My latest piece for artsHub goes online today here.

For it I spoke with the lovely Pam Newton, author of The Old School, and Lenny Bartulin, who has written three crime novels featuring Jack Susko, and is now working on a more ‘literary’ historic novel set in Tassie. They will be leading a six week course in Sydney on writing crime fiction as part of the Allen & Unwin Faber Academy. Wouldn’t that be fab to be part of!

There’s so much in every interview that you wish you could include but there’s just never the space. Pam and I talked a lot about how she got into writing, which was actually a slow process over almost 10 years after leaving ‘the job’ ie.the NSW Police force. Only an ex-cop can say that convincingly. She also said some really interesting things about her masters exegesis, and how she became fascinated by a quote from David Lodge’s Consciousness and the novel on how a poem can capture qualia, a sense of shared subjective experience. ‘He said the novel is the most extended example of that, where you actually travel through time and space in the soul of another human being.’

And Lenny and I spoke about how much effort he puts into his research, including playing 5-card stud with himself so that he was sure every move was possible. And about the time he tried to ring the police to find out how they would investigate a particular kind of car accident only to find himself being asked to provide his name and details and feeling like he’d just initiated an enquiry into some very dubious author activities.

Armed and Dangerous: The Craft of Crime Fiction with Lenny Bartulin and P.M. Newton
15 February – 31 March 2012
Allen & Unwin
83 Alexander Street
Crows Nest NSW 2065
Course fee: $1,200 (inc GST)
Maximum of 15 students
For further details visit www.allenandunwin.com/faberacademy