‘What the detective story is about is not murder but the restoration of order.’ –P. D. James

I couldn’t put it better myself.

People often ask me: ‘How can you write about such violence? Doesn’t it depress you?’ The short answer, of course, is no! In fact I quite like it, being the damaged little soul that I am (insert smiley face here). But the long answer to that question is this: my books are not about the violence, the rape, the blood and guts or the forensic wizardry. My books are about the restoration of order and the carrying out of justice.

And justice is a fundamental principle at the core of all people, regardless of race, religion or personal conviction.

I think that with our court systems the way they are; the lawyers, the appeals and the loopholes, that many people feel like there’s no such thing as justice anymore. Particularly when you see murderers and rapists getting less time in prison than those perpetrating crimes such as copyright infringement.

And with the popularity of anti-heroes like Lisbeth Salander and Dexter, it’s clear that the reading/watching public don’t mind a bit of an ‘eye for an eye’ at all. In fact, they love it.

My books are about the tipping point that exists in all people. I think it was Angelina Jolie that once said; “If someone comes into my home and tries to hurt my kids, I’ve got no problem shooting them.” Hear, hear fellow tigress mommy! I couldn’t agree more! And yet some people I talk to don’t recognise there’s a killer hidden inside and it just takes the right set of circumstances to bring it out.

So my books explore this. What is the hidden tipping point in some people? Obviously it’s going to be different depending on the person; but, how far can you be pushed before the switch inside your head flicks? If you’re me, then being cut off in traffic will do it (mofos are lucky I’m not allowed to mount an uzi on the hood of my car).

But if you are hideously wronged, what would you do to get proper justice? What might you be capable of doing that you never before imagined?

And, once that switch is flicked, is there any coming back?

My main character, Berg, struggles against her dark side and has a deep and desperate need for justice. She has done terrible things to get it. So is she a criminal? Or a dealer of black and white justice in a world that only sees shades of grey? And does she get to make that call?

I’ll leave you with those questions, kiddies. Sleep tight.

It’s funny, one of the things I’ve noticed is, when I tell people what I do they always have a friend, lover, family member or distant third cousin on their step-mother’s side who wants to be a writer. So the first thing they ask me is: ‘what advice would you give to someone wanting to be a writer?”

Now, I touched on this in my last blog, but this time I’ll go into a little more detail and give a few tips for all of the writers out there, no matter what stage you’re up to.

1. If you’ve been percolating an idea for the great Aussie novel for a while, but just don’t know where to start, then the Writer’s Studio has some great courses for unlocking creativity. And as I said in my previous blog—just sit down and write. Don’t over-think it or over-plan or generally tie yourself up in knots about it so it becomes so overwhelming you freak yourself out and never start. Just sit down and write something. Also, a tip that was a great revelation to me, write whatever comes to mind, be it the first or last scene or something in between, write what parts come to mind first; don’t think you have to write it from beginning to end all anal-retentive like, it’s not a spreadsheet.
2. There’s no such thing as writer’s block. Seriously. It’s just another name for procrastination. Just write something, anything. It’s doesn’t have to be brilliant, you can edit it later. Stop thinking about it and just do it. Those lovely muses will never strike if you don’t get yourself into action.
3. You don’t have to be ‘qualified’ to be a writer, just have a love of words and a great story to tell. If you really feel ill-equipped, then the Sydney Writer’s Centre has courses for just about every kind of writing you can think of, as well as other great courses like getting published, Kindle publishing, self-publishing, etc.
4. So you’ve completed your first draft and it’s brilliant, right? Wrongo, my friend. First drafts always and without exception, suck. So, please resist sending it out to the publisher at the top of your wish list the day after you’re done. Instead, put it away and resist looking at it for at least a month. Then, when your time is up, look over it with fresh eyes and see what you can add/remove. I would recommend doing this at least three times before you so much as give it to your pet cat to read (plus, those cats are hard to please).
5. Ok, so you’ve done this a few times, it must be publisher time, right? Nope, wrong again. Here’s where you will make the best investment in your writing ever and send to it a manuscript appraisal service. Look for a reputable company with experience in the genre you are writing. They will read and critique like a publisher, but you haven’t burnt any bridges in the process. Tip: even though you are paying them, don’t expect them to be kind—but that’s ok, you don’t want them to be because publishers are not in the job of being kind.
6. Once you are convinced it is the best is can possibly be, get an editing service to go over it with a fine toothed-comb. It may be the best book ever written, but no agent or publisher will touch it with a cattle prod if it’s riddled with grammatical errors and type-os.
7. It’s up to you whether you want to go down the agent route, or the publisher route. But please note, they both have strict submission guidelines that must be followed TO THE LETTER. They get so many submissions in any given year that they can afford to be cavalier and get rid of any submissions that don’t meet their requirements. That’s right, if you do not follow their requirements, they WILL NOT EVEN READ IT. They all have websites where they’ll detail their submission requirements. Do not ignore these! And always check if they are even accepting submissions at the time.
8. Whether you send to an agent or a publisher, your cover letter needs to be spot on: snappy, intriguing, brief and smart. In short, you will need to know: your book’s genre, what market you are writing for, including demographics, your unique selling point, some kind of tagline or pitch (think: what would be on the back of the book to get readers to buy it?), possibly a synopsis of your book, and a brief bio. Again, I would point you to the Writer’s Studio or the Sydney Writer’s Centre to help with this, as a good pitch letter will make all the difference to whether your brilliant work even gets read.
9. Don’t give up. Rejection is inevitable and a part of the job. In fact, just about every published author out there has been rejected (some of the rejection letters are on the interwebs and make for a good chuckle in those low times). So pick yourself up, have a stiff drink, and keep persevering.

Good luck!

This blog is for all the writers out there—or should I say, all the would-be writers who are more dedicated to finding reasons why they can’t write rather than just getting on with it (you know who you are)!

Much like childbirth, there is no ‘right time’ to start your writing journey. There is no ‘perfect’ set of circumstances, no ‘correct’ way to do it, and you’ll never be ‘ready’.

What is stopping you is fear. Fear of not ‘getting it right’, fear of rejection, and fear of ridicule on a small or grand scale (if you really fear ridicule, may I suggest not plagiarizing anything in the age of internet search engines?). For some, this fear is so crippling that they never write…or they write, then they stick it in a back drawer where it never sees the light of day until after their death, when a relative finds it and dumps it in the garbage.

In my mind, being a writer is 49.5% courage, 49.5% persistence and about 1% talent, if that. It has 0% to do with luck or contacts (N.B. unless you’re Stephenie Meyer, who apparently wrote her first book and found a publisher all within six months. I hate her a little bit. However, this is the exception, not the rule.)

Here are a few tips:

1. Do a Nike: stop thinking about it and just do it. If you spend your time over thinking it, or trying to plan it all out to the nth degree before you even start, you will never get going. Just sit down and write and see what happens. I’m not sure who said this quotable quote, but it’s a good one: ‘You can always edit bad words. You can’t edit NO words.’ True dat.
2. Write for yourself and no-one else. If you write worried about what critics, readers, friends or family will think, then you will lose the joy in the work and no-one will read it. Don’t set out to write the best book ever written; instead, write something you’d enjoy reading. Your result will be authentic and this will come across to the reader.
3. You will get rejected. You WILL. Come to terms with that now (go on, off you go!). Ready? Ok. Finding an agent and/or a publisher is a numbers game. Get a rejection, have a little cry (or, if you’re like me, have a big old snotty cry) and then send out more queries. Many, many queries.
4. I cannot recommend manuscript assessment highly enough. These services review your manuscript like a publisher would and give you feedback, but you haven’t burnt any bridges in the process. Along this vein, please get your manuscript professionally edited before you send it out, too. While you may think your first draft is brilliant, it’s really not. Finish it, and then set it aside for at least a month, so you can come back to it with a fresh perspective. Do this a few times. Then send it off to a manuscript assessment service (Google it, there are plenty around).
5. You do not need a degree from an upper-crust university or college to become a writer, just a love of words and a good imagination—very few published writers actually thought they were ‘good enough’ before they started.
6. Don’t expect to get rich; you are unlikely to be the next J.K. There are far easier ways to get rich than writing—like salt mining or brain surgery.
7. No matter how good your book is, someone, somewhere, will think it’s the biggest load of crap they’ve ever read and won’t be shy about telling you just that. You can’t please everyone.

Don’t squander your life playing it safe, then look back with regret on your deathbed wishing you had taken a chance. Sit down and write something–immediately!

I’ll leave you with the best quote I’ve ever heard in my life:

‘Most people tiptoe through life hoping to reach death safely.’

Fuck that! Now go for it!

One of the things that particularly strikes me as I carry on with my journey, is the prevalence of people in all sections of society who make themselves powerless in their own lives.

It’s easy to do. I spent the first 30 years of my life doing this exact thing. We’ve all played the blame game, you know: ‘if my parents hadn’t divorced I would be in a loving relationship’, ‘if my lover would just be/do/give me this, I would be happy’, ‘if I’d finished school, I could get a job’, ‘if I could just buy that home/handbag/shoes/car my life would be complete’, etc, etc.

Many people are totally convinced that if so-and-so hadn’t done such-and-such to them, their life would be totally different. And, of course, better. And so they carry this ‘victimhood’ around like luggage for the rest of their lives. I liken it to carrying a suitcase full of your winter clothes on a tropical vacation—a pointless waste of time and energy.

When it comes right down to it, this kind of perceived powerlessness is rooted in fear. After all, if we didn’t have any imagined limitations holding us back, then we suddenly become responsible for our own lives. Scary! If we didn’t have people/situations holding us back, we might actually have to try! And if we try, and then fail, that would be horrible! We would be labeled a failure! What will people think of us? Ack!

So many people choose to live a half-life, deeply mired in their imagined limitations because it feels a lot safer than the alternative.

But here’s the thing, our journey in this life is our responsibility and ours alone. No-one and nothing else is responsible for your life and your perceived lack of happiness.

And if there’s one thing I’ve noticed over the last few years, it’s that there is nothing we can’t achieve if we believe in ourselves and are prepared to put in the effort to get it.

This took me a really long time to learn.

Life is a series of choices that are ours to make. No one can do anything to you if you don’t let them do it. Every person/experience that has occurred in your world, every little or big setback, every perceived ‘failure’, you have been responsible for calling into your life, either consciously or unconsciously, or by seeking it out, attracting it, making it mean something about you, or ignoring it.

‘Wait!’ I hear you cry. ‘I didn‘t ask to be abused/neglected/bullied/dumped/ fired/etc! That wasn’t my choice!’ Maybe not. But how you react to it is your choice. What story you make it mean about you is your choice. Not doing something about it is your choice. If you use it as an excuse to not live the best life you can, then that is your choice. You are in charge of your life and how you react to these experiences.

And thank goodness for these experiences. If our lives were problem-free, there would be little opportunity to find out what’s inside us—our strength, our courage, our will, our love. Each and every ‘adversity’ we face is the opportunity to learn and grow as human beings.

So instead of being angry at all those people who did something to us, let’s look at it in a different way. Let’s look at it as a choice we made to bring these people/experiences into our lives so that we could come a little closer to finding out who we really are. See them as the little setbacks that make the victory all the more sweet. See them as the little tests we endure, so we can be sure we really want something and are on the right path.

So don’t be angry, resentful and bitter. Instead, say thank you. Think about someone who has held you back in some way and say to them or yourself: ‘Thank you. Thank you for the experience you have given me. Because you helped make me into the person that I am. And I am amazing.’