Today's released interviews
- Matthew Freeman on Aust Crime Fiction
- Lucy Sussex on Matilda
- P. D. Martin on Aust Crime Fiction
- Adrian Hyland on Crime Down Under
- Marshall Browne on Matilda
3 March 2008
Australian Crime Fiction Snapshots
Check up on these interviews, the first in a series which is the result of a collaboration between Karen Chisholm (of the Aust Crime Fiction weblog), Damien Gay (of Crime DownUnder) and Perry Middlemiss (of Matilda).
Today's released interviews
Today's released interviews
Adelaide Writers' Week, Day 2, Part 2
Really wasn't a crime genre day today, so you might want to stop reading here.
I should explain that there are 2 sessions happening simultaneously throughout each day, and what I am describing here are the sessions that I attended.
Session 1- In Conversation, Peter Carey with Matthew Condon
The focus of this conversation was really on Peter Carey's latest novel HIS ILLEGAL SELF. Condon began by reading the first paragraph of a complimentary New York Times Review (which I have not been able to find - it certainly wasn't this one)
Carey admitted that some of the novel is based on his own experiences of living on a commune in Queensland 30 years ago.
This is the first of his novels with American characters and that worried him at first. Eventually in the process of writing, he forgot to worry.
Carey believes that readers plug their own imagination into a book, and experience things that the writer never envisaged. He says the glory of writing fiction is to enter worlds you did not know. Writers are magicians - we don't always know where things have come from. The reader's disappointment may be the author's moment of blinding triumph. (referring to the ending of OSCAR & LUCINDA)
Other sites to look at
Graham Tulloch is professor of English at Flinders University and a specialist on Sir Walter Scott, James Hogg and Robert Louis Stevenson. In the 19th century, Graham's specialist area, Scottish writing had its own voice, which included dialect and dialogue, and references to Scottish history.
Denise Mina told us that crime writing is enormous in Scotland with many female writers.
James Meek said that Scottish writing in recent decades has been characterised by wave after wave of new writers who have re-defined the genres.
Session 3 - Book Launch - THE DRESSMAKER'S DAUGHTER by Kate Llewellyn
See News Review
Kate Llewellyn's #19 book, a memoir, but not a conventional success story, rather an illustration of an uneven movement through life, full of arresting images. Tumby Bay girl, poet, one woman's story, in many ways the story of many South Australian women.
Session 4 - Meet the author: Barry Jones
The Hon. Dr Barry Jones is a writer, broadcaster and former Labor member of both the State and Federal parliaments. He was Australia’s longest serving Science Minister (1983–90) and served as National President of the Australian Labor Party from 1992 to 2000 and again in 2005– 06. He is a Vice Chancellor’s Fellow at Melbourne University and serves on six medical research boards. His biography A Thinking Reed was published in 2006.
As always Barry was entertaining. National Living Treasure, ex-quiz champion, ex-president of the Australian Labor Party, Barry believes his politics came from his childhood in post-depression Australia. Writing his autobiography A THINKING REED was most difficult and most painful. He strongly believes in the importance of seeking knowledge, internalising it, and then disseminating it.
Barry believes (like Peter Carey) that no two people read a book the same way. Some tell him that they have found A THINKING REED hilarious, and some have found it "anguish from beginning to end."
Barry was never exactly sure who the target of his book was - not sure that the primary audience wasn't himself. He thinks he was too political to be an intellectual, and too intellectual to be accepted as a politician.
His talk ended with an affirmation that he is after all a political person, and demonstrated why he is still a national living treasure.
I should explain that there are 2 sessions happening simultaneously throughout each day, and what I am describing here are the sessions that I attended.
Session 1- In Conversation, Peter Carey with Matthew Condon
The focus of this conversation was really on Peter Carey's latest novel HIS ILLEGAL SELF. Condon began by reading the first paragraph of a complimentary New York Times Review (which I have not been able to find - it certainly wasn't this one)
Carey admitted that some of the novel is based on his own experiences of living on a commune in Queensland 30 years ago.
This is the first of his novels with American characters and that worried him at first. Eventually in the process of writing, he forgot to worry.
Carey believes that readers plug their own imagination into a book, and experience things that the writer never envisaged. He says the glory of writing fiction is to enter worlds you did not know. Writers are magicians - we don't always know where things have come from. The reader's disappointment may be the author's moment of blinding triumph. (referring to the ending of OSCAR & LUCINDA)
Other sites to look at
- Blog posting over on Matilda
- Sydney Morning Herald review
- On The Age
- Katharine England's review
- Deborah Bogle's review
- Random House Promo of HIS ILLEGAL SELF
Graham Tulloch is professor of English at Flinders University and a specialist on Sir Walter Scott, James Hogg and Robert Louis Stevenson. In the 19th century, Graham's specialist area, Scottish writing had its own voice, which included dialect and dialogue, and references to Scottish history.
Denise Mina told us that crime writing is enormous in Scotland with many female writers.
James Meek said that Scottish writing in recent decades has been characterised by wave after wave of new writers who have re-defined the genres.
Session 3 - Book Launch - THE DRESSMAKER'S DAUGHTER by Kate Llewellyn
See News Review
Kate Llewellyn's #19 book, a memoir, but not a conventional success story, rather an illustration of an uneven movement through life, full of arresting images. Tumby Bay girl, poet, one woman's story, in many ways the story of many South Australian women.
Session 4 - Meet the author: Barry Jones
The Hon. Dr Barry Jones is a writer, broadcaster and former Labor member of both the State and Federal parliaments. He was Australia’s longest serving Science Minister (1983–90) and served as National President of the Australian Labor Party from 1992 to 2000 and again in 2005– 06. He is a Vice Chancellor’s Fellow at Melbourne University and serves on six medical research boards. His biography A Thinking Reed was published in 2006.
As always Barry was entertaining. National Living Treasure, ex-quiz champion, ex-president of the Australian Labor Party, Barry believes his politics came from his childhood in post-depression Australia. Writing his autobiography A THINKING REED was most difficult and most painful. He strongly believes in the importance of seeking knowledge, internalising it, and then disseminating it.
Barry believes (like Peter Carey) that no two people read a book the same way. Some tell him that they have found A THINKING REED hilarious, and some have found it "anguish from beginning to end."
Barry was never exactly sure who the target of his book was - not sure that the primary audience wasn't himself. He thinks he was too political to be an intellectual, and too intellectual to be accepted as a politician.
His talk ended with an affirmation that he is after all a political person, and demonstrated why he is still a national living treasure.
Adelaide Writers' Week, Day 2, part 1
First of all, purchases & freebies.
I got on the bus only to find I had left my current reading (FAN MAIL by P.D. Martin) at home, so had to resort to the book tent on arrival. There I bought A MAN'S GOT TO HAVE A HOBBY by William McInnes. In her review my friend Sunnie described it as a "feel-good" book, and 45 pages in, I can affirm that. It's sub-title is Long summers with my dad and it is a collection of anecdotes from William's childhood about his family and his father in particular. I grew up in a country town and can easily visualise the incidents he describes. No wonder it has been a hit. It's a cross between Nino Culotta's THEY'RE A WEIRD MOB, and Alan Marshall's I CAN JUMP PUDDLES, and soemthing that is quite uniquely William McInnes. Give it to your Dad for his next birthday, borrow it from your library, or, best of all, read it yourself.
The freeby that attended my purchase of A MAN'S GOT TO HAVE A HOBBY was two-fold. First of all book bag (hessian with shoulder straps to put my purchase in), and then a copy of TALES FROM THE LOWLANDS, edited by Joed Elich and Malou Nozeman, an anthology of Dutch Writers who have appeared at Adelaide Writers Week 1988-2008. It contains 11 stories selected by the Dirk Hartog Foundation, and distributed free due to the "generous support of the Dutch embassy in Canberra." The cover appears to be a photo of the Australian Bight. The writers include Cees Nooteboom, Arnon Grunberg, Adriaan van Dis, Tessa de Loo, Margriet de Moor, Helga Ruebsamen, Lolo Houbein, Tim Krabbé, Moses Isegawa, Stefan Hertmans and Marcel Möring.
For those who don't know of the Dutch connection with Australia, Terra Australis was on the route of Dutch merchant ships on their way to the East Indies from the late 1500s. The idea was to come around the Cape of Good Hope, strike out to the east, and then carefully judge when to turn north. Sometimes they made a mistake, came too far east, went too far south, or simply managed to scrape along the coast of Western Australia. On their maps Terra Australis
Incognita, was a coastline being filled in, and became known as New Holland. When Dirk Hartog's ship was stranded on Houtmann's Abrolhos in 1616 he left behind, nailed to a tree, a pewter plate with an inscription.
South Australia's first encounter with the Dutch appears to have been explorer Pieter Nuyts, who came about 1500km too far east in search of Batavia, turning around about Streaky Bay. Dutch names serve as reminders on our coastline.
It is generally agreed that Gulliver's land of Lilliput is actually this area, that Jonathon Swift based his choice of location on Nuyts' map of 1627.
General observations
AWW takes place in 2 very large and open tents, with seats also outdoors under shady trees, and I estimate there was probably in excess of 3,000 people there today. The temperature was promised to be 34C and while we came home before it reached that, it was warm enough.
The audience today were really roughly the retired, ex-teachers, intellectuals, writers, readers, and a sprinkling of university students. Most people my age are now retired, so that is probably the category I am in, but some like me (still working) will have taken holidays to coincide with the week.
The mild-mannered jostling for seats in between sessions is amusing to watch, unless of course you are one of those looking for one. Once you have found one, you might, like me, you may find that the white plastic chairs do not allow for much overhang...
Article on opening day in Sydney Morning Herald.
Writer's Week News - Adelaide Advertiser
Awards
Short List for AWW awards
Award winners
I got on the bus only to find I had left my current reading (FAN MAIL by P.D. Martin) at home, so had to resort to the book tent on arrival. There I bought A MAN'S GOT TO HAVE A HOBBY by William McInnes. In her review my friend Sunnie described it as a "feel-good" book, and 45 pages in, I can affirm that. It's sub-title is Long summers with my dad and it is a collection of anecdotes from William's childhood about his family and his father in particular. I grew up in a country town and can easily visualise the incidents he describes. No wonder it has been a hit. It's a cross between Nino Culotta's THEY'RE A WEIRD MOB, and Alan Marshall's I CAN JUMP PUDDLES, and soemthing that is quite uniquely William McInnes. Give it to your Dad for his next birthday, borrow it from your library, or, best of all, read it yourself.
The freeby that attended my purchase of A MAN'S GOT TO HAVE A HOBBY was two-fold. First of all book bag (hessian with shoulder straps to put my purchase in), and then a copy of TALES FROM THE LOWLANDS, edited by Joed Elich and Malou Nozeman, an anthology of Dutch Writers who have appeared at Adelaide Writers Week 1988-2008. It contains 11 stories selected by the Dirk Hartog Foundation, and distributed free due to the "generous support of the Dutch embassy in Canberra." The cover appears to be a photo of the Australian Bight. The writers include Cees Nooteboom, Arnon Grunberg, Adriaan van Dis, Tessa de Loo, Margriet de Moor, Helga Ruebsamen, Lolo Houbein, Tim Krabbé, Moses Isegawa, Stefan Hertmans and Marcel Möring.
For those who don't know of the Dutch connection with Australia, Terra Australis was on the route of Dutch merchant ships on their way to the East Indies from the late 1500s. The idea was to come around the Cape of Good Hope, strike out to the east, and then carefully judge when to turn north. Sometimes they made a mistake, came too far east, went too far south, or simply managed to scrape along the coast of Western Australia. On their maps Terra Australis
Incognita, was a coastline being filled in, and became known as New Holland. When Dirk Hartog's ship was stranded on Houtmann's Abrolhos in 1616 he left behind, nailed to a tree, a pewter plate with an inscription.South Australia's first encounter with the Dutch appears to have been explorer Pieter Nuyts, who came about 1500km too far east in search of Batavia, turning around about Streaky Bay. Dutch names serve as reminders on our coastline.
It is generally agreed that Gulliver's land of Lilliput is actually this area, that Jonathon Swift based his choice of location on Nuyts' map of 1627.
General observations
AWW takes place in 2 very large and open tents, with seats also outdoors under shady trees, and I estimate there was probably in excess of 3,000 people there today. The temperature was promised to be 34C and while we came home before it reached that, it was warm enough.
The audience today were really roughly the retired, ex-teachers, intellectuals, writers, readers, and a sprinkling of university students. Most people my age are now retired, so that is probably the category I am in, but some like me (still working) will have taken holidays to coincide with the week.
The mild-mannered jostling for seats in between sessions is amusing to watch, unless of course you are one of those looking for one. Once you have found one, you might, like me, you may find that the white plastic chairs do not allow for much overhang...
Article on opening day in Sydney Morning Herald.
Writer's Week News - Adelaide Advertiser
Awards
Short List for AWW awards
Award winners
$15,000 Award for Children's Literature
Don't Call Me Ishmael (Michael Gerard Bauer, Omnibus)
$15,000 Award for Fiction
The Ballad of Desmond Kale (Roger McDonald, Vintage)
$10,000 Award for Innovation
Someone Else: Fictional Essays (John Hughes, Giramondo)
$15,000 Award for Nonfiction
Sunrise West (Jacob G Rosenberg, Brandl & Schlesinger)
$15,000 John Bray Poetry Award
Urban Myths: 210 Poems (John Tranter, UQP)
$10,000 Jill Blewett Playwright's Award for the Creative
Merger – art, life and the other thing (Duncan Graham)
$10,000 Award for an Unpublished Manuscript by a SA Emerging Writer
The Second Fouling Mark (Stephen Orr)
In addition, John Tranter won the South Australian Premier's Award for his poetry collection, Urban Myths: 210 Poems.
2 March 2008
Adelaide Writers' Week, Day 1
I attended 3 sessions today - would have been to 4 if one advertised session had happened, but more about that later.
Opening session: Brian Matthews
Professor Brian Matthews from Flinders University, delivered his 3rd session in as many decades, and opened the week with aplomb and humour. He had the audience in his hand as he told us of his first experience as a session "chair" in 1978 when he upstaged Professor Manning Clark by falling off the back of the stage, chair and all. On his 2nd appearance in 1988 he was part of a panel. It was 44 C outside and about 10 degrees hotter in the tent, when a huge fan grabbed his paper notes and blew them out into the gardens. His panel contribution did not go well. Today was his 3rd appearance and he amused us with cunning word pictures and made us feel glad that we'd come.
Session One: a non-event
According to the printed programme at 12 pm, immediately after the opening, there was to be a dedication to Colin Thiele, the Australian author that I mentioned in yesterday's blog. After Brian had finished talking, Writers' week chair Richard Hosking announced that the next session would not be for another hour. At very least I had expected that someone would talk about Thiele's contribution to education, children's literature, reminding us all of his Barossa Deutsch heritage. Very strange. Didn't they remember to get someone to do this?
Session Two: William McInnes
This panel session addressed the issue of what makes crime fiction such a popular genre. All writers seemed to think that the diversity within the genre, in terms of a remarkable number of sub-genres was something to do with it. Cook said he didn't really think of himself as writing crime or mystery fiction although all his stories have an element of mystery within them He likened what happens in his novels to the peeling of an onion. Corris revealed that while his Cliff Hardy series have accounted for his success, he originally wanted to write historical fiction, but just couldn't get off the ground. He thought the question today was how long crime fiction will be popular. Mina was engaging, saying that mostly her stories were based on tales she had heard, and that therefore what keeps crime fiction going is that it reflects what happens in real life.
I've read very little Corris, but he is now up to #34 in the Cliff Hardy series. Check the list at Aust Crime Fiction. UNDERTOW was short listed for the Ned Kelly Award for best fiction in 2007. In 1999 he was awarded a Life Time achievement (Ned Kelly) award by the Crime Writers Association of Australia.
I have read THE CHATHAM SCHOOL HOUSE AFFAIR, THE INTERROGATION (4.6), RED LEAVES (4.8), and THE MURMUR OF STONES (4.7) by Thomas H. Cook and can thoroughly recommend each.
I must confess it is a long time since I have read anything by Denise Mina, although I currently have DECEPTION (aka SANCTUM) out from the library. Her website is at http://www.denisemina.com In 2007 THE DEAD HOUR was an Edgar Award nominee.
Opening session: Brian Matthews
Professor Brian Matthews from Flinders University, delivered his 3rd session in as many decades, and opened the week with aplomb and humour. He had the audience in his hand as he told us of his first experience as a session "chair" in 1978 when he upstaged Professor Manning Clark by falling off the back of the stage, chair and all. On his 2nd appearance in 1988 he was part of a panel. It was 44 C outside and about 10 degrees hotter in the tent, when a huge fan grabbed his paper notes and blew them out into the gardens. His panel contribution did not go well. Today was his 3rd appearance and he amused us with cunning word pictures and made us feel glad that we'd come.
Session One: a non-event
According to the printed programme at 12 pm, immediately after the opening, there was to be a dedication to Colin Thiele, the Australian author that I mentioned in yesterday's blog. After Brian had finished talking, Writers' week chair Richard Hosking announced that the next session would not be for another hour. At very least I had expected that someone would talk about Thiele's contribution to education, children's literature, reminding us all of his Barossa Deutsch heritage. Very strange. Didn't they remember to get someone to do this?
Session Two: William McInnesWilliam McInnes is one of Australia’s most popular stage and screen actors, and in 2005 published his memoir A Man’s Got to Have a Hobby. He was named the Australian Newcomer of the Year (debut writer) 2006 for A Man’s Got to Have a Hobby at the Australian Book Industry Awards. His roles in Sea Change and Blue Heelers have made him a household name, and in 2005 he received critical acclaim for his leading role in the film Look Both Ways, written and directed by his wife Sarah Watt.
William has been nominated for numerous stage and screen awards, and has won a Variety Club Drama Award in 1997 and two Logie awards for Most Outstanding Actor in 2000 and 2004. William grew up in Queensland, studied acting in Perth, and now lives in Melbourne with Sarah Watt and their two children. He plays cricket on the weekend and is a cricket fan(atic). His first novel, Cricket Kings, was released in 2006, and he is now working on his third book.
Until this session I had not given McInnes' s writings serious thought. Now I think I have seriously misjudged him. He is an entertaining speaker and I'm sure he didn't just read us the best bits from his books. He has an occasional blog at http://williamwatch.blogspot.com/
Session Three: Sunday Crime:
Thomas H. Cook, Peter Corris, and Denise Mina.
This panel session addressed the issue of what makes crime fiction such a popular genre. All writers seemed to think that the diversity within the genre, in terms of a remarkable number of sub-genres was something to do with it. Cook said he didn't really think of himself as writing crime or mystery fiction although all his stories have an element of mystery within them He likened what happens in his novels to the peeling of an onion. Corris revealed that while his Cliff Hardy series have accounted for his success, he originally wanted to write historical fiction, but just couldn't get off the ground. He thought the question today was how long crime fiction will be popular. Mina was engaging, saying that mostly her stories were based on tales she had heard, and that therefore what keeps crime fiction going is that it reflects what happens in real life.I've read very little Corris, but he is now up to #34 in the Cliff Hardy series. Check the list at Aust Crime Fiction. UNDERTOW was short listed for the Ned Kelly Award for best fiction in 2007. In 1999 he was awarded a Life Time achievement (Ned Kelly) award by the Crime Writers Association of Australia.
I have read THE CHATHAM SCHOOL HOUSE AFFAIR, THE INTERROGATION (4.6), RED LEAVES (4.8), and THE MURMUR OF STONES (4.7) by Thomas H. Cook and can thoroughly recommend each.
I must confess it is a long time since I have read anything by Denise Mina, although I currently have DECEPTION (aka SANCTUM) out from the library. Her website is at http://www.denisemina.com In 2007 THE DEAD HOUR was an Edgar Award nominee.
Australian Crime Fiction Snapshot starts Monday 3 March
Karen Chisholm (of the Aust Crime Fiction weblog), Damien Gay (of Crime DownUnder) and Perry Middlemiss (of Matilda) have been collaborating to produce a snapshot of Australian crime fiction.
Over the past couple of months these three have conducted a number of small, five-question interviews with a wide variety of Australian crime fiction writers and will begin publishing them across the three weblogs, starting Monday March 3, 2008.
If you are at all interested in the current state of Australian crime fiction, you'll find this series very entertaining and, hopefully, illuminating. The list apparently includes Shane Maloney, Peter Temple, Kerry Greenwood, Lucy Sussex and a whole host of others.
1 March 2008
THE SPELLMAN FILES, Lisa Lutz
Think of one of the oddest families you know, and I bet it comes nowhere near the Spellmans. 28 year old Izzy Spellman works for her parents, private investigators, and has done since she was 12. Spellman Investigations specialise in surveillance.
Of their three children Isabel (Izzy) has been without doubt the most trouble, a rebel almost since birth, and a constant subject of interrogation and even surveillance herself. Izzy's history of defiance contrasts with the apparent perfection of her older brother David, but he has managed to break away, leave home, and leads an independent life as a lawyer. By contrast Izzy's younger sister Rae began her first surveillance training before she could read, and is, at 12, in real danger of going the same way as Izzy.
Life in the Spellman household is a constant war, with one battle after another between Izzy and her parents, Izzy and Rae, including also skirmishes with Uncle Ray who lives with them. Izzy's life is under constant inspection by her parents and she would like nothing more than to leave home, on her own terms.
This book is lightly connected to crime fiction. Investigations are recounted, but it won't satisfy the serious genre devotee. Some have called it chick-lit, and there are elements of humour, just not really what I like to read. The best part was the investigation that takes centre stage at about page 200 (of a 350 page book), but that was almost too late for me.
For me there was just too much back-story, too much Spellman family history. I thought Lisa Lutz's previous experience as a screenplay writer was well used too. Some bits of the book are presented as a play script, but it was not a device that endeared me to it.
There is some more detail in the progress report I blogged about 5 days ago. Find out there about the awards this book has already won. Just because it wasn't my cuppa, that doesn't mean that you may not enjoy it as much as others, including Lauren Weisberger, have. I think it is just that I like my crime fiction more straight-laced or is it straight-faced? I did find the odd thing to smile about though.
My rating 4.0
Talking Books
Once in a while my sister in law and I run a book stall at a "car boot sale" at her church. The church asks for a donation and we put up a couple of card tables and peddle books that we've recently read and are just taking up room on our shelves.
The books are sold for ridiculously low prices like $4 for the larger format or even hard backs, and $2 for the small paperback size. The books are all in excellent condition because invariably only she and I have handled them. We have probably about 150 books on our stall, all crime fiction, and today we sold about 40 in 4 hours. So we don't make our fortune, but we tell people that we are selling them to "finance our habit".
What I love about doing this in particular, is not just that it gives Claire and I a chance to catch up, but that I get to talk about books with the "customers". And a knowledgeable lot they are too. So the conversations today were about Kathy Reichs, Alexander McCall-Smith, Ruth Rendell, Peter Robinson, Reginald Hill, Donna Leon, Thomas H. Cook, and offerings on TV like Lewis, Unit One, and Dalziel & Pascoe. Time just flies. Spent doing something I love. Maybe I should work in a book shop, but I'd be hopeless at selling anything but crime fiction.
The other day when I was in a book shop buying my father a book for his birthday, I noticed the woman in the queue ahead of me was buying a crime fiction title. Can't think what it was now, perhaps the latest Denise Mina, but I startled her by asking her if she was going to Adelaide Writer's Week which of course starts tomorrow. I pointed her to the printed timetable on the counter, but I don't think she really understood the great opportunity it is, particularly since most of the events are free.
Anyway, I am really looking forward to spending the next 6 days at AWW, listening to people like Denise Mina, Thomas H. Cook, Gabrielle Lord, Marshall Browne, Peter Corris, Ian McEwan, Geraldine Brooks and Garry Disher. Here's a complete list of who is coming.
The week starts tomorrow with a dedication to Colin Thiele, the South Australian educator, author, poet who wrote BLUE FIN and STORM BOY, among other books, and immortalised Mr. Percival for a whole generation of Australian kids.
I am going to try to write every day about the sessions I go to, but we'll see.
If you are going, look for me.
The photo below gives you an inkling of what I look like. Come up to me - I'll be thrilled if you've read my blog.
Or ask me about oz_mystery_readers too.
The books are sold for ridiculously low prices like $4 for the larger format or even hard backs, and $2 for the small paperback size. The books are all in excellent condition because invariably only she and I have handled them. We have probably about 150 books on our stall, all crime fiction, and today we sold about 40 in 4 hours. So we don't make our fortune, but we tell people that we are selling them to "finance our habit".
What I love about doing this in particular, is not just that it gives Claire and I a chance to catch up, but that I get to talk about books with the "customers". And a knowledgeable lot they are too. So the conversations today were about Kathy Reichs, Alexander McCall-Smith, Ruth Rendell, Peter Robinson, Reginald Hill, Donna Leon, Thomas H. Cook, and offerings on TV like Lewis, Unit One, and Dalziel & Pascoe. Time just flies. Spent doing something I love. Maybe I should work in a book shop, but I'd be hopeless at selling anything but crime fiction.
The other day when I was in a book shop buying my father a book for his birthday, I noticed the woman in the queue ahead of me was buying a crime fiction title. Can't think what it was now, perhaps the latest Denise Mina, but I startled her by asking her if she was going to Adelaide Writer's Week which of course starts tomorrow. I pointed her to the printed timetable on the counter, but I don't think she really understood the great opportunity it is, particularly since most of the events are free.
Anyway, I am really looking forward to spending the next 6 days at AWW, listening to people like Denise Mina, Thomas H. Cook, Gabrielle Lord, Marshall Browne, Peter Corris, Ian McEwan, Geraldine Brooks and Garry Disher. Here's a complete list of who is coming.
The week starts tomorrow with a dedication to Colin Thiele, the South Australian educator, author, poet who wrote BLUE FIN and STORM BOY, among other books, and immortalised Mr. Percival for a whole generation of Australian kids.
I am going to try to write every day about the sessions I go to, but we'll see.
If you are going, look for me.
The photo below gives you an inkling of what I look like. Come up to me - I'll be thrilled if you've read my blog.
Or ask me about oz_mystery_readers too.
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