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| L-R Michael Robotham, Tess Gerritson and Rochelle Jackson (standing at podium) |
Peter Temple couldn't make it but Michael Robotham (with his book The Wreckage on display) and Tess Gerritson (with The Silent Girl) were relaxed in the morning Melbourne sunshine. Miriam chose a seat up the back, near an aisle. Like she does. Nice to be in the BMW Edge in the daytime.
Already getting sick of that [swear word swear word] pre-recorded introduction to events this year. The speaker is almost agressive. She projects her information and instructions at us. While probably intending to welcome us to an event, the intro actually makes us all tense up a bit. Also it ends with a generic 'please welcome our guests' and the audience hangs, silent, waiting for the names. I reckon Miriam should mention it to the festival and see if they'll change it. Maybe I could do the voice! What a good idea!
Am I grumpy today? Rochelle Jackson got me a bit confused with an introductory journey of 'writers make it up' to 'writers are pathological criminals' to 'actually writers really do make it up' introduction. Michael Robotham and Tess Gerritt were great though! Robotham talked to us about character. He said that in crime fiction it's the characters we remember rather than the plot. Tess Gerritt talked to us about how women like reading stories with women as victims. Apparently it's a thing. She's a doctor and an anthropolgoist and loves archeology. Chock full of anecdotes and great stories! She talked about process - how she'll write a scene for the worst that could happen, and keep doing that to keep the story interesting. She told us the story of the nursing home at Nantucket where the doctor in charge was hard of hearing and when called out to confirm that a resident had passed away, he would check them with a stethoscope and not hear anything, declare them dead and then the 'body' would be taken to the morgue. The Nantucket Morgue was nicknamed the House of Rejuvenation for a while because a number of the residents woke up there - not dead at all! Gerritt talked about these sorts of weird stories as starting points for larger narratives.
Question time and Miriam had to ask a question. She makes me so embarassed sometimes. It was a lame attempt at gender rebalance by asking Robotham how he felt about Gerritt's assertion that women like reading about women victims. Miriam was wondering if men like reading about male victims. Robotham said that actually men liked reading about men as the investigators and the criminals. Weird, eh? The truth is not particulary comfortable.
Beginning to notice the themes for all the writers we've been hearing - genre or literary. The questions about character values, their autobiographical sources - all the same, regardless of the writer
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