Events, Signings & Gatherings

A real pity, there were very few takers (well the 4 of us) for the trivia contest.  I don't know if it was at 6.00pm on the Sunday or what, but people - next year, if Readers Feast do this - you really want to participate.  It's great fun and we managed to get 3 of us with the same final score, with Adam giving it a red hot go.  (We think he got to the question about Leigh Redhead's books and his brain froze ;) )

Anyway we came away with a lovely box of books that Sunnie and Helen divided up between them - with some also tucked aside for Andrea and Sally when they arrive from interstate for the writers festival week.

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Well .... this was one that came from out of the blue.  What a session.

Nigel Latta is a forensic psychologist in New Zealand - Into the Darklands is both a book and a TV series which it seems is coming to Australia.

He's a straight talker.  A very very straight talker.  He works with Sex Offenders and as the covering note to the session says - his professional practice involves treading carefully through a psychological minefield to reduce offending by helping his clients to confront the consequences of their crimes and ultimately themselves.

His session was open, brutally honest, funny, confrontational and incredibly moving in places.  The book was a must after listening to him speak.  As is my personal thanks - that swearing thing - a revelation.

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The next session on Sunday we attended was Writing from Life - Dorothy Johnston, Leigh Redhead and Angela Savage - with Beth Driscoll - talking about life experiences which inform their writing.  Interestingly all 3 writers have central female characters who tackle a range of different issues, and their books tackle issues in areas that they know well - Dorothy in Canberra - in the bureaucracy and within the sex industry  / Leigh in Melbourne and the sex industry as well and Angela in Asia and the world of AIDS prevention and therefore the sex industry as well.  It was interesting to hear the way that all 3 writers approach the writing of their books and the similarities and differences.  Dorothy's main female character is a mother who runs, with her partner, a cyber-crime private agency, Leigh's central character is a Stripper / Private Investigator and Angela's character is a PI in Thailand.  Another interesting set of observations about the observer versus the insider and the multi-layered nature of these books.  Another great session - and fabulous to finally get a chance to meet Angela after the event.

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Our midday panel on Sunday was all about police procedural novels - this time the panel members were Garry Disher, Barry Maitland and P D Martin, chaired by Marshall Browne.  Each of the panel members went through the various ways that they research and put together their procedural elements.  The interesting part of this panel is that each author sets their procedurals in a different country - Disher here, Maitland in the UK, Martin in the US and Browne in Italy amongst other locations.

The point that all authors made is that a police procedural isn't a procedural manual and that some artistic licence has to be taken to make the story readable, hence some adjustments on timeframes and many of the mind-bogglingly boring parts of an investigation are truncated somewhat.  The level of research undertaken was again interesting - with P D Martin bringing in some massively large research books that she frequently uses (the size of these things was truly astounding - nearly as sobering as the subject matter!)

Each author went through some of the access to experience that they have used / been able to access to get the procedural elements accurate - and to reflect the attitude and experience of actual police officers and investigation team members.

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The best thing about getting up at a ridiculously early hour to get into the city is that at the end of it you get to spend some time in charming company.  The session with Peter Temple was very much a conversation with he and Clare Forster talking about a range of things including the vagaries of plotting on whiteboards, the difficulties in trying not to repeat yourself, and the difference in writing a novel like Shooting Star and In The Evil Day.  Peter Temple has a background as a journalist (which he calls an antidote to writing (I think he's partly joking / maybe totally joking - it's hard to tell :) ), and he has a particular fondness for writing dialogue.  He did go through the problems in writing realistic "reading" dialogue as opposed to realistic "said" dialogue which was interesting.  He also answered a number of questions from the audience and talked about the vagaries of working with film / tv adaptations of the writers work.  It sounds like he's had some very nice lunches and some very sobering experiences.

Luckily I'd taken my second copy of Shooting Star to be signed as this was one of the books that he spoke about - written very quickly to get the feeling of rush and panic inherent in the subject matter, the book is one that he mentioned he thinks fondly on.  I'd read it originally many years ago so was pleased to revisit it on it's re-release.  It does give the reader a feeling of the intense pressure of the circumstance, and it is different from his other books - in particular The Broken Shore.  If you haven't read it - give it a go.

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