When writing about murder, I always consider who it affects. Not just the family, friends and associates of the victim, but those people who find the victim, their families, the police who have to try to catch the killer – all those touched by the ripples created by that terrible act.

So in Murder, Mayhem & Menopause (MM&M), the women’s fiction I am currently writing, it’s interesting to see how Ellie, Cass and Kandy react when they are drawn into the aftermath of a murder. They don’t know the victim, but her death brings changes to their lives in a way they would never have imagined.

Everything from murder, romance and sex to cooking, politics and the environment was covered at the recent Brisbane Writers Festival. I drove there with some writer friends, met more writer friends, caught up with my agent, talked WriteFest with Kate Eltham, CEO of the Queensland Writers Centre, and attended some fantastic sessions with Australian and overseas authors. If you’re a reader or a writer and live within travelling distance to Brisbane, mark September on your calendar and go every year for four fantastic days of literary feasting.

The coral has spawned! I can’t see it from my office window because the ocean is just a blue strip at the end of the paddock, but when I walked down to the beach there it was – metres-wide ribbons of brown cutting lazy curves into the deep blue water for many kilometres. It’s amazing to see, but the smell is putrid, and it leaves a soft, murky sludge on the sand. Stops a lot of swimmers from going in the water, but I think that’s a minor inconvenience when you consider that the fabulous coral of the Great Barrier Reef is regenerating. I’m very lucky – I can walk down to the rock pools not far from here and see some beautiful corals, and I don’t even have to get wet!

Summer is calling, enticing me with its siren song of sea and sand, but I’m resisting, keeping my fingers on the keyboard and gluing my rear to the office chair. Ah, the sacrifices one makes to get a story written …

I had a great time at the RWA national conference in Brisbane attending interesting and informative tutorials, meeting up with old friends and making new ones, and being inspired by the cameraderie and enthusiasm of the writers there.

Because I had spare time when I arrived on the Thursday, I caught a City Cat ferry to New Farm Park and did a bit of research there for MM&M. New Farm is one of the oldest parts of Brisbane and home to the Powerhouse, which was Brisbane’s original source of electric power. It’s been transformed into an arts and cultural hub, with theatres, conference venues and restaurants. Films, live theatre, music performances – you name, you’ll find it there. The park itself is a wonderful place for families, with rolling lawns, huge trees, and a fantastic children’s playground.

More ideas for the book flooded in as I walked around the park. Place can be very important in a story, and visiting locations allows you to write about them with authenticity and feeling. My books are set in locations as diverse as the modern metropolis of Sydney and Carnarvon Gorge in Queensland, an ancient place that vibrates with the spirits of the people who first trod its rugged wilderness many many centuries ago.

I’d love to know if readers think location is important in the books they read.

Tomorrow I fly to Brisbane for the Romance Writers of Australia National Conference. For anyone interested in learning more about writing, the RWA offers a wealth of knowledge in their monthly magazine and in the workshops and tutorials at the conference. Romance writers are a generous, supportive lot, and only too willing to share their experience to help other writers.

“Romance” covers a wide range of writing, from the category romance of Harlequin Mills & Boon and Silhouette to mainstream single title books, as well as a  multitude of sub-genres – suspense, historical, fantasy, paranormal, etc.

Readers often define romance in different ways. Category romance focuses on the evolving love between the two main characters. Mainstream romance can vary from a full-on love story to a suspense story with the focus on the crime and the love between the two main characters interwoven with this. My books sit in the latter group.

On a little aside, have you noticed that booksellers and reviewers never describe romance books written by men as “romance” but call them “love stories” or just “mainstream fiction”? Think about Nicholas Sparks’ books – if they’d been written by a woman, they would have been labelled “romance”, wouldn’t they?

I’m really looking forward to catching up with friends and making new ones at the conference. My readers probably won’t be surprised to learn that the tutorials I will be attending are “Peddling Poisons and Dealing Drugs”, “Crime Control from Counter Terrorism to Search and Rescue” and “Exploring the F-Words – Fight, Flight, Freeze”. I’m hoping to learn some technical info for book eight. This book will be a deviation from my last three, (starting with Dangerous Deception) in that I will no longer be writing about the men involved with The Agency. In book seven, Grievous Harm, the traitor is finally revealed, but that person’s actions have terrible consequences for John Corey and Kate Maclaren.

Number eight in my romantic suspense books (or should that be “suspense books with a love story” <says she with a wry grin>) is stewing in my subconscious at the moment. Every time I read an article I think Ican use or see something in real life or on television that could be slotted into the story, I store it in my brain or that more reliable receptacle, my Work In Progress folder.

In the meantime, I’m continuing with my women’s fiction book. It has an odd title so I won’t share it yet, but just give it WIP title of MM&M. It’s a delight but also a frustration to write as the characters are taking off on their own flight paths and I’m constantly surprised by where they want to go. And there’s a dishy cop …

Mental slap! Get focussed woman! Daydreaming about dishy cops won’t get the book written. And the suitcase packed.

When my mother discovered that the motto on my father’s family crest was I have fought and conquered she was surprised. With the family’s tendency to have no idea of time, she thought it should be Late but in earnest.

As kids, we didn’t live far from school, but we were always the ones rushing in as the bell rang. When we worked in the city, we were the ones racing down the railway station stairs as the train pulled in, hoping the guard would delay signalling the driver to start again long enough for us to pile into the train so we wouldn’t be late for work.

So it comes as no surprise to me to discover how quickly time has been flying by, and with it all my good intentions about up-dating my website. But now it’s done, and I hope readers like the new look.

In July, book six, Fatal Flaw, was published by my German publisher, Bastei Luebbe, as Der Sturm der Ruche, and I’m thrilled to see it has already achieved a four out of five star rating on Amazon.de. I have my fingers crossed that Luebbe will contract my seventh manuscript, Grievous Harm. For those readers who have already read Der Sturm der Ruche I hope you have enjoyed it, and if you noticed a minor character named John Corey, you’ll be able to find him as the main character in Grievous Harm when it’s (hopefully) published.

Book eight is bubbling away in my subconscious at the moment, but taking precedence in my writing day is a women’s fiction book that has three women in their late forties/early fifties getting involved in murder and proving that courage, tenacity and living life to the full has nothing to do with age. I’m sure a lot of women, young and old, will relate to what these characters have to deal with.

A lot of people Downunder celebrate Christmas in July because that’s when we have our winter and we can happily indulge in all those warm goodies people in the northern hemisphere take for granted at Yuletide. So, if I continue that analogy, we’ll now be celebrating New Year, and so I will make a resolution to keep this blog humming.

Cross fingers for me, friends.

I used to think that once my children were off my hands and leading their own lives that I would have so much spare time I would be able to indulge in all the fun things that I hadn’t previously had time to do, but for some reason my life seems to get more and more hectic. I think I forgot to factor in the demands of elderly parents and the overwhelming needs of voluntary organisations.

So it was with horror that I realised I hadn’t added to this News page for over a year! Where did that time go?

I’ve finally finished writing Grievous Harm. It’s been a bumpy trip, with organising WriteFest (the writers festival I mentioned earlier), and travelling to Emerald, Brisbane, Mackay, Townsville and Innisfail to present workshops to writers taking up great chunks of my time. I love presenting writing workshops, particularly in regional areas – it’s great to be able to hand on the knowledge and skills I’ve gained to people who are not able to attend workshops in capital cities. My suitcase is always a lot lighter on my return journey as I hand out lots of information sheets during the workshop. I believe that you can’t remember everything that’s presented in such a full day and having comprehensive notes to refer to later ensures you get value for your workshop fees.

Grievous Harm has caused some interesting problems, research wise. I’ve had to learn about bush survival skills, bucking bulls, computer viruses, and just a wee bit about physics. I always try to be practical in my research, although it’s not always possible. But I recently had reason to research how much water a condom will hold. I filled a 2 litre bottle and my husband poured that slowly into a condom as I unwound it. We probably could have got it to hold 3 litres but at 2 litres it was just possible to tie a slip knot in the top so the water couldn’t come out but it could still be opened again.

I left the condom, which now resembled a huge, floppy jellyfish, on the kitchen bench while I went back to my writing. My husband decided to try to see how it would behave if it were jostled around a fair bit. Well, he certainly found out. The knot slipped open and water poured everywhere. As we mopped up, I explained to him that my characters weren’t going to play with the makeshift water container, but use it to save their lives.

My main characters, John Corey and Kate Maclaren, have had to learn a lot about themselves and how their pasts have created barriers that are being chipped away by the horrors they encounter and the trials they have to endure. There are some scenes readers might feel apprehensive about, but I had to write them – life doesn’t offer us pleasant choices only.

My sixth book, Fatal Flaw, will be published in Germany in 2009. The cover is quite dramatic and very “Australian”, and it will go up on my website closer to publication date.

I’ve always been an advocate of the “if life throws lemons at you, then make lemonade” philosophy, so when my publisher didn’t want my sixth book, Fatal Flaw, I tried not to indulge too much in the traditional “rejected writer” angst. Rejection happens in the publishing industry and authors have to be resilient. Shedding the odd tear and feeling miserable for a few days is okay, but after that you just have to get stuck back into writing and re-writing and see if you can turn a rejection into an acceptance. So after much eye-strain, teeth-gnashing and long stretches of wrestling with problem sentences and paragraphs, I have my fingers crossed that Mark’s and Julie’s story will find a home.

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.