Ask the Author: C.A. Larmer
Answered Questions (12)
C.A. Larmer
I'm currently enjoying The Colour of Bee Larkham's Murder by Sarah J. Harris. (I have been trying to get through a few 'literary' books my friends have suggested but... yawn... keep finding my way back to mysteries. I'm more like Alicia Finlay in my Agatha Christie Book Club than I realised!)
C.A. Larmer
Hi Vani, thanks for asking and I'm so glad you did because I'm writing the fourth book in the series as we speak! It's just in the drafting phases — I scrapbook all my stories with plot lines and character colour—and this one is going to be a beauty. Nine mysteries in one!! I hope to have it out by mid-year so please look out for it then and thanks again for your interest.
Cheers,
Christina
Cheers,
Christina
C.A. Larmer
I've just been murdered and I'm floating above my body watching as my killer takes the murder weapon, puts it to his neck and says, "Missing me?"
Then he slits his own throat...
Then he slits his own throat...
C.A. Larmer
Oh any of Agatha Christie's settings would be fabulous, starting with a luxury cabin on the Orient Express (I'd be assisting Poirot, darlink!), or in a sundrenched suite at the boutique hotel on the rocky resort island in Evil Under the Sun. I'd be decked out in fabulous frocks, dripping in jewels, and sipping a very dry martini between swims.
C.A. Larmer
I already wrote at least one! One of my Ghostwriter Mysteries is loosely based on a true event. An elderly surveyor I had interviewed for a non-fiction book on pioneers of Papua New Guinea, gave me a pretty boring black and white photo of a bunch of surveyors from the 1960s, to use in the book. One night I got a late call from an associate saying the elderly surveyor had passed away but, just before dying, had begged for that photo back. I was asked to return it to his family for the funeral, and got wondering, why?! It really was a boring pic, so why ask for it on your deathbed? That got my imagination working, and the result is Dying Words, one of my faves!
C.A. Larmer
Hi Nadine, I found you! Glad we've already connected via FB as I don't look at Goodreads as often as I should. Thanks for all your support.
Cheers.
Cheers.
C.A. Larmer
Apart from fetching my fifth tea for the day, putting on another load of washing and checking Facebook, you mean?
I have two remedies for writer's block:
1. Just write. (Most people hate this one, as it sounds hard, and often is, but believe me, if you just open the page and start tapping, even if it's a load of old bollocks, doesn't matter, keep tapping, eventually something haf decent will come out. Trust me on that.)
2. Get a Scrapbook and replot. This may not work for everyone but I have found if the story is NOT gushing out like it normally does, it means the story is stuck (and probably crap). So I pull out my scrapbook and retweak the plot— perhaps the killer is too obvious? Perhaps a character needs more developing? I jot down ideas, I cross out old ones and I get the creative juices flowing. Then I go back to Step 1.
I have two remedies for writer's block:
1. Just write. (Most people hate this one, as it sounds hard, and often is, but believe me, if you just open the page and start tapping, even if it's a load of old bollocks, doesn't matter, keep tapping, eventually something haf decent will come out. Trust me on that.)
2. Get a Scrapbook and replot. This may not work for everyone but I have found if the story is NOT gushing out like it normally does, it means the story is stuck (and probably crap). So I pull out my scrapbook and retweak the plot— perhaps the killer is too obvious? Perhaps a character needs more developing? I jot down ideas, I cross out old ones and I get the creative juices flowing. Then I go back to Step 1.
C.A. Larmer
The freedom to conjure crazy storylines in my head and then bring them to life for others to enjoy.
What if ...?
Suppose someone ...?
How could ...?
I love throwing up the questions then answering them as cleverly as I can.
What if ...?
Suppose someone ...?
How could ...?
I love throwing up the questions then answering them as cleverly as I can.
C.A. Larmer
You need to 'demystify' the novel, for want of a better term.
I can't tell you how many people (friends, fans, strangers...) have told me they are writing a novel. Yet very few ever tell me it's done. Often they have worked on it for years (decades even), they may be just a chapter or two away from the end. And yet it never, ever ends.
Why? I think because they almost can't believe they could pull it off. They almost can't believe they could be a published author, so they keep tinkering. Or they think it's bad and not worth finishing.
Just sit down and write. Then keep writing and writing, and when the story is told, just stop. Then get some help and get it published (or learn to DIY like I did). Then sit down and write an ever better book, because they do get better. You just have to finish one.
Writing a novel is no great mystery, and it can be a reality if you stop thinking it's beyond you.
I can't tell you how many people (friends, fans, strangers...) have told me they are writing a novel. Yet very few ever tell me it's done. Often they have worked on it for years (decades even), they may be just a chapter or two away from the end. And yet it never, ever ends.
Why? I think because they almost can't believe they could pull it off. They almost can't believe they could be a published author, so they keep tinkering. Or they think it's bad and not worth finishing.
Just sit down and write. Then keep writing and writing, and when the story is told, just stop. Then get some help and get it published (or learn to DIY like I did). Then sit down and write an ever better book, because they do get better. You just have to finish one.
Writing a novel is no great mystery, and it can be a reality if you stop thinking it's beyond you.
C.A. Larmer
I keep being asked for a second installment of The Agatha Christie Book Club (my best-selling novel). I had deferred it due to copyright worries but I'm thinking I might take a leap of faith and JUST DO IT! (Let me know what you think.)
Meanwhile, I'm mid-way through a DIY crime book—my portagonist has woken up dead and seeks help from the reader to solve the mystery. It's a change of direction for me and great fun. Stay tuned for more on that.
Meanwhile, I'm mid-way through a DIY crime book—my portagonist has woken up dead and seeks help from the reader to solve the mystery. It's a change of direction for me and great fun. Stay tuned for more on that.
C.A. Larmer
Ideas flow to me regularly (I have a dozen 'new novels' in the pipeline at any one time), but for daily inspiration to actually sit down and start tapping, I look no further than the letters I receive from fans (eager for a new book), the bank account (eager for more funds), and the deadlines I set myself.
Being a longterm freelance journalist, I know how to self-motivate and work to deadline, so always give myself a time frame to aim towards, and hope to God I get there!
I find if you don't set a deadline, if you simply sit around waiting for the great creative thunderbolt, you'll get nowhere very fast. I sit down, I open the file and I start tapping. Before I know it, the story is writing itself.
Being a longterm freelance journalist, I know how to self-motivate and work to deadline, so always give myself a time frame to aim towards, and hope to God I get there!
I find if you don't set a deadline, if you simply sit around waiting for the great creative thunderbolt, you'll get nowhere very fast. I sit down, I open the file and I start tapping. Before I know it, the story is writing itself.
C.A. Larmer
From the crazy, hippie, musical world around me! I have never 'borrowed' from my immediate surrounds before. Most of my Ghostwriter Mysteries are set in Sydney, where 'ghostie' Roxy Parker lives, or on brief overseas visits. This is the first time* I have plunged Rox into a mystery in the hinterland behind Byron Bay where I actually live, so it was both fun to plunder from the world I know well, and terrifying (have I done the place justice? Would certain people recognise themselves?!)
This region is famous for its free-spirited hippies but we also have our fair share of 'rock stars' (my husband is a musician and we are friends with several famous musos) so the idea of bumping one or two off seemed like a fun thing to do, and a plotline I could write convincingly.
I hope I've pulled it off.
*NB: Roxy did visit the region very briefly (albeit horrifically) in an earlier Ghostwriter Mystery
This region is famous for its free-spirited hippies but we also have our fair share of 'rock stars' (my husband is a musician and we are friends with several famous musos) so the idea of bumping one or two off seemed like a fun thing to do, and a plotline I could write convincingly.
I hope I've pulled it off.
*NB: Roxy did visit the region very briefly (albeit horrifically) in an earlier Ghostwriter Mystery
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