 Celebrating the classics
Article by: Janette Dalgliesh
Crime fiction is a relatively new genre, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have some glorious old titles. And because good crime fiction embeds us powerfully in the time and location of the story, those classics can give us a window into the author’s world, second to none.
I recently reread Dorothy L. Sayers’ wonderful Murder Must Advertise and it got me thinking. Sayers sweeps us into a world she knew well—the advertising industry in late 1930s London. It’s a long-gone world of newspaper ads and manual typesetting, where copywriters and artists quarrel over space on the page; where communications rely on freckle-faced messenger boys, and nourishment comes from the matronly charlady with the tea and cream cakes; where everybody is known as Mr— or Miss— and copywriters quote poetry expecting their audience to recognise it.
Raymond Chandler, by contrast, paints a dark picture of the America in which his characters roam: an urban jungle full of lethal men and femmes fatale, set against a backdrop of booze and sex and illicit highs. His language evokes more than simply time and place; it evokes a hard-edged and highly subjective view of life as lived by his narrator. That view has gone on, especially through film noir, to influence our view of mid-twentieth-century America.
And of course, Arthur Conan Doyle gave us characters completely immersed in Victorian England, replete with details of everyday life, in his classic Sherlock Holmes stories.
Time for a change?
But let’s face it, material written over a hundred years ago, or even fifty years ago, is bound to contain references that a new generation of readers may find incomprehensible.
Shakespeare has been paraphrased and adapted over and over, to make his narratives accessible to a wider audience. Is there now an argument for tweaking these classic stories?
Besides the obscure references, crime fiction from the past often contains material that can make us deeply uncomfortable.
Sayers’ early works include minor characters who use the N-word as a normal expression in everyday conversation—and nobody bats an eye.
Chandler’s heart-boiled detective Philip Marlowe is unremittingly homophobic, anti-Semitic and misogynistic. He frequently expresses a kind of shrugging acceptance of men’s violence towards women; even implies that the women often deserve it.
Holmes’ narrator, Dr Watson, is embedded in the militaristic colonial attitudes of his day, and doesn’t begin to question the rigid gender and class structures in which he lives.
Do I mind being made uncomfortable? In that red-hot moment, when the shock of the N-word or the casual acceptance of violence boots me out of the narrative—well, yes.
Yes I do.
Or maybe not…
But then I’m reminded, by that very discomfort, of how much our world has changed. We no longer see India as a rightful possession of Britain. We don’t nod in agreement when a man says he can see why a girl’s boyfriend would want to slap her. And most of us don’t use the N-word in casual conversation.
 With reprints of old works by authors long dead, the mechanics of cleaning up and modernising these classics would be easy. We’ve seen it done often enough in children’s literature, for reasons of language shifts, clarity and—yes—political correctness. But we’re not talking about impressionable three-year-old readers here. We’re talking about adults.
So no, not for me, thanks. I will fiercely defend my right to read or see or hear a work in as close as possible a form to the one its creator originally intended.
I don’t want my Michelangelo sculptures covered up with fig leaves; I don’t want my Raphael women to go on the airbrush diet. And I don’t want an editor or publisher to muck around with Doyle, Sayers or Chandler. I want to see their worlds the way they did, raw and juicy; and if that means I have to squirm at the occasional racist or sexist remark, I’ll put up with it.
What do you think?
Since publishers have the ability and the opportunity to clean up the language, cleanup the social agenda and politics of the protagonists, make the narrative clearer—should they? Or should they leave well alone, even if it means we have to look up the meaning of an obscure reference, or blush at our heroes’ antiquated attitudes?
 Review
Side Jobs
Stories From The Dresden Files
By Jim Butcher
Published by Orbit
ISBN – 978 1 84149 920 8
Paperback, 403 pages.
Reviewed by: Mandy Wrangles
Harry Dresden, Chicago’s first (and only) Wizard PI is almost too awesome. Seriously, this character is a rare gem. Not only is he is a self-deprecating hero, the protector of supernaturally-blinkered mortals of the city as well as the protector of the supernatural community itself (well, the good guys, anyway…), the wielder of some very cool, magical weaponry, wears a long leather duster and has a giant dog for a side-kick – but he’s ridiculously funny. In fact, his creator, Jim Butcher, had me laughing out loud in more than one story of this fantastical anthology of short stories.
Side Jobs is a collection of eight short stories and a novella, each of them taking place between the thirteen (so far) Dresden Files novels. Jim Butcher introduces each story with his trademark humour, and it’s easy to note that much of Dresden’s personality is similar to his creator. The first story in the collection, ‘A Restoration of Faith’, was, in fact written a couple of years before the first novel, originally a creative writing class assignment. Butcher notes: “Read this story for what it is – an anxious beginner’s first effort, meant to be simple, straightforward fun.” And that’s exactly what it is – fun, lots and lots of fun (honestly, if you can’t get a giggle out of a smart-arsed, sex-starved spirit imprisoned in a skull kept in the basement – you have no sense of humour).
‘It’s My Birthday Too’ was first published in the collection ‘Many Bloody Returns’, edited by the queen of paranormal crime – Charlaine Harris. This one tells the story of Dresden trying to surprise his half-brother Thomas for his birthday. Instead of a warm and fuzzy family get together, Harry finds himself in an almost-deserted shopping centre with a crazed vampire on the loose. Harry’s half-brother, who also happens to be a good vampire (mostly) is helping out a friend’s role-playing group. But it’s a bit more complicated than that. Thomas might be a heterosexual blood-sucker/succubi, but he gets through his days camouflaged as a gay hairdresser. So in this story, he’s a straight vampire, who, by day pretends to be a gay hairdresser, at a role playing night pretending to be a straight vampire. Get it? Another high point of this story was Dresden’s interaction with the fairy cobblers who have a weakness for designer stilettos. Hilarious.
‘Something Borrowed’ first appeared in the anthology ‘My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding’, edited by P.N. Elrod. In this one, Harry is forced to deal with the evil Jenny Greenteeth. “Yes,her teeth are green. Like steamed spinach,” as Bob the skull notes. She also happens to be much like a mermaid with legs and not quite so cuddly.
But the stand out story in this collection was ‘Herot’, which was written especially for the follow up collection ‘My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon’, again edited by P.N. Elrod. This time around, Harry does battle with a hideously horny creature direct from Norse mythology, with a penchant for boutique mead and virgins.
Side Jobs is an anthology for hardcore Harry Dresden fans. With each story being slotted between novels, there’s spoiler upon spoiler for those who haven’t yet read the series. In particular, the final novella, ‘Aftermath’, will ruin the grand finale of ‘Changes’, the twelfth Dresden Files book. If you love your crime mixed with the supernatural, and a good dose of sarcastic humour, I’d recommend getting stuck into the novels first – and then returning to this unique collection for that extra little bit of Dresden magic.
by Jamie Marriage
Sultry, seductive and deadly, the Femme Fatale is a classic character from any medium you care to name.
She lives a life of danger and mystery, usually causing catastrophe to good guy and villain alike. She sends the good to their doom and from the bad she steals the spoils.
But maybe that’s the kind of girl you want in your life. Who wants a dull relationship after all?
If so, here are a few tips to help you on your way to an exciting, but probably short, relationship with a Femme Fatale.
Attracting a Femme Fatale:
Certain kinds of people are more likely to attract a Femme Fatale than others; for what they want even more than riches is a challenge. For this they have a habit of seducing dangerous and cunning characters like the hero, the spy, or the detective.
With what seems like a click of their fingers the Femme Fatale will trap otherwise careful and courageous characters in her web and make them suffer and take the fall when everything goes south. But if you are smart as well as in the right job at the right time you might come out the victor.
Living with a Femme Fatale:
Even more difficult than attracting your lady of mischief is keeping her; she will always be looking out for number one and, as a result, she might get you into trouble.
Keep an eye out for incriminating evidence planted around your house and place of work; she may love you, but she may have planned that you are better off out of the way.
For the same reason be on your guard for “surprises” that she may have planned. That romantic outing to the country may seem like a nice idea at the time but she may have left something ticking in the picnic basket she sends you to fetch.
 Ending your relationship with a Femme Fatale:
So you have gone this far; well done. Not many can boast that they have been with a Femme Fatale long enough to want to end the relationship on their own terms.
Ending this relationship may take more cunning than you have used up to this point. You have evaded the planted evidence, the assassination attempts and other heroes or villains she has brought in to confuse things, but now it’s time to take things up a notch.
Play her own tricks back on her. She’s a dangerous woman; she is bound to have a few skeletons in her closet that you can expose to make things difficult for her. Hopefully, under enough pressure she will just leave diplomatically. If not you will need to work for your freedom.
Maybe she will leave if a bigger score comes to light; read the newspaper aloud in sections talking about wealthy businessmen or successful crime fighters. A bigger challenge may be all she needs .
If all else fails expose her dastardly crimes to the world and the law will deal with your messy breakup for you. She may not be happy with the result but at least you have gotten out of the relationship alive.
The Femme Fatale: dangerous, beautiful and as exciting a partner as you will ever have. Just make sure she isn’t your last.
MUSIC: Elvis Presley - Mean Woman Blues
Space - Female of the Species
Working Stiff by Rachel Caine
ISBN: 978-0451464132
Review by: Cecilia Jansink
Every now and then; you stumble across a novel that simply blows you away. So much so that you want to shout about its existence from the nearest rooftop. Rachel Caine’s (author of The Morganville Vampires and Weather Warden Series’) latest offering “Working Stiff” is one of those rare finds. Packed full of corporate espionage, Government black ops, extreme science, a sprinkling of love and lust and a terrifying new zombie twist, Working Stiff will have your heart racing at a million miles an hour.
Ex- Solider Bryn Davis knows that working in a Mortuary isn’t the most glamorous career choice, but after the madness of war she’s looking forward to a serene change. Besides, Fairview has a good reputation and her Boss seems nice – even if he does have a reputation for going through Funeral Directors.
But Bryn’s life is thrown into turmoil when she discovers her Boss is in fact running a lucrative and highly illegal side business – resurrecting the dead with a top secret drug. Now, finding herself at the mercy of drug company Pharmadene, Bryn must race against the clock to discover the mole within the company and save her own “life”. Only problem is Pharmadene treats death as the ultimate employee loyalty program – and the last thing Bryn wants is to end up as a real “working stiff”.
Working Stiff is non-stop action right from the very first page. In fact, the biggest problem you will face is putting it down. And if you do, you’ll feel guilty for leaving Bryn perched precariously on one cliff top or another.
In true Caine style, Bryn is one heck of a strong leading force, yet still retains that deep emotional draw that makes her feel completely real to the reader. We are also treated to an impressive ensemble of secondary characters and of course, plenty of double-crossing and hidden agendas to keep you guessing. The plot feels as fresh as a summer storm and will be a sure-fire hit with lovers of both the paranormal element and of crime thrillers. Working Stiff is an amazing first offering in the brand new “Revivalist “series, and if the rest are as breathtaking as this – it will be one nail-biting ride.
Bad Boy by Peter Robinson
Published by Hodder & Stoughton
Trade Paperback, 405 pages
ISBN: 978 0 340 83696 5
Reviewed by: Gaile Hughes
Bad Boy, by the inimitable British author Peter Robinson, is another great sojourn into the adventures and misadventures of Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks. If you like your crime ‘British’ and haven’t read Robinson’s books this is the perfect introduction for you.
Our introspective Chief Inspector is on leave in the US after another failed relationship and the traumas of his last case. His partner and ex-lover DI Annie Cabbot is left holding the fort.
A former neighbour of Banks, Juliet Doyle arrives at Eastvale Police Station in an agitated state seeking his help. Annie persuades her to explain her dilemma. Juliet confides that her daughter Erin arrived home unexpectantly a few days ago. When cleaning her daughter’s room she discovered a hidden loaded gun.
Knowing that, the possession of which carries a mandatory five year sentence, a conflicted Annie reports this, and an armed response team swoops into the quiet court and things go drastically wrong.
Annie is then thrown in the deep end, when she discovers that Banks’ daughter Tracey shares a house with Erin in Leeds. Tracey, now known as Francesca has made more changes to her life than just her name. She has disappeared with Erin’s boyfriend Jaff, who is charming, handsome, cashed up and Tracey finds him irresistible. He is also a bad boy and the possible owner of the gun.
Annie is faced with conflicting loyalties as things spiral quickly out of control. Banks returns from his holiday to find his daughter and Annie facing very different life threatening situations. He and Annie are plunged into the most dangerous and terrifying case that intertwines their personal lives and the professional careers as never before.
Although Banks is absent for the first half, it doesn’t distract the reader from the story. So adept is Robinson in his narrative that the reader is unaware. The few glimpses of Banks, has him at his complicated best, always questioning, and never truly finding happiness. A nice offset to Banks’ often introspective and dour character are his musical tastes. This will often send readers in search of the music so beloved by Banks.
Set in the picturesque and sometimes brooding rugged Yorkshire Dales, the locale is a perfect foil for Robinson’s character DCI Banks. The story is the nineteenth featuring Banks and is a well-crafted thriller with as many twists and turns as the Yorkshire countryside. It is powerful, atmospheric with a great sense of pace. As a stand-alone the reader would find Robinson’s Bad Boy an enthralling novel.
The series has recently been dramatized for television under the title DCI Banks, and stars Stephen Tompkinson as Banks.
 Byron Bay Writers Festival
Article by: Janette Dalgliesh
The folks at Byron Bay really know how to throw a writers’ festival—relaxed, sunny, laid-back and all about connecting. This was my first time, and I think I’ll become a regular.
The Festival comprises a core three-day weekend, preceded by more extras than you could poke a stick at: a week full of amazing workshops, a day-long program for local high schools, a film premiere with Q & A, literary food events and a youth day. There is even a sculpture competition, with some fabulous pieces—my favourite was this gorgeous frock made entirely of book pages. Crinkly to wear, but you’d never be bored!
You can see the program for yourself, and you’d have to agree it’s pretty darned impressive for a town with a population of only 9,000. Attendees drive down from Brisbane and up from Sydney; and those of us from further afield fly in from all over the country and all over the world.
My Festival experience lasted a week, and I loved every minute!
I manage three fabulous workshops in the week before the Festival: Kim Falconer’s Bad Boys: Writing Dark Heroes to Die For; Jane Meredith’s The Last Taboo: Writing from the Sacred Realms; and the extraordinary Fiction Masterclass with MJ Hyland.
And then the fun really began on Friday.
The core Festival takes place in a huge area of open ground next door to the Arts and Industrial estate. Marquees of various size are dotted between the usual supply of food tents and discreetly placed portaloo bays. In addition to the various venues, there is a tiny artists’ market with about eight superb stalls, and I believe this may expand in future years.
Attendees can buy one-day passes or cough up for the whole three days—and that gives you access to absolutely everything on site. There are panel discussions, “in conversation” sessions, debates and interviews; and after each session the writers involved make themselves available at the special book-signing tent.
Some attendees plan their day to the second, poring over their program with highlighter at the ready, making a beeline to each session with furrowed brow and determined stride. I belong more to the “I wonder what’s on now?” camp, meandering all over the paddock looking for the next juicy titbits to gobble up.
With so much on offer, it’s inevitable that I missed far more than I experienced. Happily, the wonderful team at the Festival blog provided reports on many of the sessions I missed, including some wonderful encounters with crime writers Liz Porter and Michael Robotham. And ABC North Coast radio was on-site, recording many sessions which can be heard on their website.
My favourite highlights gave me a grab-bag of fabulous memories:
- Learning about the skill of pitching, by watching six authors practice their powers of persuasion in front of a panel of publishers—local writer and broadcaster Annette Malfording’s technique was masterful!
- Falling in love with Stephanie Dowrick’s eloquence on the subject of creativity, her own writing journey and the Divine feminine
- Watching Melbourne activist writer Benjamin Solah give it his all, with a fiery recitation of his spoken word piece Rhyme for Refugees at a poetry tent open reading
But in amongst this cornucopia of word-related abundance, what I’ll remember best is the sense of connection. This Festival is more than simply a collection of brilliant panels and sessions and workshops; it’s a community. A fairground full of people who love words—whether those words are used in ferocious political debate, to make us laugh, to explore strange universes, to sing, or to inspire our love of sensuous food—we came together to celebrate in a giant outdoor weeklong party.
I met up with writer, editor and publisher friends whom I know mainly online—that was to be expected, and was an unregretted reason for missing some fabulous sessions.
But here’s why I really love Festivals like Byron. I don’t suppose for a moment that the big urban Festivals like Melbourne and Sydney—great as they are—would afford me the opportunity to chat animation with Tim Ferguson, the benefits of shea butter with Traci Harding or a cure for jetlag with MJ Hyland.
In the end, it’s all about the people. That’s why it’s MY kind of Festival.
 Body of Proof
Article by: Belinda Hamilton
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones. Oh, sorry, this one is in fact NOT Bones. It has so many things similar that you might be mistaken for the first 5 minutes of each program, but Body of Proof is mostly standalone. As my hubby says; ‘Same crap; different smell.’
IMDB’s synopsis of the first series, written by KGF Vissers reads… “Having lost her medical license in the aftermath of a family tragedy, Megan Hunt M.D. joined the medical examiners and proved herself a forensic genius. Yet even diplomatic police partner Pete Dunlop can’t prevent her arrogant attitude and total disregard for any authority or social norm to cause grave aggravation all around. Still, as long as the perpetrators suffer most, the bulldozer approach pays off on the balance.” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1587669/fullcredits#cast
The program debuted on Aussie channel 7 on Monday the 8th of August 2011. I thought, ‘Hmm, here’s another corpse show. I wonder if it’ll be your standard issue, find the dead body, solve the case with screwed up forensics and autopsies that just ‘happen’ to find the cause of death. Every-Single- Episode.’ Guess what…? Uh huh, it is.
Let’s see, there’s an anti-social expert, a badge wielding handler, dead bodies, and a happy ending… well not for the bad guy, but you get the idea.
The differences; our anti-social expert is a medical examiner and knows little about anthropology, she works in a hospital and is on retainer with the regular police, not the Feds. She actually has done the family thing, but her ex-husband is a tosser and her kid is a brat. She USED to be a neurosurgeon but due to a couple of accidents, both on and off the operating table, she’s now dealing with the contents of stomachs and diaphragms of the deceased, rather than rooting around in living people’s skulls. This series is shot in and around Rhode Island, not Washington.
With all that being said, on the whole, I found the show to be enjoyably watchable. There were moments of humor and emotion. Onscreen chemistry should keep things interesting at least through the twelve episodes of season one. It is like the diet version of Bones, with less hard boiled forensics and the bodies, at least for the first two episodes were less decomposed looking.
An interesting fact is that Dana Delaney shares a similarity with her scalpel wielding character; being involved in a car accident and when she’s rubbing her hand on screen, it is usually because she is actually in pain. Not so nice for Dana and we wish her a full recovery, however it adds depth to the role.
 Cast for the Pilot and episode one “Letting go”
Megan Hunt (Medical examiner / ex-neurologist) – Dana Delany
Peter Dunlop (badge wielding handler) – Nicholas Bishop
Bud Morris (Head detective with a chip on his shoulder) – John Carroll Lynch
Samantha Baker (Partner of the shoulder chipped detective) – Sonja Sohn
Kate Murphy (Hospital big wig) – Jeri Ryan
Curtis Brumfield (Head of the ward Megan works in) – Windell Middlebrooks
Todd Flemming (Butt hole ex-husband) – Jeffrey Nordling
Lacey Flemming (Brat daughter) – Mary Mouser
If you watched Body of Proof, what did you think?
I’m working on Tara Sharp 3 at the moment and thought I’d give you a little taster …
‘You had a bad dream about me dying covered in blank sticky notes?’ I asked.
Mr Hara nodded.
I gave him a more thorough appraisal. ‘You been mainlining saki or something?’
So many things are happening in the story and new characters are emerging. Tara is currently in Brisbane and has so far met a bikie, a publicist, a hip hop star and medium. Baddies abound and as usual she’s got herself in the middle of some serious shite. Then, of course, there is Edouardo – does she finally get to …
Muwahahaha!
 Interviewed by: Cecilia Jansink
Rowena Cory Daniells is well known to many avid fantasy readers. Her resume is impressive, boasting two successful trilogies under her belt and a third due for a 2012 release and her short stories have been published in numerous magazines. Now she has teamed up with independent publisher Clan Destine Press, to bring us her first paranormal crime offering; The Price of Fame under the pseudonym R C Daniells. Set in Melbourne and centering around the rock “n” roll bizz, The Price of Fame is due for release in March 2012. Rowena kindly took the time out from her busy schedule to answer some questions about this exciting new venture.
The blurb:
Where will Antonia’s search for truth lead and who will suffer?
When film and TV graduate, Antonia Carlyle sets out to make a documentary about eighties band, ‘The Tough
Romantics’, she uncovers new facts surrounding the death of singer song-writer, Genevieve. This leads her to suspect that the man arrested for her murder was not the killer.
One of the three surviving band members believes it is time to settle old ghosts but the other two have gone on to forge solo careers and don’t want Antonia to rake up the past. One of them knows who the killer is; the other needs to hide their guilt.
A growing psychic link with the dead girl and the conviction that justice must be done, drives Antonia to face her own demons, uncover the past and confront the present.
Cecilia: Firstly congratulations on this exciting new step in your writing career. You mentioned on your blog that you have been working on The Price of Fame in various forms for the last 30 years. Why has this been a story you’ve felt so drawn to tell?
Rowena: Part of the original story set in the 1980s is based on the experiences of a friend who drove taxis. He was always trying to help the girls working the streets. He would drop by our house and talk about the things he’d seen. Of course I changed the names to protect the innocent (and not so innocent) and I amalgamated characters and heightened events for dramatic effect so I could create a story from what were unrelated random events.
I tell my students that writers tell lies to reveal truths. By fabricating part of the story, loosely based on his experiences, I felt I’d captured the truth of what he was experiencing. I felt it was a story worth telling because the problems of runaways, drugs and prostitution are as relevant today as they were then.
Cecilia: You’re well versed when it comes to writing for the fantasy genre with two trilogies already released (T’En and King Rolen’s Kin) and have your next trilogy The Outcast Chronicles hitting shelves next year. Did you find the process for writing crime a major change to that of fantasy?
 Rowena: Since this crime novel was amongst one of the first things I wrote, it feels entirely natural. I also wrote two far future SF books and in each of these resolving a mystery was central to the plot. I think the need to resolve mysteries is part of our need to make sense of the world. When we see a news report about a terrorist attack or a murder, we want to understand what would motivate someone to do this. How did it happen? How could it have been averted? And we look for closure.
It’s all about survival. The more we know, the better chance us and our loved ones have of surviving. That’s why the Zombie Apocalypse meme was so popular. (That, and you can shoot zombies without feeling guilty because they’re already dead).
Cecilia: Clan Destine Press is an independent publisher and the brainchild of Aussie crime author Lindy Cameron. Did you find the experience of working with an indie press differed from what you have previously experienced with the larger publishing houses?
Rowena: Since I was part of an Indy Press in the 1980s I’ve lived on both sides of the fence. Lindy is an award winning author in her own right and she is one of the founders of Sisters in Crime which runs SheKilda. It was a real buzz for me when she offered to publish Price of Fame.
My husband and I both have a background in graphic art and now that he’s retired he can concentrate on his book trailers and covers, R&D studios. We used to do covers and internal illustrations for children’s books in the 1980s. When Lindy accepted the book I suggested Daryl could do the cover. She loved the first thing he came up with and so did I.
If Clan Destine Press had been a traditional large publisher, they would have insisted on hiring an artist they knew to do the cover. Lindy was flexible and pleased with the result. Of course, it helps that Daryl and I have both worked professionally as cover artists.
Cecilia: You’ve penned The Price of Fame under the pseudonym R C Daniells. Is this to clearly define that this is a new take on the Rowena we already know?
Rowena: The slight shift in pen-name is so readers can tell that this is a different sort of book from the fantasy series. (Just in case the cover isn’t enough of a clue. LOL)
I don’t like being pinned down to one genre. After all, I read across different genres, so why shouldn’t I write in the genres that call me? I’ve had around thirty children’s books published in a range of genres for a range of ages. And my short stories they range from dark urban fantasy, through steam punk to sociological SF and horror. The funny thing is I hardly ever write a fantasy short story.
Cecilia: Authors writing across genres seems to be coming more and more common. Do you think this is a trend that will continue in the future?
Rowena: I think I just answered that question from my point of view. The publishing industry is in the throes of a major change. The way writers get their books out to readers is going to change. In the past a writer’s publisher would say we only want traditional fantasy from you. And the writer would have to write in that genre or not be published. (They could write in another genre under another name with another publisher, if they managed to juggle the time constraints).
Now, with e-books and Indy Press being so much easier than it was in the past, a writer with an established audience can write in several genres and reach readers. I think one thing publishers forget is that readers read across a range of genres. If they like what a writer writes in one genre, they’ll try their books in another genre. It’s a win-win situation for the writers and the readers.
Cecilia: How would you best sum up The Price of Fame to the reader?
Rowena: That’s cruel. It is so hard for writers to do this. Um…
This is a book about what people will do for fame and it’s a book about friendship and those lean years before you strike it big.
Cecilia: The Price of Fame is set in both the Melbourne of the 1980’s and present day and the crime at its core is very Rock “n” Roll centered. Did any of our Aussie rockers from this era give you inspiration for any of your characters?
Rowena: Actually, I lived in St Kilda. (I make a cameo appearance as the bookshop owner in a flashback sequence). My boyfriend and I lived upstairs behind the shop in an amazing old boarding house with huge ceilings and hardly any heating. Directly below us lived the members of a punk rock band. They would practice till all hours, fight like cats and dogs and generally make our lives miserable, as we had to get up for work. I never actually spoke to them when we passed in the foyer, but I used them as a leaping off point for the Tough Romantics, the rock band that features in Price of Fame.
Cecilia: By the books blurb your protagonist Antonia sounds feisty and a force to be reckoned with. Although the strong female protagonist is becoming more common in crime fiction, do you still feel that it’s harder for them to join the “big boys” club that dominated for so long?
Rowena: I must admit that when I read Asimov’s SF mysteries, I never noticed that the protagonist was male, same with Simon R Green’s Nightside series. They were just people and I was interested in the story. Having said that, I loved the early Laurell K Hamilton books primarily because Anita Blake was a feisty female protagonist. Conversely, I also love the ditzy heroine Janet Evanovich created in Stephanie Plum.
Is crime and mystery a bit of a boy’s club? In the US and the UK there’s certainly a feeling in fantasy that the genre is a bit of a boy’s club. I wasn’t aware of this because in Australia it is dominated by fantastic female writers. To bring the range of wonderful female fantasy authors to the notice of readers I’ve done a series of interviews on my blog.
Sisters in Crime was formed to ‘celebrate women’s crime writing on the page and screen and bring a collective critical eye to the field.’ (See their who and why page). So there must be a perception that women’s crime writing also needs some affirmative action.
Cecilia: You’ve previously said that you’ve been a fan of crime thrillers for years. Who are some of your strongest influences when it comes to setting justice to rights?
Rowena: I think I answered this question already. I read across so many genres. The genre I keep coming back to, speculative fiction is very flexible. You can have a mystery, it just happens to be set on a space station. I do like a book that brings a bit of the supernatural or humour to the mix.
Cecilia: You’re the co-founder of the Vision Writer’s Group with our very own Marianne and actively post tips for aspiring writers on the ROR blog. How important is the “right” critique group when it comes to following your dream to being published?
 Rowena: I’ve met so many wonderful people through writing. It’s a great community. The ROR writing group was formed my Marianne and myself back in 2001 to help us polish our writing skills at the book length level.
Each year or so we get together to critique our works-in-progress. We all read across a range of genres and write across a range of genres and ages. (Richard Harland describes his Eddon and Vail books as ‘science fiction meets thriller meets crime meets horror’. Marianne has won a Davitt for her Tara Sharp books and Tansy has written crime set in Hobart). With this broad background in books, the feedback can be very genre specific. I put Price of Fame through a ROR and the book benefited from my fellow RORees’ input.
When it comes down to it, writing is a solitary business. You sit there alone at your computer with your head full of characters and action, but you are essentially alone. Belonging to a writing group means you pool your knowledge, both writing craft and industry knowledge. With ROR we all have a Squee when one of us sells a book or wins an award.
Cecilia: Are you planning anymore forays into the para-crime field in the future and if so will any of the players from The Price of Fame be making another appearance?
Rowena: Ever since I finished Price of Fame I’ve had an idea for a sequel. It’s a matter of finding the time. I’m currently working on a new fantasy trilogy, which tends to eat up my writing time as each book is a minimum of 100,000 words and fantasy stories come in trilogies. Since I’m not a plotter, I’d have to write the next Antonia book to see where she took me.
Thank you for your time Rowena, and we here at Tara Sharp wish you huge success for The Price of Fame.
 The Shattering
By Karen Healey
Published by Allen&Unwin
Young Adult
Paperback, 320 pages.
ISBN: 978-1-74175-881-8
Reviewed by: Mandy Wrangles
The Shattering, by New Zealand author Karen Healey, (now living in Australia) is a great example of how crime and the supernatural world can collide in Young Adult fiction – and there’s not a vampire, werewolf or fairy in sight.
The Shattering is set in the small coastal holiday town of Summerton, where everything seems perfect. The weather is gorgeous, the scenery is stunning, and come summer holidays, there are all those out-of-town holiday makers to hook up with for a quick romance. But is there something more sinister going on? Why don’t any of the locals leave Summerton for good? And just why doesn’t it ever rain on New Year’s Eve?
The opening few chapters of The Shattering are brilliant. Keri – one of three main characters – might be able to plan for most incidents (like what to do if you break your arm) but nothing prepares her for finding her brother Joel’s body after he empties a loaded shotgun into his mouth. Keri’s voice, told in first person is gritty and true, the grieving process about as raw as it gets. She’s lost the only person in the world who really knew her, the only person she could spill every personal secret to. Now an only child, she also has to cope with grieving parents and the way her Maori culture deals with a death such as his.
Then, in the midst of her grief, Keri is approached by an old friend, who claims she knows what really happened to Joel. The narrative then slips to third person, from the point of view of two other characters, Janna and Sione, alternating with Keri’s first person. This works most of the time, though occasionally I felt the voices muddled with each other. Janna is the local rock-chick, a player in more ways than one. She and Keri might have been friends when they were small, but their differences have meant they drifted apart over the years. Keri wants to play rugby; Janna likes dressing up in short skirts, playing in her band, dreaming of universal stardom and enjoys the conquest of cute guys on holidays in Summerton. But they do have one thing in common – Janna’s brother also committed suicide a few years ago. Janna introduces Keri to Sione, a Samoan rich-boy who might have brains and snappy clothes, but missed out on the confidence gene. That went to his older brother – another suicide victim. Between the three teens, they decide there are too many coincidences to their brothers’ deaths, and set out to find who – or what – it was that actually killed them.
The Shattering lost me a little in the middle, particularly when it came to Janna and Sione’s chapters. For the first half of the book, it felt like a straight crime story, and when the supernatural elements did slowly began to appear, it was a bit out of left-field. However, after a chance to get resettled, this book really works most of the time and is well worth persevering with. The characters can be clichéd, but the introduction of their different cultures and the mythology that went along with them was intriguing. Healey’s writing style is clever, sneaky and surprising. The plot twists seem to come from nowhere, until you realise the clues were there all along, hidden just beneath the surface. This might be a mystery with paranormal elements, but it’s also a great coming-of-age story. The growth of each character is rewarding; it’s impossible not to care what happens to each of the three and their mission to discover what really happened to their big brothers.
If you like your crime and paranormal activity home-grown, I definitely recommend checking out The Shattering’, along with Karen Healey’s first novel, ‘Guardian of The Dead.’
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