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I was lucky enough to spend last weekend at The Crime and Justice Festival (run by excellent bookshop Readers' Feast) in Melbourne this past weekend.

The third year this festival has been held it's a great time to catch up with friends (all of whom I know from online book discussion groups), sit in some thought provoking (or just flat out amusing) panels, get some favourite books signed, listen to some favourite authors, eat a little, drink a little (stop spluttering - we're restrained... sort of), buy some books, talk about books, talk about stuff and generally enjoy.

This year we were lucky enough to hear Kerry Greenwood (Festival Patron) talk about her life as a legal aid solicitor, Garry Disher, Adrian Hyland, Sulari Gentill, Felicity Young, Robert Gott, David Hewson, Angela Savage, Russell Robinson amongst lots and lots of other people.  We heard tales of court life; tales of the Painters and Dockers; ideas on how to get your book noticed, published and what to do once that happens; a glimpse of how your own personal experience does (and doesn't) inform your writing; and nicely this year, we heard some readings from authors from their books.

It is a great weekend in a beautiful location, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves - looking forward to next year I can tell you.

(You'll notice a few new books purchased over the weekend... only a few.  Although I did have a lot of trouble fitting clothes back into my suitcase after I'd packed those books).  Still - there are worse things in the world to be addicted to... aren't there?

(Good news incidentally - Angela Savage's second book is on the way, Robert Gott is writing a new Will Power mystery, there's another Wyatt in the planning as well as Adrian is promising another Emily book). 

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The list of nominees for the 2010 Davitt Awards has now been released.  More wonderful reading to catch up on!

* Marks the ones I've had the good fortune to read so far.

ADULT FICTION

Allen & Unwin - Sharp Shooter by Marianne Delacourt *

Allen & Unwin - Forbidden Fruit by Kerry Greenwood *

Allen & Unwin - Red Dust by Fleur McDonald

Arcadia - Steel River by Antoinette Eklund

Hachette - Dark Country by Bronwyn Parry

Harper Collins - Labyrinth of Drowning by Alex Palmer *

Harper Collins - Too Many Murders by Colleen McCulloch

Harper Collins - A Beautiful Death by Fiona McIntosh *

Harper Collins - Siren by Tara Moss

Harper Collins - Gene Thieves by Maria Quinn

Harper Collins - Gladiatrix by Rhonda Roberts

Pan MacMillan - Move to Strike by Sydney Bauer

Pan MacMillan - Pearl in a Cage by Joy Dettman

Pan MacMillan - Bloodborn by Kathryn Fox

Pan MacMillan - The Killing Hands by PD Martin

Polygon Press - The Devil's Staircase, Helen Fitzgerald

Penguin - Riding High by Emma Boling

Penguin - H (Honey) M Brown by Red Queen

Random House - Ghost Child: The Past Is Always Close Behind by Caroline Overington

Random House - Black Ice by Leah Giarrantano *

Zeus Publications - Pestle & Mortar by Carol Gibson

CHILDREN’S AND YOUNG ADULT FICTION

Allen & Unwin - The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks

Allen & Unwin - Genius Wars by Catherine Jinks

Allen & Unwin - Liar by Justine Larbalestier

Interactive Publications - Hedgeburners: An A~Z Mystery by Goldie Alexander

Random House - Pop Princess by Isabelle Merlin

Random House - Cupid’s Arrow by Isabelle Merlin

Scholastic Australia - Conspiracy 365 - January by Gabrielle Lord *

Walker Press - The Walk Right in Detective Agency – Bad News for Milk Bay by Moya Simons

Walker Press - The Walk Right in Detective Agency – On the Case The Walk by Moya Simons

Walker Press - Right in Detective Agency – Mischief Afoot by Moya Simons

TRUE CRIME

Allen & Unwin - Lady Killer: How Conman Bruce Burrell Kidnapped and Killed Rich Women for Their Money by Candace Sutton and Ellen Connolly

Boolarong Press - A Greater Guilt: Constance Emilie Kent and the Road Murder by Noelene Kyle

Ford Street Publishing - Crime Time: Australians Behaving Badly by Sue Bursztynski

Jewel Publishing - Salvation – The True Story of Rod Braybon’s Fight for Justice by Vikki Petraitis *

PanMacmillan - Hotel Kerobokan: The Shocking Inside Story of Bali's Most Notorious Jail by Kathryn Bonella

Random House Lambs to the Slaughter by Debi Marshall

The Five Mile Press - Blood Brothers: Justice at Last by Robin Bowles

The Five Mile Press - Outside the Law 3 by Lindy Cameron, ed. *

Viking (Penguin) - Forensic Investigator: True Stories from the Life of a Country Crime Scene Cop by Esther Mckay

Looks like I'd better get reading.

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Congratulations to Peter Temple, who has just been announced as the 2010 Miles Franklin winner:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/22/2934164.htm

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Post the release of his latest book BLEED FOR ME Michael Robotham generously spared me some time when he was in Melbourne recently.
 
BLEED FOR ME is the 5th book in Robotham's central series, which is cleverly based around a shifting focus of 3 loosely connected characters.  Unexpectedly, but pleasingly for readers, BLEED FOR ME sees the focus staying with Professor Joe O'Loughlin following on from SHATTER.
 
Michael, born and raised in NSW Australia, followed his dream of a journalism cadetship at seventeen.  From there to ghost-writing autobiographies, and ultimately the start of this series of books, starting out with a bidding war at the 2002 London Book Fair for THE SUSPECT.  Aside from the storytelling ability demonstrated, there are some really interesting elements within the make-up of this popular series of books.

Setting a book in another country from the one that you live in is a challenge, but as Michael says - the observer's eye sees things differently from the day to day participant.  Perhaps that is why his books have achieved popularity in a wide range of countries, as Michael uses the language, and describes the places in a way that is extremely accessible to an outsider, in particular.
 
The change in viewpoint via the use of the 3 different protagonists is a particularly memorable aspect of the books, not just because these three people are somewhat loosely connected.  Joe O'Loughlin and Vincent Ruiz start out as colleagues in the police and ancillary services, with that relationship switching quickly to an ongoing friendship and trust.  DC Alisha Barba hasn't made an appearance in recent books, but she is, again, a colleague, a friend, a compatriot. Michael speaks of his characters with affection and exasperation, understanding and affection.  He has set up less of a "team", more people who as a result of circumstances, have built up relationships and rapport.  They are people who the author brings together, allows to form understandings, sympathies, and relationships, as easily as he can make them stand alone.  In Michael's hands, in particular, O'Loughlin and Ruiz have a very realistic very male style of relationship with a shared friendship and care, alongside a realistic and dispassionate assessment of each other's strengths and weaknesses.

Michael is also interested in exploring conflict within an individual and O'Loughlin is the perfect antidote to the bullet-proof, invincible, chisel-jawed hero of many books.  O'Loughlin has early onset Parkinson's, physically frail, Michael admits that the juxtaposition of a brilliant mind and a failing body was a scenario that fascinated him, but one he may not have tackled with hindsight.  Despite the difficulties of ensuring that the progression is believable, and aside from the cruel and difficult position he has put a character he has a great liking for in, Michael has ended up with a flawed human, a brilliant mind that can be frustratingly blinkered.  Joe can see how other people work, analyse the criminal mind and even support his colleagues and friends.  Take him into his own family and he struggles, the one person in the world that he cannot seem to get any sort of a handle on is himself.
 
Using real-life events as a trigger for the plots of the books, BLEED FOR ME's central theme of a predatory school teacher - grooming female students, had its genesis in a true story of a man whose first wife had disappeared with a very young, ex-student becoming his second wife.  Looking back at each of the books, there has been an event in real-life that has triggered a thought process, that ultimately results in the book.  A sobering thought, Michael balances the intrusion of the evil side of reality with a complicated, touching, real and fragile family situation.  Readers of SHATTER will know that the book ended with the Joe's wife Julianne leaving him, and somehow that seemed like such an extreme and almost cruel thing for her to do.  BLEED FOR ME explores more of Julianne's motives, her feelings, her viewpoint, and it will go some way towards repairing her shattered reputation with Joe's fans and supporters.  Or at least that's what Michael and his own wife hopes (she was one of the most vocal supporters of the need for another Joe book - to set the story straight and spell out Julianne's viewpoint).

The question of family relationships is obviously something that Michael also finds particularly interesting - he does say that he enjoys writing the family's story and that they are people who live and breath in his head.  There's a wonderful reality to the changing relationship between a doting father and a teenage daughter pushing away, made particularly poignant by the recent threats as a result of Joe's job (events in SHATTER continue to reverberate through all of Joe's family).
 
We also briefly touched on SHATTER, the Ned Kelly winning novel immediately before BLEED FOR ME.  Anyone who hasn't read that book yet, should seriously consider doing so.  As a pure psychological thriller, there's actually a very low violence and body count.  What there is, however, is a sense of pure evil - a cruel, focused, inhuman and ruthless mind against the equally ruthless, but conflicted and very human mind of Joe.  A worthy winner of the Ned Kelly Award in 2008 indeed.
 
It's easy to forget the importance of the Ned Kelly's.  Michael now has two awards - LOST in 2005 and Shatter in 2008, and whilst the awards may not be the best known in Australia, Michael really believes they mean a lot to the authors, their publishers and their publicists and they do mean something overseas.  To win a Ned Kelly in Australia is now an indicator that this is a book / author to be commented on.
 
As is the way with Australian writers, and readers lately, at some point the subject of rights (particularly Australian territorial copyright) and the future of the publishing industry arises.  Michael, as do other authors, regard the rise of ebooks and the general questions of Digital Rights Management warily.  The rise of illegal copying of software, movies, TV shows, music and now ebooks is an ongoing concern for everybody.  Not just a problem for the creators of the content - the musicians, the movie and TV producers, the authors; it is also going to be a problem for the consumer.  Imagine a world in which the Michael Robotham's do not receive a reasonable recompense for what is, after all, a huge chunk of their time perfecting their output, creating an entertainment that is of immeasurable value to their fan base.  If that fan base isn't willing to take some personal responsibility for ensuring that we contribute (by buying the book / the ebook / the audio book / the software program / the track / the DVD) then we run the risk of ruining that which we are so keen to possess that we will, (let's call a spade a spade) steal to get.  It's not just a crime against "the big companies" - we need to stop pretending.
 

Now the extremely good news is that Michael says the next book is already well underway.  Stand by for The Wreckage with Vincent Ruiz, a thriller set in the context of the Global Financial Crisis.
 
As if that's not enough to tempt fans (and new fans) of Michael Robotham's books - there is also the chance of a non-series book, set in Australia on the way as well.

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A while ago I bought an ereader (ECOReader - not store or manufacturer aligned / supports heaps of different formats / Linux installation - ticked all my boxes in other words).  I didn't buy it as a device to become a rogue reader though, far from it actually.

We've been listening to, involved in, asked about and thought about digital rights a lot lately.  I guess this is something that we have a slightly different perspective on - having been in the business of giving away free software (open source) and using free software (don't need to use Microsoft software on my laptop or Netbook - miss out on nothing by not) for ages now.   (Disclaimer - I'm now involved in a small publishing venture and we're about to start releasing some ebooks as well).

One of the most frequent concerns voiced is, however, not by the consumer of copyrighted material - it's by the producers.  How are we going to make a living in a world where copyright seems to no longer be respected.  Where free downloads, ripping off of materials and wanton distribution of illegal materials is not just condoned, it's often celebrated.

This is now becoming an issue for authors as the craze for ebooks takes off.

Whilst the producers can have a go at protecting their copyright it's more often than not a fairly futile exercise - there is always somebody less than 1 step behind them cracking protection schemes, doing the distribution, pressing on with the theft.  And that's what it ultimately is - it's theft.  And it's not theft "from the big boys" therefore it's okay.  This is no Robin Hood behaviour people, let's not for a moment pretend that it is.  The artists are providing you with the means to entertain yourself, and you're stealing that effort.

Now I'm not for a moment pretending that we have all the answers in open source - and it is a model that has been struggling along under the weight of it's own issues for a long time now, but there are people making a living giving their main product (the software) away.  There are also other people who use the medium as a way into a living (as a springboard for a job).  There are ways that free product can be used to leverage an end result for the producer.  But there is also a concomitant obligation on the part of all consumers to acknowledge that without the producers, you have nothing to consume.  This idea that you can just steal what you want, when you want, because it's "electronic" is just pathetic and attempts to wrap it up as anything other than that - well who do you think you're kidding.

But on the more positive side, there are ideas out there - methods for leveraging are starting to be articulated and we're always on the lookout for these.

Recently 1,000 True Fans came up:  http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/03/1000_true_fans.php

Have a look - you might find it an interesting, if not slightly daunting idea.

In the meantime - if you're reading these posts on your pilfered copy of commercial software, or you're quietly listening to a music track that you illegally downloaded - snap out of it.  If you can't afford to buy the stuff - look for the Open Source / free alternative.  But for goodness sake, have some backbone and support the artists, software developers, authors, film and TV producers that entertain you and allow you to work.

(Second disclaimer - I have Torrented a bit in the past - conscience very quickly got the better of me.)

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