Scarlet Stiletto - The First Cut

Lindy Cameron wanted to be a famous scientist when she grew up but became a surburban journalist instead, until she got bored filling the gaps between the ads and switched to book editing because it meant she didn't have to interview people. She is now a crime writer - which is what she wanted to be in the second place.

Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Moss is now a proud dual Australian/Canadian citizen, and resides in Sydney.  

In her first attempt at writing crime fiction, Cate won the inaugral Scarlet Stiletto Award in 1994 for her story 'Everything $2 On This Rack'.  She also won third prize for 'In Off the Black Ball'. After winning her second Scarlet Stiletto trophy the following year for her smuggling story 'Habit', she was 'forced' to give up entering and become a Judge.  Cate was, then, working in a second-hand bookshop in Daylesford.  She is now married with a child and living in Benalla where she writes full time and has just published her first short story collection - Dark Roots (Scribe).  'Habit' also wen on to win The Age Short Story competition in 2001.

A Melbourne writer who enjoys experimenting across a range of genres, Kerry has been placed in short story competitions including The Age, the Glen Eira Literary Awards, and the Greater Dandenong Short Story Competition, as well as the Scarlet Stiletto. Kerry has also published children's fiction and was shortlisted for the Silver Brumby Award for children's stories in 2005. 'Concealer' was her first attempt at crime fiction.

After winning second prize for 'Bait' in 2000, Josephine was awarded the eighth annual Scarlet Stiletto for the very disturbing 'Birthing the Demons'.  She then went on to win the 2003 third prize and Malice Domestic for 'Hail Mary'; the Malice Domestic again i 2004 for 'Tadpole'; and two special commendations in 2006 for 'Love Me Tender' and 'Children's Hour'. Josephine, a Sydney writer and artist, is also the author of three dark fantasy novels:  Circle of Nine, Bride of the Stone and A Fire in the Shell published by Simon & Schuster.

A writer from regional Victoria, Julie has been a teacher, storyteller, exercise instructor and currently works in an aged-care leisure and lifestyle program. She studied professional writing and editing through Victoria University; won first place in the 2002 Science Fiction Writers of Earth competition; and is undertaking a screen writing course. 'Dust Devils', Julie's hilarious tale of housework and revenge, won both the Scarlet Stiletto first prize and the Kerry Greenwood Malice Domestic Award.

A former Victoria Police staffer, Jacqui won the Scarlet Stiletto first prize trophy and the Chronicles Bookshop award for the Best Police Procedural for 'Slasher's Return'. Jacqui grew up on the mean streets of Frankston, reading the Famous Five and Nancy Drew and 'hoping to smash international spy rings'. She worked as a project officer for ten years at Victoria Police where she learned to decipher police jargon and recognise the difference between GBH and GHB.

A founding member of Sisters in Crime, Louise has twice won third prize in the Scarlet Stiletto awards. Louise, a former publicist and freelance journalist, is currently the Victorian Secretary of the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, which is the union and professional association for media and arts workers.

Dianne grew up in Canberra, the second youngest of six children, before moving to Cairns in the mid 1990s where she tried her hand at writing. Her 'first' short story won the Cairns Post Writers Award and since then she has won three Scarlet Stiletto category prizes as well as numerous writing awards. Dianne's first novel Let Sleeping Gods Lie won second prize in this year's IP Picks 'First Book' Award.

Christina won her first Scarlet Stiletto shoe trophy for 'Luisa' in 1996. Two years later she won her second first-prize trophy for 'Thursday Night at the Opera'; and a special commendation for 'Citizen's Arrest'. In 1997 between her two first prize wins, Christina - a professor of psychology at the University of Queensland - also won the Scarlet Stiletto third prize for 'Current Affairs'; and a special commendation for 'Friends'. With two winning shoes on her shelf, Christina is now a member of the judging panel.

A long-time member of Sisters in Crime, Liz has entered the Scarlet Stiletto competition and been shortlisted four times.  Her 2003 story earned a highly commended 'with a bullet'; and 'Shifty Business' took out third prize in 2002.  Liz has just made her second seachange, from the Mornington Peninsula to the Gippsland Lakes.

A South Australian writer, Roxxy won her first Scarlet Stiletto for 'Pecking Order' in 2002; and her second first-prize trophy in 2006 for 'Mrs Wilcox's Mik Saucepan'.  In between award 'shoes', Roxxy earned a special commendation in 2003 for 'The Inaugral Case of Shazza McFlint'. Roxxy was a founding member of Vitalstatistix National Women's Theatre, 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. The shoe was found in the gutter in St Kilda by a Sister in Crime member. Bent has had 11 of her plays professionally produced and lives with her partner, Margie, and their daughter Ruth, 100 chickens, four geese, three ducks, four alpacas and two dogs on an organic property in the Adelaide Hills.  "Winning the coveted Stiletto is such a thrill," she said. "Winning twice was a truly unexpected blast! It is so encouraging and is just what I needed. Writing is a long, slow business and winning the Stiletto Award is a huge boost to a writer's confidence." She is working on her first novel and is now a Stiletto Judge.

An English ex-pat and former news journalist, Sarah writes short stories, novellas, novels and poetry and is published in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. She also runs writing workshops. Her latest book is Seasons and Seasonings in a Teapot: an anthology of rural family life (Access Press). It's an account of modern pioneering life in the southwest of Western Australia, where Sarah lives on a hobby farm with her home-schooling family. Although Sarah writes across most genres, chick-lit crime is her current favourite

Inga Simpson is the winner of a Scarlet Stiletto Award for her short story 'Operation Bluewater', which was subsequently published in Scarlet Stiletto: The First Cut. She has a PhD in Creative Writing for her thesis on detective fiction, which included her novel, Fatal Development (2010). Inga lives in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. Her next novel, Mr Wigg, will be published by Hachette in July 2013

Ann is currently a full time PhD student, part-time psychologist and mother of three who runs solar-powered eco-friendly accommodation in the Blue Mountains bush. She has given herself a reliable diagnosis of hyperactivity.

Melbourne author and freelance editor, Liz had won two commendations before 'Brought to Book', her story about women fans of school girl stories, took out first prize in 2004. Born in the English Midlands, educated on the Welsh coast, and now living on top of a Victorian mountain with her Aussie husband, Liz gave up being a convenor of Sisters in Crime so she could enter the Scarlet Stilettos. She had a children's picture book, Tumbler, published in 2001; and her first crime novel, To All Appearances, Dead, will be published in the United Kingdom in 2007.

Margaret is a long-time member of Sisters in Crime Australia, and Partners in Crime Sydney.  She is represented in the Queen of Crime anthologies and has self-published the Detective Elizabeth Ludowski series, which is set in Brisbane.  Margaret is currently travelling around Australia writing on her laptop.

Residing on the Central Coast of New South Wales, where fishing and growing tomatoes are now the big thing, Phyl is a retired nursing sister. As a writer, however, she was won first prizes for poetry in competitions in Katoomba, Bendigo and Eaglehawk; has written for nursing journals and hospital centenary books; and has had short stories published in anthologies and in the Australian Womens Weekly. Phyl's greatest kick was winning a double at the 2002 Scarlet Stiletto awards. 'What We Do Best' took out the Dorothy Porter award for the Best Crime in Verse and the Pulp Fiction award for Funniest Crime. Phyl is now working on a mystery novel for young adults.

Bron Blake grew up in Melbourne and now lives near Maldon in central Victoria.  She has worked as a teacher and community worker. She has been writing full time since 2000, and was awarded the first May Gibbs Children's Literature Trust Mentorship for a new writer in the same year. Blake explains why she likes writing for young adults in the following quote from her website: "It's challenging to present difficult, "adult" ideas to people whose life experience is usually more limited simply because of their age...not their intelligence or understanding. Teenagers are open to new ideas and I'd like to think I had some part in introducing readers to new ways of looking at issues, people or experiencing an environment. I like to explore the ways in which people handle new and difficult situations, and how they change in dealing with them. I love writing about the courage and determination I see in young adults."

As a mature-age student at Melbourne University in the 1990's, Rhonda discovered a flair for writing short stories. After graduating she began entering competitions. Her first important success was in the Scarlet Stiletto awards when she won the 2000 Kerry Greenwood Malice Domestic prize. Since then Rhonda has won more than fifty short story prizes in Australia and Britain, both crime and open theme; and had stories published in United Kingdom magazines.

The third writer in seven years to win the Scarlet Stiletto first prize twice, Janis won her first shoe in 1999 for a story about murderous homophobia in country Victoria; and its pair in 2000, for a tale of murder, drugs and development in the Western District. Born in Victoria's west, Janis has also lived in Canberra and Melbourne. Her stories have appeared in a number of literary journals, and in 1999 she came equal first in the Canberra National Short Story Competition.

A Sydney solicitor specialising in criminal law, Siobhan won the Scarlet Stiletto first prize in 1997 for her story 'Floating in a Live Circuit'. Over the years Siobhan has represented clients in murder trials where the facts were more incredible than fiction. The short story is her favourite form and she hopes to submit more stories for publication that are as interesting as her work.

Sisters in Crime Australia have now published two collections of Scarlet Stiletto Award winning short stories.