The titles of many of the sessions for Genre-Con this year were very enticing.
For instance Whales, Rivers and Serpents Australian Crime, Meet Me in the Grey Area: From YA to NA to Adult, Campfires, Cobwebs and Corpses,and Getting Graphic with Graphic Novels.
So yes that did successfully make me excited about the above sessions, but sometimes there were a few I would have loved to make it to, but there was an equally attractive session at the same time. Argh. This is when it is handy to have a friend make that session and swap notes!
This is an excellent challenge to have at a conference!
But what genre do you write June? You might ask. Well I am willing to try and combine many genres. I find that some of my stories are fantastical tales, for Young Adults (YA), to adult, and I love reading and watching crime, not sure about writing it, but I find the genre super interesting because I read and watch so much of it. I am working on a poetry novel that could end up being YA. YA encompasses many genres.
In Brisbane, some of the loveliest writers you can meet, are the Horror and Speculative Fiction writers. I’ve been reading some of their works since the last conference, and love the folk tale, culturally influenced horror, what is scary with a deep message.
I recently did some storytelling, and realised I am attracted to rewriting fairy tales and folktales, to challenging norms, and ideas. I’ve also been working on my Grandmother’s stories as passed on from my Mum and considering what can and should be kept the same, and what could be adapted to a diaspora granddaughter’s experience of today.
Okay so here is a run down of one session I particularly enjoyed.
Who knows maybe one day I will come up with crime fiction, although mine may well be a cozy mystery.
Whales, Rivers and Serpents Australian Crime
Julie Janson and Ben Hobson ran their session like a podcast, interview format. This was quite relaxed, organic whilst being informative.
They outlined that both of them had taken ten years to publish their first crime novels. Both come from a teaching background, and Ben is still in the teaching.
Julie’s background is drama. And she began writing plays to assist with and motivate literacy in the communities she worked in. One of her favourite crime shows is Vera.
Ben’s work is an examination of what might happen to a person if they are backed into a corner. What are people capable of when something is really challenging?
Julie likes to put a character into jeopardy and seeks inspiration from Aunties, Sisters, actors like the late Lillian Crombie.
Ben likes to inhabit characters and improvise them rather than completely pre-plan.
Julie describes a process where scenes from real life can be inspiration for moments in life. She tells us an anecdote of a bikie, describes him as imposing, his request being camomile tea in the kitchen. Her planning process is to follow the shape of drama, beginning, middle, end, and climax points. ‘To write interesting crime fiction, live an interesting life, makes for an interesting book, knowing about several places. Using terrible experiences gives authenticity to writing.’ Julie quotes Graham Greene ‘Every Writer has a slither of Ice in their Heart’ where they are capable of transforming anything for the sake of art, from their world and people around them.
Ben like’s using the ‘uncanny valley’, outback noire.
(ASIDE: Would you believe this is the first time I have ever heard of the uncanny valley’? Obviously I have not written much crime or scary stuff before. )
“The uncanny valley phenomenon can be described as an eerie or unsettling feeling that some people experience in response to the not-quite-human”
Julie crime fiction is a genre of truth-telling and suited to First Nations authors and explorations of crime and history. Historical crimes you have to stick to the facts. Different kinds of truth can be examined in crime fiction.
Somebody from the audience asked if writing crime kept either author up at night. Both answered no.
Julie even said in fiction you can change the outcomes and give more agency to your characters, to have more power than they may have in reality.
More blog posts to come…
For more on the uncanny valley
https://www.britannica.com/topic/uncanny-valley
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-uncanny-valley-4846247
And interesting settings for scary
June Paisa Perkins 