Tara Moss's Blog, page 9
August 17, 2012
First look at Assassin, the 6th Mak Vanderwall novel.
Read the first two chapters of Assassin now.
Former model turned forensic psychologist and PI Mak Vanderwall is missing, presumed dead in Paris. By hiring a hit man to kill her, the powerful and corrupt Cavanagh family aimed to silence her for good. But after narrowly escaping death, Mak has taken over her would-be killer’s world. She is very much alive. And transformed ...
Back in Sydney Mak’s former flame, criminal profiler Andy Flynn is on the trail of a vicious rapist and murderer with possible ties to the infamous 'Stiletto Killer'. He may have struck before and will certainly do so again. And while Andy struggles to cope in a world without Mak, little does he realise she is on her way back. And this time she’s ready to make her own justice.
How far would you go for revenge?
Assassin, the sixth Mak Vanderwall thriller by Tara Moss, hits bookstores in Aus/NZ on September 1. Translations and international releases to follow.
December 27, 2011
A Night With The Ghosts
A Night With The Ghosts
The local Aboriginals call it ‘Binoomea’ – Dark Places.
It’s believed to be the world’s oldest known open caves system, with more than 40 kilometres of remarkable caverns still undergoing exploration. We know it as Jenolan Caves.
I’ve been here many times, yet the journey along the narrow road called ‘Six Foot Track’ with its hairpin turns and crumbling rock walls, seems like a descent into madness each and every time.
This sloping road, in places little wider than our car, was first designed for horse and carriage and later for automobiles that would line up for hours to wait for their turn on the one way road – traffic driving out in the morning, and new traffic driving in during the afternoon.
Increasingly there is an unearthly stillness as we approach the Grand Archway at the mouth of the caves.
It’s as if the vast Australian bush has caved in on itself and exposed an entrance to the Underworld...
Read the rest online at The Hoopla.
December 23, 2011
The 39,000 days of Christmas.
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Back in August I set about putting fingertips to keyboard for Assassin, the 6th Mak Vanderwall crime novel, vowing to update my blog with my progress to give one example of the novel writing process. I soldiered on with updates until it all went off the rails two months ago with extra commitments, some dream interviews, a surprising (and weirdly heated) diversion on literary gender bias, and finally, a book tour. The keeping track, at least, went off the rails, though the writing came in fits and starts (excruciating 30 word days, exhilarating 1100 word days), on planes and in hotel rooms, in moving cars (in passenger seat, with resultant headache) and once on the edge of a chair in emergency. Now, after a couple of years of planning and several months of intense writing, chatting with ballistic and forensic computing experts and hassling a morgue, I have 39,000 words of Assassin to lay down between now and the end of January.
These are my 39,000 (word) days of Christmas, if you will.
Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday season full of love, adventure, delightful reads and one of these trees (above). And if you too are on deadline, may the Word-Santa visit with a truly satisfying, on-schedule manuscript. (One the mischievous typo elves haven't messed with.)
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Image via Toni Blake on FB.
Back in August I set about putting fingertips to keyboard for Assassin, the 6th Mak Vanderwall crime novel, vowing to update my blog with my progress to give one example of the novel writing process. I soldiered on with updates until it all went off the rails two months ago with extra commitments, some dream interviews, a surprising (and weirdly heated) diversion on literary gender bias, and finally, a book tour. The keeping track, at least, went off the rails, though the writing came in fits and starts (excruciating 30 word days, exhilarating 1100 word days), on planes and in hotel rooms, in moving cars (in passenger seat, with resultant headache) and once on the edge of a chair in emergency. Now, after a couple of years of planning and several months of intense writing, chatting with ballistic and forensic computing experts and hassling a morgue, I have 39,000 words of Assassin to lay down between now and the end of January.
These are my 39,000 (word) days of Christmas, if you will.
Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday season full of love, adventure, delightful reads and one of these trees (above). And if you too are on deadline, may the Word-Santa visit with a truly satisfying, on-schedule manuscript. (One the mischievous typo elves haven't messed with.)
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Image via Toni Blake on FB.
December 9, 2011
Read the first chapter of The Spider Goddess.
I looked at the fashion model and reassured myself she wasn't dead...
READ the first full chapter of The Spider Goddess
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READ the first full chapter of The Spider Goddess
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December 4, 2011
Pandora's world.
Pandora's second adventure, The Spider Goddess, has hit stores and I am happily immersed in her world while on tour. So far I've talked spiders and snakes and all things gothic with ABC Radio's Karyn Wood and even found myself saying 'Arachne acne'. Yes. I said it. (Well, she's the one who brought it up!). With the Herald Sun's Blanche Clark I talked about the alternate New York in the books and my love of the The Addam's Family, and with the West Australian's Pam Brown I revealed the inspiration behind the mysterious fog that surrounds the supernatural suburb of Spektor.
This week I will be on the trail again, visiting Melbourne, doing The Project and more. Next week Pandora fans in Sydney may wish to come to my talk at the State Library of NSW on Dec 15, where I will be in conversation with the wonderful Dominic Knight to discuss The Spider Goddess and The Blood Countess, and the mysteries of Pandora's world, followed by a book signing.
As I finish Assassin, my next Mak Vanderwall crime novel following on from Siren, I find I already can't wait to return to Pandora's world for The Skeleton Key, the next of her adventures. I guess the real world will just have to wait. Somehow. Great Aunt Celia will know a way.
Happy reading.
December 3, 2011
Crime author Alex Palmer on the aftermath of crime
Alex Palmer is the author of The Tattooed Man, Blood Redemption and The Labyrinth of Drowning. I recently had the pleasure of interviewing her to discuss her latest novel, the influence of powerful governments and security measures in a post 9/11 world, and the aftermath of crime.
Watch my interview with Alex Palmer for Tara In Conversation on 13th Street Universal.
December 1, 2011
Blood Line by Lynda La Plante
Bloodline by Lynda La PlanteMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
‘He’s dead, isn’t he?’ Paul said, staring straight ahead as Anna drank from her bottle before screwing the cap back on.
‘We don’t know that. What we need to do is find someone who saw the other side of Alan Rawlins, because so far I think it’s all too good to be true. No one is that perfect. He will have secrets – maybe dark ones.’
In this seventh Anna Travis novel, the bright, young Travis is now a Detective Chief Inspector taking charge of her first case under the watchful eye of Detective Chief Superintendent James Langton. It is a case that proves surprising, increasingly complicated and more than a little frustrating. Devoted son and faithful boyfriend Alan Rawlins has been reported missing, and a menacing pool of blood has been found at his flat, of a quantity and density that no person could survive losing. To add to the tension, Langton, a former lover with whom Travis now has a complicated but platonic relationship, threatens to pull the plug if she doesn’t get results fast, but there is no body and no DNA to match the blood against for identification. Has Rawlins been brutally murdered or did he himself commit a terrible and violent crime?
This latest novel from crime queen Lynda La Plante, creator of Prime Suspect and Above Suspicion, will appeal to readers who love a smart, classic police procedural who dunnit. Check out my interview with the wonderful and fascinating Lynda La Plante for Tara in Conversation, and hear her fascinating research stories, including her time at a Russian mortuary…
Watch my interview with Lynda La Plante here for 13th Street Universal: http://www.13thstreetuniversal.com.au/vi...
View all my reviews
November 27, 2011
The ineffable joy of being misunderstood.
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A couple of years ago when launching my crime novels in Spain, El Mundo referred to me as 'Agatha Christie con tacones'. This quote was later translated into English by one of my publishers and printed on some promotional material for Siren as 'Agatha Christie with balls'. Someone had mixed up tacones, the Spanish word for heels, with cojones , the expletive for testicles. An easy, and brilliant error.
But as we well know, we don't need language barriers to misunderstand each other. This year I was misquoted as saying my daughter is 'an inevitable joy'. That should have read ineffable joy, a joy that can't be expressed in words. 'Inevitable' does put rather a different spin on the joys of procreation. I blame my accent.
A beautiful error came up this week in a piece by the excellent Blanche Clark, books editor for The Herald Sun. We had a lovely and rather long phone interview (I can be pretty verbose with enough tea) about The Spider Goddess, resulting in the profile piece, 'Moss a Rolling Stone at Home'. But when I noticed the line, 'She has studied topics as diverse as psychology and sarcophagy and earned her PI licence', it gave me pause.
That should read psychology and psychopathy , the study of psychopaths, not sarcophagy - flesh eating. Though it must be said, I am fond of zombies.
Interestingly, sarcophagy comes from the Greek σαρξ sarx meaning 'flesh', and φαγειν phagein, 'to eat'. The related word, sarcophagus (a funeral receptacle for a corpse, usually carved or cut from stone) translates loosely as 'flesh eating stone', a reference to limestone coffins which were thought to decompose the flesh of corpses. 'Sarcophagy' and 'psychopathy' sound quite similar, especially down a phone line, and let's face it, it's just the sort of grim practice I might study for a novel. To clarify, though, I haven't yet studied sarcophagy, but as it happens I recently purchased a book on the subject by anthropologist Dr. Beth Conklin. I haven't pulled the wrapping off it yet. Perhaps I should take this as a sign to get reading.
A couple of years ago when launching my crime novels in Spain, El Mundo referred to me as 'Agatha Christie con tacones'. This quote was later translated into English by one of my publishers and printed on some promotional material for Siren as 'Agatha Christie with balls'. Someone had mixed up tacones, the Spanish word for heels, with cojones , the expletive for testicles. An easy, and brilliant error.
But as we well know, we don't need language barriers to misunderstand each other. This year I was misquoted as saying my daughter is 'an inevitable joy'. That should have read ineffable joy, a joy that can't be expressed in words. 'Inevitable' does put rather a different spin on the joys of procreation. I blame my accent.
A beautiful error came up this week in a piece by the excellent Blanche Clark, books editor for The Herald Sun. We had a lovely and rather long phone interview (I can be pretty verbose with enough tea) about The Spider Goddess, resulting in the profile piece, 'Moss a Rolling Stone at Home'. But when I noticed the line, 'She has studied topics as diverse as psychology and sarcophagy and earned her PI licence', it gave me pause.
That should read psychology and psychopathy , the study of psychopaths, not sarcophagy - flesh eating. Though it must be said, I am fond of zombies.
Interestingly, sarcophagy comes from the Greek σαρξ sarx meaning 'flesh', and φαγειν phagein, 'to eat'. The related word, sarcophagus (a funeral receptacle for a corpse, usually carved or cut from stone) translates loosely as 'flesh eating stone', a reference to limestone coffins which were thought to decompose the flesh of corpses. 'Sarcophagy' and 'psychopathy' sound quite similar, especially down a phone line, and let's face it, it's just the sort of grim practice I might study for a novel. To clarify, though, I haven't yet studied sarcophagy, but as it happens I recently purchased a book on the subject by anthropologist Dr. Beth Conklin. I haven't pulled the wrapping off it yet. Perhaps I should take this as a sign to get reading.
November 17, 2011
A conversation with crime queen Lynda La Plante
In my capacity as host of 'Tara In Conversation' on 13th Street Universal I have been lucky enough to sit down with some of my favourite crime authors - Michael Connelly, Peter James, Val McDermid, Neil Cross, Kathryn Fox, Kerry Greenwood, Leigh Redhead and more. It's one of the things I love most about my job.
Recently, I was fortunate enough to sit face to face with one of my greatest influences in the genre - Lynda La Plante, the creator of Prime Suspect and Above Suspicion.
She certainly didn't disappoint.
Check out this incredible interview, and hear about Lynda's amazing research, including the infamous 'Russian morgue story', and why the villains don't keep her up at night.
Tara in Conversation with Lynda La Plante.
Recently, I was fortunate enough to sit face to face with one of my greatest influences in the genre - Lynda La Plante, the creator of Prime Suspect and Above Suspicion.
She certainly didn't disappoint.
Check out this incredible interview, and hear about Lynda's amazing research, including the infamous 'Russian morgue story', and why the villains don't keep her up at night.
Tara in Conversation with Lynda La Plante.
November 12, 2011
The Goddess Weaves Her Web.
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In less than two weeks The Spider Goddess will hit stores, launching Pandora's second paranormal tale on the world. I loved returning to Spektor, and as with the first Pandora novel, The Blood Countess, I have taken stories from ancient mythology, folklore and history to weave (see what I did there?) a modern tale set in an alternate, contemporary New York.
Read Chapter One of The Spider Goddess online. And click on the spider icon at Pandora's page to find out more about the goddess herself.
What is your favourite aspect of ancient mythology or folklore?
Happy reading,
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Visit the new Pandora English site online.
In less than two weeks The Spider Goddess will hit stores, launching Pandora's second paranormal tale on the world. I loved returning to Spektor, and as with the first Pandora novel, The Blood Countess, I have taken stories from ancient mythology, folklore and history to weave (see what I did there?) a modern tale set in an alternate, contemporary New York.
Read Chapter One of The Spider Goddess online. And click on the spider icon at Pandora's page to find out more about the goddess herself.
What is your favourite aspect of ancient mythology or folklore?
Happy reading,
[image error]
Visit the new Pandora English site online.
