Okay, so while I was at Singapore Writers Festival, I gave a masterclass seminar called “Shaping Psychopaths and Sociopaths” which was basically just my theories on how to write serial killers and sociopaths (which, I must emphasize, are sometimes different things), all rolled up in a disclaimer that I am not a psychologist/psychiatric professional, nor do I have any experience as a criminal lawyer (I mean, my dad was a prison guard, and I’ve taught creative writing in a women’s prison a couple of times, but that’s as close as I’ve come to direct contact with offenders. If you want someone who’s dug deeper into this, talk to Candice Fox, she has some cool stories).

One of the amusing anecdotes I told during the masterclass was about how romance author acquaintances of mine are frequently asked if “life imitates art” when it comes to writing the spicy scenes in their books…but this is not a question typically asked of crime authors about their murder scenes, for some reason? I guess people don’t like to think that their fun mystery novel may have been written by an actual criminal (all those true crime books by Mark “Chopper” Read notwithstanding).

Anyway, I did some digging into this for my own amusement, and it turns out – ahem – there have actually been a number of crime writers who have committed murder.

Curiously, I’ve already talked a little in a previous edition about Anne Perry, possibly the most famous “crime novelist who was a RL murderer”. Perry, once named Juliet Hulme, was one of the girls involved in a notorious New Zealand homicide, the story of which was turned into a very good film by Peter Jackson called Heavenly Creatures. Perry spent five years in jail for her crime, and if you’d like your memory refreshed about that incident, feel free to check out the old post.

But there have also been a number of other crime writers who did Very Bad Things. Most people know the story of how William Burroughs (Naked Lunch) accidentally murdered his wife, Joan Vollmer, when he shot and killed her during a drunken party game in 1951. But fewer people know about Dutch crime writer Richard Klinkhamer, whose wife Hannelore disappeared in 1991 – Klinkhamer then wrote in his next book about a gruesome murder in which a woman’s body is fed to the pigeons. He was finally arrested and charged in 2000, giving a full confession. There was also the famous case against American crime novelist Michael Peterson, who was accused of killing his wife, Kathleen (I’m sensing a theme here) by pushing her down the stairs inside their family home in 2001 – the podcast “The Staircase” is based on the incident.

Just to break up all these accounts of uxoricide, there’s also Nancy Crampton Brophy, an Oregon novelist who was arrested for her husband’s 2018 murder. Brophy had written a number of crime novels, including The Wrong Husband, about a woman who fantasizes about killing her husband, and she had also published an online essay called “How To Murder Your Husband” (bit of a giveaway there). She was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2002.

If you want to get really grimy, there are also a number of books written by actual serial killers. Some of them detail the crimes these men were jailed for committing, whereas others are more like autobiography, or screeds about how they were wrongly accused, or (in one case) analysis of other crimes. A lot of these books are considered collector’s items, but I don’t know if I’d want such a cursed object inside my house? Your mileage may vary.

Yes! It is happening! I’ve mailed the physical arcs first, and then the digital arcs will go out (Australian friends will probably receive their ARC copies first, because I’m mailing everything from Australia, natch).

I want everyone to read this book asap – but there’s still 3 months until the book’s release, so I don’t want to jump too early, and I also have to send a bunch of arcs to countries outside of Australia, so if you’re waiting for you book/ebook, please be patient! They’re on their way!

It’s kind of a major milestone – these three books together have now become my all-time bestsellers. And All Shall Mourn has now become my 5th most highly-rated book ever, which is absolutely incredible for a self-release. Thank you to everyone who read the books, shared them with friends, left a review and/or rating, requested them at your local or school library…All these things make a huge difference, and I’m very grateful.

In a word, the festival was AMAZING.

I met Ken Liu (!!), who is very nice and very smart. I met Neon Yang (!!), who is an absolute delight. I met Ben Oliver (The Loop), and Dean Alfar, and Anittha Thanabalan, and Cheng Him, and Yi-deum Kim, and so many more other authors and playwrights and poets, and I was SO well looked-after by the organisers and I had a wonderful time.

Above all, I had my mind expanded.

My focus tends to be very US-centric, for fairly obvious reasons: My agent is in the US, my publishers are in the US, and the bulk of my readers are in the US. But being a guest at the most prominent literary festival in Asia made the world seem much bigger. Meeting authors, readers, booksellers, literary organisers, and staff/volunteers during the Singapore Writers Festival gave me a better sense of how many people globally are engaged with literature and books and reading – it’s way more than you think!

And what really blew my hair back was how much support the Singapore government has given to this festival – not only through direct grants, but also via a program instituted this year which gave every 18+Singaporean a $100 “culture pass”. The value of this pass could be spent on any cultural activity, from plays to books to museums (and more!), and it gave the Writers Festival a massive boost with ticket sales. How I wish the Australian government would support the arts in this country with a similar scheme!

Two other things I took note of during Singapore Writers Festival: Firstly, the festival theme was “The Shape of Things to Come” which meant it was stacked with SFF/spec fic writers – an engagement with genre fiction that provided way more audience connection than I’ve experienced with literary festivals at home. Secondly, there was a focus on young people – as attendees, but also as participants – that was really energising. They had teenagers making Reels and doing author interviews on Tiktok as part of festival promotion, as well as an attention to youth interests in the programming, plus teenaged moderators who were trained to lead some of the panels. It made the festival feel really vital and exciting!

Overall, my attendance at the festival wasn’t just a cool trip and a fun time – it gave me a new perspective on what a literary festival can be like if it’s done well and given lots of support, and also how much bigger and more global the world of books, writing, and literature can be.

If you ever get a chance to go to Singapore Writers Festival, I encourage you to check it out!

How is it only a month until the end of the year???!!!

This is something I often find myself thinking in November, but somehow I get caught in the same trap every year. So I still feel behind the eight-ball – I’ve bought a few gifts, but not all that I need; I have made some preparations, but not enough; I have scheduled some plans, but I’m still catching up.

This is usually around the time when I remind myself to sit down and do a kind of stocktake of the Year That Was, then (on the assumption that forewarned is forearmed) I make a plan for the Year To Come.

I usually list things under “professional goals” and “personal goals”, and I also have a space for “in my wildest dreams, this is what I’d like to happen next year” so I can cut loose and dream big. But I haven’t had a chance to do my stocktake/forward planning exercise yet – I’ll let you know next month if I come up with anything good.

I know – wild, isn’t it? But I wanted to let you know early that I’ll be at Book Fair Australia in February next year. Book Fair is being held in Melbourne for the first time, and it seems to be getting bigger each time, so come along and check it out - I will most definitely have copies of All Shall Mourn with me, and possibly copies of No One Is Safe as well.

I can also tell you that I’ll be leading a masterclass (probably teaching about writing a series) with Queensland Writers Centre in March, and that I’ll almost certainly be at my traditional table at Melbourne ComicCon in June.

Okay, so it looks as if the hiccup with Australian paperbacks not being available for preorder is now resolved – phew – so if you were interested in preordering an Aussie paperback, you can now do so.

You can also add the book to your shelf on Goodreads, if that is a thing you would like to do.

Folks who use Netgalley, you’ll be able to access No One Is Safe on that site for 2 weeks from the day of release.

Currently writing: book 2 in the Noone & Pace series, heck yeah 🤗

Currently watching: uh, nothing, because I’m drafting and I’m behind on deadline? I’m saving Guillermo Del Torro’s Frankenstein for Christmas viewing.

Currently reading: Thin Air by Michelle Paver – and I have A Long Line of Dead Men by Lawrence Block on my Kindle. I’m saving a bunch of horror books for the holidays, and I’m hoping someone gives me The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones for my birthday…

Currently wearing: my new “Carrie White Burns in Hell!” tshirt from VoidMerch, and on alternate days, my “Shirley Jackson Metal af” tshirt. I’ve also been eyeing off some of the absolutely insane tshirts on the DaShareZone site, but there’s so many good ones that I haven’t decided which ones to buy yet.

Currently listening to: Where Is My Husband! by Raye:

That’s it from me for this month, because December seems to be barrelling closer with great rapidity – before you know it, I’ll be sending out next month’s newsletter, ye gads.

Have a good November, friends! Read great books, watch good media, stick it to Da Man, wear what you want, stay warm/cool depending on your hemisphere, hug your friends. Check out some books by Asian diaspora writers! (lol I can heartily recommend work by Ken Liu, Neon Yang, Cheng Him, Anittha Thanabalan, and Yi-deum Kim)

Oh, and subscribe to this newsletter, if you feel moved to do so (I’ve put an excerpt from No One Is Safe in this month’s Nailbiters newsletter, for those who’d like to know what’s going on behind the paywall).

Subscribe now

Be well, and be safe 🖤 See you next month!

xxEllie