Hazel Edwards, author of 200 books and most famously for her classic children’s book, There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake, has returned to crime. She writes: Recently my adult murder mystery Celebrant Sleuth became unexpectedly topical. I was correcting galley proofs on the day the same-sex marriage legislation was passed. Timely? Serendipitous? Or …
Sisters in Crime Australia’s 18th Davitt Awards for the best crime and mystery books by Australian women are now open. Publishers have until Friday 20 April to enter. For the first time, self-published books are eligible to enter. Six Davitt Awards will be presented at a gala dinner in Melbourne, probably in late August or …
Sisters in Crime gets big coverage in Fairfax Media today (12 February). It’s all thanks to a full-page article by Linda Morris about Dervla McTiernan whose debut novel, The Ruin, is out in April. Dervla credits being shortlisted in the 2015 Scarlet Stiletto Awards with giving her enough confidence to go through five drafts of …
Sydney writer Rowena Harding-Smith (Annandale, NSW) took out the 24th Scarlet Stiletto Short Story Award presented on Saturday night (18 November) at Melbourne’s Swinburne University of Technology by actor Sigrid Thornton (below). A hundred crime fans braved the tempest to attend the ceremony. Harding-Smith was awarded The Bonnier Publishing First Prize ($1500) for “Locked In, …
Anne Buist is the author of the series featuring forensic psychiatrist, Natalie King. Here she ponders the oft-given advice, about writing what you know We all know actors do it—research who they are to play by living their lives, wearing their clothes, walking in their shoes. They lose or gain vast amounts of weight (Adrien Brody for …
For the past six years, the Body in the Library Award offered by the Melbourne Athenaeum Library has been one of the most popular categories in Sisters in Crime’s annual Scarlet Stiletto short story competition. The winner takes home $1000 in prize money with $500 going to the runner-up. This partnership has seen the number …
Portia, the annual journal and report of Victorian Women Lawyers, published an interview late last year with Ruth Wykes, winner of the 2016 Scarlet Stiletto Awards, for her story “Stone Cold”. The story also won the ScriptWorks Great Film Idea Award. Ruth is also co-author of two true crime collections: Women Who Kill, written with …
The Melbourne Athenaeum Library, a great supporter of Sisters in Crime, runs a crime-fiction book club each month on Monday evening at 5.45pm. New members are very welcome. The group is comprised of hard boiled fans of the crime fiction genre and the discussion is led by crime fiction insider Rose Blustein. The group selects the …
Firstly, decide you have to prepare for crushing disappointment, so spend the two weeks over-analysing everyone’s tone of voice and body language and conclude that it is unlikely you won anything. Then spend the next week stopping yourself from ringing or emailing the co-convenor and begging her for a clue. Make yourself thoroughly miserable in …
Emma Viskic spoke to Sisters in Crime’s national co-convenor, Robyn Walton, about her second Caleb Zelic novel, And Fire Came Down (Echo, 2017). The first in the series, Resurrection Bay, won three Davitt Awards and the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction. Emma, your first crime novel, Resurrection Bay, published in 2015, was a …