GIVEAWAY WINNER & CRIME REPORT - Guest Post: Angela Savage

Hi folks, I've been battling our WOEFUL - let me just repeat that, WOEFUL - internets for the last few days, but I'm finally able to tell you who won the Every Word giveaway, phew!

So without further ado...Elspeth La Morte, congratulations!  You've won the first prize of two signed books - Every Breath and brand spankin' new-Every Word, as well as a handy magnifying glass! (very useful at crime scenes).  Please contact me at elliemarney[at]gmail[dot]com with your mailing details, and I will send off your lovely package :)

And...because my kids couldn't stand the idea of only pulling one name out of the hat, they came up with the idea of a second prize!  Ha!  So...SA Jeffrey, you have won the consolation prize of an Every Word fridge magnet (it's very pretty), and badges and stickers.  Again, please contact me at the email above to receive your winnings!

Now I know it’s been a while since I had a friend over to visit for the YA Crime Report, but it's been darn hard - there just aren't enough people in the world writing YA Crime!  But I've been hankering for a visitor to share cuppas and cake with, so it’s with great delight that I introduce a good mate of mine, Angela Savage.

Angela writes crime for adults (which we won’t hold against her), but she’s been in the crime biz for a long time.  She won the 2004 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript for her first book, Behind the Night Bazaar.  She’s also won the Scarlet Stiletto Award, and been shortlisted twice for the Ned Kelly Awards, and her central character, Jayne Keeney, is a kickbutt detective.  Angela’s going to be standing up for me at the Every Word launch, as we send the next part of Rachel and Mycroft’s adventures out into the world, so I thought I’d like to introduce her!

Angela and I first got to know each other through Sisters in Crime, and through our similar experiences living and travelling in Asia for long periods of time.  She’s released three books – Behind the Night Bazaar, The Half Child, and most recently, The Dying Beach – featuring the cool, hard-drinking, Thai-speaking detective Jayne Keeney.  All of her books have an amazing sense of location, with lush gorgeous backdrops in Thailand, and an incredible understanding of local culture and custom.  Her books have a consistent theme of social justice, and plenty of action and wit to keep you furiously turning pages.

So please put your hands together for the lovely Angela Savage!!

Hi Angela, welcome to the blog!  How’s things going over your way?

Thanks Ellie. It’s great to be here. All’s well over my way. If I could just squeeze a few more hours out of every day, things would be perfect.

What was it – a book, a detective, an author – that first turned you on to crime writing?

I have to confess that I didn’t set out to write crime fiction. My first attempt at a novel was a thinly disguised autobiographical account of the adventures of a twenty-something Australian woman in Laos in the early 1990s. Big on textual detail but light on plot. I’d turned to short story writing as a way of honing my plotting skills, when a friend alerted me to the Sisters in Crime Scarlet Stiletto Awards. This was 1998 and I submitted a story called ‘The Mole on the Temple’ about an Australian expatriate PI based in Bangkok investigating a classic card swindle. The story won third prize, at which point I started thinking about writing crime fiction.

The more I thought about it, the more I realised crime was the perfect genre for the ideas I wanted to explore. Cultural misunderstandings are a rich vein for dramatic tension as well as humour, and working cross-culturally is a lot like being a detective. An outsider is always trying to figure out the big picture from a small set of clues, to distinguish a reliable source from one trying to take them for a ride, and searching for meanings lost in translation.

Besides, I’d always enjoyed reading crime fiction. Some of my favourite authors at the time – whose work I consider influential on my early efforts – include Sara Paretsky, Carol O’Connell, Michael Dibdin and Martin Cruz Smith.

Jayne is a great character – cool-headed, tough, intelligent, plus she can drink hard men under the table, and she has a passionate, justice-driven side.  I’m often asked if Rachel Watts, my character in the Every series, is anything like me, and the answer is always (has to be) ‘a little bit’.  So how much of Jayne is in you?

Hah! I actually wrote a post about whether Jayne Keeney and I would get along if we met. I know a lot of readers see Jayne as me (it was a mistake to give her black curly hair like mine but, at the time, I couldn’t imagine myself inside the head of a blonde). And we certainly have things in common – love of Southeast Asia, for example, as well as taste in crime fiction. But Jayne is less idealistic and much tougher than me.

How much research do you do for your novels?  Did you have to make another trip to Thailand to get the details right for The Dying Beach?

I do a lot of research for my novels. I read about Thai politics, culture, geography and language. I research technical aspects of crimes, too, such as whether a bottle would break when it connects with a skull (rarely) and how to assess whether someone has died from deliberate or accidental drowning (very difficult).

I’m also a firm believer in the value of field research. I first got the idea for the novel that became The Dying Beach while on holiday in Krabi in 2009, and I returned with the family in tow in 2011 expressly to do field research for the book. That my commitment to research requires me to travel to exotic tropical destinations is just one of many ways I suffer for my art.

Something I noticed about your books is that not only are your locations real, and the experiences of your detective, Jayne Keeney, authentic, but – just like real life – the resolutions of your stories aren’t always neat.  Things aren’t always resolved in a conventionally formulaic way, although justice is usually served.  Have you done that on purpose?  What other elements of the standard crime story do you like to play around with?

Great questions, Ellie. I like a degree of ambiguity in the books I read and I aim for that in what I write, too. And given the premise of an Australian expatriate working in Thailand, to my mind, there are simply too many obstacles, too many variables, to get away with neat or conventional resolutions.

I like the challenge of bending the rules of the genre, while also being aware that when you write crime fiction, you enter an unspoken pact with the reader to see that justice is served, one way or the other.

My first novel, Behind the Night Bazaar, is no whodunit: the reader knows the facts of the case early on – long before Jayne does, in fact. The suspense and drama come from the ‘whydunit’ and in finding out how justice will be served.

My second novel, The Half-Child, is more of a ‘howdunit’, while The Dying Beach is probably the closest thing I’ve written to a whodunit, complete with liberal red herrings.

I also enjoying playing with gender and cultural stereotypes. This is particularly the case in Jayne’s relationship with her business partner and lover, Rajiv Patel. She is the impulsive, obstinate, at times reckless one in the duo, Rajiv the reflective, cautious and considered partner – the Watson to her Holmes.

Who are your favourite crime authors, and why?

I like books that are political but not didactic, gripping but not gratuitous, with characters and scenarios that are credible but not predictable. Above all, I like good writing. Authors whose work meet these criteria for me include Megan Abbott, Kate Atkinson, Honey Brown, Raymond Chandler, Garry Disher, Wendy James, Adrian McKinty, Leigh Redhead and David Whish-Wilson.

Finally – and this is a bit of a self-serving question, I’ll admit! - can you tell us a little bit about the next Jayne Keeney story?  (have you thought that far ahead?) I confess I have a soft spot for Rajiv, Jayne’s boyfriend - will Jayne and Rajiv be able to sort things out, or is Jayne a bit too much woman for him to handle?

The next Jayne Keeney novel, tentatively titled A Tiger’s Heart, is set in Bangkok in 1997 during the financial crisis. I actually started writing this book after The Half-Child and got 30,000 words in before deciding this was not the third, but the fourth book in the series. So I set it aside and wrote The Dying Beach instead. Now to find the time to finish it…

Thanks so much for coming to visit Angela!  Can’t wait to see you again at the Every Word launch :)

Thanks for having me, Ellie. Special thanks for the honour of inviting me to launch your book.

 Can't wait!  Speaking of the launch (which seems to be all I'm speaking about to people at the moment), invitations are going out right this minute to the Melbourne launch for Every Word.  If you'd like to come along - and you're certainly most welcome! - it will be at Readings Carlton, on Thursday 12 June at 6.30pm.  There'll be drinks, nibbles, door prizes, readings, signings - basically the whole pavlova.  Please do come!  I'd love to see you there :)

xx Ellie

YA Crime Report: GUEST POST – Barry Lyga

The other day I was casting around for suggestions about who we should have to visit on the YA Crime Report, and while a couple of people sprang to mind, I secretly knew who I really wanted to interview.  This is someone whose work I’ve read and admired, and who I think is genuinely pushing the envelope in writing for YA.  Someone whose books gave me serious chills and thrills – think Silence of the Lambs kind – and whose new releases I always keep an eye out for.

I didn’t think I could actually just cold-call this author and ask them for an interview.  But, as Barry Lyga kindly pointed out, I totally could.  This kind of generosity completely blows me away, I have to say, because y’know, authors are busy people.

So I’m rapt to be introducing this week’s blog visitor.  Barry Lyga has a pretty incredible resume of achievements – he graduated from Yale with a degree in English, then worked in the comic book industry for a good long while before throwing it in to write his first YA book The Amazing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl.  Since then he’s published Boy Toy, Hero Type, and the keenly-awaited sequel to Fanboy, Goth Girl Rising, as well as a middle grade series called Arch-Villain.  He’s even ventured back into comic book territory with Wolverine: Worst Day Ever and Manga Man, and released an adult novel, Unsoul’d, as an e-book, and somehow managed to keep putting up heaps of cool stuff on his blog.

So clearly, he’s already the mash-up-genre-and-audience master.  But it’s his books in the Jasper Dent series that have me really excited.  I read I Hunt Killers earlier this year, after hanging out for it for a while (you know how long it takes us to get some books here in the Antipodes…well, grr is all I can say to that).  I Hunt Killers is the first episode in the story of Jasper ‘Jazz’ Dent, who suffers from a serious case of Daddy Issues.  With his haemophiliac best friend, Howie, and kick-arse girlfriend, Connie, in tow, Jazz embarks on a desperate search for a murderer haunting the streets of his hometown, Lobo’s Nod.

But in Jazz’s case, nothing is at it seems.  Because how do you deal with murder if you’re the son of Billy Dent, one of the world’s worst serial killers?

The whole thing is an amazing ride, and an extraordinary hook for a story.  Jazz seems to be always walking a very fine line between determined investigation and creepy obsession, and he spends a lot of time worrying about whether he’s turning into a monster – another version of his old man.  At its most fundamental, Jazz’s story seems to be about what it means to be human, to try to be a good person, against pretty staggering odds. The next part of Jazz’s story has just been revealed, with the recent release of Game, set in New York. 

So I won’t give any more clues away, just ask you to please put your hands together and excuse my fan-girlish squee.  He’s been called a ‘YA rebel author’ by Kirkus Review, but I am just going to call him a cool guy for agreeing to this interview by some random person from a country far away…  I’m stoked to welcome Barry Lyga to the YA Crime Report!!  

(I always think of Kermit doing these introductions, with the wide open mouth and the waving green hands…)

Hi Barry, how’s things going over your neck of the woods?

Busy, busy, and busy! I have a slew of things in the hopper right now, including — of course — the final book in the I HUNT KILLERS trilogy, and my collaboration with Peter Facinelli and Rob DeFranco. And my e-published adults-only novel, UNSOUL’D. And other things that haven’t been announced yet.

Now last time I saw you, you were being interviewed by a toucan plushie, which has to count as a unique experience.  Could you tell us something that nobody knows about Barry Lyga thus far?

Yeah, that interview was…different. I’m not sure what there is about me that people don’t know at this point. I’m pretty boring, really, so there aren’t any amazing hidden stories about me. I mean, my wife recently wrote about our wedding on Huffington Post’s Weddings blog — short of being chased by paparazzi, I feel like I live a fairly public life, certainly more public than I’d like.

Congrats on your wedding!  So do teenagers make good detectives?  And how do you give them agency, and make their involvement believable, in a situation where adults seem to have all the authority?

99.9999% of teenagers probably make shitty detectives. And Jazz isn’t really a detective, per se. He’s more a scattershot profiler and budding crime scene guy. And as the books prove, he’s fairly good at it, but he has a lot to learn.

As to providing agency and making it believable… Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith, the way Kafka says, “Oh, by the way, Gregor Samsa is a cockroach now — just trust me.” But also… Look, if you really read the books, you’ll see that I actually go to great pains to explain how all of this can be happening. I mean, in the first book alone, the cops specifically forbid Jazz from getting involved until the third act, when they’re so desperate that they — shock! horror! — let him look at some files and visit a crime scene. It’s hardly on the level of them deputizing him and giving him a sidearm, right? It’s a move made out of fear and despair, and I think a lot of things are credible in that context.

Can you tell us a little bit about Game, without giving too much away or freaking us the heck out?  And is it a complex thing, creating a criminal investigation from scratch and putting the clues and red herrings and psychology of it all together?

GAME is sort of my way of saying, “Remember how scary and bloody the first book was? Yeah, that was me playing nice.” You have to ramp things up in the second book, otherwise people think you’re going soft on them. :) I wanted to take the characters out of their comfort zones and put them into ever-worsening situations. GAME forces Jazz into a new position, a new city, and in new straits. Connie and Howie get more face-time, but they also learn that just because you caught one serial killer doesn’t make it any easier the second time…

And as to creating the investigation — God, yes, it’s tough! Deciding what order to reveal what facts, figuring out how to pace the revelations… It’s difficult because ideally you don’t want the reader to know anything for sure until the moment he or she reads it. It’s OK if people suspect something, but even then… My preference is for the reader to be completely shocked and caught off-guard at every turn. But that’s a nearly impossible goal, so at the very least you want them uncertain.

Excuse me for getting deep here, but another author – I think it might have been Ian McEwan – once said that ‘Sadism, and the inability to empathize with others, is a failure of the imagination’.  Do you think that’s accurate, in relation to a character like Billy Dent?

You know, I’m not entirely sure. It SOUNDS good, right? If you can’t imagine what it’s like to be someone else, you won’t have much empathy for them and that can easily lead to doing horrible things to them. But it seems — to an armchair philosopher like yours truly — just as reasonable to assume the opposite, that an inability to empathize kills the imaginative process that would allow you to at least PRETEND to care.

Some of the info you use in the series, about mass murderers and their methods, is way creepy – I was both pleased that you didn’t make Jazz’s story ‘serial killer lite’ and amazed you got it past your editor!  Clearly, gore and horror are not as shocking to teenagers as some people might think, but was some of that stuff a hard sell?

Not really. I toned down a couple of things, but honestly, that’s like saying I mopped up a few drops out of a gallon. It’s a bloody, dark, intense, disturbing series and the publisher is behind it all the way.

Do you have a favourite crime author?

There are many I admire, but one of my favorites for so long is the inimitable, late, lamented Ed McBain. Such an amazing writer.

What about when you get brain-strain – how do you recharge your batteries?

When I figure that out, I’ll you know!

Barry, you’ve been an incredibly gracious guest!  Thanks for coming on the YA Crime Report, and all the best for your writing!

If you’d like to catch up with Barry Lyga, which I recommend you do, the best place is at his website here http://barrylyga.com/ , and I urge you to check out both Game and I Hunt Killers – info about both books is available here http://barrylyga.com/novels/ and specifically for Game, here http://barrylyga.com/novels/game/

You can buy the books where all good books are sold, or hit the links for online sales at the bottom of the page here http://barrylyga.com/novels/

Okay, I’m gonna stop squeeing...phew J  Now the next thing I promised was the draw for the giveaway…

So…the Every Breath giveaway prize pack has been won by…………Catherine W from Goodreads!!  Yay – good on you, Catherine!  Please get in touch with me (elliemarney[at]gmail[dot]com) to forward your details so I can send on your book+poster+t-shirt.

I’m also really chuffed to mention that Every Breath won the 2013 People’s Choice award for children’s and YA over at Allen & Unwin – which is a lovely way of saying that my publisher is excited about the book, and that makes me pretty happy.

The copyedits for Every Word, the second book, are happening over the next few months, so that’s really thrilling, to see the book finally start to take shape.  I’m a big fan of editing, and I know this book is going to be gorgeous by the time me and Sophie are finished with it.  Wow, the publication is coming up fast…  I’m doing the Kermit thing again, at the idea of showing it to you J

And the first draft of Every Move is nearly complete!  First draft stage is always kind of amazing and excruciating, but now I’m on the home strait, and I can see what the book is going to be like at the end.  That always spurs you on, that feeling of being so close, and getting a clearer picture of where you’re going to take it all.  Just like everybody else, I often have no idea of where the characters are headed when I first start writing – what, you thought I had a master plan?  Heh heh…well actually, um, no – but now Rachel and Mycroft are really directed.  It always makes the writing easier, when your characters give you some clues about what they’re up to…

Finally, I’d like to say thanks to everybody who sent good wishes for my health after the last post.  The sinusitis is long gone now, thank god, and I’m a whole lot better, but reading peoples’ messages helped lift me out of the gloom.  I sincerely hope you’re all healthy, and not going too crazy with seasonal madness – it’s a busy time, so stay sane! – and good luck with all your holiday plans and Christmas shopping.  I recommend books as presents – books are extremely easy to wrap J

That’s it.  I’ll try to put up one last post before Christmas, with the traditional list of recs, and then I’m going to sign off for a couple of weeks while I go camping with my family – ‘the family that camps together…’ yeah, etcetera!

Take care, all the best for the season, and see you soon.

Xx Ellie

YA Crime Report: GUEST POST – Sharon Jones

It’s a special event here on the Crime Report, because today we have our first overseas visitor.  Please give a hearty welcome to English author of Dead Jealous, the incredible Sharon Jones!

Sharon has kindly agreed to step up and sit in the hot seat, after we bumped into each other online. We’re still getting to know each other properly, so I’m delighted that she agreed to drop by and indulge in some (completely imaginary) tea and scones.

I know that Sharon has studied politics and theology.  I know she herds poodles.  And I know she has worked in bookshops – which I used to do! – where she discovered her other true love, YA fiction.  Sharon’s first book, Dead Jealous, came out in July this year, and it’s a ripper. 

In Dead Jealous, sixteen-year-old Poppy Sinclair is a scientist and a skeptic, so she’s less than thrilled to be dragged along by her mum to a Neo-Pagan festival in the Lake District.  But when a girl is found dead, Poppy has to fight through a fog of morris dancers and tarot cards to prove what she feels in her gut to be true – that it was murder, not mysticism.   Meanwhile, Poppy’s finding it harder than ever to push down her feelings for her best friend, who’s dating someone else – and the hot older guy giving her the eye at the festival could provide just the distraction she needs…

I read Dead Jealous in one uninterrupted sitting – well, my family tried to interrupt, but I kept telling them to bugger off.  In other words, I loved it.   Now I have questions, ooh yes, so many questions!

I guess the first one would be: when can I get more of Poppy and Michael and the whole of book two, Dead Silent?  The teaser chapter at the end of Dead Jealous left me very keen for more, and I’m excited to see more YA murder mysteries hitting the shelves!

Maybe Sharon can give me some helpful clues…

Hey Sharon, how are things going over your side of the world? Thanks for agreeing to come visit J 

Hi Ellie, thanks for having me over! It’s certainly warmer here than it is at home!

Now I’m not going to ask how it’s been, seeing your first book come out on shelves, because I’m pretty sure I know the answer (crazy, exciting, exhausting!).  What I’d like to ask is – when did you start self-identifying as a writer?

That would be the day my first book came out! Although I’d been writing quite seriously for about 6 years by then, I didn’t dare call myself a writer until the book came out, not even in my head. Writers were other people. I felt like I was just playing at it – a kid at the grown-ups table. I knew writing was my passion, but it felt wrong to call myself ‘a writer’. Still does, really!

I was also wondering if, like me, you still feel a bit like you’re refining your writing process.  Do you feel it’s different now that you know a bit more about publication, and now you’re writing a series?

Definitely! I’m more confident in getting things wrong in the first draft. And I don’t really put meat on the bones of the story until I know the structure is just about right. I find it so much harder to cut a scene that has descriptions that I like, or bits of character development I feel strongly about, but if the scene is really just a sketch of what I think should happen, I’m totally ruthless!  Luckily my editors seem to put up with me adding in lots of description and character development in the final draft.

I loved the idea of a Neo-Pagan festival as the setting for a murder mystery – can you tell us a bit about how the idea came about?

I’ve always been fascinated by religion as one of the building blocks of identity – one that most YA literature completely ignores. Yet when I was a teenager most of my friends had some kind of brush with one religion or another. For some it was part of what formed them, others reacted against it, particularly if it was the religion of their parents. But most people I knew had some kind of spirituality – even if that was humanism. So I was keen to write a character who genuinely struggled with spiritual questions.

Back when I was teaching, I ran a course on the development of neo-pagan religions – so I came to know quite a lot about the various strains of neo-paganism and it struck me that a pagan festival would be a really fun place to set a murder mystery. Remote… full of colourful characters… spooky goings on… And so the John Barleycorn Festival was born!

Do you have a ‘writing cave’ – a special place to call your own?  What do you take in with you while you’re working? (I know I’m rather fond of gallons of strong sweet tea…)

I’ve just moved so I’m still creating my new cave! The truth is, if I’m into what I’m writing I can write anywhere. If I’m feeling distracted I need a special place and routine. Like you, I drink quite a lot of tea! But I will decorate my writing cave with objects or pictures that I hope will inspire me.

People often ask where your ideas come from (I always find that a hard question to answer!), but I was wondering what you feel inspires you and your writing?

My biggest inspiration is myth and folklore – I love everything from ancient legends to urban legends – but quite a lot of the time it’s a place that will inspire me. I set Dead Jealous in the Lake District because I think it’s one of the most mysterious and evocative places I’ve ever visited. Dead Silent is set in Cambridge – a town full of ancient institutions and misty, winding alleyways.

If you had to choose a top five, for a desert island stay, which books would you choose?

Ugh!!! Only five?? So mean!! OK… umm…

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

One of the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr (which one would depend on what mood I was in…)

The Clocks by Agatha Christie (although Miss Marple is my favourite detective, I love the plot of this Poirot story!)

The Magus of Hay by Phil Rickman (because I love the Merrily Watkins series and this one’s due to be published 7^th Nov!)

The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert (because I’m part way in and I want to finish it! She writes so beautifully...)

And speaking of desert islands, any plans for a visit to Australia sometime? (We could catch up over a cuppa!)  If not…do you have any idea when Dead Silent will be released in Australia?

My brother lives in Sydney and I have a whole tribe of relatives around Melbourne so you never know!

Dead Silent is out 6^th February.

Sharon, thanks for answering my kooky questions, drop by anytime!

Thanks so much for having me over!!!

If you’d like to look Sharon up, you can find her online at her website here, or on Twitter @PoodlePowered  - Dead Jealous is available in bookstores now.  I’ll be staking out my local bookstore for my copy of Dead Silent next Feb.

An now, a couple of updates:

* I’ll be at Dymocks Camberwell on Thursday night – 21 November – from 6-8pm for their pre-Christmas author event.  Loads of other authors will also be there, and we’ll be signing books and feeling chatty, so if you’re in the vicinity, feel free to drop by.

* Every Breath has been listed in the NZ Listener amongst their top YA picks for 2013, which is pretty thrilling! Thank you to Ann Packer for the shout-out :)

I’ve been rather blown away by all the good press Every Breath has been getting, and I’d like to say a hearty thank you again to everyone who’s read and enjoyed the book, and responded so positively.  Anna Ryan-Punch wrote a fantastic review in Viewpoint (books for Young Adults) through the University of Melbourne, which is available here by subscription.  And if you want to go check out Every Breath on the new Amazon Australia website, it’s up here.

And I was given a chance to recommend one of my favourite books, Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil, over here on the Readings blog.  I love that book to the nth degree, and it was great to be able to give it a good rap.

That’s it for the news.  Meanwhile, life is good, spring seems to be coming on a little late, and I haven’t had hayfever so bad this year.  I’ve had time to plant tomatoes, and read, and I went down to Melbourne to see George RR Martin (Game of Thrones) and Michelle Fairley (Catelyn Stark) speak at a Wheeler Centre gig, which was pretty awesome.

I also received a lovely email from a reader in Germany, who kindly sent me some photos of Every Breath’s travels abroad:  A big thank you to Carina! (if you can read the sign, you’ll notice the pic is actually on the border of Germany and the Netherlands – cool!)

Next post, I’ll be having a giveaway for Christmas, so if you’d like to put your name down for a copy of the book and some swag, drop on by.  Have a lovely week, and see you soon.

Xx Ellie

YA Crime Report: GUEST POST – Nansi Kunze

I first met Nansi Kunze at the Sisters In Crime women crime writer’s festival – SheKilda – in 2011.  We were sitting next to each other in the audience during one of the panel events.  I was there to see the launch of Scarlet Stiletto: The Second Cut, the SIC anthology that included my winning story ‘Tallow’ – I was high on the energy of all the women at the festival, and feeling the glow that comes from having something (anything!) published.

Nansi and I introduced ourselves, had a little chat.  I admit I was a bit awed – Nansi was a published author, with two books under her belt.  She talked about the juggle of family and writing life - her little boy was sick upstairs in the hotel, with her husband looking after him while she attended the panel.  She was on speed dial.  I talked about how I’d left my four kids at home with my husband for two days, and what a big deal it had been just to get out of the house and drive the two hours down to Melbourne to attend the festival.   We hit it off right away.

So I’m rapt to be introducing Nansi as today’s guest for the Crime Report.  Nansi’s previous books, Mishaps and Dangerously Placed, have had a definite whiff of the criminal about them too.  But her most recent book Kill The Music launches right into Nancy Drew-mystery territory.

In Kill The Music, death threats against the world’s most famous boy band, Turmoil, have Lorna Powell gasping.  And it’s not because she’s a fan – Lorna is a reluctant band mascot while her brother, Flint, plays on stage with the rest of the guys.  Dragged from one glamorous location to the next, Lorna would like nothing more than a normal life.  But she’s not going to back down when the boys’ lives are at stake.  Lorna races to discover the killer…all while trying to figure out why lead singer Marius is acting weird, as well as keeping up with Turmoil, and getting her homework done on time.

Please give Nansi your warmest welcome!

Hey Nansi, so good to talk to you again!  How’s it going over your neck of the woods?

Hi Ellie – it’s great to be here! Things are going pretty well, thanks. We’ve been away for school holidays, so I’m about to get back to work on my new manuscript. I’m about half-way through the first draft, and I’m really looking forward to finishing it off.

So tell us a bit about your process.  Once you’ve got an idea (or two, or three), how do you go about working it up?

I’m a major planner (which is another way of saying I’m a bit of a control freak about my writing!). When I come up with a basic concept for a novel, I write down a ton of things longhand in my planning book before I get anywhere near the computer. I usually start with a fairly detailed outline of the first scene, some basic information about my main characters and a plot summary. After that I spend pages and pages scribbling stuff about the themes and development I want the book to have, as well as one-liners and ridiculous situations I want to include. Only when I’ve got a pretty solid idea of what’s going to be in it do I let myself start typing the actual manuscript! Even then, I stop every chapter – sometimes more often – to plan what’s coming up next in close detail before I go on.

Now tell us about Kill the Music.  In the book, Lorna gives us a wry glimpse into the world of super boy-bands – I couldn’t help but think that this is what it would be like on tour with One Direction!  What gave you the idea, and how did you research it?

It sounds a bit ridiculous to use the old ‘It came to me in a dream!’ explanation, but this one really did: one night I dreamt that I was the manager of a boy-band, and the boys were so irresponsible I couldn’t even trust them to cross the road without getting themselves run over! I thought it was a fun idea, and while I was writing the initial outline for the book I realised that Turmoil, the four-member rock outfit who’d had a bit part in my first novel, Mishaps, would be perfect for it. A lot of the material I needed came from my own experiences: things like starting at a new school (I went to eight different schools in the UK and Australia), hanging out at gigs and rehearsals (my parents are musicians) and speaking German and Japanese (I taught foreign languages before I became a novelist). Some other parts, like the physics and technological elements of the plot, were just fortuitous finds gleaned from many hours on the internet!

Lorna is a great character – she has a dry sense of humour, she’s tenacious and loyal, and she has an old-fashioned integrity.  Was she the easiest character to write?  And did she pop into your head like that, fully formed?

I’m glad you liked her! I realised as soon as I had the book concept that Lorna needed to be strong, loyal and affectionate – despite being somewhat contemptuous of what Turmoil get up to – and that she had to be able to kick butt. So I had a pretty good picture of her from the beginning. I usually find that it’s the outrageous secondary characters who are easiest to write, but Lorna was easier than the protagonists in my previous books because she’s got so much of me in her, like her lack of tact and tendency to make scathing remarks. I just wish I had her martial arts skills too!

The locations in Kill The Music are gorgeous, and give the book a cosmopolitan jet-setting allure.  Japan, Vienna…are these all places you’ve been?

Yes! I’m lucky enough to have travelled to all the places mentioned in the book, except the fictitious island in the Great Barrier Reef where Turmoil hold a party. It’s based on Double Island, north of Cairns, which I’ve often seen from the mainland and wanted to visit, but you have to rent the entire island – a little out of my price range! I absolutely loved being able to include some of my favourite travel destinations in Kill the Music, and I plan on putting some more of them into my next books.

What sort of detective mysteries draw you as a reader?  And were you an early aficionado of crime?

For me, mysteries are all about character. While I love an intricately-crafted plot and clever twists, if the characters aren’t fascinating in themselves, I don’t think any plot can make up for that. An early aficionado of crime? You know, I wouldn’t have said so. Actually, when I was invited to speak at SheKilda I was kind of surprised, because I hadn’t thought of myself as a crime writer up until then – even though Dangerously Placed was technically a murder mystery! But since then I’ve realised that I did read quite a lot of crime novels as a child. The ones that have really stayed with me are the ones with the most convincingly-drawn and charismatic characters, like Ellis Peters’s Cadfael and (of course) the superlative and ever-engaging Holmes.

Teen sleuths – they seem to be popping up all over the place lately!  What do you think makes teenagers good detectives?

One of the awesome things about teenagers is that they’re old enough to be capable of the tasks investigating a mystery might require; a teen sleuth can plausibly follow suspects over long distances, go undercover while at work, and even get into places children aren’t allowed to be. At the same time, teenagers are often underestimated or overlooked by adults, so they’re in a unique position to find things out. More importantly, though, a teenage detective can look at a situation with an open-mindedness, idealism and willingness to challenge the status quo that a jaded middle-aged detective might lack.

And finally, how do you unwind at the end of a long writing day? (Are there any of Lorna’s luxuries that you envy?)

I love curling up with a good book … like all writers, I expect! Gaming is my other favourite form of unwinding, and I always look forward to a bit of time with my 3DS. I don’t envy most of Lorna’s luxuries – like her, I prefer the quiet life – but I must admit, I wouldn’t mind spending a day checking out the bakeries and eco-boutiques of Vienna like she does!

Nansi, thank you for being such a good sport and answering my questions J  If you’d like to watch the cool trailer for Kill the Music, go here – or if you’d like to read the book, you can buy it in all good book stores, or maybe drop in here.   Get in touch with Nansi at her website, or on Twitter.

Now before I pull the pin, here’s a couple of events coming up that you may like to know about:

* The Every Breath giveaway over on Goodreads is about to finish.  I’m giving away three signed copies, open internationally, and it’s all over red rover on 31 October -  if you’d like to put your name into the hat (and an astonishing number of people have already done so, thank you!) dropover to Goodreads here and put your name down to win. (Or, you know, just go over to the sidebar and click)

* I’m talking on a panel!  Ooh, it is going to be very exciting…  It’s for a Sisters In Crime event, and it will be me, Kathryn Ledson (Rough Diamond) and Jaye Ford (Blood Secret, Scared Yet?) talking about female protagonists dealing with danger, and how to make crime fiction sparkle.  If you’d like to come along, you’re quite welcome!  We’ll be at the Rising Sun Hotel, South Melbourne, at 8pm on Friday 25 October – for more details go tothe Sisters in Crime website.

* I’m also going to be visiting the Mechanics Institute in Ballarat on Thursday 7 November at 7.30pm, to talk at a Ballarat Writers Inc event.  I’ll be talking about process, getting published, and why YA writing is the best (I just added that bit in).  Come along if you’re around, and have a cuppa and say hi.

Have a good week, stay sane, and see you again soon.

Xx Ellie

Thank You! & YA Crime Report: GUEST POST - Rebecca James

Before we kick off today’s blog post – and I promised bells and whistles with this post, I know – I wanted to say a huge thank you.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me, and supported Every Breath, as we’ve made our way out into the world.  It’s been a truly extraordinary experience, having this book published, and so many people have stood up and helped out – I am incredibly appreciative of all of you.

So thank you to every person who has encouraged, read, reviewed, bought, blogged, commented, tweeted, shared, and otherwise created such an amazing groundswell of support for Every Breath, especially for the friends and family who have kept my spirits high and helped me stay sane!

I can’t express how much this means to me – I am thoroughly humbled, and really really grateful.

At the bottom of this post I’ll show off a few pics of the launches, both in Melbourne and in Castlemaine.  They were awesome fun, and I had a great time - and if you came along, I hope you did too!

But first, the Crime Report…

Next on our whistle-stop tour of YA crime, I’ve invited the lovely Rebecca James to come and put up with some weird questions! 

Rebecca has been an incredibly good sport about agreeing to be interviewed, and I should mention that it was lovely to talk to her because she said a lot of things about writing and juggling daily life that really spoke to me – she keeps it real, and I totally get that right now!

Rebecca is the author of Beautiful Malice, and her new novel Sweet Damage was released this year.  In Sweet Damage, rootless sun-bleached surfer Tim is sucked into the mystery of Anna London, the strange occupant of his new share-house in Sydney.  Initially sure that he can bring some light and normalcy to Anna’s life, instead Tim becomes part of an ominous web of family history and half-truths until he’s not sure what exactly is real and what is paranoia…

Rebecca, so nice to finally have more than a brief Twitter conversation or five-line Facebook message with you!  How the heck are you?

I am very well. The sun is out in Canberra today and I don’t even have the heater on. I think Spring may be coming which is a good thing...

We have a couple of things in common – we both write YA (although you do more psychological suspense stuff and I do straight murder mysteries), and we both live in large and busy families.  Now I know I have to fight hard to get my writing time, and I’m sure you have those struggles too.  How do you find the time to write?  What do you reckon is the key to maintaining a writing practice amidst all this bustle?

I don’t know that I’ve found the key or if one even exists. Basically I try to work while my kids are at school and try not to work out of school hours or on the weekends. That’s about it as far as time organisation goes. This doesn’t always work, though, because family life is constantly creeping into my writing time and vice versa.

I write from home and my husband has an office job and generally this arrangement works pretty well for us. I get the kids ready for school and drop them off in the morning and then pick them up at 3. It means my working day is quite short (6 hours) and I sometimes feel like I’m only just starting to get into things when 2 pm rolls around and I realise it’s nearly time to stop. That can be a bit frustrating at times and occasionally I envy my husband – he gets to leave the house early in the morning and can stay at work until he’s finished.

The bizarre thing is that it wasn’t until I’d had kids that I actually started writing. Something about becoming a mother made me crave a creative outlet. It also taught me to use what little time I had productively. I sometimes think that if I hadn’t had four kids (and thereby discovered what hard work really was) I would never have had the stamina to finish an entire book. I was far too scatterbrained and restless before.

I think, ultimately, that having a family and trying to work is a messy and chaotic business, (kind of like this answer!), full of compromise and negotiation. It’s hard to find a perfect balance. I always feel like I’m neglecting something –  my work, my kids, the house, the dog, the tax, you name it. I never feel caught up or ‘finished.’ I always feel slightly frantic. I  think once you have kids you simply have to embrace the chaos and accept the fact that you’re always going to feel a bit fractured.

Rebecca, you totally read my mind with that answer!  But now, please tell us a bit about Sweet Damage – there are lots of hints dropped along the way, about what has happened to Anna, and the whole book is layered with mystery and suspense, in a stew of slowly-building tension.  What were the challenges of writing a mystery?  Did it change the way you wrote?

I guess the challenge with writing a mystery (and you could no doubt argue that this is the case in writing any kind of fiction) is keeping the narrative tight and tense without making it feel too contrived or obvious. But I can’t necessarily tell you how to do this because I don’t actually understand my own writing process. I just sit down and write. If I think about it too much I start getting anxious and self-conscious, and that can be paralysing. I try to keep the whole process instinctive and organic which unfortunately doesn’t help me answer questions like these...

So why mystery and psychological suspense, instead of something else? (zombie apocalypses, or westerns, for instance?)

Oh, because I love psychological suspense.  I love reading it and I love writing it and I love watching it.  At heart I think it’s all about the damage people do to each other and it’s fascinating to consider how far people will go to get what they want, to manipulate their world and the people they come in contact with.

I’m fascinated by the cruelty people can inflict on each other in a kind of everyday way, and how very frequently, if you dig a little, you’ll find that the cruelty is actually coming from a place of pain and/or vulnerability. (Which doesn’t necessarily justify the bad behaviour, though it might sometimes go some way towards explaining it.) I think it’s also fascinating to think about the psychology of victims and how much abuse or bad treatment people will choose to put up with in the name of friendship or love.

And someone else has noted your affinity with Du Maurier, so I have to ask – do you have a favourite writer of suspense or crime? (and why are they the one that rocks your socks?)

I always feel weirdly uncomfortable when I try and list favourites and I think it’s because my preferences are so fluid and changeable. And I hardly think I’m unique in this but whether I enjoy a book or not depends so much on my mood and the place I’m in, how hard I’m working, how much energy I have, whether it’s late at night or early in the morning, whether I feel obligated to read or whether I’m reading for pleasure -- it’s so difficult to be subjective and so hard to be consistent.

I can definitely say though that I’d always be pretty happy to have a freshly written book by Nicci French, Sophie Hannah, PD James, Elizabeth George, Minette Walters, Gillian Flynn, Donna Tartt or Elizabeth Haynes in my hands. At the moment I’m really enjoying Tara French and Patricia Highsmith. And I absolutely love Anne Fine!

Now it’s honesty time – what d’you reckon is your worst writing habit?

Procrastination.

Well, I don’t think you’re alone in that one (ahem).  But what activities do you find most conducive for generating ideas?   Personally I’m a big fan of driving while listening to Triple J, or doing the dishes…

 Actually, I’m pretty boring that way. When I’m plotting or generating ideas I just sit at the table with a pen and a piece of paper and think really really hard and write stuff down until logical links are made and my random ideas start to form into something that might resemble a plot. 

 And finally – writing must-haves?  Beverages, snacks, music?  What do you take with you to your writing cave?

At the moment my desk is in my kitchen so I’m very close to the fridge and the tea canister and the kettle. This is handy for satisfying my tea habit. I drink too much tea. Far too much.

Rebecca thanks for coming along for the ride! (and for answering my questions so beautifully). Find out more about Sweet Damage here - it's available where all good books are sold.  You can check out Rebecca’s website here.

So I won’t keep you much longer – realistically, I don’t think I can fit everything that’s happened into this one blog post – but I better give a few updates.

Over the last few weeks the tempo has increased, with reviews and interviews and special stuff appearing on blogs and all over the place.  If you’d like to check out some of the lovely Every Breath reviews, go over here to The Rest Is Still Unwritten, or here to Speculating on SpecFic.  You can read Carmel Shute’sfantastic launch speech here, at Sisters in Crime, or you can trot over to Goodreads and check out the nice things people are saying (and there’s still time to enter the Goodreads giveaway – hop to it!)

The most exciting thing was seeing Every Breath reach Number 3 on the Readings Bestselling Kid’s Chart!  That was amazing, and you were the folks who made it happen (like I said at the Castlemaine launch, I wasn’t the one who went out and bought all those books, that was totally you guys).  I did a feature on 'The Story of My Book' for the website - the Readings family was really supportive in hosting the Every Breath Melbourne launch, so thank you, Readings!

Another exciting thing – Every Breath was featured in Girlfriend magazine, which was awesome!  Grab a copy of the mag for their review, or if you head over to their website you can download a free excerpt of Every Breath to taste test!  (And if you’d like to get an early gander at the covers for Every Word and Every Move, as featured, have a look here.)

Now – the launch parties. 

I was hopelessly nervous before each one, knowing I’d have to give a speech and stuff like that, but then everyone started arriving and I figured out pretty quick that it was really just a gathering of all my mates and family, and my nerves settled. (Aww...I know, I'm totally the pits at social events! I'll get better, I promise!)

Rather than describe, I’ve chucked a few pics up here to give you a feel for the occasion/s - I'll put some more up next post. Thank you so much to all of you who came along, and happy birthday to Every Breath – you’re loose in the wild now, baby!

Xx Ellie            

YA Crime Report: GUEST POST - Kim Kane

Here’s another exciting addition to our YA Crime guest posts, and I’m thrilled to be hosting today’s guest - ladies and gentlemen, it’s the fabulous Kim Kane!!! *wild applause, whistles, cheering*

All the hullabaloo is well-deserved, folks.  Kim Kane has been writing children’s fiction for some time, starting out with The Family Forest.  Recently she collaborated with writing buddy Marion Roberts on the novel Cry Blue Murder – it’s an eerie tale about a serial killer who stalks a Melbourne community, told in a unique way, through a series of police and court documents.

Woven together with the other strands of Cry Blue Murder are the emails of two girls, Celia and Alice, who are living in the middle of the nightmare.  As the killer becomes more brazen, the exchanges between Celia and Alice become more tense and heartfelt – and you won’t believe what’s coming…

I met Kim recently during the Emerging Writers Festival, and she’s lovely – not a serial killer at all! – and I was really happy to hear that Cry Blue Murder has just made the shortlist for this year’s Inky Awards!!  Congratulations, Kim, it’s so well-deserved!  So without further ado…

Kim – hi!  It’s lovely to have you visit with us!

Thanks Ellie. Thrilled to be invited. Congratulations on your book!

Gosh, thanks :)  Now first, a question I always want to ask other writers (so excuse me if I diverge): what chair do you use?  Or do you stand to write, like Hemingway?  (In other words, how do you combat lower back pain from all the sitting??)

Hmm, I don’t have a study or even a desk so I work in a café when I feel a bit lonely or have to be out of the house (when the kids are driving me nuts) or on my bed or at the kitchen table. My favourite spot is definitely bed – all propped up with pillows, especially in the evening when it’s cold – but if I have research to do, the sunny kitchen table is best.   All I really care about is sunshine and warmth (having written half ‘Pip: the Story of Olive’ in a charming but completely unrenovated and uninsulated former belt factory). When I’m getting to the end of a book and am mainly copy editing, I need to sit at a table and I also tend to listen to musicals – one per book – over and over again until I can recite the lyrics verbatim. I’m not sure why. I am sure Hemingway never did that.

Cry Blue Murder is a dark mystery with a criminal twist, and the story is developed within all these fragments – emails, police witness statements, investigative documents.  Did you and Marion find that it was a bit like putting a jigsaw puzzle together?  How did you know what to include and what to discard?

Cry Blue Murder started as a very different novel for younger readers, but once Marion and I knew what we were doing and had a story and a proposed form for that story, we plotted extremely carefully. We had to, really, as we each wrote a character and we needed to make sure we were dripping information to the reader punctiliously; we had to be in complete agreement about the role each document served.

It was actually a fantastic discipline as we were forced to do some of the harder thinking I tend to put off until later drafts when I’m writing alone (as it’s dull and difficult – although putting it off only makes it duller and more difficult). After we’d done the plotting, the rest of the novel was colouring in. I should note, however, that the few changes we did make to the documents were a nightmare as there were so many consequential changes – in the emails and in our police and legal reports. Sometimes the whole thing felt like a house of cards.  We changed the colour of a car, for example, and watched our structure teeter!

The book seems to be designed to encourage the reader to be the detective – I often found myself flicking back to previous pages, to check clues I’d found and see if they matched up with my theory about the killer.  Did you plan it this way?  And did you have the final twist already in mind before you started?

Yes and yes! We started the book with the final twist – that came to us very early on in the process and completely informed the characters we then developed. We found the most interesting murder mysteries were the ones in which the reader had to play a role – drawing conclusions from the facts presented, experience first-hand the frustration of dead ends – and we were keen to replicate that for the reader. In some ways, we wanted the reader to keep reading to affirm what s/he already knew.

Can you tell us a little bit about what kind of research you did for the book? (It sounds like it would have been uncomfortable to research…)

We looked at a number of cases about grooming here and abroad. We also had to research all of the documents in the book – the pathology reports, witness statements, citilink documents etc and speak to relevant professionals. We needed to understand how the documents for a crime are put together, the role of police, the psychology of both the victim and perpetrator.

The villain of Cry Blue Murder is incredibly creepy.  Did you kind of freak yourself out when you were writing those scenes?

Marion wrote the character Alice and she was a wonderful creep – it’s quite frightening to hear her discuss the various states of her character in the novel and the reasons for this (if you’re interested here’s a link to a Radio National interview we did in which she discusses Alice http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/booksandartsdaily/cry-blue-murder/4659374). Sometimes Marion did freak me out and I haven’t quite ruled out my suspicion that she may in fact be a serial killer...

On a lighter note, who is your favourite fictional detective? (and why, of course)  And do you have any skills that would serve you well if you were called on to be a detective yourself?

I like PD James, Alexander McCall Smith’s gentle The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series, and I completely adore TV crime – Midsummer, Law and Order, The Killing, Morse. I’m not sure that I’m systematic enough to be a detective although I’m certainly nosy enough and I’m fascinated by the psychology behind crime. 

So what do you do when you’re not reading and writing?  How do you recharge?

I like running, walking and swimming although I’m finding less time to do that these days. I adore my family and spending time with them – scooting, walking, hanging at the library or building castles at the beach. The twins are four so we go to lots of panto and theatre, playgrounds, or we just knock around with sticks at the park. I have some very amusing friends whose company I adore, but really any down time is usually spent reading as I’m too tired to do anything else and have to be home to look after the kids.

I can understand that!  Thanks so much for coming over, Kim – good luck with the Inkys!!

If you’d like a copy of Cry Blue Murder, go to where all good books are sold.  You can find out more about Kim over here :)

Well, it’s going to be a busy weekend for everybody.  The Splendid Wrens outside are dashing around, looking for mates, and the pobblebonks are going off in the creek – and I’m going to the annual Sisters in Crime Davitt Awards, the grand celebration of Australian women’s crime fiction, on Saturday night.  I’ve already got my red and black gear picked out (not a frock, sadly – I really need to get a proper Sisters in Crime frock, for special events) and I’m looking forward to seeing good friends and kicking up my heels.  I’ll tell you all about it when I get back.

Now here’s another bit of exciting Every Breath news – I’m starting a Goodreads giveaway today, so if you’d like a copy of Every Breath, go on over to the website and put your name down (or check the widget here at right!).  There are three copies to giveaway, and I’ve actually opened it up internationally as well, so bootscoot on down there quick!

And…a little birdy told me that the Readings newsletter in today’s edition of The Age features a wonderful review of Every Breath by the lovely Emily Gale from Readings Carlton :)  Have a gander and see if it’s true-all-true…

Remember, if you’re ready to party, we have two parties coming up.  The Official Every Breath Launch, which will be on at Readings Carlton on Thursday 12 September at 6.30pm, is almost upon us!  I’m ordering enormous cakes and buying bottles of wine, even as you read this.  If you can’t make it to Melbourne, you’re also welcome to come on down to the Castlemaine Every Breath Big Bash, which is on at the Castlemaine Library on Friday 20 September at 6pm.  Send me an RSVP to elliemarney[at]gmail[dot]com if you can, or just come on over and help me celebrate.

I’ll be giving big hugs to everyone who’s been involved in bringing Every Breath to life – friends, family, reviewers, editors, copyeditors, bloggers, supporters all!  I can’t wait to see you at the parties, and I’m incredibly grateful to everyone involved.  So many people have been amazingly supportive in the lead-up to the book’s release – respect, guys.  I couldn’t have done it without you.

Talk again soon.

xxEllie