Sandy Curtis

News

There are a couple of very interesting villains in Fatal Flaw, but Ruth Bellamy is certainly the most complex I’ve written. I’m always fascinated by a character’s motivations, and Ruth’s are not exactly what they seem.

On top of building our new house, relocating my parents to a nearby retirement village, babysitting our gorgeous first grandchild, and looking after a canine Houdini, I'm finally working on exciting new ideas for Grievous Harm, my work-in-progress. Although this story touches on a difficult topic, I hope my readers will agree I’ve written it sensitively, while still taking them on the same edge-of-your-seat suspense trip of my previous books.

Just as Oklahoma's Ado Annie "cain't say no", I’ve been kept busy this past year on several committees. The highlight has been organising the Bundaberg WriteFest. Now entering its fourth year, WriteFest is different from most writers festivals in that it is aimed at writers only, and not readers and writers. Instead of having just author talks and panels for readers to find out more about authors they’re interested in, the day consists of workshops and industry panels for writers to learn new skills and techniques, network, and gain industry knowledge. It’s the kind of event I wish I’d had access to when I started out as a regional writer. (We should have a website up soon, so look out for details.)

Over a hundred writers attended this year’s event, and picked the brains of author Anita Bell, forensic experts Kirsty Wright and Deanna Belzer, poet Ross Clark, illustrator Marc McBride, and CEO of the Queensland Writers Centre Kate Eltham. The top attraction of the day for a lot of writers was agent Sophie Hamley, who conducted agent/writer interviews – she even picked up a couple of the interviewees as clients! Quite a buzz. This was the first time Sophie had been to regional Queensland, and she was so impressed she offered to come back next year. You can bet I was quick to take her up on that offer.

But now I have to get back to pounding the keyboard and taking Grievous Harm’s Kate McLaren and John Corey on a dangerous journey through Queensland’s outback, where the thought of Australia having the world’s top ten most venomous snakes isn’t half as scary as the villains they have to contend with.

Bit late I know, but I really haven’t had a chance to update this website sooner. Life’s been hectic for some months now. It was wonderful to catch up with old friends at the Conference and make new ones. Plus the journey down to Melbourne gave me some great ideas for book seven.

We sold our house and moved in with our daughter in November. The slab for our new house was laid before Christmas and work will continue as soon as our builder gets back from holidays. If the fish are biting he could be gone indefinitely :).

My sixth book, Fatal Flaw, is nearing completion. I feel most remiss that I haven’t finished it before now but life kept intervening. I’m very pleased with the way it’s come together. Mark Talbert, who readers met in Dangerous Deception, is a government agent having doubts about what he wants to do with his life after his narrow escape from death. When I was writing Dangerous Deception Mark kept developing beyond what I had initially planned for him, and by the end of the book I knew I had a character who had his own story to tell. From the emails I’ve received, this was picked up by my readers too. So Fatal Flaw was born.

Julie Evans, my main female character, is a complex woman. One who makes mistakes but is not afraid to rectify them. A woman who is willing to risk her life for the man she loves and the safety of her son. I’ve loved getting into her psyche and putting her in dangerous situations – she certainly reacts in the most amazing manner.

Then we come to Ruth Bellamy. When it comes to Ruth will you ask yourself how do we define good and evil? Or sanity and madness? Will you feel sympathy or condemnation? Especially when the final truth is revealed. And will you wonder if perhaps there’s a little bit of Ruth in each of us?

How busy the past few months have been. Had a great trip down to the RWAustralia conference in Melbourne. My lovely friend from Germany, Kris Alice, was able to be with us for the journey, and as we travelled by car we were able to show her the Gold Coast and the hinterland behind. Some beautiful places to visit there – waterfalls, mountain lookouts, great walks through the rainforest. Then we travelled to Jenolan Caves in New South Wales. We stayed at the cabins six kilometres above the caves, and the road down to the caves truly taught us the meaning of “hairpin bends”. But it was worth the fingernail imprints in the car door handle because the two caves we saw were magnificent.

Melbourne was cold but the Conference was wonderful. And a great chance to catch up friends and other writers who then become new friends. Fatal Flaw hasn’t been coming along as swiftly as I’d hoped. Caught the flu for the fifth time in the last twelve months and a fuzzy head isn’t conducive to writing. Plus the plot wasn’t going where it needed to go and I had to do lots more research to make sure I got my facts right. That involved some re-writing, and I’m one of those writers who like to get it right the first time, so pressing that Delete button is quite painful for me. Things are looking better now and I’m going to glue my fingers to the keyboard to get Mark Talbert and Julie Evans through all the terrible dangers facing them.

ANZAC Day today. I’ve been watching television documentaries on the landing at Gallipoli and tears come to my eyes at the thought of all those young lives lost in battle. I wonder if mankind will ever learn from what the history books show us so explicitly - the hunger for power and greed for possession by leaders of countries is never worth the cost in lives lost and homes destroyed.

Countries that once fought each other to death or surrender are now friends and allies. I hope they remain so.

On a lighter note, Dangerous Deception was launched at the Bundaberg Library on 1^st April. Yes, I know, April Fools Day, and we did have a few laughs, too, with a quiz that got the memory cells surging and revealed aspects of the participants’ characters that probably surprised them.

Our local writers’ club is running a One-Day WriteFest on 21^st May, and as President I’ve been busy organising authors and industry professionals to run workshops and tutorials. It looks to be a great day, so if anyone is interested in coming along, just email me at novels@sandycurtis.com and I’ll send you all the information.

Now I really have to get stuck back into writing book six, Fatal Flaw. There are some very interesting characters in this one, and it will be a challenge to write without giving too much away yet still plant enough clues to enable readers to guess the outcome. Or maybe they won’t. :)

Writing suspense is a finely balanced skill, and I hope I can impart some of the knowledge I’ve gained to those people who attend the tutorial on suspense that I’ll be presenting at the Romance Writers of Australia Conference in Melbourne in August.

What a devastating time for those people affected by the tsunami. The only brightness to come from this disaster was the way in which the rest of the world rallied to help the victims and rebuild communities.

If you tuned in to ABC Radio Queensland on 1st February for the Book Club you would have been as puzzled as I was to hear cricket commentary. As a sports-minded nation we are very much aware that sport usually takes precedence over normal scheduled programs on both radio and television, so I wasn’t too surprised.

But you’ll now have to be more patient, because ABC Radio commentator Phil Smith, the driving force behind the Book Club, has a two-month assignment in the devastated Aceh province as part of the RAAF contingent helping out over there, and the Book Club will be on hold until his return.

The German edition of Deadly Tide (Im Meer der Furcht) will be available from Bastei Luebbe publishers on 19th April. If you want to have a look at the cover and details of this and my other German editions, go to www.luebbe.de/ and near the top of the page you’ll see the word Suche followed by a long box. Just type Sandy Curtis in that box and hit Enter and it will bring up the page with details of the three books and the second edition of Das Tal der Angst (Dance with the Devil) which will be released on 22nd March.

Only eight weeks until Dangerous Deception is released and I can’t help getting a little excited. It such a wonderful feeling to hold a new book in my hands, almost as though, by some kind of magic, all those months of creative flow and hard work have been transformed into the miracle of a book.

On 21st May, the Bundaberg Writers Club will be holding a One-Day WriteFest to enable writers from surrounding areas to get together and enhance their skills and meet with industry professionals. If you are interested in writing and would like to attend, you’ll be most welcome. I’ll post more details here as we finalise them. It promises to be a great day.

It’s hard to believe the year is drawing to a close. So much has been happening it’s not easy to keep on top of it all.

Until Death will be released on 1^st January 2005 in the A format edition. This is the normal-sized paperback that most people are familiar with. A lot of books today first come out in C format, which is the larger size, then are published almost a year later in the smaller (and smaller priced) edition.

In October I met Phil Smith, ABC Queensland radio reporter and author, who had a wonderful idea for a radio book club. An enthusiastic and innovative type (check out his website at ww.philsmith.com), Phil soon convinced the powers at ABC of the benefits of showcasing the books of Queensland authors. He was kind enough to ask if Until Death could be one of the books offered, and like any author who hasn’t had a frontal lobotomy I didn’t hesitate in expressing my delight. So my New Year will be highlighted by discussing my book with Phil and Kelly Higgins-Devine on air on 1^st February. More details can be found at http://www.abc.net.au/queensland/stories/s1255746.htm

For some people April Fools Day is spent cringing at the corny "gotcha" jokes played by friends and sometimes those who aren’t so amusing. But in 2005 I’ll be watching the bookstores for the release of my fifth book, Dangerous Deception, and hoping fate doesn’t have any tricks up her sleeve for me.

Currently, I’m running two competitions – one for the A format edition of Until Death, and one for the C format edition of Dangerous Deception, so have a look at my Competitions page and if you’d like to have a chance at winning either or both, send me an email with "Competition" in the subject line.

For my last posting for 2004, I’d like to thank my readers for your support and wonderful feedback. I believe that a writer owes it to the reader to write the very best book he/she can, so that the reader gets value for the money they spent buying the book. I strive to always deliver value-packed entertainment, and hope you feel I’ve been successful.

May you all have a safe and happy festive season, and may 2005 bring peace to this troubled world of ours.

The Brisbane Writers Festival was, as usual, a great success, with large numbers of people attending the author sessions and enjoying the ambiance of the cultural forecourt at Southbank. Whether you are an aspiring or published writer, the festival provides a great opportunity to catch up with old friends and make new ones, as well as meet authors, publishers, and agents. I had such a wonderful time meeting my friends I’m surprised I found time to attend so many sessions.

To my great delight, my publisher has given me a sneak preview of the cover of Dangerous Deception. For this book they’ve opted for a darker, moodier cover, a look that reflects the danger that lurks in every chapter and the mystery surrounding Breeanna Montgomery. As soon as the cover is finalised, I’ll have it up on the website.

My editor tells me that Breeanna is definitely her favourite of the heroines in my books. She’s a complex character, not always the easiest to write, but definitely the most interesting. My copy editor said she particularly liked the shades of good and bad in Carly, one of the not-so-minor characters.

Rogan McKay, as readers will know from Deadly Tide, appears on the surface to be a straightforward, ex-Navy type who now owns a diving and charter boat on the Great Barrier Reef. But Rogan is a man of many facets, and I loved getting inside him and working him out so I could expose him to my readers.

Characterisation, as you’ve probably realised, is something I love to sink my writer’s teeth into. I love creating characters that my readers come to care about. I want my readers to be as involved with these people on the pages as much as I am. When I finish writing a book I take a while to cut myself off and not keep planning the next phases of those characters’ lives.

Dangerous Deception will be released on 1st April 2005. It might be April Fool’s Day, but hopefully it will turn out to be an auspicious day for me.

The RWA Conference was great, especially the tutorial "Inside the Mind of a Killer". Strange tutorial for a romance writers conference you might think? Not really, as the RWA acknowledges that many of its members write for mainstream publication, and therefore need tutorials that cover wide-ranging topics.

It was great to catch up with friends and hear the latest industry news. Flew into Brisbane late Sunday night and discovered that my luggage had gone somewhere else. They traced it to Perth in Western Australia that night, and the next day found it in Broome! It got to see more of Australia than I did!

For many years now I've gone to the Brisbane Writers Festival, and I always enjoy attending the panels, catching up with friends and meeting new people. This year I'm on a panel, which is very exciting, especially as my fellow panelists are Matthew Reilly, Sandy McCutcheon, and Greg Wilson, the Chair is Lisa Forrest, and we're talking about thrillers. So if you're in Brisbane on Thursday 30th September at 10.00am, come to the Readers' Marquee for a look and say hello afterwards.

For anyone who is interested in the German editions of my books, the website is http://www.luebbe.de/ (enter "Sandy Curtis" in the site's search box).

Almost finished writing Dangerous Deception. Once I reach the end I’ll need a couple of days relaxation, then I’ll have to tackle the housework that’s gone feral while I’ve been concentrating on getting my characters and plot into shape.

Rogan and Breeanna, the main characters, have been interesting to write. If you’ve read Deadly Tide, you’ll already know something about Rogan, the ex-Navy part-owner of a dive and charter boat operating on the Great Barrier Reef. In that book, Rogan played a pivotal role in helping Chayse Jarrett, an undercover cop, bring some rather vicious criminals to justice. In Dangerous Deception Rogan’s twin brother Liam is missing, and he begins to wonder who he can trust and who is lying to him.

The one person he knows he has to help is Breeanna Montgomery, a woman running from mysterious men who want something they think she has. Men who will kill to get what they want. Liam was hired to find Breeanna, and Rogan thinks she is the key to his disappearance.

Only five weeks to the Romance Writers of Australia annual conference in Sydney. They’re a great group of people and I love taking the opportunity to catch up with them. I just hope Sydney is a little warmer than it was when the last conference was held there. We’re spoiled living here in Bundaberg, as it has the fourth best climate in the world (according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica).

My friend Sara Bennett has sent me her latest Avon book, Kissing the Bride, and I’m looking forward to reading it soon. You’ll find a link to Sara’s website on my Links page.

I'm beginning to suspect that gremlins live in computer email programs. For the last couple of weeks I've had trouble receiving emails, so if I haven't replied to someone it's because their email is probably still floating around in cyber space. And no, it's not because it's April Fools Day :-)

Book five, Dangerous Deception, has gone through the research to the writing stage, and is currently giving me a few hassles. I don't know about other writers, but for me, character motivation has to be plausible. If a character does something, I want to know that the reader can nod his or her head and say, 'Of course, that's the only thing they would have done.'

Well, one character wasn't allowing that to happen, and I realised that she had more facets to her personality than I had revealed. Once I explored her a little further, fleshed out her background and allowed this to show, the motivation fell into place. Just like real people, the more we know about a character, the better we understand them.

Competition Results: The winner of the giveaway of a signed copy of Until Death is Pamela who lives in Tasmania.

Already this year is starting to fly! On 20th January I fly to Townsville to present a three-day workshop on short story and crime/suspense writing for the (w)RAPT! artists' retreat. It's hot and humid here and will be worse in Townsville, but luckily the workshop is taking place at Paluma in the mountains north-west of the city, so I'm hoping for some cooler weather there. I'm also looking forward to meeting the aspiring writers who will be attending.

Response so far to my giveaway of my fourth book Until Death is very pleasing. If you'd like to enter, click on my Competition page.

We had a quiet family Christmas in hot, humid weather. Standing over a stove in this kind of weather is not my idea of having a good time so the menu consisted of lots of seafood followed by trifle. And cold drinks, of course.

Some friends came over for a barbecue on New Year's Eve and we managed not to talk writing all night. But we had a good time anyway :-)

The heat is persisting and I'm grateful my office is air-conditioned. Several years ago my computer was crashing all the time and my son said that if I didn't get air-conditioning it would crash permanently, so I figured a cool office might help prevent me from crashing in the heat too.

Dangerous Deception is a bit slow getting onto the computer screen. My main characters are firmly entrenched in my mind, but two minor characters are bubbling around in my mental cauldron and are not yet fully formed.

Sometimes minor characters take on a different life to the one planned for them, and I have to accommodate the changes in plot accordingly. Rogan McKay in Deadly Tide is a good example. He wouldn't let me keep him in the walk-in-walk-off role I'd created for him.

I have one spectacular death worked out, and a very unusual getaway. It's so exciting when plot pieces fall into place almost by serendipity. Because I plot fairly intensively before I start writing, and do research along that line, I try to keep reasonably close to what I've mapped out, but I'm flexible enough to go with changes that I can see will improve the story.

Sometimes plotting is like playing chess with an unseen opponent. I plant clues and red herrings and try to lead my readers on a certain path, all the while hoping that they are picking up the plot threads. It's a challenge to keep them guessing until the last few pages and then provide an ending that makes them sigh with satisfaction.

To win a signed copy of my fourth book, Until Death, look at my Competition page.

I have to apologise for not up-dating this page for so long. Life, to put it mildly, has been hectic. Book four, Until Death, required a lot of research, and I only made my deadline with four days to spare.

In July I had a writing workshop to present in Mackay, and it was wonderful to take some time to explore Mackay's beautiful coastline, as well as catch up with old friends.

Our eldest son, Shane, married Cherie Murphy in September. It was a medieval theme wedding, and, after a few mini-disasters (there's a book to be written there), went off wonderfully well. Everyone said it was the most romantic wedding they'd been to. Have a look at my Photos page.

In early October I went down to the Brisbane Writers Festival, held at the Southbank Parklands on the banks of the Brisbane River. It's a great opportunity to catch up with what's happening in the writing world, as well as meet up with old friends and make new ones. The Queensland Writers Centre launched their newest publication The Australian Writers Marketplace, a veritable treasure trove of information for all writers, published or aspiring.

Along the way I've been gathering information for Dangerous Deception, and doing my edits on Until Death¸ which is scheduled for release in March 2004. I'm thrilled that my publisher, Pan Macmillan Australia, will be bringing Until Death out in trade paperback, and it has a fantastic cover. This was a very complex story to write as it has two plots which converge, and lots of twists and turns.

When my son sets up a special "competition" e-mail address for me, I will be offering a signed copy of Until Death for the first email selected at random during the first week of publication, so watch this Happenings page and make sure you email me your details when the address is displayed in the near future.

On Saturday 8th February Deadly Tide was launched at Baltimore, the Port Marina Cafe, at Bundaberg Port. After almost a week of very welcome rain the sun shone, and the 90 guests looked across the green lawns in front of the cafe to the yachts moored at the Marina. It couldn’t have been a better setting. Most appropriate, I thought, for a book set on a trawler.

Our lovely Mayor of Bundaberg, Councillor Kay McDuff, introduced the proceedings, and Anne Whalley, Queensland Director of the Women’s Industry Network Seafood Community, did the official launch.

I’ve had wonderful news recently - My publisher, Pan Macmillan Australia, has offered me another two contracts! So now it’s fingers glued to the keyboard so I can meet the next deadline. Because of research necessity, book four, partially set in Carnarvon Gorge, will now become book five.

Book three, "Deadly Tide", is going through the publication process, with a release date of February 2003, and I'm doing the research for book four.

Part of that research entailed a trip to Carnarvon Gorge, north of Roma in Central Queensland. The drought has been cruel to the farmers and graziers, and the country is living up to Dorothea McKellar's description of "wide, brown land". Desperate graziers are droving scrawny cattle along the roadside, and everyone's praying for rain.

Carnarvon Creek never runs dry, but the creeks in the side gorges are either dry or mere trickles. In spite of the dryness, the gorge has a rugged beauty, and features like The Ampitheatre took our breath away. Photos couldn't capture the grandeur, nor words the sense of awe we felt as we sat and absorbed the silence of millennia.

The Carnarvon Gorge Wilderness Lodge was a great place to stay, very friendly staff, and the manager, Trish Parsons, was most helpful with my research.

Just type my name in the box on the left-hand side and click OK. When the title comes up ("Das Tal der Angst" - which translates to "Valley of Fear") click on that and the cover and blurb will appear. The book will be available for sale through them from 25/2/2003.