TAF2019 Murder She Wrote
Panel Sessions
International Guest of Honour: Shamini Flint
Reader Guests of Honour: Heather O’Connor and Louise Brown
MC: Catherine du Peloux Menagé
Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 November 2019
Cygnet Town Hall
THESE SESSIONS HAVE NOW BEEN DELIVERED
PAGES AND INFORMATION RELATING TO TAF2019 ACCESSED THROUGH THIS PAGE HAVE BEEN ARCHIVED. THEY ARE FOR HISTORICAL PURPOSES ONLY.
I'm impatient for the first weekend of November to arrive so I can head to Cygnet for Murder She Wrote! Crime, intrigue, busting the bad guys… It’s all in a day's work for my onscreen characters. I can’t wait to share behind-the-scenes secrets of bringing them to life – as well as a blooper or two. - Marta Dusseldorp
Saturday 2 November
Check-in (Ticket Office opens)
7.30 am - 8.25 am
Doors Close
8.25 am
Welcome by Festival Matron, Dr Alison Alexander
8.30 am
Motive
8.45 am – 9.35 am
What makes a writer turn to a life of crime?
Angela Savage and David Owen explore the motives of crime fiction writers with Chris Gallagher. What draws someone to create tales of wicked, craven or horrifying human acts? And invent fictional detectives to investigate them? Is it related to the attraction crime fiction holds for readers - now the best-selling genre worldwide?
Angela is the author of the Jane Keeney, PI series and Director of Writers Victoria. David is the author of Tasmania’s much loved long-running Pufferfish series.
Means
9.45 am – 10.35 am
What does it feel like to be shot? How do you perform a post-mortem? What goes through the mind of a serial killer?
Tara Moss, Marta Dusseldorp and Jack Heath discuss their most startling research techniques and discoveries with L.J.M. Owen.
Tara famously learnt to shoot, spent time at crime scenes and a morgue and earned a private investigation qualification to prepare for her Mak Vanderwall series, knowledge she also brings to her new Billie Walker mystery, Dead Man Switch. Marta undertook extensive research and preparation for her roles as a Crown Prosecutor in Janet King and an investigative journalist in Jack Irish. L.J. has a background in forensic pathology, genetics, archaeology and librarianship - as does her protagonist Dr Elizabeth Pimms. As for Jack, perhaps in the closed confines of a panel session he will confess his research proclivities for a certain spine-chilling character…
Morning Tea (by Baker & Co.) and Murder She Wrote Bookstall
10.35 am - 10.55 am
Opportunity
11.00 am – 11.50 am
How do a lawyer and a journalist become crime fiction authors?
Shamini Flint and Meg Keneally discuss the changes in their lives that resulted in second (or third) careers as writers.
What was the moment from which there was no turning back? What surprised them about the writing journey? How did they find publishers? What advice would they give to someone considering a new life as a crime fiction author?
Shamini is a lawyer and children’s author who increasingly spends her time crafting the Inspector Singh Investigates series and, most recently, The Beijing Conspiracy. Meg Keneally, an ex-reporter and radio producer, is the author of Fled and the Monsarrat Series of historical murder mysteries with co-author Tom Keneally.
The Mirror Crack’d
12.00 pm – 12.50 pm
How difficult is it for a novelist to land a TV or movie deal? What are the pressures and challenges of translating your work to the screen?
Debi Marshall and Shamini Flint will explore the process of bringing a book to life with Lindy Cameron. Shamini is a crime fiction author who has recently had her series picked up for a major international TV adaptation, while Debi hosts a brilliant investigative crime show on Foxtel.
Lunch (by Cygnet Old Bank) and Murder She Wrote Bookstall with Panellist Signing Tables
12.50 pm - 1.40 pm
Pick Your Poison
1.45 pm – 2.35 pm
Cosy? Noir? Thriller? Historical?
Jack Heath and Tansy Rayner Roberts join Meg Keneally to examine how crime and mystery writers choose their sub-genres. How clearly defined are the sub-genres and what are the conventions of each? Does each sub-genre have a different typical reader?
Jack’s adult crime fiction novels, Hangman and Hunter, sit firmly at the noir end of the crime fiction spectrum. Tansy, writing as Livia Day, crafts the cosy culinary Tabitha Darling series. Meg Keneally is the author of Fled and the Monsarrat Series of historical murder mysteries with co-author Tom Keneally.
Scene of the Crime
2.45 pm – 3.35 pm
What are the challenges of setting your story in another country and creating an authentic sense of place?
Learn how Shamini Flint and Angela Savage imbue their storyworlds with the sights, scents and sounds of a culture and landscape not their own.
Shamini is a Singaporean lawyer, children’s author and author of the Inspector Singh Investigates series set in Malaysia and, most recently, The Beijing Conspiracy, set in China. Angela is the Director of Writers Victoria and author of the Jane Keeney, PI series, featuring an Australian ex-pat living and solving crime in Thailand.
Afternoon Tea (by Baker & Co.)
3.35 pm - 3.55 pm
CSI: Tasmania
4.00 pm – 4.50 pm
Tasmania is a rich a source of inspiration for (fictional) foul deeds. The landscape and weather, in particular, seem to captivate writers from across the globe, including - at one time - Agatha Christie.
Join Angela Meyer in conversation with local crime and mystery authors Joanna Baker, David Owen and L.J.M. Owen to explore the moods offered by the insular land of city, country and mountain.
David’s Pufferfish series features Hobart-based Detective Inspector Franz Heineken investigating intriguing criminal activity across the state (and beyond). Joanna’s The Slipping Place opens on Mount Wellington, the haunting slopes and sky lending an almost Gothic atmosphere to the novel. L.J.’s latest novel The Great Divide, is set in the bone-chilling cold of a stark Tasmanian winter far from the comforts of big city life.
Book Launch by Marta Dusseldorp of The Great Divide, L.J.M. Owen
5.00 pm - 5.30 pm
Please note that drinks and a copy of the novel are included in a Golden Ticket and Saturday Day Pass.
Murder She Wrote Bookstall with Panellist Signing Tables
5.30 pm - 6.30 pm
[6.30pm for 7pm, Murder Mystery Party: Curse of the Sphinx, across the road in Carmel Hall^]
Sunday 3 November
Check-in (Ticket Office open)
7.30 am - 8.25 am
Doors Close
8.25 am
Welcome and Opening
8.30 am
The Usual Suspects
8.45 am – 9.35 am
How diverse are crime and mystery fiction authors? Is there a difference between the diversity of those who are attracted to writing in the genre and those who are published?
Introduced by Sulari Gentill, Shamini Flint and Angela Meyer explore the question of diversity in crime fiction publishing from writer and publisher perspectives in conversation with Angela Savage.
Sulari is a Ned Kelly Award winning Australian crime fiction author originally from Sri Lanka via Zambia. A panel session on ‘The Usual Suspects’ began with Sulari’s desire to explore why there seems to be little diversity in traditionally published crime fiction authors.
Shamini is one of Singapore’s best loved children’s and crime fiction authors. Angela M. is an award-winning Australian publisher with a track record of publishing diverse voices. Angela S. is the author of the Jane Keeney, PI series, Director of Writers Victoria and an avid crime fiction proponent and teacher.
The Lady Vanishes
9.45 am – 10.35 am
How do writers and readers approach crime fiction written by women or featuring female protagonists?
Introduced by Jock Serong, Jack Heath and Marta Dusseldorp discuss the gendered ways of writers, readers and crime fiction book buyers with L.J.M. Owen.
Jock was the inaugural winner of the Staunch Prize for crime fiction that does not depict violence against women, and Jack is a passionate advocate for boys and men to read literature written by women. Marta has unique insight into the writing, treatment and reception of women onscreen. The portrayal and consumption of crime fiction written by women, featuring a female detectives or female victims, is a topic close the heart of TAF2019 Festival Director, L.J.
Morning Tea (by Baker & Co.) and Murder She Wrote Bookstall
10.35 am - 10.55 am
The Female Gumshoe
11.00 am – 11.50 am
Tara Moss is one of Australia’s most celebrated and dedicated crime fiction authors and her protagonists, Mak Vanderwall and Billie Walker, are two of the country’s strongest women detectives.
Join Tara in conversation with Angela Meyer to explore the driving forces behind the creation of Tara’s female gumshoes.
Marple vs Holmes
12.00 pm – 12.50 pm
Why does Sherlock fan-fic abound, yet homages to Miss Marple are few and far between? Both have incredibly sharp minds and observational skills, and Marple brings an element of compassion and understanding of the human condition to her investigations that Holmes lacks.
Meg Keneally interviews her co-conspirators in the Sherlock Holmes: The Australian Casebook anthology - Lindy Cameron and L.J.M. Owen - and Christie aficionada Joanna Baker, on the relative popularity of expanding Sherlock’s world vs. Miss Marple’s.
Will we see a flourishing of Marple fan-fic any time soon?
Lunch (by Cygnet Old Bank) and Murder She Wrote Bookstall with Panellist Signing Tables
12.50 pm - 1.40 pm
And Then There Were None
1.45 pm – 2.35 pm
Who is your favourite author from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction?
Joanna Baker leads a lively discussion with her co-panellists Lindy Cameron, Shamini Flint, Jack Heath, Meg Keneally, Angela Meyer, Tara Moss, L.J.M. Owen, Tansy Rayner Roberts, David Owen and Angela Savage on the best female crime fiction writers from the last century.
Closing Remarks
2.35 pm – 3.00 pm
Murder She Wrote Bookstall with Panellist Signing Tables
From 3.00 pm
Continuing Sunday Afternoon…
[3.15 pm, Matthew Evans, the Gourmet Farmer, Book Launch of The Commons]
[4.00 pm, First Dog on the Moon and Angela Meyer, author of A Superior Spectre, in Whisky & Words upstairs in the Cygnet Supper Room*]
[5.00 pm, Elizabeth McMahon will launch Angela Rockel’s 2019 Dorothy Hewett award-winning Rogue Intensities in the Southern Swan]
*Please note that the Cygnet Supper Room is only accessible by stairs.
Readers will get a kick out of meeting their favourite authors and discovering new ones; and writers - fledgling, emerging or established and in any genre - can soak up the clues while some of the county's best writers talk crime and mystery, red herrings and McGuffins, blood splatter, alibis and where the bodies are buried... - Lindy Cameron