Blogs

A couple of months ago I finished reading a true crime account of a notorious Melbourne Painters & Dockers 'gunnie', Billy 'The Texan' Longley. It's written by Rochelle Jackson, who also wrote 'Inside Their Minds: Australian Criminals' , and which I also thoroughly recommend (both published by ABC books, or see http://www.rochellejackson.com.au/books.htm)

Line of Sight has just been nominated for the best first crime novel category in the 2010 Ned Kelly Awards - details at the Ned Kelly's website - http://nedkellyawards.com/index.php/news-feeds/current-nominations

'Tis always a joy to discover a new bookshop. Beaufort Street Books, down there on...well, Beaufort Street, Mt Lawley, which has been opened not too long now, has for the past months been having writer and winemaking nights. With not many live events at Perth bookshops these days, and the industry struggling to compete with online providers, it was a real pleasure to be invited to speak on Wednesday night in what is the third literary event but part of a program designed to continue throughout the year.

Every city has one. A crime story that despite its enormity is never solved, where in the face of the lack of an answer people are forced to provide their own theories, legends, myths. The murder of Shirley Finn in Perth is one such story, the disappearance of Juanita Neilson in Sydney another.

Stephen Orr’s recent novel, Time's Long Ruin (Wakefield Press 2010) examines the improbable and troubling disappearance of three young children from a crowded Adelaide beach, in 1960 (linked very closely the disappearance of the three Beaumont children in Adelaide, in 1966.)

I'll be appearing at the following sessions/workshop at the Perth Writers Festival in a few weeks time, at the University of Western Australia:

Workshop: David Whish-Wilson - Crime writing

Every which way but up: multiple voices and crime story structure. With reference to television series such as The Wire, The Killing and Oz, and from fiction as varied as Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent to the novels of George Pelecanos, this workshop will focus on making crime fiction from the points-of-view of multiple characters.