Australia

Pulp Fiction Press - Small Australian Press looking for submissions from local authors

Karen — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 19:02:09 +1100

Pulp Fiction Press is an independent Australian publisher, with national distribution in Australia and New Zealand.

They are currently accepting submissions for crime and mystery, and speculative fiction - science fiction, fantasy and horror novels.

Head off to their website for their submission guidelines, contact details and - of great help - some publisher notes.

http://www.pulpfictionpress.com.au/

Incidentally - there is a note on their site:

"As always, we’re keen to see new work, but at the moment, Pulp Fiction Press is only interested in submissions from Australian or New Zealand writers – although if there’s anyone out there from New Guinea or somewhere in the South Pacific, feel free to submit! We don’t necessarily only want stories set in Australasia, but we do want to present Antipodean voices to the world."

Suggestions for Where to Start with AustCrime Fiction

Karen — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 16:52:31 +1000

Where should you start:

Well Fergus Hume's The Mystery of a Hansom Cab is the first Australian mystery and it's now available from a number of publishers as well as online.

Peter Corris is the master of the hard-bitten PI style here.

For Police Procedurals Garry Disher, Barry Maitland, Michael Robotham, or Jon Cleary might appeal. (Maitland and Robotham set their series overseas)

If you're into humour then you can't go past Leigh Redhead (think of her as our Liz Evans but with a little more sex). You might also want to try New Zealander Paul Thomas, particularly Dirty Laundry or Chris Niles her Hell's Kitchen is brillant.

If you like Evanovich or her ilk Kirsty Brooks may appeal.

Like Hiassen - try Robert G Barrett or Chris Nyst.

Bit of a fan of hard-boiled J.R. Carroll or Peter Doyle.

Slightly more on the softer, cozier style Brian Kavanagh, Sandy Curtis, Bunty Avieson or Joy Dettman.

Thrillers - Lindy Cameron, David A Rollins, Matthew Reilly, James Phelan or Garry Disher's Wyatt series.

Don't, what ever you do, miss Peter Temple or Shane Maloney - both have series set in Melbourne.

James Bond Australian style? Geoff McGeachin's Alby Murdoch series is hilarious.

For the set elsewhere by Australasians Jane Goodall, J M Calder or P D Martin could be right.

For a current day glimpse of real life try Adrian Hyland or Angela Savage - Hyland is currently set firmly in Australia and Savage's book is set in SE Asia.

For one of the master's of the art of the PI Caroline Shaw or Gabrielle Lord.

For a bit of a switch on the crime scene viewpoint (and the victim's for that matter) Katherine Howell has a second book in the works - and her first Frantic was a great book.

Kerry Greenwood has a very famous historical series as well as a new latter day heroine.

Don't forget Claire McNab, Lindy Cameron or Rose Beecham if you would like to see an Australasian take on a central lesbian character.

Recently New Zealander Paul Cleave has written a slightly different take on the serial killer who likes to explain himself to the reader.

For a general ramble around our up and coming writers you can't go past Scarlet Stiletto - The First Cut

Well basically - check out everybody on this site - you're sure to find somebody who will suit.

What are your Favourite Local Books

Karen — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 15:01:40 +1000

Just for a bit of fun - please have a go in our poll - add your favourite book if it's not on the list so that other's can vote for it as well

Tick your Favourite Local Book

Where to Get Started with Australian Crime Fiction

Karen — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:19:09 +1100

We're often asked for recommendations on where to get started with Australian Crime Fiction or if I like X author, what other authors would be worth trying. Ages ago we put the attached list up and every now and again we go back and adjust / edit add.

If anybody has any other recommendations that they'd like to make please add some comments to the attached list. The more recommendations the better!

An Irresistible Temptation: The true story of Jane New and a colonial scandal

sunniefromoz — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:21:43 +1000

In 1829 at the Supreme Court in Sydney, the bewitching Jane New was sentenced to death. Her crime: shoplifting a bolt of printed French silk. But was she guilty? Many had their doubts.

Although a legal technicality soon quashed Jane's sentence, the autocratic Governor Ralph Darling refused to set her free. Like bees to the honey pot, the gentlemen of Sydney swarmed to Jane's defence including barrister and political agitator William Charles Wentworth and Supreme Court Registrar John Stephen Jr, who were both vigorous and manipulative in their appeals to set her free.

An Irresistible Temptation is set against the backdrop of a particularly divisive period in colonial New South Wales. Not only did the scandal titillate Sydney and its legal and political ramifications push the colony to the brink of a constitutional crisis, but it contributed to the savagery of Governor Darling's public vilification and bestowed upon Jane New a place in the annals of Australian colonial history.

Compelling and fast-paced, An Irresistible Temptation is a meticulously researched history that takes us from the court docks of industrialising England, to Tasmania's raw penal settlement, the rough-house world of Sydney's Rocks and eventually back to the rarefied atmosphere of Britain' House of Commons.

Breaking the Bank: An extraordinary colonial robbery

sunniefromoz — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:17:41 +1000

It was the largest bank robbery in Australian history. On Sunday 14 September 1828, thieves tunnelled through a sewage drain into the vault of Sydney's Bank of Australia and stole 14 000 in notes and cash - the equivalent of $20 million in today's currency. This audacious group of convicts not only defied the weekly exhortation 'thou shalt not steal!', they targeted the bank owned by the colony's self-anointed nobility.

Delighted at this affront to their betters, Sydney's largely criminal and ex-criminal population did all they could to undermine the authorities' attempts to catch the robbers and retrieve the spoils. While the desperate bank directors offered increasingly large rewards and the government officers cast longing looks at the gallows, the robbers continued to elude detection. Then one day ...

With a rich cast of characters who refused to abase themselves to the establishment, this meticulously researched and fast-paced history tells the story of the daring Bank of Australia robbery and of the scheming robbers, greedy receivers and unfortunate suspects whose lives were irrevocably changed by this outrageous crime.

'Beverley Hills' Browning

Karen — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:20:51 +1000

Blurb from the book:

How did you feel about Beverley Hills Browning?

Submitted by Karen on Wed, 08/08/2007 - 3:41pm.

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'Box Office' Browning

Karen — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:20:51 +1000

Blurb from the book:

How did you feel about Box Office Browning?

Submitted by Karen on Wed, 08/08/2007 - 3:43pm.

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10 Months in Laos

Karen — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:20:51 +1000

ISBN 1863503854

Blurb from the book:

An updated edition of Lawyers, Gems and Money.

Conroy reveals a tale of corporate crime and deception that proves sometimes fact can be stranger than fiction.

Melbourne lawyer Max Green paid the ultimate price for his multi-million dollar fraud when he was murdered, and more recently Kerry and Kay Danes have been detained.

How did you feel about 10 Months in Laos?

Submitted by helen on Thu, 06/09/2007 - 11:29pm.

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14th Sisters in Crime, Scarlett Stiletto Awards report

Karen — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 14:35:17 +1100

Cut and pasted from Crimespace with the kind permission of Rose Mercer who was lucky enough to attend on Friday night (thanks for letting me know Rose - I'm really pleased you had a good time and hopefully we'll meet up at the next SinC gathering!)

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Friday night was this year's SinC awards for short stories. Even more prizes were awarded this year, proving yet again what a great support this organisation is to writers. Here are the results:

KINDERGARTEN MURDER MYSTERY WINS SCARLET STILETTO AWARD

“Kill-dead-garten”, a story of murder and mayhem at a kindergarten, by brand-new Melbourne writer, Aoife Clifford, has won Sisters in Crime’s 14th Scarlet Stiletto Award. The national short story competition offers $3100 in prizes and attracted over a record 163 entries. Noni Hazlehurst, currently starring as Bernice Waverley on Channel 7’s smash hit, City Homicide, presented the awards tonight in St Kilda (30/11).

Clifford took out the HarperCollins first prize of $750 plus a trophy, a scarlet stiletto shoe with a steel stiletto heel plunging into a perspex mount. She is a lawyer by training, and has worked as a public servant and union official with the National Union of Workers. Entering a story in the Scarlet Stiletto Awards was Clifford’s New Year Resolution this year.

“I realised that I hadn’t done any writing (outside of the odd email) since I left work to start a family and was forgetting how to spell,” she said. “It’s one of the few New Year’s Resolutions I kept. I’m absolutely gobsmacked to win a national competition with my first ever story.”

Clifford enjoyed the process so much that she has now written and illustrated a picture book and is currently trying to convince publishers that she is the next Mem Fox.

A ten-year old school girl from Western Australia, Jane Blechynden (Mt Hawthorn), won the Allen & Unwin Young Writers’ Award ($250) for writers under 21. Her story, “The Key Suspect”, was about someone stealing Tim Tams from the school staffroom. Blechynden, who flew to Melbourne for the ceremony, won second prize in the West Australian newspaper Young Writers award in 2005, and first prize in 2006. The Scarlet Stiletto is her first national prize.

2004 1st prize winner, Liz Filleul, won Kill City 2nd prize ($400) for her story “The Write Place” about a scam involving a short story competition. Filleul also won a special commendation for “Go Get ‘em Sloothgirl” written in LOLCAT, a form of internet slang. English-born Filleul lives in Melbourne’s Dandenong Ranges (Vic). Last month Bettany Press in the UK published her book, To All Appearance, Dead, a mystery about school girl fiction collectors inspired by her winning 2004 story. She is currently working on the Australia-based sequel, Blood for Breakfast, as well as a series of contemporary school stories, the first of which will be published in the UK next northern summer.

Linda Tubnor (Maribyrnong, Vic), a former teacher now working in the stormwater area, won Readings Books & Music 3rd prize ($250) for “Fence Hanger” which is loosely based on the experiences, knowledge and frustrations of wildlife rescuers. Linda's young creative writing efforts include a poem about a frog in a pond at age three and a prize in a poetry competition at age 14.

The Kerry Greenwood Malice Domestic Award ($500) went to Ballarat (Vic) writer Karen Allingham for her story “Breath of Life”, the story of a woman who discovers she is the victim of the ultimate deceit and betrayal by those she loves and trusts most. A mother of four, Allingham finds that writing crime is a therapeutic outlet for her own dark imagination. In more recent times her stories have been published in anthologies and online. In 2002 she won the Queen of Crime Special Section, a Partner in Crime (NSW) award, and in 2003 was shortlisted for the Scarlet Stiletto. She dabbles in other types of fiction, but finds that crime writing still keeps her from checking under the bed.

Brisbane (Bardon, Qld) author, Elli Housden took out Chronicles Bookshop Police Procedural Award ($200) for her story “Seventh Heaven”. A regular book reviewer for The Courier Mail, she has also written text books for secondary students, most often about writing skills. While crime writing is her central focus, she also dabbles in poetry.

Melbourne author (Sunbury, Vic) Wendy Laing won the Pulp Fiction Bookshop Award ($150 gift voucher) for the funniest story, “Risque Retirement” set in a retirement village. Laing, a self-confessed "Jill-of-all-Trades", has been a teacher, curriculum consultant, travel consultant, international airline employee and a professional dog trainer! Her books – two children books, two poetry books, and four mystery /paranormal mixed genre books – are published in e-book, audio and digital POD paperback formats. She was unable to attend the ceremony because today she moved into a retirement village.

Melbourne true crime author (East Brighton, Vic), Vikki Petraitis, won the inaugural Cate Kennedy Best New Talent Award ($350) for “Side Window” where murder comes to Kath of Fountaingate. Petraitis has been writing true crime since the early 1990s and her best-selling book The Frankston Murders about serial killer, Paul Denyer, was published in 1995. Petraitis’s last book was the very successful Forensics, which examines Australian cases where forensics played a part in their solution. Her latest book, Crime Scene Investigations, is due out in January 2008. A number of Vikki’s stories have been adapted for television and she has appeared on episodes of Sensing Murder hosted by Rebecca Gibney. She is also contributes stories to the Australian Police Journal.

“Xenos”, a story about animal-human hybrids by Evelyn Tsitas (Canterbury, Vic) was awarded the Dorothy Porter Award for Innovation ($250) (formerly a verse award). Tsitas is completing her Master of Arts in Creative Writing at RMIT University and the story she co-wrote with Caroline van de Pol was highly commended at last year’s awards. A former senior journalist at the Herald Sun, Tsitas has been a regular guest commentator on 774 ABC Melbourne's Drive show. Her children's operas Software and Bookworm, for which she wrote the libretti, have been performed by Opera Australia and the Victoria State Opera in schools throughout Victoria, ACT and NSW, as well as New Zealand and the United Kingdom as part of the school's program. Her play, Springs Eternal, was produced by the Melbourne Writers Theatre and performed at the Carlton Courthouse.

Special commendations also went to:

Mary Shuttleworth (Port Melbourne, Victoria) for “The Price” (Youth category)
Linda Westrupp (Oakdale, NSW) for “Saturday Night at Opus Club”
Jo McGahey (Belrose, NSW) for “A Private Family”
Brook McReynolds (Mackay, Qld) for “Murder Most Fine”
Natasha Molt (Kambah, ACT) for “The Spinster Killer”
Catherine Moffatt ( , NSW) for “The Dark Drive”
Lois Murphy (Brighton, Victoria) for “Proof”
Inga Simpson (Landers Shoot, Qld) for “Ferny Ridge Road”
Danielle Whish-Wilson (Adelaide, SA) for “Would You Hide It From Me”

Sisters in Crime spokesperson, Phyllis King, said this year there were several protaganists speaking from beyond the grave and quite a few female serial killers.

“We are unsure about what is happening in those retirement villages but seniors featured prominently in all sorts of criminal activity. Most perturbing, however, was the lack of sisterly affection – sisters did all sorts of things to each other, to their partners and to family members,” she said.

“Last year, Sisters in Crime was unable to award a prize for the funniest story. However, this year we had some great laughs and it was a lovely, hilarious, challenge to find the funniest.”

Ms King urged future entrants to remember that not all bad people have curly red hair.
Scarlet Stiletto – The First Cut (Mira), an anthology of prize-winning stories from the previous 13 years of the competition, was launched in August by Sigrid Thornton. The 374 page large-format paperback includes 26 stories by Tara Moss, Cate Kennedy, Kerry Munnery, Josephine Pennicott, Julie Waight, Jacqui Horwood, Louise Connor, Margaret Pollock, Dianne Gray, Christina Lee, Liz Cameron, Roxxy Bent, Sarah Evans, Inga Simpson, Ann Penhallurick, Liz Filleul, Margaret Bevege, Phyl O’Regan, Bronwyn Blake, Ronda Bird, Janis Spehr and Siobhan Mullany.

The 15th Scarlet Stiletto Awards close on August 31, 2008. The entry fee is $10. Entry forms will be available next year by writing to Sisters in Crime, GPO Box 5319, Melbourne 3001 or on its website: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~sincoz/

Print quality photos can be emailed on request.
Further info: Contact Phyllis King on 0409 885 587