Katherine Howell's Blog, page 3
December 14, 2011
It's nearly Christmas!
Hello everyone!
Well, here we are, a week and a half out from Christmas, two weeks off the end of the year, and six from the release of my new book Silent Fear. Exciting times! I've already done a couple of interviews, and Pan Macmillan publicist Caitlin is madly organising speaking events. Once I get the list I'll post it on the Events page so you can see where I'm going. And I have great news -- Get Reading! has selected it as one of their Guaranteed Good Reads which means the cover will have the gorgeous silver sticker telling you that and our tour which was originally covering only the east coast is now extended to WA and SA as well, so it's even more likely that I might turn up somewhere near you!
In other news, I recently had a post appear on fellow author and friend Ian Irvine's blog. Ian blogs regularly on writing and is a hugely prolific fantasy author too. If you're an aspiring author I highly recommend his 'One-Page Guide to Storytelling' and his series of posts on the 'Truth about Publishing'.
Did you know that 2012 is the National Year of Reading? I'm joining the Australian Women Writers Reading Challenge to celebrate it. This is a brilliant idea by Elizabeth Lhuede who is challenging people to sign up and not only read more but write reviews. I'm signing up as a 'dabbler' (reading and reviewing more than one genre) and aiming for Stella level (reading at least three and reviewing at least two books). I'd like to aim higher and with any luck over the course of the year I'll make it, but with books to edit and write myself it's best not to get too excited! As I said I think this is a brilliant idea and I invite you all to have a look at the site and think about taking part. The reviews don't have to be long and it's fine if you didn't like the book as well. As Elizabeth says, this is about having fun!
Are you on Goodreads? Today I got myself organised and finished setting up my author page there. There are a number of reviews of my books, and as I get into writing my own reviews they'll be posted as well.
This weekend sees the last workshop of my 2011 Year of the Edit class. It's been a fantastic five months for me - I hope the group feels the same way! Funny how teaching always gives you insight into your own work too. It starts all over again in January with a brand-new group, and if you live in or near Brisbane and have a novel manuscript you're not sure how to edit, why don't you come and join us? Check out the Learn with Katherine page for more info.
Time to wrap all this up. This is probably my final post for 2011, so I want to wish you all a very happy Christmas, a fun-filled new year's, and a wonderful 2012.
cheers,
Katherine.
Well, here we are, a week and a half out from Christmas, two weeks off the end of the year, and six from the release of my new book Silent Fear. Exciting times! I've already done a couple of interviews, and Pan Macmillan publicist Caitlin is madly organising speaking events. Once I get the list I'll post it on the Events page so you can see where I'm going. And I have great news -- Get Reading! has selected it as one of their Guaranteed Good Reads which means the cover will have the gorgeous silver sticker telling you that and our tour which was originally covering only the east coast is now extended to WA and SA as well, so it's even more likely that I might turn up somewhere near you!
In other news, I recently had a post appear on fellow author and friend Ian Irvine's blog. Ian blogs regularly on writing and is a hugely prolific fantasy author too. If you're an aspiring author I highly recommend his 'One-Page Guide to Storytelling' and his series of posts on the 'Truth about Publishing'.
Did you know that 2012 is the National Year of Reading? I'm joining the Australian Women Writers Reading Challenge to celebrate it. This is a brilliant idea by Elizabeth Lhuede who is challenging people to sign up and not only read more but write reviews. I'm signing up as a 'dabbler' (reading and reviewing more than one genre) and aiming for Stella level (reading at least three and reviewing at least two books). I'd like to aim higher and with any luck over the course of the year I'll make it, but with books to edit and write myself it's best not to get too excited! As I said I think this is a brilliant idea and I invite you all to have a look at the site and think about taking part. The reviews don't have to be long and it's fine if you didn't like the book as well. As Elizabeth says, this is about having fun!
Are you on Goodreads? Today I got myself organised and finished setting up my author page there. There are a number of reviews of my books, and as I get into writing my own reviews they'll be posted as well.
This weekend sees the last workshop of my 2011 Year of the Edit class. It's been a fantastic five months for me - I hope the group feels the same way! Funny how teaching always gives you insight into your own work too. It starts all over again in January with a brand-new group, and if you live in or near Brisbane and have a novel manuscript you're not sure how to edit, why don't you come and join us? Check out the Learn with Katherine page for more info.
Time to wrap all this up. This is probably my final post for 2011, so I want to wish you all a very happy Christmas, a fun-filled new year's, and a wonderful 2012.
cheers,
Katherine.
November 24, 2011
Silent Fear is at the printers!
Hi all,
my apologies for not having posted for so long. The closer we come to the end of the year, the faster time flies! But apart from that I've been flat-out writing a journal article for uni, working on book 6, and also reading the final pages of Silent Fear. That's the last step in what can be a six to twelve month-long process of editing - this year it took ten months. It sounds like a long time but it's not when you (a) consider that this book is just one of possibly hundreds that the publisher and editor work on during that time and (b) break the steps of that process down.
First the editor and publisher read the manuscript I send in, talk it over and write their structural edit report. This focuses on (obviously) the structural problems: whether the clues add up, whether there are timing issues in the plotline, whether there are gaping holes in the story, whether the characters and plot are believable - all those big picture-type things. That takes around four to six weeks, and I get about the same to go over the report and digest the ideas and suggestions, then work over the manuscript, fixing the issues one by one. It can be a big and daunting job, so it's very satisfying to be able to cross each point off the report as I go. Then I send it back in again, the publisher and editor read it once more, and assuming those big problems are fixed they begin their line edit. This looks more closely at the actual writing, hunting down clunky phrasing and awkward sentences, and tightening wherever possible. A third person comes in to help here, a freelance copy-editor, and I'm fortunate to have worked with the same one for a number of books (hi Nicola!). Then the marked-up manuscript comes back to me again, maybe a couple of months later. This year we used track changes and emailed the 460 page document back and forth, which was a little different, as with each previous book it's been done on paper. Apart from the obvious benefit of saving trees, and not having to worry about losing the one and only copy with all our comments on it in the post, I don't know that one way is better than the other: I think whichever method you use, you soon get used to it.
So I go over this next lot of comments and agree or disagree and make my own changes too. By this point the manuscript is so familiar to me I'm sure it's deadly dull and boring, but I know I go through that stage with every book and I just have to keep working. Then back it goes to the publisher again, the changes are made to the text, then it's typeset onto A4 pages. Now we can see what the pages will look like in the book! These are called final pages, and we all read them again, looking now for things that slipped past everyone's eyes: typos, lay-out issues, and so on. From this point it starts to get expensive to change too much, so unless there are major issues (which there shouldn't be, considering all the work everyone's put in) the changes are limited to tweaks and fixing mistakes. Once these little things are done, the manuscript goes to the printer, and that's where Silent Fear went yesterday.
You can see where that time goes - a couple of months here, a couple of months there. But now it's just over two months until the book is on the shelves, and I can tell you that's always a highly anticipated moment for any author! There are plans for a bit of a tour along the East Coast, and when I have details of events I'll be sure to post them here.
But of course between then and now stands book 6! It's coming along really well, and I'm looking forward to the day when I sent it in to my publisher, and the whole process begins once more.
cheers,
Katherine.
ps - Speaking of editing, I'm teaching Year of the Edit again next year at the QLD Writers Centre. If you're interested, hop on over to my 'Learn with Katherine' page and find out more.
my apologies for not having posted for so long. The closer we come to the end of the year, the faster time flies! But apart from that I've been flat-out writing a journal article for uni, working on book 6, and also reading the final pages of Silent Fear. That's the last step in what can be a six to twelve month-long process of editing - this year it took ten months. It sounds like a long time but it's not when you (a) consider that this book is just one of possibly hundreds that the publisher and editor work on during that time and (b) break the steps of that process down.
First the editor and publisher read the manuscript I send in, talk it over and write their structural edit report. This focuses on (obviously) the structural problems: whether the clues add up, whether there are timing issues in the plotline, whether there are gaping holes in the story, whether the characters and plot are believable - all those big picture-type things. That takes around four to six weeks, and I get about the same to go over the report and digest the ideas and suggestions, then work over the manuscript, fixing the issues one by one. It can be a big and daunting job, so it's very satisfying to be able to cross each point off the report as I go. Then I send it back in again, the publisher and editor read it once more, and assuming those big problems are fixed they begin their line edit. This looks more closely at the actual writing, hunting down clunky phrasing and awkward sentences, and tightening wherever possible. A third person comes in to help here, a freelance copy-editor, and I'm fortunate to have worked with the same one for a number of books (hi Nicola!). Then the marked-up manuscript comes back to me again, maybe a couple of months later. This year we used track changes and emailed the 460 page document back and forth, which was a little different, as with each previous book it's been done on paper. Apart from the obvious benefit of saving trees, and not having to worry about losing the one and only copy with all our comments on it in the post, I don't know that one way is better than the other: I think whichever method you use, you soon get used to it.
So I go over this next lot of comments and agree or disagree and make my own changes too. By this point the manuscript is so familiar to me I'm sure it's deadly dull and boring, but I know I go through that stage with every book and I just have to keep working. Then back it goes to the publisher again, the changes are made to the text, then it's typeset onto A4 pages. Now we can see what the pages will look like in the book! These are called final pages, and we all read them again, looking now for things that slipped past everyone's eyes: typos, lay-out issues, and so on. From this point it starts to get expensive to change too much, so unless there are major issues (which there shouldn't be, considering all the work everyone's put in) the changes are limited to tweaks and fixing mistakes. Once these little things are done, the manuscript goes to the printer, and that's where Silent Fear went yesterday.
You can see where that time goes - a couple of months here, a couple of months there. But now it's just over two months until the book is on the shelves, and I can tell you that's always a highly anticipated moment for any author! There are plans for a bit of a tour along the East Coast, and when I have details of events I'll be sure to post them here.
But of course between then and now stands book 6! It's coming along really well, and I'm looking forward to the day when I sent it in to my publisher, and the whole process begins once more.
cheers,
Katherine.
ps - Speaking of editing, I'm teaching Year of the Edit again next year at the QLD Writers Centre. If you're interested, hop on over to my 'Learn with Katherine' page and find out more.
October 14, 2011
Cold Justice wins!
Last post I talked about the wonderful SheKilda crime conference and the Davitt awards. This post I'm delighted to tell you that Cold Justice won the Davitt for best adult crime novel! I was extra thrilled to learn that I'm the first author to have won that category twice (the other time was for my debut novel Frantic). The entire conference was wonderful, and the awards night as fun and funny as ever. Here are a couple of pics:
From left: Colleen Egan, winner of the best true crime award for her book Murderer No More; Penny Matthews who won the young adult section for A Girl Like Me; Leigh Redhead who won highly commended in the adult section for Thrill City (which I can promise you is an awesome read, as are the first three in the series); me with my award; and guest presenter Shamini Flint, who was completely delightful and hilarious. Missing from this pic is PM Newton who won the readers' choice category with The Old School.
Here's Leigh Redhead and me with our friend Deb who won the 'have a character named after you in the winner's next book' raffle, so look out for 'Deb' in book 6 of the Ella Marconi series!
As I said, the conference was wonderful. My interview with Margie Orford went well, and she was so interesting to talk to. My other panels were great too. I sat in on a few others as well: one talking about writing for TV, another on balancing crime-writing and motherhood (not that I have any plans, nosirree), a third featuring forensic specialists talking about how they'd go about processing a crime scene and analysing evidence. But perhaps the best aspect of any event like this is catching up with old friends and making new ones, and I'd like to say thanks and hi to all those people :)
In other news, the page proofs of Silent Fear are finally done and on their way back to the publisher (which is why it's taken me a week to write about the Davitts!) and I'm working hard on book 6. And I'd better get back to it! But before I go, if you're an aspiring writer check out my friend Ian Irvine's blog, where he's discussing the truth about publishing and sharing his top tips on storytelling too.
Cheers!
Katherine.
From left: Colleen Egan, winner of the best true crime award for her book Murderer No More; Penny Matthews who won the young adult section for A Girl Like Me; Leigh Redhead who won highly commended in the adult section for Thrill City (which I can promise you is an awesome read, as are the first three in the series); me with my award; and guest presenter Shamini Flint, who was completely delightful and hilarious. Missing from this pic is PM Newton who won the readers' choice category with The Old School.
Here's Leigh Redhead and me with our friend Deb who won the 'have a character named after you in the winner's next book' raffle, so look out for 'Deb' in book 6 of the Ella Marconi series! As I said, the conference was wonderful. My interview with Margie Orford went well, and she was so interesting to talk to. My other panels were great too. I sat in on a few others as well: one talking about writing for TV, another on balancing crime-writing and motherhood (not that I have any plans, nosirree), a third featuring forensic specialists talking about how they'd go about processing a crime scene and analysing evidence. But perhaps the best aspect of any event like this is catching up with old friends and making new ones, and I'd like to say thanks and hi to all those people :)
In other news, the page proofs of Silent Fear are finally done and on their way back to the publisher (which is why it's taken me a week to write about the Davitts!) and I'm working hard on book 6. And I'd better get back to it! But before I go, if you're an aspiring writer check out my friend Ian Irvine's blog, where he's discussing the truth about publishing and sharing his top tips on storytelling too.
Cheers!
Katherine.
October 2, 2011
October news.
Well, here we are, in October already. Things are hotting up at my other half's bookshop as their new releases for Christmas start to roll in, and all is busy here in the home office too.
The page proofs of Silent Fear have arrived, which means one more read-through to make sure everything works and to hunt down any typos/printing issues/etc. It's interesting to see it at this point, because up till now it's always been laid out like a manuscript: on an A4 page with 3 cm margins all around. Now it's still on an A4 page but it's set out as the page will be in the book, so it has lines marking the corners of the book page, proper chapter headings, page numbers on the bottom and my name and the title on the tops of alternate pages. It's 404 pages but of course when it's a book it'll be printed on both sides of the pages so it won't look like the huge thick thing it is now. It's exciting to see it come together and I can't wait till its release in February!
The sixth book in the series is coming along well too. Can't tell you anything about title or content just yet :) but I can tell you that I'm loving writing it!
I'm loving reading too. I've just finished Lee Child's new Jack Reacher novel, The Affair. This is really a prequel, set before the first book in the series (The Killing Floor), and shows beautifully how Reacher comes to be the man we know so well from the series. It is (of course) as gripping and thrilling as the other books, so whether you're a fan or you've never read Child before, I really encourage you to get this one.
Other books I'm reading are crime novels from a range of fantastic Aussie writers: The Brotherhood by YA Erskine, The Old School by PM Newton, Border Watch (aka Wings of Fear) by Helene Young, and a re-look at Blood Born by Kathryn Fox. I'm interviewing this awesome bunch next Sunday at SheKilda, Australia's second-ever crime conference, in Melbourne. We're going to be talking about doing the jobs we write about - an excellent topic, don't you think, considering that Helene Young is a pilot in nth QLD and writes about that, Kathryn Fox was a doctor and writes about that, and YA and PM were cops and they write about that? What better insight could you hope for? I'm looking forward to putting all sorts of questions to them, and to hearing the audience's questions too.
I'm also reading books by Margie Orford, one of SheKilda's international guests, who I'll be interviewing in a one-on-one on Saturday afternoon. I'm looking forward to finding out about the background behind her stories and how she works.
All these women write excellent books that you really can't put down! and it's going to be a marvellous weekend. Check out the programme for details of these and other sessions, and how to book. One feature of the conference is the Davitt Awards, an annual award for the best crime books by Australian women published in the previous year. in the categories of best adult novel, best children's/YA novel, best true crime, and reader's choice as voted for by the members of Sisters in Crime. This year I have two in the running - Cold Justice and Violent Exposure. You can attend the awards as part of the conference or buy tickets separately here.
In other news, we had a fantastic time on our holiday in Tasmania, and if you're heading that way I can recommend a stay at The Hideaway. It's a truly gorgeous place and we had the most relaxing couple of days there, sitting on the balcony reading and listening to the sea wash onto the rocks all of forty metres away.
Hope all's well in your world!
cheers,
Katherine.
The page proofs of Silent Fear have arrived, which means one more read-through to make sure everything works and to hunt down any typos/printing issues/etc. It's interesting to see it at this point, because up till now it's always been laid out like a manuscript: on an A4 page with 3 cm margins all around. Now it's still on an A4 page but it's set out as the page will be in the book, so it has lines marking the corners of the book page, proper chapter headings, page numbers on the bottom and my name and the title on the tops of alternate pages. It's 404 pages but of course when it's a book it'll be printed on both sides of the pages so it won't look like the huge thick thing it is now. It's exciting to see it come together and I can't wait till its release in February!
The sixth book in the series is coming along well too. Can't tell you anything about title or content just yet :) but I can tell you that I'm loving writing it!
I'm loving reading too. I've just finished Lee Child's new Jack Reacher novel, The Affair. This is really a prequel, set before the first book in the series (The Killing Floor), and shows beautifully how Reacher comes to be the man we know so well from the series. It is (of course) as gripping and thrilling as the other books, so whether you're a fan or you've never read Child before, I really encourage you to get this one.
Other books I'm reading are crime novels from a range of fantastic Aussie writers: The Brotherhood by YA Erskine, The Old School by PM Newton, Border Watch (aka Wings of Fear) by Helene Young, and a re-look at Blood Born by Kathryn Fox. I'm interviewing this awesome bunch next Sunday at SheKilda, Australia's second-ever crime conference, in Melbourne. We're going to be talking about doing the jobs we write about - an excellent topic, don't you think, considering that Helene Young is a pilot in nth QLD and writes about that, Kathryn Fox was a doctor and writes about that, and YA and PM were cops and they write about that? What better insight could you hope for? I'm looking forward to putting all sorts of questions to them, and to hearing the audience's questions too.
I'm also reading books by Margie Orford, one of SheKilda's international guests, who I'll be interviewing in a one-on-one on Saturday afternoon. I'm looking forward to finding out about the background behind her stories and how she works.
All these women write excellent books that you really can't put down! and it's going to be a marvellous weekend. Check out the programme for details of these and other sessions, and how to book. One feature of the conference is the Davitt Awards, an annual award for the best crime books by Australian women published in the previous year. in the categories of best adult novel, best children's/YA novel, best true crime, and reader's choice as voted for by the members of Sisters in Crime. This year I have two in the running - Cold Justice and Violent Exposure. You can attend the awards as part of the conference or buy tickets separately here.
In other news, we had a fantastic time on our holiday in Tasmania, and if you're heading that way I can recommend a stay at The Hideaway. It's a truly gorgeous place and we had the most relaxing couple of days there, sitting on the balcony reading and listening to the sea wash onto the rocks all of forty metres away.
Hope all's well in your world!
cheers,
Katherine.
September 14, 2011
Silent Fear sneak peek!
Fancy an early peek at the first chapter of my new book? Zip on over to the Varuna website and you can hear me read it to you! This is part of Varuna's brilliant 'Writer-a-day' programme which will be launched as an iTunes app early next year. Sign up and you'll receive a message from a writer each day on your iPhone/iPad/Android phone/computer. What a way to start your morning, listening to a writer read to you from their work!
Speaking of Silent Fear, I finished the copy-edit last week and my editor, the lovely Bri at Pan Macmillan, is winding up her final checks now. It's off to the typesetters next, then will come back here, properly set out, at the end of the month. Then we read through it again, checking for any final small tweaks that need to be done, although hopefully the problems are by now limited to typos. Then back it goes again, and next time I see it it will be bound in a black and white cover as a proof. This is what goes out to bookshops and media so booksellers and reviewers can read it before it's actually released in February. Meantime here I'm hard at work on book 6, and keen to find out what's going to happen to Ella this time around!
I spent last weekend at the Brisbane Writers Festival and had enormous fun. Meeting fellow crime writers Neil Cross, Nicole Watson and Jennifer Rowe was wonderful - I don't think I've ever met a crime author I didn't like. The panels went really well, too. I got to sit in on a couple of others - one was a conversation with my friend Kate Morton, the other with the brilliant Kate Grenville. I was fortunate enough to meet Kate Grenville beforehand in the writers' green room, and we spoke for a couple of minutes and she signed my much-loved copy of Dark Places and a copy of her new book Sarah Thornhill. I've been a fan of her work for years now and never met her (though I have sent her fan letters), so to finally get to say hello in person was something special.
Holidays next week! We're off to Tasmania for a much-anticipated break. Cross your fingers we get good weather!
cheers,
Katherine.
Speaking of Silent Fear, I finished the copy-edit last week and my editor, the lovely Bri at Pan Macmillan, is winding up her final checks now. It's off to the typesetters next, then will come back here, properly set out, at the end of the month. Then we read through it again, checking for any final small tweaks that need to be done, although hopefully the problems are by now limited to typos. Then back it goes again, and next time I see it it will be bound in a black and white cover as a proof. This is what goes out to bookshops and media so booksellers and reviewers can read it before it's actually released in February. Meantime here I'm hard at work on book 6, and keen to find out what's going to happen to Ella this time around!
I spent last weekend at the Brisbane Writers Festival and had enormous fun. Meeting fellow crime writers Neil Cross, Nicole Watson and Jennifer Rowe was wonderful - I don't think I've ever met a crime author I didn't like. The panels went really well, too. I got to sit in on a couple of others - one was a conversation with my friend Kate Morton, the other with the brilliant Kate Grenville. I was fortunate enough to meet Kate Grenville beforehand in the writers' green room, and we spoke for a couple of minutes and she signed my much-loved copy of Dark Places and a copy of her new book Sarah Thornhill. I've been a fan of her work for years now and never met her (though I have sent her fan letters), so to finally get to say hello in person was something special.
Holidays next week! We're off to Tasmania for a much-anticipated break. Cross your fingers we get good weather!
cheers,
Katherine.
August 28, 2011
The best laid plans etc.
So there I was on Saturday afternoon, interview questions safely tucked into my bag, waiting very excitedly at the airport for my flight to Melbourne and the interview with Tess Gerritsen. And sure, okay, it was raining . . . but then it rained more . . . and the board started showing planes as delayed . . . then diverted . . . then cancelled . . . NOOOOOOO! I queued along with hundreds of other concerned travellers, and asked if there was any chance of getting on a flight from Brisbane (an hour's drive north), but nope, the weather had moved in there too and the few planes that were getting out were overbooked. It was no good - I wasn't going. Disappointment doesn't do justice to how I felt, not only to miss out on the interview and catching up with Tess again, but also seeing a bunch of other crime writer friends who were going to be there. But there was nothing to be done but drive sadly home through the pouring rain. Once there I sent my questions through to friend, fellow crime writer and Sisters in Crime convenor Rose who filled in for me. From all I've heard, the night was fantastic . . . oh to have been there . . .
But never mind!
Here's a pic of Rose and Tess - don't they look like they're having fun??
A few weeks ago I was delighted to see Cold Justice receive a wonderful review on the fab UK blog Vulpes Libris. I've since been doing an email interview with blogger Lisa, and am pleased to say it will be posted on the site on Wednesday. Skip on over and have a read of that and their other reviews and interviews too!
Now it's back to work for me - the copy edit of Silent Fear has returned, and I have some reading and fixing to do!
cheers,
Katherine.
But never mind! Here's a pic of Rose and Tess - don't they look like they're having fun??
A few weeks ago I was delighted to see Cold Justice receive a wonderful review on the fab UK blog Vulpes Libris. I've since been doing an email interview with blogger Lisa, and am pleased to say it will be posted on the site on Wednesday. Skip on over and have a read of that and their other reviews and interviews too!
Now it's back to work for me - the copy edit of Silent Fear has returned, and I have some reading and fixing to do!
cheers,
Katherine.
August 26, 2011
I so love my job!
I've always felt extremely fortunate to not only to see my novels in print but also write fulltime. And still sometimes little things happen that make this life even better - like this weekend, when I'm flying to Melbourne to interview, before a live audience of wonderful Sisters in Crime members, the one and only Tess Gerritsen.
I have long been a huge fan of Tess's work. We've emailed a few times, she gave me an awesome blurb for Cold Justice, and we've met once, at the famous Harrogate Crime Festival in the UK in 2008, but getting this opportunity to sit down and talk with her at length is really something special. If you live in Melbourne please come along - it's on Saturday 27th August, starting at 6 pm if you want to join us for dinner, 8 pm for the interview, at The Rising Sun Hotel, corner Raglan Street & Eastern Road, South Melbourne. $10 to get in, no bookings required. For more info click here. Thanks Tess and thanks Sisters In Crime!
Another marvellous thing I get to do is attend and speak at writers' festivals. Recently I went to the Byron Bay Festival, always a ripper, not least of all because the gorgeous settings of the North Beach site, where you can sit on the grass and listen to the talk in the marquees while soaking up the sun. I thoroughly enjoyed being on a panel here with friends and fellow crime authors Michael Robotham, LA Larkin, and Liz Porter, and there were lots of laughs as you can tell from this pic:
I'm also taking part in the Brisbane Writers Festival in September, and one of my co-panellists is UK author Neil Cross. I'd heard of his TV show Luther but never seen it, and I'd heard of his books Captured and Burial but never read them. Festivals send authors copies of each others' books, so he gets mine, I get his etc. His latest is The Calling and I started reading idly as soon as I opened the parcel, then couldn't stop! I cannot recommend this book more highly. It's chilling, thrilling, and graphic at times, but I promise you will not be able to put it down.
Our other panellist is Nicole Watson, author of The Boundary, and my second session is with Jennifer Rowe, whose latest is Love, Honour and O'Brien, and I can't wait to get stuck into both these books.
Meanwhile, back here in the office, all is going well. The structural edit of Silent Fear got the big tick of approval and the manuscript is now with the copy editor, and book 6 is gathering momentum, characters are coming to life, the story is taking off in unexpected ways ... I do so love my job!
I have long been a huge fan of Tess's work. We've emailed a few times, she gave me an awesome blurb for Cold Justice, and we've met once, at the famous Harrogate Crime Festival in the UK in 2008, but getting this opportunity to sit down and talk with her at length is really something special. If you live in Melbourne please come along - it's on Saturday 27th August, starting at 6 pm if you want to join us for dinner, 8 pm for the interview, at The Rising Sun Hotel, corner Raglan Street & Eastern Road, South Melbourne. $10 to get in, no bookings required. For more info click here. Thanks Tess and thanks Sisters In Crime!Another marvellous thing I get to do is attend and speak at writers' festivals. Recently I went to the Byron Bay Festival, always a ripper, not least of all because the gorgeous settings of the North Beach site, where you can sit on the grass and listen to the talk in the marquees while soaking up the sun. I thoroughly enjoyed being on a panel here with friends and fellow crime authors Michael Robotham, LA Larkin, and Liz Porter, and there were lots of laughs as you can tell from this pic:
I'm also taking part in the Brisbane Writers Festival in September, and one of my co-panellists is UK author Neil Cross. I'd heard of his TV show Luther but never seen it, and I'd heard of his books Captured and Burial but never read them. Festivals send authors copies of each others' books, so he gets mine, I get his etc. His latest is The Calling and I started reading idly as soon as I opened the parcel, then couldn't stop! I cannot recommend this book more highly. It's chilling, thrilling, and graphic at times, but I promise you will not be able to put it down. Our other panellist is Nicole Watson, author of The Boundary, and my second session is with Jennifer Rowe, whose latest is Love, Honour and O'Brien, and I can't wait to get stuck into both these books.
Meanwhile, back here in the office, all is going well. The structural edit of Silent Fear got the big tick of approval and the manuscript is now with the copy editor, and book 6 is gathering momentum, characters are coming to life, the story is taking off in unexpected ways ... I do so love my job!
July 21, 2011
Murderati!
I'm pleased to say there's an interview with me by fellow Aussie crime writer PD Martin posted today on the famous Murderati blog. This is one of my favourite blogs - they have a great range of crime authors who post daily and on fascinating topics. With today's post, and to celebrate the release of the book in the UK, you have the chance to win a signed copy of Cold Justice posted anywhere in the world! All you have to do is guess which one of five statements about me is wrong. Some of the answers can even be found online.
Speaking of Cold Justice, here's a snippet from another great UK review:
"An Australian author with a book that would not disgrace
Lisa Gardner or Karin Slaughter, a real nerve-twisting,
hold-on-tight thriller." Peterborough Evening Telegraph.
I love the work of these authors so feel very pleased indeed!
I'm close to finishing the structural edit of Silent Fear at the moment, so must end here and get back to work.
Thanks for reading!
cheers,
Katherine.
Speaking of Cold Justice, here's a snippet from another great UK review:
"An Australian author with a book that would not disgrace
Lisa Gardner or Karin Slaughter, a real nerve-twisting,
hold-on-tight thriller." Peterborough Evening Telegraph.
I love the work of these authors so feel very pleased indeed!
I'm close to finishing the structural edit of Silent Fear at the moment, so must end here and get back to work.
Thanks for reading!
cheers,
Katherine.
July 15, 2011
Cold Justice hits the UK!
It's currently the 16th of July here in Australia, but still the 15th in the UK, which means today can be celebrated for two reasons - firstly, Cold Justice came out today in the UK! And the first two reviews are in: an absolute smasher from Lisa Glass at the awesome Vulpes Libris blog, a place I love for the range of books they examine, the depth of the commentary, and the writing of the reviewers. Here's a snippet:
This Ella Marconi + paramedic combination is evidently a winning
formula as the books have been bestsellers, and it's easy to see why.
... The multi-voiced narrative works well here and I liked the voices
equally, which is a feat of storytelling in itself. ..... Cold Justice is easily
my favourite thriller of 2011, so if you're interested in an intelligent,
enthralling and sensitive thriller with two heroic female main
characters, I highly recommend that you check it out.
Another UK blogger, Petrona, has also put up her thoughts in her review here. A couple of snippets:
Having very much enjoyed the author's previous novel, The Darkest
Hour, I was looking forward to Cold Justice, and I was not disappointed.
... overall this is a great story which I raced through in a day; it beats me
why a book like this is not on top of the bestseller lists compared with
some of the lazy, formulaic offerings by authors whom I have long since
stopped reading.
Nice hey!
The other reason today is to be celebrated is that on the 16th July 1990 I joined the NSW Ambulance Service. I can't believe it's been twenty-one years! I was in that job for fifteen, which means I've been out for six, both of which are also hard to believe. I had some wonderful times in that job - some horrific times too, no doubt about that - but I'm so fortunate that today I'm able to make my living by writing (in part) about the things I did and saw, the people I looked after, my colleagues both good and not-so-good, and the reflections on life and death that resulted from all those things.
Here's to all of you working on the road, and to all of you reading about it!
cheers,
Katherine.
This Ella Marconi + paramedic combination is evidently a winning
formula as the books have been bestsellers, and it's easy to see why.
... The multi-voiced narrative works well here and I liked the voices
equally, which is a feat of storytelling in itself. ..... Cold Justice is easily
my favourite thriller of 2011, so if you're interested in an intelligent,
enthralling and sensitive thriller with two heroic female main
characters, I highly recommend that you check it out.
Another UK blogger, Petrona, has also put up her thoughts in her review here. A couple of snippets:
Having very much enjoyed the author's previous novel, The Darkest
Hour, I was looking forward to Cold Justice, and I was not disappointed.
... overall this is a great story which I raced through in a day; it beats me
why a book like this is not on top of the bestseller lists compared with
some of the lazy, formulaic offerings by authors whom I have long since
stopped reading.
Nice hey!
The other reason today is to be celebrated is that on the 16th July 1990 I joined the NSW Ambulance Service. I can't believe it's been twenty-one years! I was in that job for fifteen, which means I've been out for six, both of which are also hard to believe. I had some wonderful times in that job - some horrific times too, no doubt about that - but I'm so fortunate that today I'm able to make my living by writing (in part) about the things I did and saw, the people I looked after, my colleagues both good and not-so-good, and the reflections on life and death that resulted from all those things.
Here's to all of you working on the road, and to all of you reading about it!
cheers,
Katherine.
July 3, 2011
New website!
Welcome to my first blog post! Well, technically the long post below this is first, but that's nothing but the collected news from my old website copied and pasted to here for anyone who has time to kill and a (strange) desire to read my periodic ramblings from the past four years, so it doesn't really count.
This is my revamped site. Nice, huh? :) Instead of a news page and a messageboard I now have this, so I can post more ramblings and you can add your thoughts, questions, whatever, in the comments. That means it's, like, a conversation!
So, news. I'm working on the structural edit of Silent Fear and oohh it's exciting to see it all come together! And I have some great events coming up. Check out the Events page for the details but know this: on August 27th I'm going to be interviewing the one and only Tess Gerritsen! I truly cannot wait.
Also, I'm teaching a series of workshops in editing, starting August 13 in Brisbane. The class is filling up so have a look at the Learn with Katherine page today if you think you might be interested.
What I'm reading: The Silent Girl, Tess's new book :)
What I'm listening to: 80s hits. West End Girls by the Pet Shop Boys. Yay!
What I'm watching: nothing - too busy!
Till next time!
cheers,
Katherine.
This is my revamped site. Nice, huh? :) Instead of a news page and a messageboard I now have this, so I can post more ramblings and you can add your thoughts, questions, whatever, in the comments. That means it's, like, a conversation!
So, news. I'm working on the structural edit of Silent Fear and oohh it's exciting to see it all come together! And I have some great events coming up. Check out the Events page for the details but know this: on August 27th I'm going to be interviewing the one and only Tess Gerritsen! I truly cannot wait.
Also, I'm teaching a series of workshops in editing, starting August 13 in Brisbane. The class is filling up so have a look at the Learn with Katherine page today if you think you might be interested.
What I'm reading: The Silent Girl, Tess's new book :)
What I'm listening to: 80s hits. West End Girls by the Pet Shop Boys. Yay!
What I'm watching: nothing - too busy!
Till next time!
cheers,
Katherine.
