 2025. The festival has warmly welcomed the initiative, and the group is thrilled to be part of the event. You’ll catch the Sisters speaking on Saturday 25 October, 4-6 pm, at Batavia Brewery, 60 Fitzgerald Street, Geraldton. Free . You can also stay on a meal,
Police procedurals have been a staple of crime fiction since Wilke Collins’ The Moonstone in 1868. Australian women crime writers continue in the grand tradition, but adding new elements – women detectives, deadly small-town secrets, and different takes on violence against women.
A stolen baby, a stolen corpse, and a missing woman are at the centre of the novels by Vikki Petraitis, Sarah Bailey, and Rachel Givney – and the authors will reveal all to Philomena Horsley.
Sisters in Crime’s roving reporter Lucy Sussex is attending the crime festival Bloody Scotland in September. As a taster, a wee dram, she interviewed Tartan noir author Denise Mina who has produced twenty award-winning crime novels, plus plays, comics, and graphic novels since 1996.
“Australian women’s crime writing has well and truly come of age,” says Ruth Wykes, the Judges’ Coordinator for Sisters in Crime’s 25th Davitt Awards for best women’s crime and mystery books, which were announced on Friday night [5/9] in Melbourne’s Angliss Restaurant. “The Davitt Awards have transformed the literary landscape over the past three decades. …
Melaleuca is a beautifully written, absorbing crime novel that introduces us to a stunning new voice to Australian women’s crime fiction. Angie Faye Martin is a stunning new voice and here she writes about how she got to here and why.
For Murder Monday, Sisters in Crime’s Jacq Ellem spoke to award-winning Melbourne author, Maryrose Cuskelly. She writes both fiction and non-fiction. Her books include Wedderburn: A true tale of blood and dust; Original Skin: Exploring the marvels of the human hide, and the novels, The Cane, and The Campers.
Not sure how old to make the protagonist in her Southern Highlands Mysteries series Joan Sauers took inspiration from the Baby Animals… ‘too young to know, too old to listen’. She explains why ….